A Fresh Start

Worth Fighting For

"Ben, wait!" I called out to Ben as he turned away from the closet. I could feel the panic well up in my chest, what if he told Gloria, what they sent me home? Before I could fall into a full blown panic attack Ben turned around, his face betraying his anger.

"What the hell are you doing," Ben yelled, causing me to flinch back at him. He had a right to be angry at me, but not this angry. "I told you to get control of yourself, you're going to ruin her life!" I looked up at Sebastion to see him giving his brother a hard look, I wasn't the one Ben was mad at. "Why can't you think about stuff before you do it? Don't you see how your recklessness is ruining lives? First you cause the car crash that killed Caleb, not only ending his life but also taking our dad away from us. He never recovered from his brother's death and you just pretend not to see it. I'm not letting this happen again, your selfishness isn't going to take anyone else away from me." I had never seen Ben this angry before, I never thought about what the accident must have done to Roberto, but while I felt for Ben, what he said was uncalled for. I turned around to gauge Sebastion's reaction only to see him stride past me towards his brother.

I watched in horror as Sebastion's fist connected with Ben's face, starting a vicious fight between the two. "Stop, what are you doing?" I cried out in dismay, running towards the two boys hoping to jolt them out of their rage induced stupidity. I reached Ben first as he was situated on top of Sebastion, I wanted to peacefully defuse the situation, but when he pulled his fist back to punch Sebastion a shot of anger jolted my system and I acted in desperation. My dad had always told me that if you were outmatched in terms of strength and couldn't land a hit in a sensitive area that the hair was your best bet. I fisted Ben's hair in my hand and dragged him off Sebastion, thankfully some of the others came looking for us and managed to take over from there. Lee grabbed Sebastion around the waist and along with the help of another boy, dragged him into the other room. After Sebastion left the room I felt Ben's breathing slow and my own adrenaline fade, allowing anger to take its place. 

"What the hell were you doing Ben?" I yelled, thinking back on the hurtful comments he had made. "You had no right to bring that up. What if he hadn't told me yet? You would have spilled a huge secret that Sebastion trusted you with." I saw Ben's eyes grow wide at my reaction.

"I had no right? You have no idea what it was like after the accident. My dad decided to drink his sorrows away leaving my mom to take care of us. It got so bad that they nearly divorced, my dad still has to go to AA every week just to keep from straying back to the liquor cabinet. You didn't know him before, he was always with me. Sebastion had Caleb, but I was always with my dad. Now every time I talk to him I can see the pain in his eyes, and do you know why? Because every time he looks at me he sees my uncle." I remembered the photo in Sebastion's room, the older man did bear a remarkable resemblance towards the boys. 

"I'm sorry for what the accident put you through, but it wasn't his fault! You might miss your dad being happy but Sebastion carries your whole family's loss every day." I saw guilt flash in Ben's eyes and could tell I was getting through to him.

"I-I know, I just- we never talk about it you know. We're all so afraid of bringing back those memories that we pretend it didn't happen. But it did happen. I almost lost my brother that night." I looked up at him in confusion. "He didn't tell you that part did he." I shook my head, still unsure of what he was talking about. "Marie, Ben was in a coma for three weeks before he woke up." I gasped in disbelief, Sebastion had told me that he had woken up to the revelation that his uncle was dead, but he never mentioned how long after the accident that was. "The doctors weren't sure he was gonna come back to us. He did though, and a couple of months after almost losing him, my dad drunk himself to near death." By this time tears were making their way down his face. My anger dissipated and I hugged him, my mind still reeling from the information.