Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (33 page)

“I thought you were exaggerating. I didn’t think it was true.” Patrick laughed.

“I tried to warn you!” I put the ball down in the ball return. “I’ll just sit and cheer you guys on. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“No, come on. You only tried once. Try again. You’ll get better.”

Jason was supportive as well. “Yeah, you know we’ll all help you. And stay ten feet back.”

I eyed each one of them and cracked a smile. “Okay. Just know that you are entering a hard hat zone and you must enter at your own risk.”

Patrick picked up the ball and placed it in my hands. “We’ll stand clear.”

I went back to the spot they told me to stand at. I could hear them behind me, giving me reminders. Now they weren’t so concerned with the timing of my arm swing and steps. They kept telling me to hold onto the ball. I tried to keep in mind all three. I really focused on the holding the ball part.

I took a deep breath. Don’t drop the ball, don’t drop the ball. I took a step forward. Don’t drop the ball, hold onto the ball. I pushed my arm forward and let it swing back. Hold onto the ball. Don’t drop the ball. I took another couple steps and my arms swung forward. I held onto the ball! Wait, when was I supposed to let go of it?

I heard the guys behind me shout to let go. When I let go, I almost fell face first onto the lane. Thunk! This time the ball fell in front of me. That was progress. Luckily, I caught myself before taking the header to the floor. I watched the ball roll diagonally down the lane. It lost most of its little momentum by the time it got to the pins. I knocked down three pins in the left corner. I was so happy to hit something.

The guys cheered as I turned around and walked back to them. I think the others around us thought they were nuts. Cheering for a person who hit just three pins? I’m sure it wasn’t pretty to watch either. That’s okay. I didn’t hurt anyone and I hit some pins. Baby steps. It was the second part of my turn. I tried again. This time I didn’t wait as long to let go of the ball. It went down the lane a little faster. That was good. I hit four pins this time. I was proud of myself.

Emily, Cassie and Tony returned with fries, hot dogs, chicken fingers, nachos and soda. Bobby entered in everyone’s name into the score card machine. On one lane, it was Cassie, Jason, Tony and Bobby. The other lane was me, Patrick, Emily, and Kraig.

The hours flew by so fast. I was having so much fun. I wasn’t good at bowling, but the crew made it okay. The guys kept trying to give me pointers, reminding me of different little things. I tried. I really did. I think they knew that. I loved laughing with people, more specifically, with the crew. I never felt like they were laughing at me, even when my ball went into the gutter, it thumped onto the lane or I dropped it in mid-swing. We all laughed together.

Patrick drove me home from bowling. “You sure you don’t want to hang out with Kraig or Tony?”

Emily, Bobby, Cassie and Jason had other plans. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“I don’t want to leave you by yourself on your first night alone.”

“I know, it’s fine.” I knew he had better things to do. I don’t think he heard me.

He was racked with guilt. “But it’s a debutante ball for Becca’s cousin.”

“I told you. I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Besides find out how many different pills I could OD on?” I teased him. His eyes became intense and bore through me. Yeah, he didn’t think it was funny. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding! Seriously, it was just a joke.”

He stared at me, glancing at the road just enough to drive. “Liz…”

I smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. Bad joke.”

“Yeah. Don’t joke about that.” He was serious. His attention returned to driving. I think I scared him. I didn’t mean to.

“Okay, I won’t.” I think he was trying to think of ways of getting out of going to the debutante ball. I tried to reassure him. “Remember, my promise?”

He nodded and glanced over at me. “I’m holding you to it.”

“I know. So am I.” I admitted.

“So really, what are you going to do tonight?”

“Practice.” I smiled. I was grateful that he let me start over. “I’ll turn up the volume and sing. I’m actually looking forward to it. So, you need to go have fun tonight and not worry about me.”

“Yeah, fun. Tuxes, suits and a bunch of people I don’t really know. Can’t wait.” Could he be anymore sarcastic?

“Look at it this way. You’ll get to spend the evening with Becca.”

“True. She loves things like this.” There was something about his smile that was distant. Like he was trying to hide how he felt.

“Then you guys have fun. You guys deserve a fun night together.” While I agreed with his sister and didn’t quite get what he saw in her, if she made him happy and he loved her, then that’s all that mattered to me.

When we got to my place, we grabbed our backpacks and he followed me in. Even though it would still be at least an hour before it would get dark, I went through the house and turned on the lights in the living room, kitchen and family room. Patrick asked to use the bathroom. I showed him where it was and went to my bedroom to turn on the lights and television. I grabbed my speakers and went to the family room to get my mp3 player out of my backpack and hook them up.

Patrick returned to the family room, put down his backpack and sat down on the couch. There was something weird about the way he put down his backpack. I swear it sounded weird. He picked up my mp3 player and scrolled through the playlists.

“So, you’re just going to practice tonight?” He avoided any eye contact and kept messing with my player.

“Pretty much. Probably watch TV later.” Why was he acting weird?

He nodded. “Okay. Hey, sing this for me.”

