The Worst Day

The day before the semester officially ended was bright and sunny. The temperatures would creep into the low 80s by the afternoon, but as Jason and I dragged our equipment to the baseball field the cool morning breeze educed goose flesh on our bare arms as we walked. The promise of summer was strong in my mind. I looked at my battery mate and grinned. He smiled back, but underneath it, I could see he was a little nervous. I was, too, although I don’t know why. I had total faith in Jason – the Jason Takamura, stud freshman pitcher of our small Division I school.


Jason led the league in several important pitching categories, despite him only being one year out of high school. He was nineteen, with a tall, lanky frame that had yet to fill out like it promised to. He kept his black hair long, almost shoulder length, and it flew behind him, from under his hat, as he fired pitches, like bullets, at me. As his catcher, I knew that he threw hard. I didn’t need a radar gun. Fastball after fastball would pound my left hand mercilessly and leave them red and throbbing by the end of a game. Besides being a stud pitcher, Jason was also a rare two-way player, meaning he also played in the field when he wasn’t pitching – usually first base or right field. His glove in the field was solid, but his bat was better. He had tremendous eye-hand coordination. In an age where strikeouts were considered no big deal, Jason prided himself on almost always putting the ball in play.


So it was no wonder that, as we descended the stairs into the dugout, I should have all the confidence in the world that Jason would win the little bet he’d made last night at the season’s-end party we’d held jointly with the university’s softball team. Sometime during the course of the evening, Jason had been provoked into making a bet with Sarah Landings, also a freshman pitcher and a rising star in her own right. It didn’t hurt that she was pretty, and not even just for a jock or tomboy. She was at least an eight on any scale. She had long, blonde – almost platinum hair – that she wore in a ponytail when she pitched. It was always held in place by a pink, ruffled hair tie, which, to me, just highlighted her femininity. She didn’t wear much makeup and she didn’t need to. Her lips were full, needing no lipstick to create a fuller shape. She had a cute little nose and captivating blue eyes that blazed when she competed.


I looked over at the opposite dugout and saw that Sarah was already waiting for us with her battery mate, Jenny. Like us, they were in their uniform pants but wearing t-shirts instead of a jersey. Sarah was stretching out, bending her body and I paused to take it in. Her t-shirt clung to her chest as she arched her back and I could see, in profile, the curve of her breast. It was a view that rivaled the beauty of the morning. Jenny was lacing up her cleats and I smiled at her squat, thick body, thinking we were peas in a pod – bodies made to play catcher. Neither of us were fat, but we were thick in the legs with solid backsides. Jenny kept her hair as short as mine, but styled better, of course. She wasn’t ugly – neither was I – but we weren’t quite in either Jason or Sarah’s league.


Jason ignored them both, or at least pretended to, as he put on his spikes and pulled his glove from his equipment bag. He seemed to be putting on his “game face” and it made me wonder just how seriously he was taking the bet. He flashed me a look that said “hurry up” and I quickly put on my shin guards and grabbed my catcher’s mitt. As we warmed up, tossing the ball back and forth, increasing the distance between us every ten throws or so, I thought back to the previous night.


Since many of the attendees were of age, there had been alcohol – cheap beer and sugary liquors. And even though Sarah and Jason were under the legal drinking age, they still imbibed without fear of repercussions – it was a players-only party. Besides, they were nineteen, a full year beyond the legal age back in the day. While drinking certainly played a role in creating the bet – somehow alcohol always seemed to bring out one’s ego – it probably would’ve happened without any booze. Jason and Sarah were pretty competitive.


I was hanging out by the food, as is my custom at parties, nursing a very cold, but terrible tasting beer, joking with some other freshman players when I saw Jason look at me and jerk his head, indicating I should join him. He was talking to Sarah, though a few other girls on the softball team were nearby.

When I walked up, Jason was grinning. He chucked me on the shoulder and said, “Wait til you hear this, Ryan,” as Sarah looked at me coolly.


“What?” I asked, feeling a little tension in the air between he and Sarah.


“I just told Sarah it was no wonder she’s a good hitter. How can you miss a ball that big?” Jason grinned.


I laughed, but seeing the lack of humor on Sarah’s face shut me up. “But the bats are thinner in the barrel, too,” I said, trying to make peace.


“Pfft,” Jason retorted. “So what.” He laughed. “So I told Sarah I’d like to see her try to hit a baseball. She can even use a real bat.”


I cringed as Sarah shot a dagger-like glance at my battery mate before interrupting him.


“It doesn’t matter what kind of bat I use. I bet I could hit you no problem.” Confidence oozed in her tone.


I wasn’t so sure about that, though. As I said, Jason threw hard and hitting a baseball was different, not only because of the size difference in the balls, but also because of the angle from which the pitches came at you. Actually, I thought I – and even the great Jason – would struggle hitting a softball as we were so used to the pitcher’s higher release point. But I kept my mouth shut.


