⌜ chapter eleven ⌟

"And what are you whining about this time?" Letty sighs as she looks up at Eric in their school hallway.

"My dad's all excited for the father/son softball game this weekend, and I don't want to go." He tells her.

"Sucks to be you." She says sarcastically.

"I know."

"No. I wasn't being sincere." The brunette shakes her head, and he looks at her. "Your dad wants to spend one day with you. Get over it."

"Letty, you're supposed to be supportive. You're supposed to be my best friend." He then gets up and walks away from her.

"Okay." She takes a deep breath as she turns back to her locker.

"Oh, look, he's mad at her. Maybe he'll ditch her, and then trailer trash will have to stay in the trailer park." A girl whispers from behind Letty.

"She won't be able to marry her way out with an unsuspecting victim." The girl's boyfriend says, and then Letty turns around to face them.

"Uh-oh." The girl mumbles as she takes a step back.

Miller walks by then and he slams his hand down on the guy's textbooks, causing them to fall to the floor with a loud bang. The blond boy keeps walking without looking at the couple, and his friend fights back a smile as she looks up at him.

"Was that fun?" Letty asks, and he shrugs.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He says, and she chuckles as she shakes her head at him.

"Come on. We have to get to class." She says, and the pair start down the hall.

"Oh, man." Miller looks down at the guy who's collecting his books from the floor. "You really should be more careful." He says, and Letty grabs his hand to pull him toward their class before he can start a fight.

After school, the two teenagers are sparring in the living room because Letty's dad isn't home. He left for the weekend, and they have no idea where he went. Nor do they care, really. They're both just excited to have the trailer to themselves with no violence.

Well, minimum violence, that is.

Miller lands on the floor with a thud and a grunt, and Letty laughs as she stands over the older boy. "You didn't want to make that even a little challenging?" She asks, and he glares up at her.

"You're getting better, Black. Don't start getting cocky too." He says as he gets to his feet.

"Fighting Dean was harder." She tells him, and he grinds his teeth.

"Sometimes I really hate helping you train." He says, and she chuckles, entirely amused by his annoyance. "You can be a real bitch."

"I learned it from you." Letty says, and his jaw tightens before he tells her to get back into their starting position. The brunette smiles as she takes a step away from him, raising her fists into the air in front of her face.

—

Monday morning rolls around, and Eric walks over to Letty, sitting down beside her in their school's cafeteria. "Hey, what'd you do this weekend?" He asks, and she looks over at him. "You never came by the house."

"I had to work, and I played in the softball game on Saturday." She tells him, purposely leaving out all of the sparring that she and Miller did. "Where were you? I mean, I know that you didn't want to play, but I still thought you guys would show up."

"What do you mean? The game was canceled." He says, and her eyebrows furrow as she shakes her head.

"No, it wasn't. It would've been less humiliating if it were, but we still played. I mean, even Lenny was there." She pauses for a second. "Well, he was there until the ambulance took him. I think he sprained his elbow." The brunette shakes her head again, remembering that fiasco.

"My dad told me and Cory that the game was canceled." He says, and she raises her eyebrows.

"And when did he tell you that?"

"Last week."

"And what were you two doing when he told you that it was canceled?" She questions, knowing that there has to be more to this story.

"Arguing. Me and Cory were both trying to come up with a better reason that we couldn't..." He sighs, realizing what really happened. "Aw, man. We really blew it, didn't we?" He asks.

She nods. "I'd say so, yeah."

After school, Letty's doing homework in her trailer, and the phone rings. Sighing, she gets up and walks over to answer it because her dad's not home. Thankfully.

"Biggerson's Bar & Grill."

"Letty?" Eric's confused voice comes through the phone.

"Oh, hey." The brunette chuckles as she sits down beside the window. "Sorry about that. What's up?"

"Uh..." He clears his throat, shaking off what just happened. "Are you busy?"

"That depends on your definition." She shrugs. "I was just doing my English homework, but it's not due until Friday."

"Come over to my house as soon as you can, please. Me and Cory have a plan to make up for missing the game to our dad."

"Uh, yeah, okay. I'll be there soon." She tells him and then hangs up the phone.

Letty walks over to the Matthews' house and then goes inside to talk to the two brothers about what they have planned. "We're having a barbecue to make everything up to our dad." Eric tells her. "Can you keep an eye on Morgan for awhile, please? I'm not sure where my mom is."

"I didn't know that you know how to barbecue."

"I don't."

"So...your dad's going to have to do it?"

He shrugs. "Yeah."

"Yeah, I'll be with Morgan." The brunette tells him. "Where is she?"

"I think she's upstairs in her room." Eric says, and she then heads up to find her.

Letty's studying in the boy's room when her best friend finds her later on. She looks up at him when he sets a plate with a burger and some chips down beside her English textbook.

"Thanks." The brunette smiles, but then she sees the look on his face. "What's wrong, Eric?"

"You knew that this was a bad idea, didn't you?" He asks, and she reaches out and pulls the other chair closer to her so that he'll sit down.

"I didn't think it was a bad idea. I just knew that it wouldn't make you and Cory feel better." She tells him. "Your dad loves you, Eric, and he wanted to spend some time with you. He got to spend tonight with you guys. Just...don't bail next time."

"We can still make this better." He insists. "I don't know how yet, but we can."

"You'll figure something out." She says as she reaches over and takes his hand in hers, causing him to smile as his fingers curl around hers.

Eric pauses for a second before he starts looking around. "Where's Morgan?"

"Sugar coma." Letty tells him, and he nods.

"Ah." He looks at her, and she chuckles as she remembers how she had to chase the little blonde around before she finally crashed.

The boys eventually come up with a new plan to make things up to their dad, and the next weekend they're all playing another game of softball. Their team actually wins, and they go back to the Matthews' house after; the brothers are pretty excited about winning.

"And here's the game winning father now." Cory says proudly as his dad walks in directly in front of Letty.

"Great slide into home, Dad." Eric says as he closes the door behind his best friend.

"Hey, high five." Cory cheers, but Mr. Matthews can't raise his hand that high, so he hits his hand where it's positioned next to his side. "Alright!"

"Yeah, that was a great game." Mr. Matthews says as the boys sit on the couch, and Letty sits in the chair. "I had a terrific time. I can't wait till next year."

"You don't have to. That's the best part." Eric says.

"Yeah, the bookstore wants to go best two out of three." Cory tells him.

"We got a rematch next week."

"Hey, that's nice." Mr. Matthew says, nodding unenthusiastically. "Isn't that nice? Yeah, that's nice." He says, making Letty laugh as she looks between the three of them.