The Ideal and the Real

Isolation / The Musician

I hear Morie's phone ring again. He answers. "Tim! Why did you disappear from us like that? ... oh, okay. Uh-huh. Got it. ...cool. Bye." Then he hangs up.

Lucas stares at Morie and I with his large eyes for a few seconds. No words come out of his mouth. Emotions didn't show either.

"Both the Matthews twins said they went home already," said Morie. "They should've said something about it to us first."

"I see," replied Lucas. "Well I have to get home too. Let's go to the bus stop."

Morie stopped Lucas and I from going anywhere. "Don't you want to have a ride instead, Lucas? It's much better in my black car."

"No thanks. I have to help my family with putting the lawn chairs back in the garage. Winter's coming up."

"Oh, Bruce is making you do chores again? Just say that your friend Morie has better things to do."

Lucas turns to me. "Bruce is my dad, by the way. Excuse us, please." He turns back to Morie. "No. I don't want to get in trouble. Remember what happened to you and Cody last year? You were overspeeding on the highway at night! You guys would've been killed. Listen, Morie. I hate to get involved in your crazy activities. That's why I drifted away from you for the past six years!"

I heard Morie swear.

"And that's the other thing I don't like about you. Swearing is a big no-no."

"Oh come on, Lucas! Can we just be good friends again?"

"Well, if you weren't such a bad influence, I'll consider it. You hung out with slackers in high school, including Cody. Alright, I was sorta friends with him, but not really, and--"

"But that doesn't necessarily mean I AM one! Look, I'm here right now. I even got a scholarship! I don't have any other friends here... it's just you and I now. We need each other."

"I know. But can you go back to being the old Morie? Back when we had wholesome fun. When you loved all the messed-up drawings I've done in the past. When you kept losing in my video games. Now you're out with your slacker friends. And there was a rumour that went around high school that you started smoking."

"Whoever spread that around... well they're a whole bunch of liars. Lucas, if you don't want to chill with me tonight, then fine! I'll zip away before you know it." Morie stomped his feet out the building and stormed off.

Lucas moderately yells at him. "Doing chores is much better than doing your nonsense!"

Wow. Now I'm back to thinking that Morie is a bad person again.

Lucas put his hand on my shoulder. I started to blush a little. "Jill, I'm so sorry. I'm doing everything I can to make Morie change for the better, but it's not working. He's getting worse each year, despite the fact that he goes to school here."

I look up at him with my brown eyes. "I feel bad for you... you're losing all your friends. I lost mine too, only because they currently don't go here. It's still possible for us to keep in touch."

"So yeah..." he pauses. He speaks quieter this time. "The reason why I decided to overcome my fear of talking to new people is because I've lost two of my greatest friends in my life. I thought we could be friends forever... but I guess not. That's why I started talking to you. I'll never forget last Friday."

I blush even more. "Why thank you, Lucas..."

"You're welcome." I see his face turn red a little bit, but I'm unsure if he's blushing or not.

"If Morie is one of the friends you lost, then who's the other one? Does he go here?"

"It's... it's... Evan Lerland. I ruined one of his projects by accident... do you by any chance know him?"