Pitch Perfect - 1. Chapter 1: First Song

Grace Memorial Senior Care was large and genial. Lucca knew the place like the back of his hand after helping out there for two years. It hadn’t been his choice to begin with, Lucca’s father told him he needed to get out of the house; crying all the time doesn’t do any good, apparently. Looking back now, he could admit that his dad was right. This volunteer position was literally the best thing going on in his life.

He walked the corridors heading towards his favorite room, 203. As he absorbed the brightly colored wallpaper and crisp scent of ammonia he felt at home.

“Mr. Evans, what’ll it be today?” Lucca entered the room and headed over towards the stack of board games in the corner.

“What are you, stupid? We play scrabble every Sunday,” Mr. Evans said without batting an eyelash.

Well, that much was true. Lucca hardly ever won, but that wasn’t because of his smarts. The old man just had the upper hand after being a professor of English for forty-five years. Even so, Lucca did win on occasion. Winning wasn’t that important, though, mostly he just liked having someone to joke around and share stories with.

Even though he was smart and fairly good looking with shocking light blond hair, making friends his own age had always been hard for him. It only got worse in high school, which was when he withdrew from everything. The only people he ever talked to were the Grace Memorial residents, his father, Addie- his lifelong friend, and then there was Matt.

“Here you go, kiddo,” Mr. Evans said while handing Lucca the bag to select a letter, determining who went first. Lucca wound up choosing an A, pretty much guaranteeing his placement.

‘Ah, I have CRAYONS to start with. That means a double word score and the fifty-point bonus for using all 7 letters. Awesome, that’ll shut him up for once.’

The game progressed quickly, and even Lucca’s initial victory couldn’t help him. Since it looked like he was destined to lose anyway, Lucca let his mind wander.

‘I remember starting here. I wonder what life would have been like if I hadn’t come that day… My dad still worries about me I think. Even though working here helps I know he’s still worried, sometimes I hear pacing at night. Fuck. When does normal kick back in? At least Addie still treats me the same. Even though her smiles seem sad and placating sometimes when she thinks I’m not looking. And Matt… Well, at least he doesn’t care enough to treat me different.’ Lucca closed his light green eyes and rubbed his forehead. A migraine was starting to surface. On occasion Lucca wondered if his migraines were just his body’s physical reaction to how his life was going. He let out a sigh.

“Hey, Kid,” Mr. Evans said trying to get Lucca’s attention. ”Hey, just because you’re losing doesn’t mean you need to cry.”

Lucca barely stifled a moan before answering “I guess you’re just too good, can we cut this game short? I have to go see some of the other residents on occasion unfortunately.”

Mr. Evans offered a smirk saying that the game was over on the condition that he won, and that they play again next Sunday. Lucca agreed easily, and then slid out of the room.

Lucca really had planned to go see other residents, but his head was starting to kill him. He walked over to the nurse’s station and asked his favorite nurse, Betty, if he could have some medicine and a nap in the staff lounge.

“Of course, Hun.” Betty shuffled him into the dim lounge. “You look pale as death, rest as long as you want, okay? You know you don’t need to stay if you’re sick right?”

Nodding, Lucca threw back the pills and collapsed on the shabby, but comfortable, green sofa.

Somewhere half between dream and wake Lucca heard the most beautiful sound. At first the haze of sleep blocked out the actual source and detail of the sound and all he could do was feel. Calmness. Somehow, he was overcome with a sense of peace and purity without knowing why. Lucca had an epiphany and suddenly knew what the soft cadences were. That’s my angel; my angel has come to sing to me. It sounds far away…

And then Lucca slept. For the first time in years his dreams were careless and light.

Awareness returned two hours later and Lucca noticed he was not alone. He felt of fluttering of fingertips on his cheek and unconsciously shrugged away from it; keeping his eyes closed. ‘I think my headache is gone. Thank goodness.’ Lucca registered a light laugh and heard someone sit on the couch opposite him. He kept his eyes closed and laid for a while, pleasantly between sleep and wakefulness.

When Lucca finally opened his eyes he saw him. Matt was sitting cross-legged on the couch reading a book. Lucca stayed quiet to watch the delicate flicker of sunlight on Matt’s face. ‘He’s perfect.’ He was tall and athletic. Everything about him was golden, from his hair to his skin, even his personality. He was the captain of their school’s lacrosse team and editor of the school newspaper. It was unbelievable, but he seemed to get along with everyone.

Lucca didn’t know how to think of him. Some might be consider them to be friends, especially because they had grown up next door to each other. Lucca, however, knew that to be false. At best, they could be considered acquaintances. The only thing they had in common was their love of reading. Deep down Lucca knew another thing that kept them separate. In the most desperate and unforgiveable way Lucca loved Matt. Being friends, but nothing more, was something that came with pain and without interest. Suddenly Matt glanced up from the book he was reading, Ordinary People.

