"Ok well I don't know, I'll definitely check into it." "Friday." "Ok should I call you then?" "Okay." "Mom, dad!" "Whats going on?" "I'm officially in." "Yes I'm going to bull mass!" "I'm going to bull mass!" "What?" "Yes!" "Foster, this is incredible." "I know!" "What's this?" "It's a full ride, for baseball, ya I'm starting." "I'm starting!" "You hear that, I'm a diablo, Josh!" " I am so proud of you!" " Thank you!" "You know you have to graduate to make this official, right?" "Yes, I know, can we just take it one step at a time, I just opened the letter." "Sure thing." "Yo Josh, you hear that?" "I'm a diablo!" "We are celebrating tonight." "Yes, definitely." " Is that really necessary?" " Yes foster, this is great." "Ok, um, awesome, great, can we wait on that shindig for just a little bit?" "Me and Josh have plans." "Ok just promise me you'll be back by dinner, please?" "Okay." "You, get dressed." "Don't forget your glove!" "So what do you think?" " Huh?" " Should I go for a dorm closer to the baseball field or closer to the edge of campus?" "The edge, it overlooks this whole valley where the sun sets right smack dab in the middle every single day." "Its awesome I should show you some pictures." "What's up?" "What's up?" "What's goin' on, bud?" "Nothing." "Ya I'm not buying that." "Is it mom and dad?" "School?" "Am I eating your ear off with my narcissism?" "Come on Josh, really, it's me." "You don't think I'm leaving you in the dust, do you?" "Set your middle and index finger on the seams." "Then throw." "Excellent." "Do you remember our old house?" " In Oklahoma?" " Yep." "What about it?" "We lived right at the edge of the cul-de-sac." "The trailhead divided our house from the klondike's and led right down to the river?" "Oh yeah, that's right." "We need to have that again." "You want to move back to Oklahoma?" "No, I mean..." "Something like it." "You know as soon as we're both out of school." "Ok bear with me, we find a nice cul-de-sac." "Middle of nowhere, if we have to the houses can't be too big." "We don't want to be snobs." "But right next door to each other." "We start our families, all that jazz." "Me and you?" "That's right." "You and me." "Right at the edge of the neighborhood where the cranky old people won't complain when we have late-night barbecues." "And baseball games." "Now you're talking." "We'll teach our sons and daughters how it's done from the moment they pick up a ball." "Well what if they don't like it?" "If they hate it they hate it." "There's really nothing we can do about it." "But until they make that decision for themselves, the greatest game ever invented will still be there." "Cool." "Throw obnoxious block parties of course, invite everyone and their second cousin." "Spend the fall and winter playing snowball cornhole and the summers down by the water." "Yeah." "With a cul-de-sac divided by a trailhead that leads right down to the river." " Sound good?" " Yeah." "Sounds good." "So, foster, bullman Massachusetts, huh?" "Yeah, it's a little thing." "That's not a little thing, bull mass takes people on merit interviews, not just applications." "Guess I did something right, huh?" "Ya he made captain this year, did you know that?" "Really?" "I'm not surprised." "Neither were we." "He trained all summer." "Every day." "You know that looks good walking on as a freshman." " He got a full-ride for baseball." " Nice man, well done!" "Just like dad." "You know Josh here landed himself a near perfect gpa this semester." "He's actually set to exceed it once he hits high school." "You should see his arm." "He's excellent." "Oh yeah?" "Huh must take after his brother you know, I was just saying that." "The other day I was saying he is just like foster." "Now he doesn't have the talent foster has, in baseball, but at least he works really hard." "He's got a great work ethic." "Sort of unlike his father." "Maybe down the road if his mom's don't picture..." "Josh can get that it's fine dad I got it seriously." "Ok alright." "Sorry about all that." "It's ok." "What are you doing?" "Shhhh, you want to get us in trouble?" "In trouble for what?" "First of all, congratulations." "For what?" "I'm not the one who got into bull mass." "I'm talking about your gpa, it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time to get to where you are and you're not even in high school yet." "Your arm too." "And I meant what I said at dinner, I'm proud of you." "Thanks." "Now on that schmaltzy note, I have a surprise for you." " Whoa!" " Hey, one drink." "That's all you get." "You little delinquent." "Why do you even have that?" "Why not?" "Mom and dad are too busy not talking to each other