“I'm moving back to Oregon for good. I can't play for a coach that controls my every move. I miss being close to my family, I need to go home,” he says.
“As long as you're happy, I'm happy. Whatever choice you make I will support,” she says.
“I just can't do it anymore, you will be the only thing I will miss from Michigan.” Damian says.
Selene never got to say goodbye to Damian in person. Damian went home for the summer and was supposed to come back to Ann Arbor the beginning of the school year. She played softball, he played baseball. Selene met Damian her freshman year of college at a party.
“I don't think we have met,” says Damian
Selene could drink a whole bottle of cheap vodka that tasted like rubbing alcohol all to herself in one night. Some nights ended better than others. She had a shy personality, but once she could feel the liquor inside of her she was the life of the party.
“I'm Selena. Take a shot with me?” she asks.
“I'm not drinking tonight, I'm driving home. I'm Damian.”
Indigo (the baseball house) was packed full of college kids wanting to get sh**faced drunk. Around 12:00 A.M. the cops would bang on the door.
“Everyone needs to leave otherwise we are going to hand out tickets.”
The baseball boys would let the softball girl's hangout or crash at their place after the cop's shutdown the party. Selena came with Allie, her best friend on the softball team. Selena was a bottle deep at her first college party and wanted to go lay down in her California king. Allie was supposed to be the DD but that never happen, she could never say no to someone who offered her a beer.
“Hell free beer, one won't hurt me.”
Allie grew up in a small town in Georgia with hardly any supervision other than her 3 older brothers. She'd been drinking since she was like 12 or something. Damian over heard their conversation.
“I can give you a ride home,” Damian says
“Thanks, but I'm not going to leave Allie.”
“Oh come on b**h, you said you wanted to sleep in your bed go let him take you home,” Allie says.
Selena glanced at Allie after she made that comment and rolled her eyes. Allie had a few beers to many. Selena could tell because Allies face would turn red like a tomato when she was drunk. She was allergic to alcohol or something, at least that what she would tell everyone.
“You know what Damian, I'll take you up on that ride home.”
That night Selena fell in love. Selena and Damian stopped and shared greasy chicken figures at a 24hr diner before he took her home to her California king. Usually Selena never talked much to when she first met someone. It was different when she met Damian. It was like she grew up in the same neighborhood playing basketball in the front yard with him everyday. He fit her. They flowed together like a smooth stream in the Rocky Mountains.
When Damian hung up the phone after he said he wasn't coming back to Michigan, a part of her felt like it stopped beating. Damian was the reason she began to get A's in school, the reason she stopped drinking, the reason she had hope for her future. He was still going to be a part of her life, but instead he was going to be 2,346 miles from her. She wanted him to stay. His happiness was more important to her than her own happiness. When she knew her life had completely changed, Selena only let a single teardrop roll down her cheek. He didn't love her like Selena loved him.
Question 1
Selena never got the love she wanted from Damian.