Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
“Fine.” He lifted his gaze to the first baseman, who was staring dazedly off into space. “Jacob!”
The boy snapped to attention, eyes wide. “Yeah?”
“You saw that pitch, right?”
Jacob nodded, head bouncing like a bobble head doll. “Uh huh.”
“What do you think it was? Ball or a strike?”
The boy paused for a long while. “Uh…a strike?”
A grin immediately sprang to Sebastian’s lips as he looked back to Taliana. “Told you. I’m sure everyone else out there would agree.” He once again turned his attention to the field, raising his voice so they could all hear. “Right, guys?”
A collective murmur of “yes” could be heard from all sides, which came as no surprise. Few people dared go against Sebastian Phillips, undoubtedly the most popular boy in their grade, especially if they wanted to stay on his good side.
With an angry huff, Taliana threw her hands up. “You’re so stupid!”
Sebastian laughed and took yet another step closer to her. “Say whatever you want, Talia. It’s not going to change the fact that you suck at softball.”
“I do not!” All she knew was that if he kept this up, she was either going to burst into tears or go up in flames. “Stop being such an ass!”
The grin on Sebastian’s face only grew with every word that came out of her mouth.
“Go home and cry to your mommy about it,” he taunted, moving around the catcher so only a foot of space separated him from Taliana. “Oh, that’s right. Your mom doesn’t even live around here anymore. Guess she didn’t like you enough to stay. Poor little Stick Girl, not even your slutty mom loves you!”
In an instant, Taliana was seeing red.
It was no secret that her parents had divorced just before she was born, and while her father had quickly gone on to remarry, her mother had remained a single woman. Gossip had recently begun circulating that Taliana’s mother was now involved with a very married, very conservative senator, whose wife was hellbent on destroying them both.
The scandal had been the icing on the cake for Andrea Colton, who always seemed to be the topic of D.C.’s wealthy social scene, and she had made the decision to move to Los Angeles in order to avoid the drama. She had also decided not to take her only daughter with her, leaving Taliana to live with her father, stepmother, and two half-sisters.
“The schools are better out here, darling,” had been Andrea’s excuse, but hard as Taliana tried, there was no convincing her mother to take her to LA.
A few months had passed since then, but for Taliana, it was still a touchy subject.
Rage bubbled in her stomach, leading to an outburst of, “Don’t talk about my mom like that!” And then her hands were on Sebastian’s shoulders, shoving him back-hard.
Shocked gasps came from the nearby bleachers where the other students had come to watch the game. But Taliana wasn’t paying attention to them-she was too busy staring down Sebastian. The snarl on his face should have been a warning, but she wasn’t about to back down.
Sebastian’s hands shot out before Taliana could move out of his reach, connecting with her shoulders and pushing her back with enough force that she nearly stumbled. She somehow managed to keep her footing and shoved him again.
“Piss off, Sebastian!”
The gasps from the onlookers were louder this time, but Taliana didn’t care. She was going to win this fight, no matter what it took.
“What did you say?” he asked, a quiet rage to his words.
“You heard me,” she answered, smirking as she drew herself up to her full height. “What are you gonna do about it?”
The moment the words left her lips, she regretted it. Less than half a second later, there were fireworks exploding behind her eyes as Sebastian’s fist connected with her cheekbone, and she went crashing to the ground.
A stunned silence fell around the pair, the only sound in the vicinity that of the recess monitors and teachers running across the field to break up the fight.
If Taliana had any good sense, she would have continued to sit on the ground until the teachers arrived to help, but when it came to Sebastian, she didn’t have an ounce of it. That was why when she felt the baseball bat under her fingertips, she knew exactly what she had to do.
Without rising to her feet, she closed her eyes, lifted the bat, and swung with all her might.
A scream told her she had made contact with something, and she cracked open an eye to find Sebastian on the ground, sobbing as he cradled his arm. It took a moment before she opened the other eye, but as she took in the sight before her, Taliana couldn’t help smiling.
However, her joy didn’t last long. A few seconds after she’d taken her lucky swing, the teachers rushed over, most of them going to the cry baby sitting on the ground across from her. When someone finally came to her side, it was none other than Georgetown Trinity’s headmaster.
“Explain yourself!” he thundered, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her to her feet.
Her eyes widened as she looked up at the man, his face turning red and leaning toward purple.
“You might want to calm down, Headmaster Hawthorne,” she said softly. “You’re starting to look like an eggplant.”
The headmaster darkened yet another shade. “This is your last day at my school, Miss Avilla!”
He wasted no time dragging her off the field and back toward the main school building, but as she stumbled along behind him, Taliana glanced back to catch one last look at the damage she’d done, and the sight made her grin again.
By then, Headmaster Hawthorne had pulled her into the building, but before the doors could close behind her, she murmured something no one else could hear.
“Who sucks at softball now?”
Homecoming
Six years later…
Watching Andrea Colton emerge from the backseat of the black Mercedes was like watching a movie star step out onto the red carpet. She moved with an easy grace that came from a lifetime of ballet, and she carried herself like a woman who could handle anything life threw at her, which-so far-had been quite a lot. Her vintage shift dress and oversized sunglasses only accentuated her classic beauty and remarkable bone structure, something Taliana was grateful to have inherited. Her mother may have been a few years past forty, but she still had men half her age on their knees.
“Circle around,” Andrea instructed the driver as she stepped onto the curb. “This could take a while.”
She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head as she turned to Taliana, revealing those all-knowing gray eyes. For once, the smile that always seemed to play around her mouth was nowhere to be found.
“You don’t have to do this, honey.”