to notice, anyway." "Drink I won't tell a soul if you don't tell a soul, promise?" "Promise." "Oh god!" "There ya go, now your a man." "Hey, don't worry about mom and dad or any of the adults, okay?" "I'm proud of you." "From here to the end of the world, I'm proud of you." "That's all that matters, right?" "Cool behave yourself." "TJ and them are waiting." "I'll see you later, yeah?" "Later." "Thanks, dad." "A real class act father you are." "Couldn't keep it in your pants until I went to college." "Mom's gonna be thrilled." "What?" "Thanks buddy." "Goodnight." "Night." "Oh wait how was your day?" "Easy, dude, I'm seeing triple." "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday." "That's fine." "I didn't mean to stand you up like that." "You know I'd never not show up like that on purpose right?" "I know." "Josh... do you wanna have a TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT movie marathon tonight?" "Sure." "Just you and me." "And some ginger ale." "Hey, I didn't know you were, you were gonna be home." "Sorry, I didn't know you were gonna be home." "Actually I gotta go." "Cool your jets." "Dad I'm going to be late." "Where you going?" "Practice." "Really, I mean its almost evening?" "Yea, yeah." "Just relax and lets have some food." "So what did um, coach say about the scholarship?" "Um hmm?" "The scholarship." "Um he he said congratulations." "That's it?" "Yeah, yeah." "So what are you most excited about?" "What do you mean?" "Bull mass, college in general." "There has got to be something." "Have you asked Josh what he's excited about lately?" "Um, um I gotta go." "I'm going to be late." "I didn't feed koda so you might want to yea." "Josh, hey so foster said he needs to rain check the movie, it's senior prank night." "Okay." " Is there a problem officer?" " Your son was caught with a few of his friends outside the school burning a desk..." "What?" "Foster, is this true?" "Dad, mom, just" "As of now there is no charges being pressed on the kids, but that could change." "Who the hell did you steal this desk from?" "We didn't steal a desk the desk from anyone, dad" "We got it out of a dumpster." "Look, I didn't know what they were going to do with it." "It's senior prank night." "I was just a getaway driver." "What the hell happens now, Foster?" "!" "I don't" "Once again as of now no charges have been filed." "But if the D.A. changes his mind, you guys will be notified immediately." "Dad, can I just go to bed?" "I'm really tired" "Foster James." "Dad, I just said I didn't do it." "I don't care about that." "Do you realize if you would have been caught your scholarship would just go away?" "!" "For burning some stupid desk." " My scholarship?" " Yea, your future." "One Mark on your record and bull mass is gone!" "Foster, you've gotta be smarter about stuff." "Just say you weren't involved or something." "I already told you both I didn't do it." "Okay?" "I didn't do it." "Now can we just" "Josh?" "What's going on, buddy?" "Can you tell me the truth?" "About what?" "Did you set the desk on fire?" "No buddy, I'm just the getaway driver." "I know thats what you told the cops, what you told mom and dad, but is it true?" "It doesn't matter what parts are true and what parts aren't." "Well, it does to me!" "You don't need to worry about me, Josh." "I'm not!" "Don't." "Wait, wait." "Do you believe in love?" "I'm serious, not the phony kind, not the fake kind the real kind, where you don't hurt each other or treat each other like shit." "Why?" "Just answer the question." "Yeah." "Okay." "Goodnight." "Goodnight, buddy." "Foster?" "Josh?" "I'm so sorry you had to see that." "Who?" "Why?" "Josh..." "How long?" "We're gonna go crazy if we don't talk about this." "Where is he?" "He's upstairs, the doctor says he just needs some rest." "He's sleeping foster, he's going to be okay!" "You okay?" "What were you thinking bud, huh?" "Where were you going?" "Where were you planning on going?" "Listen, I know how your feeling and I know it sucks but you can't do that to me." "You can't just run off like that" "you wanna be like me?" "Look at me Joshua." "Do you wanna end up like me?" "Foster!" "Can you join us in the living room?" "The Dean of admissions at bullman Massachusetts." "Remember when we talked on senior prank night?" "Well, I wasn't entirely truthful." "Turns out it does matter what parts are true and which ones aren't." "We didn't find it in a dumpster." "I stole the desk." "Surveillance footage from the school caught us taking it." "It was still bright enough to wear you could see our faces for seven straight seconds." "Right there." "Desk in hand like we were some gang of bandits