He picked a song. It was an upbeat, hopeful song. I knew it. It was a duet. I guess I was just going to do the female part. I sang along with the song. Now, I couldn’t look at him, but I could feel him watching me.

When I was done with the song, I turned to look at him. “What?!”

“What? Nothing.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I just wanted to hear your version of the song.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “You’re up to something.”

He glanced down at his backpack. “Kinda. I worry. Can’t help it.”

“I know.” I was lucky to have him as a friend. I wanted to convince him that I would be okay. “What I can I do or say? I want you to have fun tonight with Becca.”

“Nothing, I guess. Just remember, you can call me whenever.”

“I know. Now, go home and get ready for the party.” I shoved him off the couch. Okay, I tried to. He swayed a little, but didn’t really move.

“Okay, I get the hint.” He laughed. “I’ll talk to you later. Be good.”

“Yeah. Yeah. While, we’re issuing orders. Have fun.” I smiled.

21. VERDICT

The rest of the weekend passed rather uneventful. I didn’t mind at all. No drama, no avoiding my parents. I had the house and my life to myself. I practiced… a lot, because I could. That made me feel good. I worked on homework and projects, although I was in no rush to get ahead on my school work, since I didn’t really have to clear my schedule for anything. But since I really didn’t have anything else to do, it seemed silly to procrastinate.

Patrick had suggested that we carpool this week to school. I didn’t mind. It saved me gas. More importantly, I wouldn’t be driving alone. By the morning, I was ready to have someone to talk to with and not be by myself. I think he knew that, which is why he offered.

It was a short school week because of the two days we got off for Thanksgiving. Most of my classes assigned some sort of homework packet over break and had quizzes and tests this week. I had so much to get done all of a sudden that I put what I was going to do on Thursday out of my mind. No sense wasting my brain cells on that now, when I had three tests on Tuesday and two quizzes on Wednesday. You got to love how teachers want to squeeze in these things right before any sort of vacation. Doesn’t this just mean that they have that stuff to grade over break? Why do they want to do that to themselves? Whatever.

During the middle of math class, while we were working on group challenge problems, my cell phone rang. Out loud. I frantically reached in my backpack to get it to stop ringing. The other students fake coughed to supposedly cover up the noise. It never did. That always just made it seem more obvious.

Ms. Adams stopped helping one group and her voice rose over the classroom noise. “Now, I know I didn’t hear what I just thought I heard. Cell phones shouldn’t be heard or seen in class. Next time it’s mine.”

“Sorry. I didn’t realize I had it on.” I told her. She nodded and went back to what she was doing. It was my first offense. No one ever called me before. Now, only Patrick or the crew would and they were all in class.

Who would be calling me now? During school? I slyly took out my phone to check the missed call and switch it to vibrate mode. Patrick curiously looked at me. I wasn’t sure of the phone number, but I recognized the area code. I felt like my heart stopped and all the blood ran from my face. If I could turn as white as a sheet, I would have.

Patrick read my face. Well, the lack of any expression on my face and knew that something had to be up. “What is it?”

I turned and looked at him. I could feel the tears ready to explode from my eyes at any moment, but I had to remain calm. “
San Francisco
.”

The phone buzzed in my hand and I nearly jumped out of my seat. The phone leapt from my hand and landed on my backpack. I looked around and thankfully, Ms. Adams wasn’t looking in this direction. She didn’t see that I had my phone out and didn’t hear it land. The voice mail indicator came on. I guess whoever it was left me a message. I couldn’t check it now. Ms. Adams would definitely confiscate my phone if I did that.

Once I was outside the classroom, I checked my voicemail. Patrick walked me to my next class. I could feel his gaze was intently on me. I could see the blur of the other students going to their classes, but the world stood still for me. It was the prosecutor on my case.

“She just said to call her back.” I wrote down the number, even though I knew I had it in my notebook already. There was no time now to do it, with just a few minutes before my next class started. I looked at him with terror. “I guess, I’ll have to call her after school.”

“Hey,” He gently shook my shoulder to get my attention. “You don’t have to do it alone. I can meet you before practice. Mr. D’s room?”

I bit my lip and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“Hang in there. Try not to think about it too much in class.” He gave me a quick hug and hurried off to his next class.

I walked into my history class and tried to put it out of my mind. The reminder of a test tomorrow snapped me back into my present reality. I shut the rest of the world out and focused on the review. History wasn’t my strongest subject and I needed every neuron focused on it or I wouldn’t do well on the test. It wasn’t until the bell rang and I walked outside that I snapped out of my history trance and remembered what I had to do next.

The walk to Mr. D’s room seemed to take forever and instantaneous at the same time. How could that be? When I got there, Patrick was already waiting for me. We walked to the back of the classroom and leaned up against the lab counters.

I shook my head. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Yes, you can. I know you can.” He reassured me.

“What if it’s bad news? I’ve gotten this far not knowing and being in limbo. Knowing he’s free…” The thought of it made me sick. Physically sick.