𝙲𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚌𝚎𝚊𝚗 - ᴀɴᴛʜᴏɴʏ ᴠᴏʟᴘᴇ

30 : We Got This

Everything turned out to be absolutely not fine.

:•:•:•:•:•:

Liv and Aria sifted through old photo albums while Michael had old family videos playing on the tv in the livingroom.

Anthony and Isabelle remained in the kitchen to tidy up and catch up on mother-son talk.

"You seem a little quiet son?"

"Just happy to be here. This house always makes me feel centered. Makes me miss being a kid again. Things were so simple back then."

Isabelle already sensed something was bothering him, but his words made it hard for her to let it go even more.

"Is everything okay Ant?"

"No, yeah. Everything's fine mom. It's just.. baseball stuff. Everything happened so fast. One day I'm a kid playing for the love of the game. Next I'm a big leaguer playing for money and, and, records, making history..."

This was one half of what was on his mind. The other half of course being his relationship with Aria, but he knew he couldn't tell her that half.

"I just think about how growing up, baseball was just about going out there and having fun with your friends. And it's still fun, but sometimes the pressure from all the expectations of me can get overwhelming. Now... it feels like the focus is more about the numbers I can produce... and the idea that my livelihood depends on that scares me. Like, I get into my slumps and start questioning myself whether I made the right choice in going straight pro. Maybe I should have went to college to have something to fall back on."

Isabelle rubbed his back to soothe him, just as she did when he cried after a hard loss or bad game growing up.

"Anthony, you excelled at baseball your whole life because of the fun you had playing it. Management and the fans are always going to have expectations and negative things to say and I think with time and experience you'll learn how to drown out all that noise. The only thing stopping you from having fun out there is you worrying about the future. Your focus and hardwork never let you down before. Trust in yourself Anthony, everything will fall into place. It always did, and it always will, so long as you don't lose sight of why you loved playing from the beginning."

She was the smartest woman he knew, with all the right words to say to turn his darkest times into brighter ones. Whether it was about a bad grade on a test, an injury or illness, problems with friends, or a bad game; he could always count on her to pick him up. But this time was different. She couldn't know about the dark cloud looming over his relationship with his girlfriend. He was going to have to navigate this one on his own.

After saying their goodbyes, the silence around them as they got into the car was painful. Aria knew it would be a rough car ride back. She couldn't stop looking at Anthony to analyze his face and body language. He was avoiding her like the plague and it was probably for the best right now.

"Can you say something please?"

His silent treatment was killing her. This was the first time he's ever done it and she could not handle it one bit.

"Can I say something? Seriously?" He scoffed. "Please explain Ar because you just fucking blew my mind back there."

"I'm sorry! I was going to tell you but I was just waiting for the right time to tell you..."