or something." "What geniuses we were." "Anyway, push came to shove and the footage was turned over to the board of admissions at bull mass." "Guess they didn't want a thief pyromaniac playing ball for 'em, so they revoked my scholarship." "Less than forty-eight hours later, they thought "what the hell, let's revoke his acceptance, too."" "Shit." "I'm lucky if I even get to walk at graduation." "What the hell, Josh?" "How long have you known about dad?" "!" "How long have you known about what dad was doing?" "Shhh, just stop, Josh, just try and calm down for a second for me." "Why?" "Why are you asking me that, huh?" "How long?" "!" "A few months." "A couple, give or take." "What does that matter Josh?" "You didn't even say anything?" "What could I say, huh?" "That I caught dad in bed with some other woman?" "What was that going to do to you, you were 12 years old, Josh." "How could I put that on you I couldn't even handle it myself." "Look at me Josh, look at me!" "You didn't say anything!" "You let our family break." "Excuse me?" "Why did we even make all those plans?" "The cul-de-sac, the house, the movie marathon" "Showing up for catch?" "You never meant any of it." "You're just throwing me into the dirt and ditching me there, just like I knew you would." "Look at me, huh?" "Your right I should have said something." "But I didn't and here we are and we have to deal with that, right?" "But how could I say something like that to you, okay?" "I have been a train wreck and a half since it happened, how else do you think I could have torn down my plans for a future so quickly?" "It's all about you and everything..." "Josh, stop stop it Josh!" "You know what love is?" "It's bull shit!" "Hey whats up?" "Thanks man, you too" "No I, I can't come tonight." "Were having some kind of family dinner and my dad will kill me if I try and skip." "I'll just see you when I see you." "I can't, I can't just walk up and talk to him, TJ." "He hasn't said a word to me in weeks." "No, your right, I'm sorry." "I just, um, I'll see you later, ok?" "Later." "Come in." "Happy graduation." "Thanks." "Your mom, she set out that vest." "That's too small for you." "Yeah, well, I'll just tell her the same thing." "I tell her every time she tries to make me wear it." "It hasn't fit me since I was a preteen." "Just thank her in the mean time, when you do." "Will do." "Listen, tonight's dinner is important to get your ducks in a row." "I thought my ducks were already as in a row as they could get." "I invited the Dean of admissions from bull mass to eat with us." "Why would you do that?" "To appeal your case, to get back in his good graces, to tell him you screwed up." "You know you screwed up." "To get your admissions back and possibly even your scholarship back..." "Dad, it's fin, e they kicked me out!" " Foster, it's vitally important!" " Why are you doing this?" "Foster, stop!" "It's vital to your future!" "Dad, it's just..." "No more!" "Enough!" "Finish getting dressed, be down stairs, best behavior." "Did you know Foster was selected captain this season?" "He practiced all summer." "Every day." "And that, um, looks fantastic on a school record, especially for a freshman." "Mr. and Mrs. Mathis," "excuse me," "I think you're a great kid." "You've got talent, academic drive, and everything I've heard in your favor tonight is true." "But you have to understand it's hard to plead your case after what you did to that teacher's desk." "Yea, yea, he knows that." "Of course." "He's been reprimanded here and at school, and he acknowledges full well that it was a fluke." "It was a lapse in judgement." "And he has the discipline to never let it happen again." "I would do it a thousand more times if I could." "What was that?" "I said I would do it a thousand more times if I could." "In the sake of getting this on the table for all honesty let's..." "Let me just say this." "All this crap with you and your school is worth less to me than the desk we torched." "Did you even wonder whose desk it was that we set on fire?" "Ms. Harrison's." "My chemistry teacher." "My bio teacher sophomore year, my counselor as a freshman..." "Seamlessly graduated to becoming your mistress." "On that note, excuse me." "Foster!" "Honestly, how dumb can you get?" "Really?" "Wait until you think no one is home so you can get crazy with your slampiece?" "Really you didn't think to check if you were alone before you me and Josh caught you doing that in our own home, really?" "I don't care anymore." "Really, I don't." "About bull mass or the scholarship or any part of this pre-determined victory lap you both have me on to make yourselves look like the perfect