Chapter 3

Ethan

At the end of the first week, Ethan curled up in bed for a quick nap after practice. He was exhausted, and the hot shower he’d taken to soothe his sore muscles afterward made him feel sleepy. He decided that he’d reset his body with a quick snooze, so he set the alarm for 40 minutes and then cuddled up under the sheets to shut his eyes with relief. Just as he began to drift off, he heard music blasting from the other side of the wall; his bedroom leaned against the next-door apartment’s living room wall, and he realized that he wouldn’t be able to sleep anytime soon. It was Friday night, and his neighbors would probably be partying for the rest of the night, as college students did. 

With a sigh, he got up to think about dinner. He had looked up some healthy training meals on his laptop and had bought the ingredients, so he carried the laptop out to the kitchen and set it down on the bench. Hayley entered the room just as he was taking the ingredients out of the fridge. 

“Oh! What are you making?” she asked. 

Ethan angled the laptop for her to take a look at the webpage.

“Poke bowls.”

“Ooh! Looks good!” 

“Would you like me to make a portion for you?” Ethan asked. 

“That would be great. Here, let me help make it.”

They chatted as they chopped the salmon and vegetables together. Ethan commented that his girlfriend Jenna had liked poke bowls as they ate.

“Is she your girlfriend back home?” Hayley asked.

“Oh. Yes, she’s back home, but we broke up because of the distance between our colleges. So we decided to go our separate ways.” 

“That’s sad,” said Hayley.

“It’s alright,” Ethan said with a smile. “We knew that it would have to be that way for a long time.” 

Hayley smiled at that. “That’s alright then.”

“Are you seeing anyone?” Ethan asked, thinking that it would be impossible for someone as beautiful as Hayley to be single. 

“I’m not looking at the moment,” she replied. “College is taking up a lot of my time. After first-year’s easy classes, the later year units I’m taking now look really difficult.”

“No way! My first-year subjects already look so intense!” Ethan said with horror.

“Haha. You’ll adjust!”

They cleared away their bowls and washed up. 

“Well, I’d better go study,” Ethan said as he put the dishes on the drying rack.

“Me too! I think we should organize dinner once a week with Tommy. Housemates time. What do you think?” Hayley asked.

“That sounds good to me! Where is he?”

“He’s at the library. I’ll talk to him about it and let you know a good time?”

“Alright!”

Ethan returned to his room in good spirits. He knew that it wasn’t really important, but he was kind of pleased that Hayley was single. She was attractive, and she reminded Ethan of the girlfriend he had left behind. Being around Hayley felt comfortable. He thought of Jenna and wondered how she was going at her college. He would make a point of texting or emailing her when he had some free time.

As he sorted through his books and notes, his eyes fell on the baseball gear hanging on the back of his door. He wanted to get to practice the following day to train to be the starting catcher for his Ace. However, he felt a bit anxious that he struggled under pressure to keep his grades up for his scholarship on top of sport–the classes and the training were more challenging than he had expected.

*** 

The following week, they organized the dinner with Tommy. Ethan and Hayley talked a bit about practice as they ate, discussing the ins and outs of training. It turned out that Tommy had been a competitive swimmer at school and that he still often went to the pool for personal training.

“Why didn’t you try out for the swim team?” Ethan asked. 

“I strained a muscle in twelfth grade,” Tommy said. “It took me out of competition, and I felt I’d never be able to recover from the injury.”

“That bad, huh?” Ethan asked. 

“Yeah. But I still swim with some of the team members here casually. It’s still fun; I just don’t want to hurt my body.”

“Makes sense,” Ethan replied.

After dinner, the three of them chatted about house rules, which were pretty lax, and then Tommy and Ethan settled in to play video games while Hayley studied beside them on the sofa. Ethan felt very much at home with his new housemates and thought that university life would be a pleasant time ahead. Tommy’s girlfriend came over later in the night, so everyone retired to their rooms. 

Ethan decided to text Jenna.

Ethan: Hey, Jenna. How have you been? How’s college?

Within minutes, he received a reply.

Jenna: Ethan! I’ve missed you! College is good! How about you?

Ethan: I’m good, but class is so hard! I’m overwhelmed!

Jenna: What about baseball?

Ethan: Also hard! I hope I can keep up with both!

Jenna: I have faith in you!

Ethan smiled as he put down his phone. While balancing the two seemed hard, he was sure he could do it if Jenna believed in him. He just had to keep training until he was hopefully picked for the main roster–the first string. Then, if he could play in real games, it would make all the grueling training worth it. 

Walking to class the next day, he saw Riley in the distance talking to a few girls outside the main library. He watched with amusement as they hung onto Riley’s every word and shook his head, thinking that so many Aces loved the attention that their position brought them. But, as the player who shouldered the responsibilities and hopes of the team, Ethan agreed that they had earned it. Riley looked stunning as usual as he entertained the girls with stories, and Ethan wondered if the conversation was about baseball. His eyes followed Riley’s strong figure, from his shoulders right down to his firm, perfect ass. Why was he noticing that? When one of the girls placed a hand on Riley’s arm, Ethan tripped. Somehow, that action had unruffled him, he thought as he corrected his step and continued on his way.