Noah smiled at me. It was his same old smile like always. No hint of anger like before. "Jake, what happened out there? I told you not to panic at anything I do."
I froze. He did.
"You did exactly everything I told you not to." Noah shook his head with faux disappointment. "You stressed, worried, and lost focus. No doubt we'll have extra laps because of you this inning."
Dave laughed from beside him. "Don't be lying. You're the reason you guys will be running laps for days. Pulling a stunt like that? You'll be lucky if Zeke doesn't kick you from the team."
I frowned. We're running laps because of Noah? Because he got hurt?
"Jake Hollander. If you ignore me like that again, you won't be playing on my team anymore." Coach spoke from behind me. I slowly turned and came face to face with his glare. "It's bad enough to have one Noah. I don't need another. When I speak, you listen. Understand?"
I shrunk back, trying to make myself small as possible.
"Coach, don't be so unreasonable." Noah said, fearlessly. "Jake thought I got hurt from the collision and probably didn't want the same thing happening to him. He doesn't do well with pain."
"No pain, no gain." Dave jumped in.
"Zip it." Coach sent Dave scattering with a simple look. He faced me and Noah. "What about at Julian's at bat? That was an easy tag and score play."
A what..? I made a face of confusion.
Coach noticed and shook his head in disbelief. "Noah, I can't believe we trusted you to teach Jake anything. From now on, Zeke is strictly in charge." He pointed at me. "From now on, listen to the coaches and Zeke. No the twins and not Noah. You both will be the death of me." He muttered the last line and went back to watch Chris, Kelvin and Dave get ready to bat.
I looked at Noah, worried. I've never seen coach so upset.
Noah kept his smile. "Don't worry about him. Coach is just mad about my tackle."
...his tackle? At home plate? I stared him down.
Noah rubbed his nose. "I may or may not have collided with the catcher on purpose."
"He definitely did it on purpose." Tony said from a few feet down. He slid down the bench to get closer to us. "Noah isn't hurt at all. Not even a bruise. Too brutal for a freshman."
Noah let out a chuckle. "I wasn't able to slide into second, so the catcher was the next best choice. They want to play dirty, I can one up that. Granted, Zeke was livid when he helped me to the dugout."
"Yea, because he thought you ended your season." Tony snorted. "Usually only older players would be so skilled at hurting others."
I looked at them with a feeling of dread creeping on me. Disgusting. He actually hurt someone else intentionally? I quickly grabbed my hat and glove and got away from him.
"Jake? Jake!"
I ignored him and moved all the way to the other end of the dugout, near coach. Chris had just returned from striking out and was talking it over with him. Then he sat down. I stood near Coach as we watched kelvin step up to the plate.
"You got something on your mind, kid?" Coach grunted, not taking his eyes off the game.
I glanced down at the dugout and caught Noah staring at me, wondering why I left him so suddenly.
"Noah hurt someone." I mumbled, feeling uncomfortable. "On purpose."
Coach sighed. "Yes, Zeke and I already talked to him about his aggressive play. That's not the way we play baseball. Daniel will be going in to replace him at shortstop." He glanced down at me. "You okay with that?"
I nodded. I didn't want Noah to be so close to me. I was seriously concerned for him, and then I find out, that the collision was instigated by him on purpose. How was that any different than outright hitting someone? Even worse, it's just for a game. A game that we're winning.
Kelvin grounded out to short and ended the third inning. For once, I was one of the first players out on the field to warmup. Julian and Chris were close to follow. Julian started to roll us some grounders and got us moving.
Kelvin took a minute to get his gear on because he was the last out. After catching a few of Dave's pitches, the umpire called for the batter to step up. Dave went three up, three down once more. A fly out to center, a strikeout, a fly out to left. Not going to lie, every time one of his pitches get hit to the outfield, my heart starts to beat faster. He's definitely capable of giving up homeruns. Even with a five run lead, I felt a little nervous about it.
We jogged back to the dugout. I didn't want to go near Noah, but I would have to bat this inning. I tried to focus on switching out my gear and not so much on the fact that Noah was blatantly staring at me.
"Jake? Are you upset?" He whispered.
I pretended not to hear, grabbed my bat and headed for the other end of the dugout near the on deck circle. Am I upset? A little. But more than anything, I feel betrayed. I never would have thought the one friend I had, would purposely hurt someone. That goes against everything I believe in.
Even if he justifies it by paying them back for hurting Jason, that just makes me more sick. That's like saying I should have hit my mom back every time she came after me. As the saying goes, an eye for an eye, leaves the whole world blind. If you treated violence with violence, you are no better than the original offender.
