Just Friends

The next few days flew by. The Kings left without a sad goodbye, since we would see them in roughly a week. After that, we were headed off to rehearse for Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve. With Miley. Things were pretty awkward between us, even when we performed. The remainder of the tour was hard on me, having to watch Miley perform while looking gorgeous and beyond happy without me. But Liz was right, neither of us should have to sacrifice our beliefs any longer.

Back in Jersey, Miley was still all I could think about. Joe tried to break me out of my funk by trying to drag me out to places. Kevin kept giving me advice on how to get past the heartbreak. However, the first time I really felt solace was the Friday afternoon spent in Liz's room, when she let me mess around on my guitar while she did homework before her parents got home from work. I wrote the song "Sorry" for Miley, just two weeks after our breakup.

"Be more depressing, would ya?" Liz commented as she spun around in her desk chair.

"I'm allowed to be upset. I just got out of a two year-"

"I KNOW! Nick, believe me, I know you're upset. However, it was your choice to end it. Either call her and try to make up, or try to move on. You can't live like this."

"Now who's bring dramatic? It's only been two weeks!" I defended.

"Yes, but we both know that I don't handle unhappy Ick very well."

"That's true. Unhappy me does bring out a weird side of you..." I cracked a smile at my joke.

"Fuck you. You're on your own." She rolled her eyes and turned back to her book.
"No, no, no. Help me. I'm broken," I pouted.
"When you stop being so melodramatic, holla at me. Until then, I have shit to do."
While she read The Scarlet Letter, I messed around on her laptop. I checked our MySpace, then read through some YouTube comments. Of course, that got me to watch a ton of videos. Before I knew it, I was watching videos from tour, then videos of Miley.

"Finally!" Liz exclaimed, "This book is wasted on the youth of today." I kind of brushed her off, so she walked towards me and looked at the computer. "Really? C'mon. We need to get out of here."

She took us to this trail we used to ride bikes on as kids. If it hadn't started raining, I wouldn't have minded standing outside. The rain was only a light drizzle, and there was no wind. It was just after five at night, but the clouded sky made it seem darker. She picked up a handful of snow, and threw it at a tree.

"Why are we here?" I asked, trying to move around to avoid frostbite.

"We are here to release our emotions. I need to get out this frustration from that damned book, and you need to let out whatever it is you're harboring towards yourself and the break up. So, take some slush and toss it as far as you can."

"I don't see how this will help us achieve anything other than pneumonia."

"Just throw the damn snow before it's even more mushy." I picked up a handful of slushy snow and tossed it, "With feeling, dude! Use some of that testosterone."

I flung the next handful even farther.

"Yeah! Doesn't that feel good?"

"Kind of." I shrugged, and kept tossing snow.
Liz was doing the same, but she worked in her pitcher's stances from softball and started mumbling things before tossing each snowball.

With each shot, each explosion of white snow against the dark bark of a tree, I started feeling better.

"My hand is numb," I stated after awhile to break the silence.

"That just makes it better," She said before letting out a loud groan as she threw her farthest ball.

"Nice shot, but I bet I can beat ya."

"Not with that sissy technique."

She was right. I got into proper form and grunted as I hurled the handful of snow across the empty field we were facing. This continued until a little after dark and both our phones went off. Our families were going out to dinner and we needed to get ready.

"I'm going to kill you if I get deathly ill because of this."

"That's ironic. You'll be fine, though, I do this all the time."

"Why?"

"This winter has been tough with school and the transition between field hockey and softball. I've been getting more B's lately and, just, ugh. I need to get my shit together."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about this?"

"You've been more than halfway across the country for awhile. I didn't wanna bother you."

"Liz, you're never a bother."

"I only have stupid girl problems."

"Stop being an idiot and let's walk home."

She sighed while tucking her hands into her pockets before heading back down the rubble path.

I caught up to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as we crossed the street and headed up the hill. Our breaths were coming out in little white puffs, reminding me of how we pretended to be dragons for a whole winter.

When we reached her porch, she removed my arm from her shoulders, and attempted to go inside without a goodbye.

"Woah, what do you think you're doing?"

"I'll see you in like a half hour!"

"I don't care; I need to ask you something."

"What?"

"Was that whole snowball thing to cheer me up, or was it to cheer yourself up?"

"Is both an answer?"

"Are you going to tell me more about what you're going through, or do I have to keep pulling teeth?" I rested my arm on the railing of her steps.

She wrapped her hand around the doorknob and answered, "Look, we both have things we need to deal with-"

"Yes, but you can't try to solve my issues and not let me even try to help you. It's just not fair."

