Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 1

Just the Best Friend

Victoria's POV

Love hurts.

I never understood how painfully true that was until tonight.

For fifteen years I loved my best friend, Caleb Ashfield, without a single regret—even though he’d made it clear that hot girls were his type, not a nerd like me.

I swallowed every casual rejection and kept right on loving him.

But now? I regret every single second of it.

He’d canceled our dinner plans with the usual excuse: ‘team training.’

In that moment, it finally dawned on me. All ninety-nine times he’d bailed before… It was never about baseball. It was about her.

The sight of them was excruciating to watch. Caleb and a girl I didn’t know, tucked into a dark corner, kissing like no one else in the room existed.

My stomach twisted so violently I thought I might be sick right there on the sticky floor.

What hurt worse than the kiss was the lie. Why did he think he needed to lie?

Was my love too obvious? Was I making him uncomfortable? No. I’d hidden it behind eye rolls and sarcasm.

I’d loved Caleb since we were spindly kids with pigtails and scabby knees. Back when he was the boy who shared his juice box with me on the playground and promised we’d be best friends forever.

He just never loved me back the same way.

I wasn’t supposed to be here. Engineering nerds don’t belong in loud, sweaty clubs. I had just finished a late group project meeting when his cancellation text came through.

After reading it, all I wanted was to crawl under my bed and cry until my eyes swelled shut. But my roommate, Eva, wouldn’t let me.

She dragged me out, thinking a night out was exactly what I needed after a ‘grueling week’ at school.

I could have said no. I should have said no.

Instead, I let her pull me through the doors, hoping the pounding bass and enough alcohol would numb the ache for a little while.

So here I was: numb, my vision swimming from too many drinks, watching the boy I’d loved for half my life kiss someone else.

My feet moved before my brain could stop them. I pushed through the pulsing crowd, the music and bodies blurring into nothing, until I stood only a few feet away.

“Caleb?” My voice came out smaller than I intended.

He jerked back. The curse that left his mouth was low, but I heard it.

He murmured something to her, pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. I do not know how to explain this, but that small intimacy hurts worse than the kiss itself.

He turned toward me, scratching the back of his neck, his eyes everywhere but on my face.

“Tori… What are you doing here? You never come to clubs. That’s a new development right there.” He chuckles.

“Training looked pretty intense,” I said, my voice dripping with bitter sarcasm.

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