“Oh yeah?” Jason chortled, sounding dubious. “Maybe we should make a little bet. You pitch to me and if I get a hit, I win. If I don’t – which is unlikely – you win.” He sounded smug, even to me. “Then I’ll pitch to you and the same thing goes. If we both get hits or we both don’t, it’s a wash. Otherwise, whoever loses has to – ,”


At this point, Jenny had joined us and was listening to this cockamamie bet Jason was selling. She interjected, “The loser has to strip to their undies and run the bases!”


We all laughed, and some of the tension dissipated. It was a funny idea, but I knew something the others didn’t – especially Jason. Jenny was crushing on him hard even though he was kinda out of her league. While the others probably thought it was just a funny, embarrassing thing to have to do for losing a bet, I suspected Jenny really just hoped to see Jason in his underwear.


Probably thinking there was no way he would lose and that it would be fun to see Sarah run the bases in her bra and panties, Jason smirked, “I’m game if you are, Sarah.”


Sarah narrowed her eyes and seemed to be considering things. Finally she stuck out her hand. “It’s a bet.” She looked from me to Jenny. “You all saw it.” Her tone was joking, but it felt like she was serious.


“This is gonna be fun,” Jason smirked, rubbing his hands together. “I can’t wait to see you in your undies, Sarah.”


As he made his verbal jab, I could see Jason’s eyes looking hungrily at Sarah’s chest. To her credit, she just smirked and said, “We’ll see.”


We set a time to meet and then drifted apart. Jason didn’t say anything else about the bet the rest of the evening until I headed out. “See you at ten tomorrow,” he called as I left.


Now, here we all were, warming up in the sunshine, all of us probably wondering how things would play out. When Jason nodded that he was good, I walked over to where Sarah and Jenny were tossing.


“Beautiful day, eh?” I said to Jenny as she received a strong toss from Sarah. “Are you all ready?”


“You good, Sarah?” Jenny called, turning the over-sized, yellow ball in her hand. When Sarah nodded, Jenny said, “Yep, guess so.”


“Good let’s meet at home plate. We’ll flip a coin to see who pitches first.” When Jenny nodded, I walked back over to Jason. “Got a coin?” I asked.


Jason dug in his back and found a quarter, handing it to me as we ambled over toward the batter’s box. Sarah stood with her hands on her hips, looking at us with her own “game face” while Jenny looked apprehensive but intrigued.


“Call it in the air, Sarah,” I said. “Heads, you pitch first.”


“Heads!” Sarah called as the coin rotated in the air.


When it hit my hand, I slapped it onto the back of my other hand and looked. “It’s tails,” I said. “You hit first, Sarah.”


“Fine,” Sarah said curtly as she turned on her cleats and headed back to the dugout to get a bat.
“You sure you don’t want a real bat?” Jason called.


Sarah stopped and turned and I grinned as she rolled her eyes. “I think I’m fine with the bat I have. You’ll see.”


Damn, that girl sounded confident. I was impressed. I wouldn’t have been so collected if I was in her shoes. I grabbed my chest protector and mask and headed toward home plate again. Jenny walked onto the field just beyond the cut of the grass to retrieve the ball if Sarah hit it. I squatted and Jason fired a few pitches at me from the mound as Sarah stood with the bat on her shoulders measuring his velocity. “Ready?” I asked, not sure which of the two I was directing my question.


“Ready,” Jason called from the mound.


Sarah said nothing, but stepped into the batter’s box and adjusted her batting gloves. I noticed her digging in good. She really was taking this seriously. I crouched and watched Jason go into his smooth motion. He fired a strike right down the middle that made my glove crack loudly, echoing across the empty field. Sarah never moved the bat from her shoulders. “Strike one,” I said, trying to be funny.

Sarah glanced back at me with narrowed eyes and my laughter died in my throat. That girl really had a way to shut me up, I thought.


When I saw the extra height as Jason raised his leg to throw another pitch I knew he was digging deep. Get ready, Ry, this one’s gonna have flames behind it, I thought to myself. The ball was a blur coming at me, and I braced for the impact that never came. With eerie speed, Sarah lashed out and I heard the distinct “ping” of a metal bat hitting a ball. I watched as the ball bee-lined in the exact direction from which it had come, although now it was even more of a blur.


I’ll never forget the next several seconds. Never. The sounds, the images – it will haunt me forever, I think. In what felt like the blink of an eye, I saw the ball hone in on Jason’s off balance frame. Then I heard a flat, sickening “whump” as the ball drilled Jason. It was the “whump” of soft tissue being hit with tremendous force and I knew right away where the ball had hit Jason. His balls. I shot up out of my crouch and from the corner of my eye I could see a grin spreading on Sarah’s face. It looked awkward and uncomfortable but also amused. As for me, there was nothing to be amused about. This was serious. I raced toward Jason and saw him take one feeble step forward as his glove fell to the ground. He grabbed at his crotch and then pitched forward onto the grassy area in front of the mound.


