The Golden Couple

Chap. 13

"I'm getting released tomorrow," Bryce informed him.

"Like from the hospital?" Tyrone asked, his eyes wide. "Dude, you just had brain surgery a couple of days ago."

Clayton reached over and high-fived Bryce.

"I'll take a high-five from him," Bryce said to me.

"What?" Clayton asked.

"You're so needy today," I said, laughing.

The guys stayed for about an hour, talking and laughing with Bryce.

"How's he doing?" Bryce asked Clayton.

"How's who doing?" Clayton asked.

"The new pitcher?"

"You talking about Sam?"

"Yeah."

"So now you're too good to say his name?"

"Just tell me how he's doing."

Clayton exchanged glances with some of the guys. "You win some you lose some I guess."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means that we suck dude, we fucking suck," Kyle piped up.

Bryce let out a sigh, clearly upset by the news.

"Sam just needs some fine tuning," Clayton reasoned. "We'll get there."

"How bad is it?" Bryce asked.

"We haven't won a game since you left," Kyle informed him.

Even I felt that blow.

"What happened to you win and you lose?" Bryce asked Clayton.

"We just haven't made it to the winning part yet," Clayton defended.

Bryce made brief eye contact with his mom, and she nodded.

"Alright boys," she announced. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to kick you out now."

Each one of the boys came over and said their goodbyes to Bryce, Clayton lingering as they all left.

"So are you in speech therapy then?" Clayton asked Bryce, once all of the boys cleared out.

"What?" Bryce asked him.

"You avoided Sam's name," Clayton pointed out. "And it's you win some you lose some, not you win and you lose. Plus the word glasses sort of gave you away."

"Damn," Bryce muttered.

"So what is it exactly?"

"It's anything that starts with the letter S," I informed Clayton.

"So she gets to know," Clayton filled in.

Bryce opened his mouth to say something and struggled with the word for a few moments before closing his mouth again, quiet for a couple of seconds. "They've been here."

Clayton was silent for a moment. "Fair enough."

Both boys were silent for a moment, and I felt like I was intruding on a personal argument, so I looked over at Kayla, who was playing a game on her iPad, also clearly trying to keep out of Bryce and Clayton's argument.

After a few moments I looked back at Clayton and Bryce, who were still watching each other in silence.

And then Clayton reached out his hand, and Bryce grasped it, and they did their bro handshake.

"Discharged tomorrow morning?" Clayton asked him.

"9 AM," Bryce informed him.

"See you then," Clayton said, with a smile before leaving.