Happier

Confession

Kageyama and I have been friends since the third grade when I moved to a place where I didn't have any friends. One day I was playing volleyball on my own with my 4 foot tall kid net when I spiked the ball into my neighbors yard. That's when a kid that looked familiar came out and handed me my ball back.

"Hey, we're in class 3-D together, nice to meet you! I'm Kageyama!" The dark haired kid said with a smile.

"Oh thank you.. i'm..."

"Reader! I know! You don't have to tell me, i'm smart! Can I play with you?" He asked with the same extra wide smile.

"Sure.. it's kinda boring with just me. I need a setter wanna try?"

"What's that?"

"Oh in this game a setter is pretty important. It's kinda like an artist, but you have put the ball right where the spiker is going to hit it to score a point." I explained

"Oh wow that sounds cool! Don't you want to do it?"

"I've always wanted to but i've never had anyone else to play with."

"Ohhhh then why don't we switch off!"

He truly was a smart kid. We were both somewhat introverted, although Kageyama was pretty popular. People were drawn to him while I...I only had him. Being friends with him, I learned to adjust and get a lot of confidence and I outgrew my introvert tendencies by the end of the school year. Thank you for that, Tobio.

As our elementary years went on, we would play volleyball together everyday as long as the weather was good. We never realized how good we had gotten until we got to middle school and joined clubs. Kageyama leaned more towards setting in games because of a certain upper class man, while I stayed switching off between setting, serving and spiking. If i'm being honest I did enjoy spiking the most because that's what aces do. As we know, aces get more recognition.

Before our games, if they were on the same day, especially the same time, we'd meet in front of his house and do our handshake for good luck and go on to our games. If it was only one of us then we'd watch each other's games along with the special handshake of course. This was the girls on my team would question if we were dating, and when i'd say no they'd take it as if that was an invitation for them to go for him, that was extremely annoying. I guess it's because I did like him, and I wanted to be dating him. I just didn't want to admit it.

During the rest of our years in middle school, he would start to limit the amount of games he wanted me to go to. He lost his smile and was distancing himself from everyone constantly. He went from someone everyone wanted to be around to someone people actively avoided. On top of that, it seemed like volleyball wasn't fun for him anymore he would practice all the time and get frustrated that he wasn't progressing the way he wanted. I knew better. I knew it wasn't his fault, and I knew he couldn't admit what was hurting him at this point. I lost friends by sticking with him whether it was from a distance or not.

One day, I was going to surprise him by going to one of his games. In the audience I heard people calling him the king. At first I thought it was because he was that good. But what I saw on the court broke my heart. I decided against letting him know I was there and left silently.

In our third year, during lunch he told me that I should stop being his friend because no one else wanted to be there for him. That hurt a lot, but I caused a scene and yelled at him.

"You understand how much i've done for you, right?! I didn't do it for no reason! You were the only one there for me for so many years and I will be here for you! You don't even talk to me anymore but i'm still here for you! You need to understand that friendships go both ways and that's why I refuse to leave you alone ok?" I take a breath and calm my voice down.