For The Love Of The Game

Untitled Part 1

The year was 2016, it was the year of my 14th birthday. However this year was not like the rest. This was the year that I made the decision to accept the things that I have been told by my friend, family and even doctors. I decided to accept the fact that I was and still am depressed. After my mom left my life I started to go on a downward spiral, I started to isolate myself and would only come out of my room for food and even that didn't occur all that often. Which all would lead up to my own father going out of his way to make me social even though I truly didn't want to be.    

"Good morning Jeff." my dad said as he stormed into my room. "What do you want, just let me sleep." I mumbled into my pillow. "You know that today is the start of that support group over at church right?" "I'd love it if you'd go at least once and give it a shot." "Who knows maybe you'll enjoy quality time with others." As my dad spoke it all sounded like gibberish to me because to be quite frank I didn't care enough for what he had to say. I just wanted him to leave my room so I could drown myself in my thoughts like I always do. "Jeff...Jeff!" my dad screamed to get my attention back onto him, "did you hear what I said?" "You're going to that group whether you like it or not." I rolled my eyes and put my face back into my pillow "sure dad whatever you say." As my dad left my room time ticked slowly because all I could do was think "maybe he's right, maybe I do need to get out of my room and actually go socialize." So after about an hour I finally made the decision to get my butt out of bed and get ready for this stupid meeting. "Well, well, well, look who's awake!" Sarcastically said my sister Sarah. "Zip it midget." I would always call her that because it was one of my only come backs because she was so short but I couldn't think of anything else to call her because she was the "perfect" one of the family. I ate some lunch while waiting for my dad to get ready. It was disgusting peanut butter and jelly because we hadn't gone shopping yet so we didn't have much to eat but I was so hungry that I devoured it. Finally my dad was ready as he came into the living room. He reminded me "Jeff, no matter what happens today I want you to know I love you and I'm so proud of you for gaining the courage to go to this meeting." I wasn't one for lovey dovey stuff so I just kinda sat there and listened as he went on and on about how much he loved me then eventually I heard enough and cut him off mid sentence saying "so are we going to leave or not?" I wanted to get out of the house before it was too late and I changed my mind. So we gathered our things and got into the car and down the road we went. We basically lived in the middle of nowhere there was a farm 2 minutes down the road from my house, everyone lived close together in the small town of Woodstock and there was absolutely nothing nearby accept a couple places to get gas, a couple food places and couple stores, so in order to get to any of the "big name stores" you have to travel about 25-30 minutes. In this case the church that we attended sometimes as a family was one of those places that you have to take that long 30 minute road trip just to get to. During this car ride my dad tried to create small talk asking if I was excited for the meeting, asking if I was excited to meet new people, but I just brushed him off and ignored anything he had to say or ask because honestly one of the only reasons I was doing this was for him. Eventually we had arrived at Calvary's Love my home church, more importantly the site of this "super exciting" meeting that I was dreading. I let out an enormous sigh of annoyance and said "let's get this over with." "Have fun kiddo." Said my dad with a huge smile on his face. "Sure dad whatever you say." I slammed the door and made my way toward the church slowly, dragging my feet behind me when all of a sudden this woman with honest to God way too much energy for me came running out the door introducing herself. "Hello there buddy!" "My name is Ms. Jannis, you must be here for our support group, we're going to have so much fun today!" I looked her up and down a couple times and said back sarcastically "yeah, I bet we are." As I entered the church I was fairly embarrassed because all eyes were on me as I walked around the small circle eventually finding an open chair. I sat down, put in one ear bud and waited for this all to start. "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ms.Greene I am the leader of this organization and also will be the head of this meeting today." There were 10 of us there and all 10 of us looked up at the same time and looked at her like she had 5 heads. "Let's go around the circle and say our full names and one interesting thing you would like us to know about you." Said Ms.Greene. So we did just that Tim, Lisa, Liv, Jim all shared their information and then It was my turn. I received a look from Ms. Greene and she gave me one of those "uh hm" type coughs to signal it was my turn. "Oh, oh my I...I'm sorry I didn't realize." I said as I shakingly put my headphones away. "My name's Jeff." "Full name please." Said Ms.Greene with a smile on her face. "Jeff Miller, and something interesting?" "Well I love baseball." I said with a fake smirk on my face trying to show enthusiasm. I zoned out for a while after that until we got to the last person. I heard her speak and I had to look, she sounded like a goddess. Her voice was so soothing. "My name is Destiny Smith." Followed by "I also love baseball." This grabbed my attention because not only was she the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes upon but she also had something huge in common with me, she loved one of the only things left that truly made me happy.