Chapter 4:

A Strong Friendship

The Smile


A couple of days have passed since that incident, and things have gone as one would expect. Duet practices have been awkward due to the fact I try to say as little as possible. I know I am supposed to be helping her out, but I don’t know if I’m good enough to.

Now since it's the weekend, I have some time to really think about the situation I am in. As I sit down to start looking at the sheet music, I get a text from Nik and Troy. It reads ‘Hey guys the game is at 3:00 pm today. Better show up or I swear I will make you regret it.’ As I continue reading I see Nik’s text ‘Alright Mark, I’ll come pick you up at 1:30’ I choose not to respond hoping they don’t make me go. I put my phone down and get back to working on the duet. It is the only thing that can keep me from dwelling on what that kid said. After a couple of hours of practicing the changes I’ve made.

I finally take time to look at my phone, and notice all the missed calls from Nik. As I send him a text apologizing, I realize that I need a shower because he is coming to pick me up anyway. I head into the shower and prepare to get ready.

When I get dressed I hear my phone ring. It was Nik, he had called me to tell me he was outside and was waiting for me. I walk out of the house and head out to his car. When I get in, he lets me know that we were going to the store to pick up some snacks. Halfway to the store Nik asks “What the hell’s been up with you recently. After you left early, you’ve acted like a shut in. Something must have happened for you to close off again.” Silence started to fill the air and Nik urges me again. “You’re just gonna drive her away. You need to talk to her more.”

“Man, for once can’t you mind your own business. I just realized that Valerie is way too good to be around me. Why the hell does she even want me to duet with her? I’m just gonna bring her down. I won’t be able to help her win.”

“Dude what are you talking about? You don’t think you’d be good enough to play with Valerie? Why do you think she asked YOU to play with her in the first place? Stop thinking that you are some parasyte in the world.” As we pull into the parking lot, Nik asks one more question “What made you even start thinking about this? Did someone tell you that?”

“Someone did say it, but they were only telling the truth. Look at her and look at me, why would a girl like that seriously spend her time with a guy like me. I swear man, this isn’t the first time I’ve told you this. I can’t keep lying to myself.” Saying this made me feel super uneasy. “Let’s just go get our snacks and head to the game.” We head into the store not saying anything and go buy our snacks. On our way to check out, Nik grabs me and tells me “Listen man the only opinion about you that matters is Valerie’s. Not some random dude at school, and not even yours. Keep that in mind.” Saying this while putting his groceries on the conveyor belt.

Hearing that made me want to know how Valerie really felt. Faking a smile, I tell Nik that he was right. After we pay for our food, we head off to go to the baseball game. We get there a little after the bottom of the 1st inning. We find our seats just in time to watch Troy pitch. Troy is able to retire the side in order, so Nik and I get extremely excited to see what type of game he will have. Around the 5th inning is the time the other team was able to get their first hit. Their player hit a double off Troy. The next batter up was walked. Luckily, Troy was able to get the next batter to hit a double play. Furious with himself, he started cursing himself coming off the mound. When it is time for Troy to hit, we notice that someone else was taking his turn at bat. Out of confusion, we both look at the bullpen and see that they were warming someone else up. Realizing that Troy had been pulled, Nik and I head out to say bye to Troy. When we get close to the bullpen we see him arguing with his coach about wanting to go back out to pitch again. Seeing this we decide to just leave and text him later.

“Damn. I can’t believe he’s arguing with his coach. That’s gonna cost him some playing time and some sprints.” I say jokingly.

“Yea probably, Hey you used to play baseball right Mark? From what Troy said you used to be really good. Why’d you quit?” Nik asks.

“Well I used to play until highschool. I was told that I had to choose between music or baseball. I obviously chose music, because I feel that I was happier playing music than baseball.” I say confidently.

Nik continues questioning me “Do you ever regret it? Or miss it?”

“Of course I do. I’ve played baseball since I was 4. It was unfortunate that they gave me that choice. Especially since the team isn’t really championship material. Troy pitched a great game, yet they didn’t score any runs for him.” I stop talking as I realize there are some people close by who’d get offended if they heard me. “But if I ever got the chance to sub in a game, I would.”

We leave the ballpark and go home.

“Alright man, I’ll see you monday, and remember what I said, all that matters is how Valerie feels about you. No one else’s opinion matters.” Nik drives off, and I wave bye.

After I get home, I start going over the sheet music again, to make sure that I understand everything that I need to. Once I get done with everything I am exhausted and head to bed.

