Chapter Twenty

Vince's Other Best Friend

"Vince! Are you letting me win?" Spinelli demanded to know as her and Vince were playing a quick game of basketball. So far it seemed as if Spinelli was winning, but Vince did not seem to be totally into the game either.

"Huh?" Vince asked, as if coming out of a daze. Spinelli threw the ball at him.

"Okay, fine, no basketball, tell me what's up with you lately," Spinelli demanded to know, going to sit on a picnic table nearby as Vince followed her.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, a little confused.

"You are acting all anti-gay or whatever towards Mikey," Spinelli said, straight-forward.

"I am not!" Vince defended, "I am not homophobic or whatever you guys are thinking. Besides, since when do I have to tell you anything?"

Before Spinelli could say anything more, Vince got up off the table and walked away.

---

"I'm telling you, he bit my head off just for asking," Spinelli told TJ later as she talked to him on the phone, "he seemed really touchy about the subject."

"Maybe its time to bring somebody in that knows Vince better than we do," TJ grimly said.

"Who knows Vince better than we do?" Spinelli asked, a little confused, "I mean, you're his best friend."

"But I was his best friend in grade school, and some more recently," TJ reminded her, "maybe its time to bring in his other best friend."

"Lawson?" Spinelli asked, her voice filled with disgust, "that guys as much of a jerk now as he was in grade school Teej."

"But Vince doesn't think so," TJ quietly pointed out to her.

---

"LaSalle!" the coach yelled at him, "what do you think you are doing? I thought you worked all of your personal problems out?"

"Sorry sir," Vince muttered, taking a seat on the bench and burying his head in his hands, "just a little stressed sir."

"Just a little stressed?" the coach ranted, "Maybe you should be stressed out about the fact that if we don't win this game tonight then we'll never win the state championship."

Vince sighed. Of course, the whole basketball team going to the state championship rested on him. Sure, the others were good and it did take teamwork, but Vince was their star player. And he had to get his act together. He couldn't disappoint his team, the coach, and himself.

---

After the game, his team winning, Vince sat on a bench outside of the gymnasium. He was waiting for his friends and when he looked up he saw Lawson standing uncomfortably by the bench.

"Lawson?" he asked, surprised.

"So, you'll never guess who called me to say that Vince needed someone to talk to," Lawson uncomfortably said as he took a seat next to Vince.

"Teej?" Vince muttered.

"Yeah, I didn't even know the dude was back in town," Lawson grinned, "and I tried to tell him you and I have never had a serious conversation in our years of being best friends, but you have to admit, the dude is pretty persistent."

"True," Vince smiled, "so, you going to have a serious conversation with me?"

"Sure," Lawson shrugged, "you've changed a lot since last year. I mean, you used to not care about anyone but yourself."

"And you tried to not show it, but you cared about everybody," Vince rolled his eyes at his best friend, "who would have thought you would have turned out to be the nicer of the two of us?"

"Hey, I've always been nice to certain people," Lawson protested, "but, here you are trying to upstage me on the nice basketball person scale."

"I don't think that's possible," Vince seriously said, looking away, "I really don't think it was."

"Oh come on," Lawson urged him, "you are totally going soft. I mean, we used to party hardy and you hated your old friends. That was the reason I first became friends with you, you know, because you started resenting your old friends and I loved it."

"Yeah, but if you knew what a horrible person I was, then you wouldn't want to be my friend now," Vince softly told him.

"Unless you killed somebody, then I definitely want to be your friend," Lawson joked, but telling by the look on Vince's face, he seemed to have hit something of a mark, "wait, you killed somebody?"

"Not really," Vince hesitantly told him, "its just, well, you know ...,"

"No, I really don't know," Lawson said in a panicky voice, "please fill me in on what's going on here."

"Okay, look, last year I was really drunk one night and was stumbling home because someone at the party took my keys away from me, and I can't remember who it was," Vince blurted out, "and you know that kid that died from that other town here? Like, he was bashed to death or something. Well, the guys who beat up Mikey were down in the alley beating him up, because he was apparently gay too. And then when I saw them they all looked at him. I was too drunk to actually know what was going on, but I did know that it wasn't a good thing. And instead of trying to stop them, I ran all the way home. I didn't even call the cops until the next morning, and even then I couldn't turn in the guys, I just told them about the beating I saw take place. It was an anonymous tip."

"And you blame yourself for the whole thing?" Lawson tried to understand.

"How can I not?" Vince retaliated, "I was there whenever he was dying, I watched for a couple of seconds, and then I cared too much about the basketball team to turn them in."

"This is why you are avoiding Mikey, right?" Lawson asked, "Because he thinks you are absolutely amazing for saving him, but you really know you are not because you let somebody else die."

"Exactly," Vince softly said, waiting for Lawson to tell him how much he hated him.

"You have to tell Mikey," Lawson informed him.

"What?" Vince asked, surprise filling his voice.

"Look, I may not be a big fan of your old friends from Third Street," Lawson said, committing a terrible understatement, "but, you are my best friend and I've seen how much you have changed since you became friends with them again. If you ever want to stay friends with them, you have to talk to Mikey."

"And tell him what?" Vince asked bitterly, "hey, you know how I saved your life the other night, yeah, well the exact same thing happened a year ago and I didn't save that kids life. I cared too much about my basketball team and myself to get involved."

"Exactly," Lawson said, smiling at the fact that he knew that was not what Vince wanted to hear, "and tell him you've changed. I mean, he's got to realize it if he's still friends with you. Dude, I believe in you, and they believe in you."

"We sound like a bunch of girls," Vince laughed as he reflected on their conversation, "man, no wonder we didn't have serious conversation before this."

"Yeah, we're too cool for those," Lawson agreed, "so, you want to come to a college party with me tonight?"

"Oh, so I'm more important than a college party?" Vince raised an eyebrow, "I am so very touched by that Lawson."

He then laughed and started walking towards Lawson's car as Lawson followed, shouting at him that nobody was more important than a college party.