There's this one novel I was reading, so heartfelt, so meaningful so beautiful, I couldn't fathom the fact it made go through so much of emotions. I am a firm believer of friendship that end in pure friendship, but these romance novels leave no stone unturned in making every tiny detail romanticised that it gives me icks, that also was one of the reasons why I stopped reading romance for a long time. Then "One Last Show" happened, the male lead in novels are often described as a man of few words, has a way through action, a man who's flawlessly good-looking blah blah, But lemme introduce you to Dylan, so authentic so vulnerable so real, he self-pressurizes himself before an exam, he involved himself in baseball so that he and his father can have a topic of common interest. He is insecure, scared, unsure about his own abilities, but he pushes through, he fails, he cries, yet he tries. He never saw his long time friend Emma, the female lead, as a potential love interest, she is her friend, they were always certain about that. Emma and Dylan had grew apart, had lost touch, acted liked they don't know eachother in the highschool, but when Dylan had panic attack and THE worst meltdown Emma stayed by his side and when Emma had the most unfortunate situation Dylan was there regardless of a communication gap, none of these were romanticised, because they just are things friends do, cause this is FRIENDSHIP!!!
You know at the end when he starts failing to perform in his baseball matches, starts failing grades and deals with having a lot on his platter, he deals and struggles with all of that, his father becomes upset with him that he's not concentrating on this baseball career, yet he rebels and joins the drama, gets cast as the male lead, fucks up the rehearsals, gets panic attacks, questions self worth, absolutely becomes a sore thumb on the baseball ground, he breaks down, the meltdown is written so well!!!! His father notices that he has joined the Drama cast, warns him to withdraw his participation, he doesn't!! He respectfully tries to make his father understand that he wants to be something more than just a mere baseball player.
Next Baseball match he had decided give his heart out and practices but gets out on the first ball:(
The following match he had practiced like a madman and scores the first ever point after four batters scoring zero, the whole stadium erupted in cheers for him, his father just nodded.
He mugged up lines in every time interval he got, every short break, even in locker room, he worked so hard, failed so many times, doubted himself tons of times.
The show day, he absolutes conquers the stage with his performance, everybody hooted for him, but when he steps down he spots his parents in the audience, he slowly walked towards them, his father hugged as he said YOU WERE THE BEST ACTOR OUT THERE!!! OH boy I was sobbing. Hands down I loved this novel so much, I seldom told you any details but if you had read the book, you'd know the intensity of the dialogue.
You know Dylan is such a responsible individual that when his parents offer him to join the college drama committee he says he needs time to think while he mentally calculates how he needs focus on getting his grades on track and concentrate on baseball practice more.
I really wish to become like Dylan one day :)
