Bereaved || COMPLETED SHORT STORY

Chapter 5

NOW

Ben's dad stopped by, he looked exhausted. Normally Mr Kellen had this tired look on his face from his frequent business trips and having to raise a soccer-prodigy son on his own ever since his wife died but today he looked worse.

I didn't stay long because immediately I walked into the room and he set his eyes on me, I could tell something was wrong and he was trying to hold himself together.

It could be about Ben, I hadn't heard so much from him since last night and I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to be there for him, ask him what exactly was wrong and comfort him. It was like my best friend was fading away from me and there was nothing I could do about it.

If anything was wrong with Ben he would have confided in either me or his dad, and since I wasn't on that list he must have told his dad what was wrong. Suddenly I wanted to go down there and demand answers but by the time I summoned enough courage he was already out the door. My parents were sitting on the sofa in the living room where they had talked with him.

"Jay says hi," my mother told me, referring to Ben's dad. "He apologised for not saying anything to you earlier, he's still processing some stuff."

"Is he alright?"

"He's been trying his best to be strong, but he and Ben are alike, they're both strong men."
That was... very cryptic.

"Okay," What else was I supposed to say to that?

"Uh kiddo, your mom and I wanted to talk to you-" my phone beeped with the ringtone that I usually put for Ben and I could see the look of confusion on my parents' faces. "Hold on,"
I pulled out my phone from my pocket to see a message from Ben:

Meet me where it all started, I can't do this anymore.

Followed by a message from Charlie:

I have a strong urge to go to the mall, meet you there?

Charlie and Ben wanted to meet me at the same place, maybe this had something to do with what was wrong with Ben, and Charlie would be there.

"Can we talk later? I have to go," I didn't wait for a reply, I was already out the door in sweatpants and a worn-out t-shirt that probably belonged to my dad.

THEN
THURSDAY

I’ve always been told I looked like my dad, with my short auburn hair and green eyes, not exactly a likely combination but it worked for us, as I stared in the mirror that morning preparing for the speech I would give Ben on how I wanted to be more open to meeting new people outside of my very very close circle, I started to notice the similarities of my mom.

My mom and I never really got along, even if she was the most available parent, we saw each other so much but we didn’t bond like that special mother-daughter vibe wasn’t there. Pearl on the other hand got along very well with my mom. I think my mom was relieved when she got pregnant more than ten years after she had me because at least she could have the same kind of bond my dad and I had.

My dad and I were very similar, apart from our physical appearance we were both nerds that loved Greek mythology and liked only pepperoni and sausage on pizza. According to my dad, if not for the love and fear he had for my mother, he would have named me Persephone, and Pearl, Iris. Honestly, I’m glad my mom didn’t let him pick the names.

But in front of that mirror, I saw my mother’s cheekbones, her lips, and her body structure. People who said I looked like my dad hadn’t looked at me close enough to see the little details. Well, everyone except Ben.

The first time Ben and I met it was in the parking lot of the mall not so far away from my house. We were six, and I had just lost my favourite Teddy bear and refused to leave without it. My parents were frantic, mostly because parents kept sending them dirty looks and their child had refused to stop crying for the past ten minutes.

Ben had seen my teddy bear not so far away from his car where I had dropped it and rushed over to hand it to me to the utmost confusion of his dad.

According to my parents, and tidbits of what I remember, he handed me the teddy bear, wiped my tears with his palms and said “Sorry about your bear, he’s cool,” I stopped crying after that and we became best of friends, right after his dad introduced himself to my parents.

A couple of years later, around the age of 10, we were sitting during recess and eating halves of a sandwich we shared, Ben looked me straight in the eye and said, “You look just like your mom.”  Then he went back to eating his sandwich. That was the first and most likely the last time I would ever be told that, but it made me feel like someone had truly looked at me and seen some parts of me that I didn’t see, even if that someone was a ten-year-old obsessed with SpongeBob.

Ben had always been there for everything, for the braces, the bad haircuts, the discovery of my love for Greek mythology, the panic attack I had in 8th grade, the panic attack I had when I heard I was going to have a little sister, he was even there when Pearl finally came and when I realised that I loved her, and would always be protective of her.

“Do you always stare at yourself in the mirror?” I jumped back in fear, but it was only Ben sitting in my window.

“What are you doing here?”

“You don’t answer a question with a question, Jade.” He tsked at me before standing up and getting comfortable on my bed, the nerve of this man!

“I thought we weren’t on talking terms,”

“What would make you think that?”

“We haven’t talked for almost two days, and you ignored me in school yesterday and today,” I said accusingly, even if I had been doing the same thing and didn’t bother to text him either.

“No, you ignored me, you wouldn’t even let me catch your eye, Jade. Do you know how much of a mess I’ve been? Not being able to talk to you? My game is tomorrow and my passes are off because every time I look up to the bleachers during practice and expect you to be there reading a book and ignoring the presence of hot shirtless guys, you weren’t.”

“What?”

“Ignore the last part,” he said sheepishly. “I’m sorry Jade. I don’t want to push you to do something you don’t want, but whenever you’re ready to meet new people and stuff... I- I just want you to know that I’ll always be there for you, every step of the way, no matter what. I don’t think you’re a hoarder, Charlie made it clear-“

“Charlie? You talked to Charlie about our fight?” I gave him a look, I knew he was close to Charlie but this was our problem, not to be shared with the football team.

“He wanted to help. He likes you, Jada-“

“WHAT?!” I’m not sure it was possible to turn more shades of red but it seemed like I was heating a dinner for two with my blushing.

“I know you like him too, you’ve liked him ever since that project freshman year,”

“What are you talking about? I don’t have a crush on Charlie,” I was met with Ben’s deadpan look. “Then why were you blushing so hard thirty seconds ago?”

“Because it’s hot in here,”

“It rained this afternoon.”

“So?”

Ben let out an exhausted sigh. “That’s between you and him though, we are deviating from the apology you owe me.”

My jaw was hanging, “I owe you?”

“Yup, if I remember correctly you misinterpreted me and called me out for ditching you,”

“You did ditch me!”

“Just apologise,” I folded my arms around my chest and grunted an apology.

“I didn’t hear you,” Ben cupped his hand around his ear, mocking me.

“I’m sorry that you’re an idiot.” The teasing smile on Ben’s face let me know that he was over it and we were done either our argument.

“Whatever, are you still coming for my game on Friday?”

“Maybe.”