The Barefoot Violinist

Starting a Craze

"You've been ignoring me." he accused his friends. They were all sitting at a small restaurant eating pizza after having spent the whole day together. Everybody looked at him as if he was talking a foreign language.

"Why would you say that?" Ellie asked, taking a sip of her milkshake, carefully avoiding his eyes.

"The Cory thing..."

"What? No, why would we ignore you because of Cory? Your our mate, mate." Victor immediately reassured him.

"Yes, we have." Blue corrected them both. "Look, this whole Cory thing was getting out of hand. You were obviously not happy like before. It always looked like you were looking for something that was missing, so we helped things along."

"Well, at least you're honest." he sighed, picking at his pizza.

"What's up Bennett?" Ellie looked at him with concern.

"Can you please tell me about Cory and I. What am I missing?" The others looked at each other uncertainly, but Blue decided to take things in hand.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you everything, but you can't freak out." she warned him.

"Why would I freak out?" his perplexed question just made them all snort and say together:

"Cory!"

"Well, I'm over that now, so just tell what I want to know. And don't skip over parts you think may hurt my feelings. I'm not that fragile."

Blue started telling his story. It was strange to him that someone else would know more about his own life than him. Listening to her, Cory must have really been in love with him. Judging by the amount of time they supposedly spent together, it was almost as if they were joined at the hip. Somehow hearing their story made Bennett smile.

Maybe Cory wasn't the bad guy he thought after all. Was that the missing part? The good Cory who loved him? But him loving Cory? That must be a joke. There was no time for love in the climb to success.

"... and that's the Cory drama in a nutshell." Blue finished, looking at him through hooded eyes, waiting for his reaction.

"So, we were actually, together together?" that didn't sound right, and yet, it seemed familiar in some way. Why couldn't he remember any of what they were telling him?

"I'd say that you were doing the dirty enough to be together, yeah?" Blue commented, which he chose to ignore.

"You guys could have told me a long time ago." he frowned at them.

"Look Ben, you're our best mate and all, but you do like a bit of drama, even if you pretend you don't. Can you blame us? You would freak out and hyperventilate just hearing his name in hospital. It was best to let sleeping dogs be." she reasoned, not mincing her words. Bennett knew he could always depend on Blue. She wouldn't lie for no good reason.

"Okay, you're forgiven for lying to me." He screwed his face at her.

"Oi!, I don't lie! That was an omission of truth. Hardly something I can go to jail for." she corrected him with a grin, obviously relieved that the conversation went so well.

"You two," he pointed at Ellie and Victor. "You two will need to work a lot harder before I forgive you. And you call yourself a wingman" he looked disparagingly at Victor.

"Dude! Come on, you know what it's like when you have two women screaming different things at you. You choose the one that can cause the most shit in your life and you agree with her." he leaned over to kiss Ellie on the cheek, who did not look too impressed with him.

"Am I really getting blamed again for something that Blue started?" Ellie voiced her disbelief.

"Still haven't gotten over detention, huh?" Bennett asked with a grin, while Ellie just frowned at him.

"And I won't until I get you back!" she threw a piece of salami at Blue to make her point.

"It's game on now." Victor looked over at Bennett. But we need to set some rules first!" he held up his finger, leaning closer to the table.

"What are you talking about piss head?" Blue asked

"If you two are going on a revenge craze, then we need to set some rules." he explained as if it was very clear. "Things like no extreme pranks, or playing pranks on other students." He leaned in even closer to loudly whisper to Bennett. "meaning, so that they won't prank us!"

"Yeah, and no killing or maiming or any other thing that could land you in hospital." Bennett grinned watching the storm clouds in Blue's eyes, while Ellie's gaze bore holes into Victor.

"You think you're so clever, don't you? Blue looked at them calculatingly. "Okay, but we can't be held responsible if a prank backfires on someone else by accident. Timing is everything!" she turned her gaze to Ellie.

"You're on! Revenge Craze it is!" Ellie nodded in agreement, her face set.

"Hang on ladies!" Victor held up his hands. "We were just kidding! Pranking is bad, right Bennett? And calling it a Revenge Craze is an even worse idea." he looked over at Bennett pleading for help.

"Eh, yeah pranking is bad." He looked at the two young women staring at each other with fire. "But you're going to do it anyway," he sighed knowing how headstrong both of them can be. "So let me just say that I'm your friend and I've never made fun of you like Victor."

"What?!" Victor nearly jumped out of his seat. "He's just trying to save his ass!" he accused before turning to Ellie. "Ellie, darling, you know I would never make fun of the two of you." Bennett exploded with laughter, seeing the consternation on Victor's face.

When he returned home, his thoughts kept turning back to Cory and what Blue had said. Should he take a chance? Why though, he's not emotionally invested... Is he? On a whim he decided to text Cory.

Bennett: Hey Cory.

Cory: Hey friend, what you up to?

Bennett: At least you didn't ask what I'm wearing!

Cory: What are you wearing?

Bennett: I thought you might want to hang out this evening.

Cory: Yes! I'll be there in 30 mins.

Bennett closed his phone. Should he be nervous? What does hanging out really mean? Maybe he would remember faster if they spent more time together? Can he be friends with Cory? Before he could get any further caught up in his thoughts that kept turning in the same vein, the doorbell rang.

"Hey!" Cory said, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Hey yourself." Bennett greeted back, which made Cory smile even wider.

Going to Bennett's room, Cory immediately sat down on the bed waiting for Bennett. Sitting down next to him, he looked straight ahead.

"So,what do we do now?" he asks Cory.