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The next day I text the group chat with Nik and Troy seeing if we wanted to hang out later. After making plans for the day I get a text from Valerie reading ‘Do you think we can practice later today? I’ll send you my address and you can bring your instrument over.’ Without thinking I texted her back ‘I am sorry, but I have already made plans with Nik and Troy today.’ Knowing that I could’ve canceled I was upset with myself, and received a text saying ‘It’s okay, maybe some other time.’ I decide to take a shower while I wait for Nik to show up, as I get dressed I hear my phone ring, it was Troy to tell me that they were here.

When I get into the car we argue what we would do first. Before we decide on anything Troy turns around to say “Go grab your mitts. One Catcher and your 3rd base glove, I wanna play catch today.” Running back inside I grabbed both my baseball gloves and head out. When I was running through the house I hear my mom yell at me “Woah! This is the first time you’ve pulled your glove out in a while. Make sure you stretch before throwing.”

Deciding on grabbing water and sports drinks, we head to the grocery store. Once we finish up there we continue on our way to the park. While we stretch out our arms Troy makes sure to laugh and tell me “Just because you haven’t caught for me in a while, doesn’t mean that I am gonna go easy on you. I will only give you 5 warm up pitches, then it will be 100 percent.”

“I doubt you can even throw 100 percent today after yesterday. Seeing as how you struggled in the 5th inning. You even got pulled.” I said laughing.

“Yea that was stupid. I could have gone way longer. He really pulled me early because I started swearing. Our coach hates us swearing, he says it ruins our character. So he took me out early to ‘teach me a lesson.’ What a lesson to learn too. Take me out, and we lost the game.” Troy said as he sounded frustrated.

Nik interjects “Wait you guys lost that game? You didn’t give up one run.”

“Yea we lost. The guy who pitched after me gave up 3 runs, and we couldn’t even score one run. Our team hardly has any one that is consistently a run producer, and it’s so frustrating.” Troy pauses then looks at me and tells me “I really wish you didn’t quit man. We could easily carry this team to a championship.”

Trying to find my words, all that I can manage to say is “I would have never quit if they never gave me that ultimatum. I wanted to continue playing baseball too, but we both know I wouldn’t give up music for anything.” Without trying to sound like an idiot I finish this talk with “If you guys ever need a substitution for a game. I’d be happy to fill in.”

When we finish our warmups, Troy goes to the mound, as I Head behind home plate. After a few warmup pitches, Troy starts to pitch as if he would in a real game. Nik, looking bored at first base, gets shocked, because of the quick throw I threw to him.

“Holy Mark, maybe next time a little heads up would be nice.”

“Can’t be caught looking Nik. Stop kicking daisies. This is how it is like in actual games.”

Troy and I keep laughing while Nik looks annoyed.

“Alright Troy, that’s about all my legs can handle right now. Trying to stay in that squat after a long time is killing me.”

“Ok we can just long toss it now, Nik go over there we are just gonna play normal catch now.”

Once we all choose our spots, we start playing catch.

“So Mark, how’s it going with Valerie?” Troy asks.

“Well after we made plans today, she asked me if I wanted to go over to her house and practice. I told her I couldn’t because we’ve already made plans.”

“Are you an idiot?!” An outburst from both Nik and Troy happens. “Dude we would’ve canceled. You honestly turned down going to her house to play baseball.” They continue laughing at me.

“Oh ok from now on I will choose her over you guys. Don’t worry, I won’t ever make that mistake again.”

When we left the park I look at my phone and see a few missed texts from Valerie.

“Oh, she still giving you an opportunity to come over?” Troy begins taunting me. “What are you gonna tell her? No, because you are still with us?” This causes Nik to laugh.

“No you idiots. She’s just asking for help on a few things. Asking what notes have I made on my sheet music. I can’t help her right now though. I don’t have my damn music with me. I’ll just tell her I’ll help when I’m home.”

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As the night winds down, I remember to send Valerie my music sheet. I try to also explain to her why I marked what I did. While texting her the thought occurred to me that the performance is this week. The time seemed to have slipped away from me. I put my headphones on and listen to the recording once again. Making sure I can memorize how both parts sounded.

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When me and Valerie meet up for our practice she acknowledges the way I have been acting. “So you seem to be feeling better. Did you guys manage to fix your emergency?”

“Yea, it lasted a little longer than we expected, but we did manage to fix it.” As I fake a smile and take out my instrument.

“Well I’m glad. For a moment I thought I had done something to bother you. I was really worried I was gonna lose my duet partner because I wasn’t good enough.” Valerie says while looking down.

In shock I reassure her that “I will never quit on you, you are my duet partner too. Don’t forget that. There is no way anyone can replace you. Anyways let’s get to practice. It is time we start putting what we have together.”

Crispy
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