Chapter 12

After the game, Coach kept his admonitions to a minimum, saying we’d talk about it tomorrow like I guessed, and sent us to get cleaned up. It was still pretty early and I’d planned for this ahead of time with Hanna and Kat, who’d been up in the stands watching. They’d ridden together and were waiting for me outside the locker room exit when I got out.

“That could have gone better,” Hanna said as we piled into the car.

“No kidding. We got in our heads and almost blew it.”

“You did okay,” Kat said. “That was a pretty good hit.”

“Yeah, except for that first at-bat, I managed to keep from embarrassing myself.”

“Your friend though, ewww, that was awful,” Kat said, scrunching up her nose.

That did not bode well for David’s chances.

“Just too much food and the nerves from how badly we were tanking the game, it kind of caught up with him. He’s really a good guy. Don’t hold it against him.”

“So what do we want to do? Marcus said some of the guys are gathering at Taco Corner,” Hanna said.

Taco Corner was a fast-food place in the little complex just off the freeway that catered to motorists looking for a pit stop more than locals, although it was also where a lot of kids went to get away from their parents on weekends too.

“No, I heard one of Harry’s friends saying they were going and I don’t want to deal with that asshat. He came into the locker room just before the game and started f•©king with everyone, getting in their heads.”

“Ohh, I wondered how y’all all ended up so nervous, since you all seemed to be ready and excited for the game before it started,” Kat said.

“I don’t get what he was thinking. These are his teammates. Why would he screw with his own guys?”

“Cause he’s an asshole,” Hanna, who had issues with all of Aaron’s friends, said. “Let’s forget about him and figure out where we’re going. Are y’all hungry?”

Kat shook her head no and I said, “How about we just go hang out at your place until we have to head home?” We don’t have all that much time since it’s a school night. Besides, that’s where Kat’s car is.”

“I should probably go home,” Kat said.

She always made sure she got home before her curfew, and the few times she’d cut it close she’d freaked out. Since then we’d made sure to always get her on the way home with enough time to keep from having a panic attack.

“No, you have plenty of time. We’ll make sure you get home in time.”

I could tell she wanted to argue, but she agreed and relaxed, which is what she did every time just gave in to whatever I told her to do. I probably should have said it was fine and go ahead and go home, since there was a good chance I was doing long term damage to her recovery every time I got her to switch from what she wanted to do, but I’d also seen how she was after she’d been at her house for a while. I was still convinced that she was being abused by her dad, or maybe someone connected to him, and that was ultimately the cause of her disorder. There had to be value in spending time away from her abuser doing normal things, although that could also just be me convincing myself I wasn’t asking her to stay because I liked her company.

We got to Hanna’s house and trooped inside, all heading to the kitchen, which was probably something hard wired into our teenage brains. Ms. Phillips must have heard the ruckus because she came from the living room as Hanna handed out sodas and started digging for snacks to take upstairs with us.

“How was the game?” she said, leaning against the door, watching us raid her kitchen.

“Not great. We won, but it was really rough at first.”

“His friend puked on the sidelines,” Kat told her.

Over Christmas, the three of us had spent enough time that Hanna’s mom had ended up on the list of people Kat was comfortable enough to talk around. It’s why I thought coming here was a good idea, since she could let her guard down and just relax for a while, since there wasn’t a chance she’d suddenly run into a stranger.

“I don’t think I need to hear about that, Katherine. You have a lot of games left this year I think. All anyone will remember is that you won by the end of the season.”

“I don’t think Coach Dean will. He was really annoyed that we were playing so bad.”

“We’re going to go hang out in my room,” Hanna said.

I actually really liked Mrs. Phillips but Hanna always acted like she was two seconds away from mortally embarrassing her.

“Okay,” she said, turning to go back to whatever she was doing when we walked in. “Remember to leave the door open.”

I guess I could understand her reasoning, being the mother of a teen daughter, but Hanna and I had never shown any kind of interest in each other that way. We’d become really close friends but it was completely platonic.

We trooped upstairs and went to where we normally sat, with me on the floor leaning against her desk while they sat on the bed.

“What’s up with the lawyer?” Hanna asked.

“Nothing yet. After he talked to Mom and got her to back down on her whole idea of just giving in, it’s been kinda quiet. He gave me his card, but since he’s doing it for free, I don’t want to keep calling and bugging him. It’s only been a week and I’m guessing it takes some time to do whatever it is he has to do to sort this mess out.”

“Are you going to have to go to court?”

“I have no idea. I hope not, because I think that makes it more expensive, and I don’t know how far this pro bono thing goes. He said that ultimately we could win and he thought the main reason Aaron’s dad was doing this was to drive up the costs on us. We didn’t talk about what happens if it really drags out and since I’m a minor he’s mostly only talking to Mom now. Considering how freaked out she got when she started looking at how much this would cost I didn’t want to put the idea in her head, since it could just send her back to the idea of giving up and declaring bankruptcy.”

“That sucks. Have you asked her about what’s happening with it?”

“Not really, mostly for the same reason. I will eventually, but I want to give it enough time that it’s worth bringing up. You have no idea how freaked out she’s been since this started. She might be doing better now but I don’t want to risk it until I have to. So what’s up with you and Marcus?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Nothing’s up. We’re still doing good, although we both know we’re just counting times until we break up and go our separate ways.”

One of the reasons it’d been so hard to get her to start dating again after the bad experiences she’d had her junior year was because she didn’t want to end up in a long-distance relationship. She’d made it clear to Marcus that she didn’t want to follow him to college and didn’t want to try making it work. Marcus, for his part, seemed okay with it. I guess he wasn’t worried, since he was probably going to end up playing ball at college, he’d have prospects. Both of them took their relationship as just having fun until they went on to the next phase of their lives.

