Free Rounding Third by Walter G. Meyer

tomorrow.”
        
At the BP station Rob was tempted to just douse himself with the gas and light
a match. Life might hurt less that way. Instead he topped off the tank,
spilling a few drops on his shoe, then drove home and started doing pushups he
knew wouldn’t end before dawn. 
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*    
    Rob took a different route from second period. He didn’t feel
like seeing Josh, but the detour took him upstairs and directly into the path
of Coach Hudson. “Wardell!” he honked like a foghorn with laryngitis. “Where
were you yesterday?” Hudson looked at Rob’s face. “You look like you been rode
hard and put up wet.” Hudson’s Southernisms often left Rob wondering what the
hell he was talking about. “What happened?”
    “Wrestling with my sister.” Hudson raised an
eyebrow. “I caught an elbow then hit the edge of the couch.”
    Coach Hudson shook his head and said, “Well,
good thing you’re here. We’ll need you today against McKinley.”
    “Need me?”
    “It’s going to be a close game, so any little
edge you can give us...” He patted Rob on the shoulder. “Get to class. I’ll see
you after school.”
    Rob studied the exit door for a moment then
headed to class.
    Rob was dressing for the game when he decided
he’d rather pee inside than use the woods or the green plastic sauna. He went
to a stall. Stalls were safer than urinals. Less exposure. As always, the
stupid stall door stuck so Rob gave it a good shove. It swung open and smacked
into Josh Schlagel’s bare ass.
    “Sorry,” Rob said. Then he noticed Josh’s
buttocks. They were covered with red welts. Josh spun around and covered his
nakedness with his shirt as much as he could, but Rob could still see plenty of
bruises on his chest and stomach and arms to match the ones on his face.
    Rob mumbled “Sorry” again and left Josh to
dress in the stall, closing the door behind him.
    At the game, even Rob’s stealing signs from
the other team’s coach didn’t help and the Hawks took their first loss of the
season. Taylor’s two errors at short hurt and Josh going 0-for-four and missing
a couple of plays at first didn’t help. Ordinarily, Josh would have been able
to grab Danny’s wild throws without pulling his foot off the bag.
    As they walked from the field, Josh pulled
Rob aside. “I’m not going to shower here. I’m just going to grab my stuff and
go home. You want a ride?”
    The way he said it, it was more like asking
Rob to take a ride than offering him one. As they pulled out of the lot, Rob
said, “Are you going to tell me?”
    “My father caught me sneaking in last night.
I got a whipping.”
    “Did he punch your face and body, too?”
    “No,” Josh said, and Rob knew it was the
truth. “Sorry I can’t stay for hoops tonight; I have to get home and get ready
for church.”
    “Okay, just please do me a favor and don’t
lie to me. If you don’t want to tell me or whatever, that’s fine, just don’t
lie.”
    “Like about wrestling my brother?”
    “Yeah.”
    “We do wrestle, but he’d never hurt me. I
want you to know that.”
    “Understood. And anytime you want to tell me,
I’ll listen. I won’t tell anyone. I’ve got no one to tell.”
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*    
    After Saturday’s game and Josh’s third
victory on the mound, Josh did stick around for basketball at Rob’s, but it was
one-on-one. Meg was at a track meet and her parents were working. Rob was just
about to suggest Josh stay for dinner since his parents were going to work
through it, but Josh said. “I better get going. I have a date with Jenny. Our first
real date--we’ve just been hanging out at