Even after four innings, Spencer still didn't know a thing about baseball.

"Raley, you bum! My grandmother runs faster than you and she's been dead for 15 years!"

Sakura tried her best to explain everything as it happened, including the most entertaining sport of home fans heckling the opposing outfield players—and to be honest, baseball wasn't a fast-moving sport so she had plenty of time to explain—but Spencer might as well have been the child left behind. Nothing stuck. The same type of play required multiple coachings, and she was still left confused. She kind of liked that, though. It meant she could keep leaning over to ask questions. Sakura always smiled, shook her head, and met her the rest of the way to reeducate her on the ins and outs of major league baseball.

"What's the matter with Raley?"

"He's a bum! He's a bum! He's a bum!"

"You must have really liked her," Spencer said.

Sakura turned away from the field. The next Giants player marched up to the plate. San Francisco was down one; both teams had scored a home run, but Seattle had an extra runner on the field for theirs giving them the score advantage.

"Huh?"

"The girl you started watching baseball for."

"What do you mean?"

Spencer shifted her legs toward Sakura to avoid getting popcorn thrown on her from someone above. (At least they had the decency to yell a warning.) "As established earlier, you are not a baseball bisexual, yet you know enough that I bet you could go down there and stand your own next to those coaches."

Maybe she was exaggerating. Maybe she simply believed that no matter how qualified, Sakura could do anything she put her mind to.

"That's just my air of women-are-better-than-men."

"So, it stands to reason that you must have really liked her. You wouldn't have taken all that time learning about it if you didn't."

As boldly as Sakura lived, she loved between the lines. She left Hawai'i a single woman, but her last relationship before the move had lasted a year and a half. The longest of them all at the time. (Spencer didn't know of her relationships in San Francisco.) While classmates posted sappy captions under a staged picture for every monthiversary, Sakura posted candids of her partner smiling unknowingly for the camera; a picture placed snugly between other aesthetically pleasing photos of her week. She packed their favorite Hawaiian Sun juice every day for lunch, always with an ice pack kept in her lunch box. When she picked up her partner from their house, their favorite playlist was already playing before they sat in the passenger seat. And every present included an annotated book using highlighters and post-its of their favorite color.

If Sakura spent all that time learning and falling in love with a new sport she previously had no interest in, it mattered.

Sakura licked her lips before glancing down at her lap. "I think I just... I think I liked the idea of her more than who she actually was. I mean, I know that. Like I said, she sucked. It was good that I moved on from her."

"When did you figure it out?"

"Hey, Raley! Your mom told me you're her least favorite player!"

"Much earlier than I left." Sakura laughed.

Spencer didn't like that answer.

The Giants player's bat connected with the ball and sent it flying across the field. They sprinted to first base with ease, and the ballpark erupted into applause while Sakura remained still. The most calm and unmoving she had been the entire night.

"Maybe I was lying a little bit earlier. Or, well, not lying, but not being completely honest. It took me a long time to get used to the city. It feels very similar to Hawai'i in the way that there's the heart of the city through which you find the people with a strong sense of community, and then there are those loud groups who seek to rob it of what makes it unique and beautiful. It took me a long time to get comfortable enough here that I wasn't constantly checking flights back home. I thought I'd cave and go crawling back. But I jumped into a relationship with the first person who didn't make me feel like I was wearing clown makeup every day. And hey, it was nice for a while. She tethered me to this city enough to hold my head up. I thought that if I let her go, it would somehow curse this city for me. Like I'd never succeed here, you know? It's stupid."

Spencer shook her head. "Don't say that. It's not."

"Eventually I realized she liked me not for me but because I was easy to manipulate. I was new, lost, still figuring out who I was. She took advantage of that, even if it meant making me feel small so she could hold herself up higher. Above me. Always above me. It's the worst feeling—thinking you're holding onto someone when they're really holding you down."

Spencer regretted pushing the issue. Not because she didn't want to hear it, but because every honest word that poured out of her friend's vulnerability burned like the familiar sting of a shot of hard liquor she knew she didn't enjoy but drank anyway.

"Actually," Sakura continued, "the worst is when you figure out it's happening but you're too scared to let go. 'Cause then that means having to commit to figuring out how to stand on your own two feet."

Spencer nodded. "Yeah. Yes."

Her boyfriend hadn't gotten along with her best friend, even though they technically knew each other first. Once upon a time, they were friends. The kind of friends that hung out at lunch and grouped themselves together for school projects. They weren't friendly outside of those scenarios, though. Spencer thought it was a good thing they knew each other. Once they started dating, that meant her two favorite people already had a rapport. The three of them would be inseparable.

But, of course, life didn't work that way. Some people were only meant to be friends in very limited capacities. Once they all started hanging out together outside of school, the friendship between Sakura and him deteriorated past the point of no return.

"He's awful to you. You do realize that, right?" Sakura packed up her things having already declared the planned sleepover to be canceled. "I'm so tired of shitty guys getting away with bottom-of-the-barrel behavior and girls just fawning over them. You're better than that."

"Well, maybe I'm not." Spencer inconspicuously wiped away any tears threatening to fall. "Maybe he's the only kind of guy out there who will give me the time of day. I'm not like you, okay, Sakura? People fall at your feet—guys, girls, even freaking parents—"

"Oh, god. Don't do that. Don't make me out to be this mystical creature. It's demoralizing."

"They all love you. He's the only guy who's ever looked in my direction. I'm sorry, okay?"

Sakura stopped, turning slowly. Her hair was piled haphazardly on top of her head, her shirt wrinkled, her sad and dull eyes, and her patience wearing thin. The most embarrassing part was that this hadn't been the first time they engaged in this topic of conversation. How awful he was. How she forgave him. How she wanted better for her.

"There's a whole world out there of amazing people who would treat you the way you should be treated. People who would make sure you treat yourself the way you should be treated. And it breaks my heart every time I see you forget that."

Sakura left before Spencer could formulate a response. A text from him arrived precisely as the front door shut, and Spencer managed to ignore it for the night. Her overwhelming need to feel like she was the bigger person made her reply the next morning, though, which didn't fill the empty space left behind in Sakura's absence.

"Raley, you bum! I bet you hit reply-all to company-wide emails!"

The fourth inning ended. Each screen lit up with colorful graphics, and fans around the ballpark rose from their seats in haste for a quick purchase before the game started back up again.

Spencer hugged the Giants hoodie she had purchased earlier a little closer. "The whole world is out there waiting for you. You'll find someone."

They smiled at each other in the middle of Oracle Park.

"Alright, folks! As voted by all of you here with us tonight and at home, please join us for a sing-along of your favorite still going strong from this summer! It's time for Hot To Go! by Chappell Roan!"

Sakura and Spencer immediately jumped to their feet as the first beats of Hot To Go! rolled in. Their worlds had both seemingly shattered, in different places and at different times, but maybe they didn't need the whole world. Maybe this city was enough, especially when they were both in it together.

They sang along to the lyrics, loudly and proudly. Some people joined in around them, others stared. It didn't matter when they were lost in each other, the song, and San Francisco. They bumped their hips together and giggled, all while pledging to move on from the people who took everything and gave them nothing.