"Nothing about life is fair, Nicholas."

"What the fuck? Since when are you so serious?"

"Can I go get ready, or not?"

"Sure, yea, go." I turned around and started walking towards my house and heard her door slam a moment later.

-0-

Dinner with the Kings went just as I had expected: the same as every other dinner with them. Our parents talked, Kevin was in his own world (talking to Danielle this time, rather than his phone), Frankie was bugging my Mom, and I was left to talk to Joe and Liz. The only problem being that Liz's previous behavior was bugging me. Any time I would even begin to bring it up, she would shoot me down. At one point, she rolled her eyes and excused herself to the bathroom.

"Bro, just let it slide. She'll tell you at some point," Joe said quietly. Though I wished he had stayed out of it, I nodded, and when Liz returned, I asked her about other things.

Our parents weren't satisfied saying goodbye at dinner, so the Kings came back to our house for dessert and wine. Kevin, however, had left to take Danielle back to her house. That left Joe, Frankie, Liz, and I to entertain ourselves, so we decided to play baseball on the Wii.

"Yes! Another freaking home run!" Frankie cheered, pointing at me and laughing. He high-fived Liz before she took her turn at bat. I pitched to her and she got a double out of it. Before I knew it, they won again.

"Nick you suck," Joe said angrily, plopping down onto the couch. "And Frankie, you've kicked my butt too many times tonight. You're going to bed."

"No!" He protested, tossing the Wii remote and running around the room.

"Yea ya are. C'mon," Joe said, tripping Frankie into this lap. He tossed him over his shoulder, told him to say goodnight, and disappeared up the stairs.

In the meantime time, Liz had managed to change baseball to tennis. We began playing in silence. Eventually, I grew impatient again.

"Can you just tell me what's going on?" I asked, pausing the game. She restarted the game while shaking her head. "Why not?"

"I would prefer to keep it to myself. It's something I need to take care of alone."

"But why? Life isn't meant to be lived alone. Don't cut yourself off from others to try and deal with something that other people can help you with."

"Deep," She muttered, rolling her eyes.

"I'm serious. What is it? Are you flunking out of school? Doing drugs? Pregnant?"

"No, none of those!" She hissed, pausing the game, "Why are you being so pushy about this?"

"Because, Liz, I can tell you're hurting over this. Just let me help, even if that just means listening."

"Fine," she took a deep breath before continuing, "There's a new kid who's being bullied. I've seen it happen more than once, but I've done nothing! I feel like such an ass. But what am I supposed to do? If I say something, then maybe someone will do something to me. Or, maybe he gets beat up worse!"

"Is this what's been bothering you?" She nodded. "Damn, that's rough. You can't keep this to yourself, though. He needs help-"

"That's it? You don't think I'm a horrible person?" She interjected.

"No," I moved to sit next to her on the couch, as she was now resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. I rested a hand on her shoulder, "Stand up to them. Maybe if they know someone saw them, they'll stop so they don't get in trouble. If that doesn't work, then tell someone right away."

"Easier said than done," She rolled her eyes, sitting back up and starting the game up again. She scored on me, but I wasn't going down without a fight.

"You'll manage. Please don't beat yourself up over this. This kid will be okay," I stated, swinging my remote from my comfortable position on the couch."

"We'll see..."

"What else is going on with you lately?" I asked, now happy that I had won the game.

"I've told you," She stated, pursing her lips.

"Apparently not! Dude, if we're gonna stay close after this move, we actually have to communicate. Our friendship won't survive if we don't talk."

"You're annoying when right, you know."

"I know! But that's why I think you should promise me that we'll stay in touch. If you keep up with the shitty way that we have been, I'll be even more annoying! Or, we can actually make time to keep this friendship alive. I can't lose my best friend, Liz," I pleased

She let out a long sigh, "I promise. If you want, we can start right now," I nodded to give her the go-ahead, "Well, Jules isn't playing softball this year so that's going to be weird. I'm not even sure if I'll make captain now that I've decided to run for class treasurer, too. And there's this really cute boy in my bio class-he's actually my lab partner-but I doubt he thinks about me this way. And-"

"Woah, woah, woah...slow down! See! You've told me nothing recently. Explain." So, she did. Hours passed by as we both filled each other in about our lives. At one point, her parents left, but she stayed behind. She could have gone home at any point, because her house was on the street behind ours, but she didn't. Instead, she changed into some pajamas that she kept at our house, and we set up the game room so that she could stay the night. We each laid in our own sleeping bags while we watched Transformers before eventually falling asleep, like we had dozens of times before.