Slump Season

Marcus stared at his iphone screen, thumb hovering over Maya's text. Three dots danced, disappeared, danced again. She'd been typing for five minutes.

"You gonna stare at that phone all day or help with dinner?" his mom called from the kitchen.

Marcus shoved the phone in his pocket. Baseball practice had been brutal—coach benched him after his third strikeout. His phone buzzed again, but he ignored it.

The smell hit him first. "What IS that?"

"Spinach." His mom dumped a pile of wilted greens onto his plate. "You need more iron. You've been swinging at everything but the ball lately."

"This is bull," he muttered, poking at the green mush.

"Language. And eat it. It's good for you."

His phone lit up with a notification. Maya: "my parents r being so weird tonight"

Marcus typed back: "mine too. they're making me eat spinach 🤢"

"gross lol"

"yeah literally. they think it'll fix my baseball slump"

"u don't look like you're in a slump"

Marcus stared at those six words. Warmth spread through his chest. Maya thought he looked fine?

"u coming to the game tomorrow?" he typed.

"was planning on it 😉"

He managed to choke down the spinach. It wasn't terrible, actually. His phone buzzed again: "hey marcus?"

"yeah?"

"your friend jake was being annoying on his story. he was talking about that party you weren't invited to"

Marcus's stomach dropped. He hadn't even known about a party. Jake was supposed to be his best friend.

"that's bull" he typed.

"yeah. anyway. i wasn't gonna go anyway"

"why not"

"idk. those parties r always kinda lame"

Marcus hesitated. "u wanna hang out after my game tomorrow instead?"

"sure 😊"

He fell asleep with a stupid grin on his face. The spinach had been gross, Jake was being a jerk, and his baseball stats were in the toilet. But Maya was coming to his game, and suddenly none of the rest of it seemed to matter quite as much.

His phone screen glowed in the dark: a message he'd read a dozen times already.

Tomorrow's game wasn't about baseball anymore. It was about something way more important.

He'd hit it out of the park. He had to.