Meanwhile somewhere in Texas ~~ (Owen's present story)

Lying on the grass, I pondered to myself if she was thinking about me. Earlier I was playing with all the baseballs that came out of the automatic pitching machine.

Out of my fury, I released all my anger out when a baseball came out of the machine. But my aim hit the off switch by accident, causing all of the remaining balls that were waiting to come out fall on the ground.

I was mad at myself. Why? Because of everything!

While things can sometimes go right, it can always go downhill ...I mean way down! It's sort of a metaphor of Isaac Newton's Law of Gravity per se. What goes up must fall down!

Geez ... I never meant for things to happen this way!

What was I actually doing here, away from my home town? My stupid answer: finding myself all over again. I messed up big time right after we were released from the kidnapping by that mad woman! Even a stupid tattoo I had on my thigh made my baby leave me once we were released from the hospital!

It's still there; I don't plan getting rid of it anytime soon, as I promised. I'm afraid of a big scar that might remain on my skin, if I had it removed. Moira and Marlene will always be etched on my body from now on.

But now I wanted to know if it was even worthwhile to leave my journal with Paige and Noah. What if California became Marlene's permanent home?

~~

One of my baseball buddies stepped out into the field to calm me down. His name was Adrian Sanchez.

The first time I met him was in the locker room, I knew his face looked awfully familiar because he looked like someone from my past. Dark curly hair, blue eyes, rough features around his face.

I asked him about it and learned that he just came here after he was recruited from Alaska. He said his home state wasn't really an ideal place to play outdoor sports there other than sledding, since the cold weather prevented it.

Thus, he told me about the rope course in college, which dodged his mind to remember who I was. From then on we became good friends once we did some catching up on good times.

"Thomas, what are you doing? You got to get up before Coach Walsh finds you lingering out here with the equipment."

I wish that chirpy guy would just leave me alone. I mean he was one of my best friends on the team, but that dude somehow knew where I was all the time as if he was my big brother.

"Let Coach do what he wants Sanchez. If he scolds me, I don't care anymore."

Adrian looked at me with an inquisitive eye.

"Is this still about the girl you left in Corpus Christi?"

I couldn't comment about that, but he was right.

Yanking me up with his right hand, Adrian gave me a small lecture.

"Come on buddy, you got to get her out of your mind. You can't let our team down now. You came here to play ball; who knows this year we might actually get out of this minor league team and play for the big guys! It's been over a month now that you left, and now you have to learn to move on without her."

He looked me over and patted my back.

"You know what you need Owen? An outing with me and our compadres; we need to get some energy back into your system. What happened to the Thomas dude who came here last month and scored for our team?"

"He's gone now, Adrian ... maybe I should ..."

He put an arm over my shoulder and said "No can do buddy; we're going out after practice. Carter, Chavez, Soriano and I will help you out."

Realizing that Adrian might be right, I gave it a brief thought. I really haven't spent time with the guys lately.

"Okay, Sanchez, I'm in, but you got to promise me a good time. And well, the girl I was talking about .... Her name is ..."

Adrian put his hand in front of me to stop talking.

"Sorry to cut you off Thomas, but if you keep mentioning her name, the more you'll be thinking about her ... You need to rest your mind. You haven't been performing well these past days and if it weren't for Jameson, Hector, Dexter and I, Coach would have kicked you off of the team!"

I smiled at him; he's a really good friend that looks after his team members. The guys had my back and I had theirs. You can't really find a lot of people like that since I left Paige, Noah and the other guys back home.

"Okay Sanchez, you win! Man, you are a hard person to say "no" too!"

"You can say that," Adrian nodded to me and placed his hand through his hair. "My girlfriend back home hardly says no to me," and laughed. He was pretty macho in a way, but had some leadership qualities like Coach Walsh, who wouldn't really let his players leave the team.

~~

Jameson Carter, Hector Chavez, and Dexter Soriano were also teammates of mine in the Lake Elsinore Thunderbolts. On our first game, we played against each other; Adrian and I, plus some other guys were in the home team, while Carter, Chavez and Soriano were in the other.

Somehow I managed to make several home runs for my team causing us to win, and those guys came up to congratulate me after the game.

Ever since then, those four guys had my back all the time and I couldn't be thankful enough. They are better than the guys I met in boarding school ... that's for sure.

Coming out from Adrian's red Tahoe Suburban, I noticed we parked the vehicle near a building called "The Zone ". I didn't recognize the old building at first, until I entered the entrance.

It was the exact club that my former teacher, Spencer Burgess, went to years ago! I actually got caught sneaking up in here when I was a teenager, and wanted to shy away from this escapade.

"Um ... Guys out of all the night clubs here, why did you have to pick this one? I have a problem with this place."

The four guys looked at me with concerned faces.

I closed my eyes. I really can't go in. It reminded me so much of my past.

"Why not?" The guys asked in unison.

Focus Owen, Focus.

"I just don't want too guys. Don't want to get drunk."

Yea, lie to them Owen. Give it your best shot.

"That's the worst excuse in the book, Thomas! You just don't want to meet the ladies," Adrian blurted out as he patted my back.

"Come on Adrian, if Owen doesn't want to go in, just let him be."

"Fine, Hector. He just doesn't know what he's missing out on", my comrade answered back.

The guys were about to leave me to walk up to the bouncer, when some ideas struck in my head.

Hmm ... it almost sounds like the same line I heard years before when I was in boarding school. I really hope it's not a repeat of those damn 'Outfielders'. And I don't want to be stuck sitting on the asphalt as I did as a teen, waiting for the guys to come out.

"Wait up guys, I've changed my mind! I'm coming in with you all!"

Adrian laughed at me, but welcomed me by offering me a space in front of him in the line.

"Well, that's a sudden change, Thomas. What made you change your mind?"

I really wanted to tell him the real reason, but was too afraid to tell him that I just didn't want to be left alone.

"Well, maybe I might feel better if I go in, and just have a drink or two to wash away my troubles".

He just smirked and faced forward letting me know that the line ahead of me was moving.

~~

A/N

Hard times for Owen! For a long time now I wanted to revert Owen's story to the present. I also decided to separate each 10 chapters in one section ... so what you are reading know is Part 3.

My goal is that there will be 4 Parts by the end of this story, and then we get to hear Moira's version ... 'bringing her back from the dead - of story characters cemetery per se. LOL!

So isn't it weird that I brought back two of the characters from the rope course from Book 1? I wanted to do that, because ...well, why waste names ... if you had them before? And besides I like stories where there is some hidden connection, readers just need to find out. You can also wait to find out what that link is till I finish book 4 of the series next year to find that out. Or you can be that private eye in putting the pieces together!

Chapter's dedication goes to alpacapoo, I just finished reading her awesome book "Sugar and Spice and Anything but Nice" and it's a great revenge story. Sometimes, it's worth to get back at someone for a major slip-up, but if you take things too far ... it's probably not worth it –but that's only my opinion. I'd recommend her book if you are into reading that bad 'apples' kind of story. LOL!

But back to my 'kind' face, shall we? Do you think it was worthwhile for Owen to visit the bar scene again? Who do you think he'll see in there?

Yes, I just love writing up guys who fall into that flamboyant spell called love. Especially since February 14 is almost coming up.

YouTube song attached is "If you only knew" by Shinedown. The lyrics say it all – Owen's story! Enjoy! And please leave me a vote and comment.