He cocked his head slightly to the right before letting out in a raspy voice, “Hey, look who’s up!” Matt let out one of his glowing smiles and continued, “You probably wanna know why I’m here, right? Your dad asked me to get you; said there was an important article deadline coming up.”

“I rode my bike,” Lucca let out, but regretted when Matt’s smile dimmed a little.

“Hmm, well my car does have a trunk,” Matt replied, “besides, I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

Lucca weighed his options for a second. ‘I could say I have plans with Addie. I mean it’s not like Matt would know. I don’t really want to be alone with him for that long. It would probably be really rude to say no now though, since he’s already here. Ugh. Maybe I can tell him I have more work to do before I leave.’

After a second, Lucca went with the last option. “I still have a few more things to do before I leave, I think waiting around might be boring for you…”

Matt just looked at him blankly. For a second Lucca wondered if he could see through all his excuses. Then Matt shook his head and held up his book. “I have plenty of entertainment, I’ll wait. Then maybe after you’re done we can hang at my house.”

Well, now he was stuck. Lucca nodded and pulled himself up from the couch. “Just wait here then, I’ll be back in a bit.” Matt’s returning smile was radiant, and Lucca felt both guilt and happiness for causing it. ‘I can’t believe he’s happy just cause he gets to give me a ride home. What do I do now, I figured Matt would leave, it’s not like I really have anything I need to do here.’

“Hey, Betty, is there anyone else here who needs someone to visit them today?” Lucca asked in a pleading tone.

“You just have the worst timing, Hun. There was someone I wanted you to meet. Ah well, go keep Mrs. Whittaker company.” Betty giggled at Lucca’s expression. Mrs. Whittaker was notoriously known to be one of the grumpiest patients, but whenever Lucca wasn’t there she pleaded for him endlessly. Lucca looked like her eldest son, and dementia caused her to often confuse the two.

Lucca reluctantly walked to Mrs. Whittaker’s room. It was more intricately decorated than many of the others with pastel colors and flowers everywhere. Unfortunately, that meant she had been there a lot longer than many of the patients, nearly ten years ever since her husband’s death. Mrs. Whittaker was sitting up in her bed drinking tea and watching television when he entered.

“Lucca,” she sighed softly when he entered causing Lucca to feel instant relief. Good, he was Lucca today.

“Hello, Mrs. Whittaker, how are you this afternoon?” Lucca walked over to the plug-in teapot and made himself a cup.

Mrs. Whittaker got up and pulled a box out from under her bed. Lucca was curious, but waited and decided to wait until she was ready, to find out exactly what was in the box. Every so often she would pull it out and give something from inside to Lucca.

“Here you go, cover up that messy hair,” she said handing over a pageboy hat, “you need a haircut.”

Lucca just took the hat without comment. This wasn’t uncommon. The last time she had given him a gift, it also came with an insult. Mrs. Whittaker had given him a beautiful copy of Pride and Prejudice and told him that maybe he could learn a thing or two about romance and finally find a girlfriend. That conversation had been interesting to say the least.

“Thanks.” Lucca put on the hat.

The rest of the visit was spent reading. Lucca almost always read a few articles from the Boston Globe for her. Even though they lived just outside Philadelphia, Mrs. Whittaker was from Boston and preferred that paper. After reading the sixth article he wondered if he was being kind to Mrs. Whittaker, or avoiding Matt. ‘I guess the time has come to go back to the lounge, I usually only read three articles.’

Lucca was at the door when Mrs. Whittaker called out to him, “Cut your hair before I see you again, I don’t want to look at it.” This has been a surprisingly good visit Lucca thought errantly.

Time had gone by rather quickly and Lucca worried that Matt would be angry with him for making him wait a whole hour. Instead of heading straight for the lounge, Lucca went towards the bright blue lockers where all the volunteers kept their belongings. Then he wandered around the building saying goodbye to all the nurses.

When he finally got back to the lounge Matt was still there, only now asleep. Lucca halted his breath and movements as he watched the graceful rise and fall of Matt’s chest; Matt seemed untouchable, unreachable.

How could he be expected to get any closer to this boy? It might actually kill him, the pain of never being close enough. It was bad enough as it was, seeing him around the neighborhood, seeing him at school. He couldn’t imagine driving home with Matt, filling the time with nothing, meaningless small talk. He couldn’t imagine going up to his bedroom, sitting and playing games, and dying inside. Lucca's chest ached with the weight of his love for Matt. It was too much, he couldn’t add it onto the pain he was already dealing with. So Lucca did the only thing he could. He left.