“I know, but you’d been going to parties with him before the break. If he’s out with people tonight, why didn’t you want to go with him?”

“It wasn’t really a party. They were just blowing off steam before heading home. Sitting around the parking lot of Taco Corner watching a bunch of boys trying to one-up each other on who could be the biggest idiot wasn’t my idea of a good time. Had it been an actual party I might have gone. Besides, half the people going are assholes I didn’t want to see.”

I knew she meant Aaron and his crowd, which included the head cheerleader Karen Brooks, who she loathed. I couldn’t blame her; both of them surrounded themselves with assholes, which is why I hadn’t wanted to go either.

“So, Kat. What did you think of my friend David?”

“He was okay, although it’d be better if I didn’t have to see him throw up again.”

I just hung my head. I was trying to go to bat for the guy, but he hadn’t done himself any favors.

“I don’t think that will happen again. It was just too much food and nerves getting the best of him. What about before then, when we were out to eat?”

“Like I said, he was okay. Why?” She asked, suspicious.

I could see where her thoughts were going. When she’d dated Aaron he’d occasionally tell her to go out with one of his friends as some kind of sick reward for them. It made me nauseous just thinking about how he’d treated her, but that was over now, at least. I knew she didn’t think I’d do the same thing, but I also knew it would be hard for her to put those experiences behind her completely, and didn’t fault her concern.

“When we were walking back to school after we ate, he mentioned that he thought you were pretty great and wanted to know if you’d have any interest in going out with him.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, without hesitation.

“If not, that’s totally okay, but I wanted to at least put in a good word for him. He’s a really good guy and switched classes so I’d have a conditioning partner even though he didn’t know me that well. I thought you two might hit it off if you gave him a chance.”

“No, I don’t want to go out with anyone,” she said, her voicing pitching up like it did when she started becoming anxious.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. We hadn’t really talked about it before. I get it if he’s not your type. I just didn’t want you holding his little ... uhh ... incident at the game against him.”

“It’s not that,” Kat said, refusing to make eye contact. “I’m just not looking for a new boyfriend or anything.”

“Okay. I’ll try to let the guy down gently for you.” It made sense that Kat wouldn’t want to date anyone. It had only been a few months since she finally broke away from Aaron, but it would also be like her to try and find another way to say no, since she continued to have issues expressing her opinions, despite my reassurances. Either way, it wouldn’t help to push her anymore. Hopefully, she’d decide she was looking to date at some point and we could help her then.

The next day at practice, Coach Dean didn’t yell at us, although his review of the game did focus mostly on those first few disastrous innings. Instead, he said the best way he knew to get over a difficult game was to sweat the nerves out. I’m not sure I felt any better about what happened than I did before we started running, but I did know I didn’t want to let it happen again as I dry heaved on the side of the track.

The only other change was a noticeable increase in animosity between varsity and junior varsity. While it was our fault we let Harry get in our heads, everyone was pissed that he’d purposefully sabotage us so badly. It didn’t help that he spent a lot of the next day loudly pointing out how much worse junior varsity had done and why we didn’t deserve to play on the same team as him. He did abruptly stop by the end of the day and it was a good bet that someone, probably either Charlie Hume, the varsity captain or Coach Dean, had pulled him aside for an attitude adjustment. The damage was done though and things were a lot more tense when both teams were around each other.

I was happy when it finally hit the weekend and I could get some stage time in, putting the high school drama behind me for a little while. We were still filling up every weekend and I’d started working in more of my own music, trying to watch for audience reactions like Mr. French had said, seeing what worked and didn’t work.

We’d finished practicing on Saturday, where Dwight had given me some good ideas on the newest song I was trying to work out, when Willie pulled me aside.

“What’s up?” I asked, taking my case with me so I could pack up as we talked.

“I got a call from Eugene Russell at the Wild Cat yesterday. You remember him, right?”

“Yeah, it was the first place we played on your last tour. The two-story place that curves around the stage.”

After the Blue Ridge, it was the best place I’d played and the Blue Ridge only won out because it’s where I started and it felt like home to me. As an actual venue, it was much better set up for music than the Blue Ridge, with a much larger stage and more room for an audience, all of whom could see the stage simultaneously.

“That’s it. The guys he booked next weekend had to pull out and he’s having trouble fillin’ the spot. He called me to see if I could do it, but I just haven’t been feelin’ too well and ain’t up to travelin’ right now, but I had another idea.”

“Are you okay?”

Willie had been dragging the last few weekends. I’d asked him about it last weekend and he said he was just tired, but if he was turning down gigs I started to think it might be a sign that something more was wrong. Willie was seventy and had been the one to really get me from just playing music as a hobby to thinking it could be something I could do as an actual career and the idea of losing him made me really anxious.

“I’m just getting up there in years and I’m a little tired. I can’t keep up the pace I did when I was a young man, ya know. I’m not sure how many more years of this I have, but here at least I can go home and rest without much trouble.”

“Don’t say that, Willie. You’re going to outlive us all.”

“Ha, the confidence of youth. You don’t need to start countin’ me out yet, but I’m not up to travelin’ ‘cept for the one time a year. He knows that, which says how desperate he is that he called me.”

“I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to find a band that wants to play a gig.”

“It’s not, but Eugene’s particular. He prefers acts he knows can deliver for most nights, which is why he gets such good crowds, ‘cause they know they’ll see a good show no matter when they go. The only time he tries out new acts is on his open mic nights, which he lets people know are comin’, so they know what they’re getting into.”