Dirty Curve Quotes
"Still in college and others are already making money off my name. Yeah, going pro is going to be the shit."
"Because I have something they all want and can't get enough of ..."
"Not a damn thing else matters. We know who and what we are."
"I'm a man who knows what he wants and works his ass off to get it."
"There’s no way but the hard way. The grind. The focus. The sacrifice."
"Here, I’m not the Playboy Pitcher, the fame-seeking party boy people view me as. I’m not Friday night’s good time or a story to share with friends down the road. I’m not a prize that’ll lose its shine or a worthless memory that’ll fade into nothing."
"Here, I’m Tobias Cruz, the real Tobias Cruz."
"You can’t believe everything you hear... or read."
"That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."
"I guess that’s not something I’d expect you to say."
"You ever met a George who wasn’t a reliable son of a bitch? Bet not."
"Contrary to what you may believe, or the shitty impression I gave with the whole ‘be my schoolwork slave,’ I’m not a complete dickhead."
"There’re not a lot of places I can go around here and take my hat off, so to speak."
"Yeah, even the home team fans love me—I swing my bat around and make my way into the batter’s box."
"Thick and long, my man. Now tell yours to hit me with that fastball he seems to favor. Watch me make a fool out of ‘em."
"He knows I never reach my max pitch count. When I start a game, I finish the fucking thing."
"This game is ours, just like we knew it would be."
"Poor bastards are about to develop mad hate for Tuesdays."
"I hope you have the opposite of fun. I know I will."
"You have to be getting pussy to be pussy-whipped, asshole."
"You do that now. You work hard. You care and it shows."
"If he feels ‘snubbed’ ... that means he likes you and he just wants you to like him back."
"My days are seventeen hours of grinding, Tutor Girl."
"Every day like clockwork. My days are seventeen hours of grinding, Tutor Girl."
"You told me you’d answer. You didn’t, so I had to break out the big guns and make a call."
"I think she’s as real as it gets, Tutor Girl."
"The kind that goes out of his way to please but not for notoriety, but because his conscience meter is set to perfection."
"It’s true what they say on the news. Tobias is baseball."
"She doesn’t look away, and I’m not sure how long my hand stays frozen in the air, my hair half twisted up, but neither of us snaps out of it until Bailey begins to fuss."
"I don’t know what to do, but I know what I want to do, and it’s not the morally correct option."
"You understand the importance of school, right? You’re a student as well?"
"Of course, you do, because you know what it takes to be successful in life. Hard work and dedication."
"We didn’t do all we could to make sure you could go to college—You’re right, Mom, you didn’t. If you remember right, I worked it out with the help of someone who actually believed in me."
"He wastes no time, stomping away, but he lets it all go as he reaches Bailey, his voice nothing but tender and patient through the monitor. "I’ve got you, baby girl.""
"You know my husband coached him when he was young. Well, up until Tobias was too stubborn to listen to a word his dad had to say."
"Tobias struggles with school, sure, but not in every class and never to the point of failure. He works really hard to sustain his GPA and if it starts to slip, he does what he needs to do to get it back up."
"Can you not see that Tobias is what legends are made of?"
"That’s something to celebrate. That ... is something to be proud of," Meyer nearly whispers.
"You shouldn’t be," she whispers, a gentle softness in her voice I’m not sure she’s aware of.
"I do something good, something I can be proud of and someone else comes to tear it down, to make me rethink every fucking step I take."
"Tobias Cruz, The Playboy Pitcher strikes again ... No. Not this time."
"Let me be someone that matters to you, ‘cause, you matter to me, Tutor Girl. Both of you do."
"He tried to be a better student and didn’t understand why he couldn’t grasp things the way others could. It’s so hard to find the kind of learning that works for you."
"We’d have barbecues and neighbors, or my husband’s coworkers would come over, and we’d tell them how Talon’s English essay won an award, but we never thought to mention how that same month, Tobias tried out for the freshman baseball team, and how thirty minutes into the very first day of tryouts, the varsity coach came over to watch him, offering him a spot on his roster that very same day."
