The Middle - Volume Three ✔️

Chapter 47 (Patrick)

“Dude, calm down, you’re jumping to conclusions.” Joel tries to reason with him.

“Am I?” Jay turns on Joel. “Last I checked, we need a fucking drummer. We can’t play Open Mic Nights without the fucking drummer, and he is the fucking drummer! I can put two and two together and come up with four, Joel, can’t you?!"

“Yes, Jay. But would you relax? Patrick hasn’t said he wants to give up on the Grill for good. It’s probably just a temporary thing, right, Patrick?” Joel looks at me, his eyes pleading with me. He knows exactly why I’m doing this.

“Yeah, it is. It’s just until the end of this semester.” I explain.

“The entire semester? So you’re gonna be out of fucking action until the end of April!?” Jay shouts at me, nodding his head repeatedly.

“Yes. It’s not the end of the world, Jay. We’ve always said we don’t wanna get signed for at least another couple of years anyway. This is only for a few months.” I’m trying not to lose my patience with him. I knew this is how he would react to this news. And I’m trying not to look at Jamie, who hasn’t said a word since I got here.

“Sure, it’s a few months now. But what happens after April when you decide you wanna become a fucking teacher like Shaun fucking Campbell, huh? We all promised we would never do this. You’re bailing on us!”

“Jay, he isn’t –“ Joel starts, but Jay shouts over the top of him.

“Did you know about this!?” He accuses Joel.

“No, I didn’t, but I think you’re overreacting.” Joel reasons.

“I’m fucking not! He’s been acting weird all week, and you fucking know it!” Jay shouts at Joel. Oh, so they've been talking about me. “You missed the little tantrum he had with his drum kit downstairs earlier this week. I’ve known something was up with you since then, I’m not a fucking idiot, Patrick!” He turns on me again.

“There's nothing up with me, I just wanna do something different for a bit.”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I know I’ve said the wrong thing.

“I knew it!” He shouts, throwing his hands up in front of him. “You are bailing on us!”

“Jay, I’m not. That came out wrong. Listen to me, this isn’t a big deal. I won’t be around so much, and I won’t play at the Grill. But you guys can play acoustic sets without me. And you can write without me too if you want to. Nothings gonna change that much.”

“Yeah, nothings gonna change, except our songs won’t have any fucking percussion.” He rubs his face with both his hands.

I look over at Joel. He’s frowning and looking down. I don’t look directly at Jamie, but she hasn’t moved a muscle since I came in. I have no idea what she’s thinking, you know, for a change.

“Jay, come on. We spend almost every day together, and you know I love that. This is just a few months of me not being around so much. That’s all. Everything will go back to normal in the summer, I promise.”

“Whatever.” He growls, getting to his feet. “I'm going for a smoke.”

He pulls his cigarettes out of his pocket violently, shoves one behind his ear and tosses the pack down on to the coffee table. I sigh, this is going exactly how I thought it would. I just hope he’ll cool off after a day or two.

“And why the hell haven’t you said anything?” He’s scowling at Jamie now.

“What is there for me to say? If this is what he wants to do, fine.” She sounds so unphased. Maybe she’s glad I won’t be around.