I slid on my knees trying to catch him, but his face hit the sod before I could get there. He didn’t even try to break his fall. When his head hit, his body flopped over on its side and then the momentum caused it to land fully with it’s backside toward the ground. Jason’s eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving. My heart started really racing at this point. I looked back at Sarah – I’m sure there was pure terror in them – and saw her half-walking toward me, her mouth giving me toothy smile. She was laughing. I cringed. When I did, her smile disappeared and she moved a little faster. I patted Jason’s cheek, but he didn’t respond. At this point, I heard Jenny’s voice behind me.


“Oh my god! Did Sarah just hit him in the balls?!” Jenny sounded shocked and a little horrified as she knelt down at Jason’s waist. “Oh shit,” she exclaimed, sounding very unladylike.


I turned my attention to her, thinking her voice sounded scared and distressed and what I saw confirmed that it should have probably sounded even worse.


We watched as a tent began forming over Jason’s crotch, the fabric of his baseball pants rising like a pyramid. I looked back at my teammate’s face and saw his eyes were still closed and he was still out cold. When I looked back toward his crotch, I saw Jenny’s eyes wide with sheer horror. The pyramid was still growing, and the fabric of the pants was starting to stretch beyond what it was meant to hold. Suddenly, the pyramid-like tent bowed outward, like the center pole might snap, and I looked at Jenny. She was paralyzed, so I quickly grabbed at Jason’s zipper and frantically tried to pull it down, which was nearly impossible with the way his pants were stretched so tight. I was finally able to get it down and gasped at what I found.


As I pulled the zipper down, Jason’s penis sprung forth like it had caromed off a trampoline. It broke through the fly of his underwear and reared its head. It must’ve been ten inches and it was still growing, taller and thicker. The skin of his penis was reddish-purple and had a sleek sheen to it. I’m not one to go looking at other guys’ dicks, but I’d never seen anything like this. The veins were popping out from his shaft the way a body builder’s does when he’s oiled up and flexing. The head of his penis was dark purple and glossy, thick and meaty-looking. I mean, it looked painful, actually. I glanced at Jenny and saw she was gaping, open-mouthed at the sight. By this point, Jason’s dick had risen straight up from his body, a good foot into the open air.


“Holy shit,” Sarah whispered as she got her first sight of it. “What the hell?”


I looked at Sarah and shrugged, my eyes heavy with confusion. “I… I don’t know,” I stammered.
Sarah’s eyes were wide, but unlike Jenny, she was far from paralyzed. She slipped off her batting gloves and wrapped both her hands around his shiny, vein-y shaft. A low moan escaped her. “I’ve never felt a cock this hard before,” she whispered, sounding awed. She looked at Jason’s face. “Is he out cold?”


I nodded. “I think so.”


“Why is his dick so hard then?” She asked, to no one in particular.


“I don’t know,” I said. “But it can’t be good.”


“We should probably check out his nuts, too,” Sarah said in a matter of fact tone. Although she was taking control of the situation, I noticed a brief, lusty glimpse pass in her eyes and saw her give his ready-to-burst shaft a few quick, desiring strokes before she turned her attention to his testicles.


I almost vomited when Sarah’s hand dug into Jason’s pants and pulled out the swollen, purple mass that was his scrotum. Jason’s testicles were so swollen that instead being a pair, they looked like one giant plum as they stretched the skin of his scrotum almost beyond capacity. Like his penis, Jason’s scrotum was slick and glossy, showing every darkened vein as they splintered out across his taut scrotum.


“Oh my god!” Jenny cried out, clapping her hand over her mouth.


The poor girl was gray in the face and her eyes swam with bewilderment and horror. She looked almost as miserable as Jason would have, had he been conscious.


“This is bad,” Sarah said, keeping her voice calm. “Can one of you call an ambulance?” She was dabbing tenderly at his swollen testicles as she asked.


I jumped up and ran to our dugout and pressed the 911 button, watching Sarah tend to Jason’s throbbing cock and swollen balls as I did.


When I returned, I found Jenny cradling Jason’s balls tenderly, and it made me sick to see them overflowing her hands. She was crying softly and looked miserable.