parents of the trophy child." "I'm done with it!" "You know you both made me hate baseball?" "Hate it." "What good is a scholarship if I can't even stand what I'm doing, dad?" "And you, what the hell were you doing while all of this was happening?" "You work three days out of the week from home, mom!" "Why couldn't you be the one to figure this out instead of us?" "Oh my god, you too." "Unbelievable." "I come to dinner with one botched parent and I get the pleasure of leaving with two." "Who was yours mom?" "One of Josh's teachers?" "Foster, that's enough." "Is that really enough for you, dad?" "Does that somehow mess with your system?" "Your perfect house, your perfect kids, your perfect everything?" "!" "I think that evens things out enough now that we have not one but two parents who are fucking strangers!" "Josh!" "Josh, can you open the door, please?" "Josh, can you open the door, please?" "I just" "Josh, buddy, open the door." "What am I supposed to do?" "Foster?" "Foster, are you ok?" "You know you have another kid, right?" "What?" "You have another kid in case you forgot." "And he's a far better person than I am." "Foster, please just..." "Here's the difference, mom." "Something somehow both of you have missed" "I don't need you." "But he does." "I know how to grin and bear the crap you and dad call love, but he doesn't." "His heart is broken and I would be in there fixing it, but he won't let me in." "So get out, please." "Get out!" "And take this it doesn't mean anything." "I doesn't mean a single damn thing!" "Foster!" " Get the hell out of here!" " Foster, stop!" "Look at this." "Is this what you wanted?" "When are you going to look in the mirror and see what you've done to everyone?" "To this family!" "Mom mom?" "Mom!" "He picked up the second time I called." "He's staying in a hotel." "Get some sleep, Foster." "Go to bed." "What if he doesn't come back?" "Would you?" "Do you think we intended to push you into a future you, didn't want?" "You think we set out to go behind each other's backs and just leave you two?" "No." "We've made mistakes." "But don't you for one minute think that we don't love you." "Have you stopped to think how you've treated him?" "Not your father, Foster, your brother." "How many times did you make plans with him and just not show up?" "You know, you talk about how much he needed me?" "He needed you, Foster." "Mom?" "I'm sorry." "I know." "Hey, you're here!" "So good to see you!" "I can't believe your here." "Hey mom, when is uncle Peter's birthday thing?" "We're heading out in a couple of hours, if you can be ready by then." "Yeah, sure thing." "So foster, I hadn't heard from you in three weeks, I thought you flunked out or something." "Mom it's Wyoming." "It's only four hours away." "And I'm hardly halfway through the semester, no flunking yet." "Ok, good." "I like the decorating you did." "Me too." "There are two bedrooms so you'll always have a place to stay here." "So it's your father's weekend with Josh." "I tried to get him to come over here and see you." "But he's had a couple games today so he couldn't." "He's playing?" "Yeah, his coach thinks he's actually pretty good too." "Maybe by next year he'll make MVP." "So have you gone to see your dad yet?" "No, to be honest I don't think he'd want to see me, anyways." "Foster, you know thats not true." "Mom I'm serious." "Foster, it's not true." "You know that." "Okay, let's go have some fun." "Come on." "Hey, happy birthday!" "Thanks." "The legend himself survives his first dose of college." "How you doin'?" "Thanks, uncle Peter." " It's nice to see you." " You too." "You ready for the baseball season?" " What position are you playing?" " Third base." "Nice, maybe one day you will be the one who gets to play for bull mass, huh?" "Excuse me." "So what's this I hear about you playing?" "I just started" "Well, technically it's only fall" " training but we still have games." " Played today, huh?" "Yeah." "How'd you do?" "Yeah, don't worry, there will be more games more and more and you'll get better with each one." "I'm proud of you, ya know?" "It's not just baseball, it's everything, I'm proud of you, Josh." "So how's school?" "Kinda how you'd expect I guess." "Except it moves so fast." "It's like time speeds up and you just go." "Really makes you miss home." "You had time to stop and look what your doing for a second or two." "Honestly, it's easy to get lost after awhile." "Listen, uhh..." "I wanna come to your games this summer." "All of them." "Crash at mom or dads place, get a concessions job, get myself a front row seat." "That's a promise." "I missed you." "I missed you too buddy." "Let's go for a drive."