My Buddy Benny

“He’s gone through a lot, that kid”, my dad told me as we hopped in the car to pick up Benny. “Make sure he has a fun time tonight, Daniel. Kid says he’s okay but we know the truth”. My dad couldn’t have been more right. In the past 9 months alone my best friend, Benny, had gotten jumped, broke his leg in a car crash that put his mom in the hospital, and even lost his dad to cancer.

 If Benny knew we were talking about him this way, as some sort of victim, he’d probably kick our asses. See, that’s not how he wanted people to look at him. That’s why. never in a million years, would he be caught dead with tears in his eyes. He was the type of guy to instead have a constant smile wiped across his face and be cracking jokes. But a teenage boy can only take so much before he goes insane bottling up all that pain. 

Earlier that day, Benny and I were invited to a party and before he could decline the invitation, I said we’d be there. Just for one night, I wanted him to let loose and remember what it was like to be a teenager.  

“Why the hell did you say yes?”, Benny nudged me after Jessica, the host of the party, walked away after having invited us. “Now I’ve gotta tell Jessica I can’t go”.

“I think getting out will do you good, Benny”.

“I’ll do your mom good”.

“Screw you. I'll pick you up later. Be ready”. And so later that night, Benny and I would find ourselves at Jessica’s front door.

“I hate you”, Benny said, slightly bobbing his head to the booming music shaking the very foundation of the house we were about to enter.

“Dude, by the end of the night, you’re gonna be thanking me we came”, I told him.

“Okay, if I get laid, I’ll thank you”.

“Alright well don’t make it impossible to thank me”.

“You’re mom made it possible”. It was then the door was slung open by a massive teenager double the size of us both. At first glance, you’d think you just saw Suge Knight but as soon as he saw Benny, a surging joy came into his eyes.

“OH DAMN, BENNY’S HERE!!!”, the gigantic human said to the roaring storm of kids, jumping around and slinging back bottles like they’d just won a war.  The next thing I knew, the boy lifted Benny into the air and sent him off into a crowd surf through the ocean of kids. The soundtrack to the moment was  2 hundred kids chanting Benny’s name.  

Alone and confused, I walked into the house, trying to follow where the crowd was taking Benny. That was until I found a girl with a familiar face. She sat on a sofa right beside a passed out teenager our age, dressed in a beer drenched shirt. However, she wasn’t so innocent herself because the baby she was holding was her own. Oh yeah, she was holding a baby,

“Damn it Issie, why’d you bring your kid here?”, I annoyedly asked her, amplifying my voice as much as possible to make myself audible over the music. I then took a seat on the couch in front of her.

“I couldn’t find a sitter”, she said, also amplifying her voice. That’s when Tony appeared in the seat next to me, having energetically leaped onto it.

“Why would you want a sitter?”, Tony laughed. “Isn’t sitting what got you that baby in the first place”.

“Where the hell did you come from”, I asked Tony.

“You’re not gonna believe it, bro. I lost my virginity”

“You’re right, I seriously don’t believe that”. 

“Screw you”, Tony said, taking Issie’s baby from her arms. “Actually kid you don’t want to suck on that finger. ISN'T THAT RIGHT JESSICA!!!”

“Give me back my baby, pig”, Issie said, rising from her seat, and taking the baby back into her arms.

“So you hooked up with Jessica?”, I asked Tony.

“Jealous?”

“No, but she told me earlier that she got herpes so I’d see a doctor if I was you”. On the note of Tony’s face dropping, cold and stunned, and Issie dying in laughter, I walked away to get a drink. I should mention Jessica didn’t actually have herpes but I just felt like messing with Tony.

  While at the ice chest grabbing a soda, I continued to hear the jocks   chanting Benny’s name just as enthusiastically as they did when the party took him.

“Hey, what’s up with everyone being all over Benny”, I asked Jessica who also happened to be at the ice chest.

“Oh, I love Benny”, she responded. “He sold us the beer for the party. I'm so glad he came. Is he single?”. 

“If she doesn’t have herpes now, she will soon”, I thought to myself before realizing what she’d just told me.“Wait, what?!”, I exclaimed. Benny can’t even buy beer”.

“No he brews it with Tony. Everyone’s been buying it. I thought you of all people would’ve known. You're always with each other. Freshman year I even thought you two were gay”.  I began walking back to the couches where Tony and Issie were seated but not before turning back to Jessica and telling her, “Were not homosexuals, were homiesexuals”.

“Where’s Benny?”, I heard Issie ask Tony when I arrived back at the sofas.

“I think he’s playing beer pong”, Tony responded.

“He’s what?”, Issie and I gasped

“You brought him to a party. What’d you expect him to do?”

“Not drink”, I told him. “Benny never drinks”.

“He always said he couldn’t because he couldn’t betray his parents trust like that”, Issie added. 

“He didn’t even tell me you and him were brewing beer”

“Yeah how do you think I got laid?”

“I always figured alcohol would need to be present for you to feel a woman’s touch”, Issie scoffed

“Just because that was Jeremy’s tactic doesn’t mean it’s everyone's, Issie”, Tony responded, making her start hitting him.

“How do you even know how to brew beer”.

“My brother learned it in seminary before he dropped out. Well I mean that’s the only reason he went actually. He was secretly atheist the whole time”.

“Your whole family is in shambles isn’t it”, Issie laughed.

“Yeah like your cervix”, a familiar voice said from behind me. Turning back, I realized it was Benny. 

“Hey let’s go talk”, I said, leaning close to Benny’s ear so I didn’t have to repeat myself

“About what?”

“Let’s just talk, Benny”. The two of us then walked to the backyard where several couples had also gone to escape the heavy noise, only they did it to make out.

“We’re just gonna talk”, Benny clarified to the people giving us weird looks for walking through the back door. 

“Jessica told me about yours and Tony’s business”, I said. After a sigh and overlong pause, he looked up at me and replied, “Oh how credible she is. You know she had sex with Tony right”.

“Benny”. When I said his name, his face went blank but not like Tony’s did earlier. It was like all of the joke cards and any other defense mechanism Benny had shielding him had just dropped.

“Okay, yeah. It’s just a couple of extra bucks”, he said calmly.

“And what if you get caught selling alcohol to minors. What happens to your scholarships”. Again, Benny fell into a silence before responding again.

“I don’t really need those, do I?”, he muttered.

“What, so you’re just gonna screw up your life for a couple extra bucks then?”

“Look, you’re not my dad, okay!”. Now Benny was aggravated. Never had I seen such flames in his eyes, especially being directed at me.

“And what do you think he’d say about this, Benny? What do you think your dad would think?”

“I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HE'D SAY!!!  I can even hear him saying it to me! And you know what?! I DON’T WANT TO STOP HEARING HIM!!!”. His voice started cracking at the end of his sentence but after that, he completely broke, falling into my arms in tears. “I don’t want him to be gone, Daniel”.

After directing him to a seat next to a couple that happened to be making out, I rested my arm on his shoulder. ”I know you hate the word death”, I started. “Because every time you hear it, I see you cringe. But Death is a beautiful thing, Benny. Death just makes life that much more precious. The fact we don’t have all the time in the world is what gives it more meaning. But, dude, if you just discredit everything your dad taught you, you’ll make his time here meaningless. So, use what your dad taught you. Be what he raised you to be”.

That night, for the first time in a year, Benny cried. I’d be lying if I said he immediately healed after that night but soon enough Benny was on his feet. The following year, he’d find himself at state university before coming back home with a degree in one hand and a beautiful girl on the other.