Sleepwalker

Chapter Sixteen

"It's hard to wake up from a nightmare when you're not even asleep."

CLAYTON

"Hey, man, are you alright? You've been distracted a lot today."

Mateo had to touch my knee with his baseball bat for me fall out of my trance. It seemed like the longer I went without contacting Lucy, the more I daydreamed. It had only been three days though. I shouldn't have been so affected by her absence. Especially since I was the one causing her absence.

I played it cool with a shrug. "No, I'm fine. But hey, make sure to place more weight on your back foot before swinging on a curveball."

I don't know why I was doing that to myself. Lucy had done nothing wrong for me to ignore her messages and snapchats. In fact, she had done everything right. But maybe that was the problem. The last time I had ever felt so close to a girl was with Grete back when I lived in Norway. She was my best friend and I had to say goodbye to her when I decided to move here. Maybe I was saving myself from the heartbreak waiting to happen with Lucy.

"That's bull shit and you know it, but okay." Mateo simply shook his head towards me.

It had been dark out for hours, but that didn't stop us from training. It was verging on two in the morning but I had immersed myself in coaching in attempt to take my mind off things. However by the speed of Mateo's swing, I could tell he was finished for the evening. I had him finish out the last ten balls with the pitching machine then clean up.

I handed him his water bottle. "Good job tonight. You've made real progress and it's only almost been two weeks. That's awesome."

The smile on Mateo's face was a sleepy one, but still very happy. "Let's just hope after a month I can start to make Coach have that surprised look on his face after I bat."

The vibration of my phone in my pocket made me peer away from him. "We can only hope so." I said quickly before seeing the phone I.D.

It was mor. Why was she calling so late at night? She said I could spend the night at Mateo's and she normally didn't poke around when I was with friends.

"Ja, mamma? (yes, mom?)" I placed the phone to my ear quickly. Mateo and I passed serious glances.

All I could hear was the background conversation of other people with my mom chiming in. Then finally she paid me attention. "Yes, baby, sorry. Your father and I are with the Walkers at Bridgton Hospital." She spoke quickly. Just as quickly was she quiet. "Lucy is okay, so don't worry--"

"What happened?" I placed the phone on speaker so Mateo was not so left out. He was equally as worried as me even though she was more so my friend. I guess he cared because I cared so much about her.

"An hour or so ago she had fallen in her room. She was sleepwalking again. But it's okay, everything is minor. She only has a cut on the side of her forehead from hitting the corner of her desk and a mild concussion." She was attempting to ease my reaction to Lucy being hospitalized, but it definitely wasn't changing anything.

I was completely frantic after that. Mateo understood completely that I had to go and said I could spend the night any other time.

"Lucy needs you," he assured me. So he helped me to put the pitching machine and balls away even faster. What usually took around ten minutes ended up being cut down to two.

Mor made it crystal clear Lucy was fine. I even went as far as calling Mr. Walker to make sure I had nothing to worry about. Yet still there I was, honking my horn like a madman, trying to get around a slow driver on a fifty-mile per-hour side street. It was supposed to be a short cut, not the long way to the hospital.