Sarah, on the other hand, seemed to have far less sympathy. She was tending to his cock which was still thick and rigid, sticking straight up, like a rod, from his body. Something seemed off to me, though, when I looked at her. It gnawed at me for a moment and then it struck me. There was no sympathy in Sarah’s eyes, like there was in Jenny’s. Instead, I could see an animal-like lust where care and concern should have been. I looked closer and saw that Sarah’s eyes were glued to Jason’s hard, involuntary erection and that her hands were moving all over it. Up and down they caressed. It seemed like she wanted to trace every engorged vein and feel every inch of his thick, glossy shaft. She even squeezed the head of his penis, leaving white spots against the purple of his shiny, meaty head where she’d pressed her fingers.


When Sarah noticed I’d returned, she pulled her hands away hastily, but not before I saw her lick her bottom lip. “What did they say?” She asked, forcing the lust from her voice.


“They’re on the way. They said not to move him,” I said, trying to hide my disgust in how Sarah was handling my teammate. He needed care, not someone fondling him, I found myself thinking.
“Did they say why his penis is so hard?” Sarah asked.


I shuddered at the desire flitting in Sarah’s eyes as she said “so hard”. Her voice had thickened as well. “We didn’t get that far,” I said brusquely. “I just told them my teammate had been hit in the groin by a line drive.”


Sarah stared at me and then a small grin played on her face, spreading slowly, much the way Jason’s penis had grown. “Did you tell them it was by a girl?”


I looked up, shocked. “What? No! Wait.. why would that matter?” I asked, sounding incredulous. I heard a snicker and looked back at Jenny, who was still cradling Jason’s swollen balls with care. Despite the concern in Jenny’s eyes, I realized she was trying to hold back a laugh. To my dismay, she couldn’t. Her shoulders started shaking and before I knew it, she was giggling uncontrollably.


“What the fuck?” I spat, sounding disgusted.


“I’m… I’m so… sorry,” Jenny said between giggles. “I mean, this is terrible, but it’s kinda funny, too. I feel awful for Jason, but the way Sarah asked if you told the paramedics your friend got hit in the balls by a girl was too much.” Jenny looked at Sarah and broke out in fresh giggles.


Sarah laughed, too, but it was a smug laugh that made me uncomfortable. While Jenny giggled because she simply couldn’t help herself, Sarah’s laughter, through the smirk on her face, was almost haughty – the laugh of someone who knows they’re superior to those around them. When Sarah saw the disgusted way I was looking at her, she favored me with a cruel smile that made my own penis shrivel up. She kept her hands wrapped around the base of Jason’s glossy, towering cock and said, “Don’t be such a sourpuss, Ryan. Your friend’s balls aren’t a mushy mass, so they’ll be fine, I’m sure. Eventually. And really, how can you not find at least a little humor in the fact that it was a girl who made his nuts swell?” When I wrinkled my nose, she smirked. “Fine, be that way.” I thought she was done, but then she added, like she was trying to jab at me, “You know… your friend was being quite the arrogant ass last night. You don’t even know how much willpower it took for me to not kick him in the balls. But I’m glad I waited. This is waaaay better!”


As Sarah chortled, I felt myself get dizzy, a queasy feeling rising in my guts. The sky felt like it was closing in on me and I knew I had to get out of there. I stood, shakily, and started to walk back to the dugout. I heard sirens in the distance and realized the ambulance was close. The sound of the sirens seemed to snap me out of my despair and I hustled over to the outfield fence where the wide double gate was and pushed it open so that the ambulance could come right out on the field. I leaned against the fence feeling the buzz of adrenaline mingle with the sick, sinking sensation in my guts. I grabbed onto the chain links for support. I should be there for my teammate, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go back to the scene of the accident. I felt so small, especially the way the two girls were laughing about how Jason had had his balls hit by a girl. And the thought of seeing Jason’s engorged penis and those swollen testicles made my stomach turn. Instead, I waited by the gate, ready to direct the paramedics.


Suddenly, I heard an animal-like howl, eerie and filled with pure misery, cut through the silent baseball field. Several more followed as I looked toward the pitcher’s mound. Jason had regained consciousness and he was screaming with a terrified, high-pitched moan unlike any sound I’d ever heard. It made my skin crawl and my testicles ascend into my abdomen. I saw Jenny holding Jason’s face, her head dipped toward his like she was trying to calm or comfort him. He was holding his swollen balls with both hands as he howled. Sarah was on one knee, her hand on his stomach. Was she grinning? Before I could squint harder, the ambulance roared up and I swung open the gate even further, pointing toward the mound.

The passenger window was down and I yelled, “Hurry! Over there!”


As I yelled, Jason let loose with another yowl and the paramedic’s eyes went wide. “Goddamn,” she said, looking shocked. “C’mon, Joe," she said, looking at the driver, "let’s go!”


As the ambulance rolled toward the mound, I slumped to the dirt. I was shaking. I said a silent prayer for Jason and crossed myself before squeezing my head in my hands like I could just shut out the world. This might’ve been the worst day of my life. I could only imagine what fresh hell it was for Jason.