"I judged him wrong at first. It’s not that he didn’t care about school, because he does. He just struggles no matter the approach he takes and it seems he’s tried many."
"If he’s driven to do well in school in order to do what he loves on the field, is it even important to remember why he works hard to keep his grades up? He does keep them up and that’s what counts. He’s not failing. He’s not on the verge of dropping out."
"He simply accepted what he couldn’t change, that the world would see him how they wished and no achievement of his would change that."
"Honestly, it’s almost as if he doesn’t take himself seriously at times, like he laughs when others do because that’s his role as placed upon him by outsiders who don’t really know him."
"He is Tobias Cruz, ‘The Playboy Pitcher.’ An all-star athlete with the dirtiest curve in the game, future MLB gold and a hall of fame legend."
"I can’t imagine the pain it causes a mother when she realizes she’s let her child down. Just thinking about doing wrong by Bailey makes my heart ache."
"My son was lucky enough to get a second chance, got into a school with a push from that man ..."
"There’s only one other person in this fucking world I allow to get in my head ..."
"My mom is at my game. My mom smiles sheepishly, slipping Bailey’s bow into her hair."
"For the first time in a long time I feel it, my mother’s pride."
"My lips curve to one side, letting her know it’s okay if she’s not up for it. I’m good with exactly what we’re doing now. I just want to be near her."
"Last time I was here, it was for all the wrong reasons, a night I’ve regretted for far too long, but somewhere along the way, that regret faded into something else, something a little more dangerous."
"If he does, it will be my fault. When he does, it will be my fault ... I’m the one who allowed things to get this far."
"I’m just trying to get through school so I can take care of myself and my daughter. Why are you making it so much harder than it has to be?"
"Tears spring into my eyes without permission."
"You’re not even going to try and lie your way out of this, say you’re tutoring someone at eleven o’clock on a well-known party night this side of campus?"
"My heart drops to my feet as I stare at the three of us, and my phone falls to the grass as I bring my hands up to cover my eyes."
"Dread and desire. Fear and comfort. Disgrace and devotion."
"I take it you haven’t been online or on campus today. If you had, I don’t think you’d be here right now."
"Make it that simple, he said. In other words, end it and quick."
"I’m at the mercy of a man who doesn’t deserve to be called one, and there’s not a thing I can do about it."
"I can’t let it slip away. I have to help him, no matter how much it breaks me in return."
"My heart falls to my feet as I look up into a completely different pair of blue eyes."
"I wish I could see Bailey, kiss her chubby little cheeks, and make her understand I’m not leaving her, but her mama is leaving me."
"I can’t believe the fucked-up place I’ve put myself in."
"I want you. All of you and everything that comes with you. Good, bad, fucked. I want it. Every bit of it."
"I got you. Your fears and your troubles. I got you ..."
"Right fucking here, you understand what I’m saying?"
"No amount of this girl will ever be enough. I’ll forever want more. Need more. Crave more. Of her. Of this. Of us."
"Forget all that. What about the last part ... I get the feeling you didn’t come here tonight to think, but go ahead, gorgeous girl, correct me if I’m wrong."
"This is what sex is supposed to feel like. Raw and primitive, a full-body takeover. No thought, no plan, no holding back."
"We sit silently for a few minutes before I catch his head turning toward me in my peripheral."
"Tomorrow I’ll be sore in all the right places, and I couldn’t care less because tonight I’m satisfied."
"Life is unexpected, if nothing else, so tonight, I’m going to forget tomorrow and just ... lie here in the dark with a stranger."
"All I can do is nod, and then I turn, following the man out of the side gate."
"You have to let me go, and you have to promise me you won’t fall apart this time. You didn’t work your ass off to lose everything."
"I can do this, I repeat for the hundredth time in the short walk from my apartment to the athletic department."
"It’s senior year, and I was finally going to bite the bullet and go full schoolgirl mode on Alex, make my interest obvious since he’s never seemed to catch on."
"I don’t need your help getting his attention."
"You care what people think, it’s why you’re friendly to everyone when they don’t deserve it."
"My vagina is just fine, I assure you, and it has nothing to do with him not being attractive, because duh."