I locked the front door behind me, dropped my stuff at the door and then stopped by the kitchen for my water bottle. Taking small sips I made my way down the hall to my bedroom. At the first sight of my bed, all thoughts of a bath flew from my mind. I collapsed against the cool cotton of my bedspread.
I must’ve laid there a while drifting in and out of sleep. When I finally pulled myself around enough to take in my surroundings it was dark. Not pitch black but getting there. I reached for my bottle to guzzle down some more liquids.
Fuck.
Before I forgot, I pulled out my phone. The light blinded me but luckily I only needed to push a couple buttons before the dial tone sounded. The ringing made me clutch my head, it felt like it was coming from inside of me.
My entire body was a throbbing painful mess.
“Mom?”
“Honey, where are you? I thought you were picking the kids up from mine at five?”
“What time is it now?”
“It’s nearly seven.”
Shit.“I’m so sorry. I’m not feeling too good. Would you mind dropping them off?” I huffed out in frustration as I began to sit up. I had a slight crick in my neck and my head rushed from moving too fast. I couldn’t believe I’d slept all afternoon.
“If you’re not feeling too great, why don’t I just keep them with me for the night?”
“It’s fine, I’m okay - I just need some rest and I’ll be as good as new.”
“Melody. Do not lie to your mother. The girls will stay the night here and you will rest up, okay? I’ll stop by tomorrow after I’ve dropped the girls off at school.”
“Thank you.”
She offered her sympathies and well wishes before hanging up. As she did, I groaned out with even more frustration and fell back into a heap on the bed.
I wanted so badly to be self-sufficient but I just couldn’t seem to achieve that goal fully. No matter how on track I thought I was there was my mom right by my side. Holding my hand, cheering me on, and swooping in to take care of the kids when need be. I didn’t know what I would have done without her.
My eyes fluttered closed, heavy with tiredness. I could’ve drifted to sleep so easily, but six seconds later the need to vomit hit me suddenly.
And there was no stopping it this time.
My attention snapped back to our manager as he droned on about the upcoming season. With all due respect to Ronnie and the rest of our coaching staff my mind was so far from this meeting that their words weren’t even a blip on my radar.
All I could think about was Melody.
And I didn’t care that I’d missed the whole meeting. They could have told me that I’d been awarded MVP and I was pretty confident in saying that I wouldn’t have been fussed.
Wow.
It hit me just then. I was quitting.
If I didn’t care about receiving the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player award then there was something seriously wrong. And that’s when I just knew that this was it.
I’d been talking about it and considering it for a while but one boring meeting was all it had taken to make my decision.
I chuckled out loud.
Whoever was speaking paused as heads turned in my direction. Whoops.
“Sorry. Continue.”
Everyone turned back around and I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief. But also, a small weight had been lifted from my shoulders. This would be my last season of Major League Baseball.
I smiled. I couldn’t wait to tell Melody. I wondered how she’d take the news.
