Out

Part Nineteen

Benji

"He got in a fight."

I glare at Jorge, who's looking at my mom. I roll my eyes, silently hoping she won't be too mad.

"Why?" She turns to me, disappointment growing on her face. Jorge huffs, but continues cleaning me up. It doesn't hurt like I expected it to. I've never been in a fight, but I imagine the adrenaline coursing through my veins is what's keeping the pain away.

"He pushed Jorge!" I feel myself getting angry again. How could anyone do that? He touched my precious Jorge. He doesn't even know Jorge. He doesn't know how sweet and caring he is. Or how he sings in the shower and dances whenever music comes on, even if it's just in the car.

"I was fine, Benji! I don't need you to protect me, I can handle myself," He yells back. "I was trying to have a good time with you! You're so lucky nobody saw it, you could have your scholarship taken away for something like that. Hell, you could go to jail for something like that!"

"Don't be dramatic," I roll my eyes. I glance over at my mom who's nodding with Jorge, agreeing with him. "It's high school. Nobody cares, there's a fight every other day."

"Benji, you can't just fight someone because you're mad," My mom gives me a stern look.

"He fucking put his hands on Jorge!"

"Don't. Don't talk to me like that," She glares. I sigh, knowing she's right. I always try to be respectful to my mom, I don't need to take my anger out on her. "Here, Jorge, honey, let me do it."

Jorge hands her the cloth and takes a few steps back, looking at me. "Benji, I get it, I do. But, like," His voice cracks and he looks at the ground. "You can't fight back. People like him, just don't understand us, and that's okay. They don't have to. But, when you fight back, it just gives him that much more of a reason to hate us."

"I know," I whisper. When Jorge looks back up at me, his eyes are red and brimmed with tears. "Baby," I remove my moms hand from my face and hop off the counter, walking towards him.

"I just wanted to have a good night with you. Especially because you might be leaving. I want to look back on nights like this and remember how much fun we had, not that you got in a fight with someone," I wrap my arms around his small frame and pull him into my chest.

"I'm sorry," I rub my hands up and down his back, trying to comfort him while he cries silently into my chest.

"Jorge, you're more than welcome to spend the night and stay tomorrow while Benji's meeting with the scouter," My mom rests her hands on his shoulder and smiles sweetly.

"Thank you," Jorge sniffles and pulls away from me to look back at her. "I probably should just go home."

"Please stay," I rest my hand on his arm, looking at him with begging eyes. I want to try and make it up to him. I want to make the rest of the night fun for him, so he would be able to look back on tonight with happy memories.

I know he's thinking about it by the way he looks back at me. "Okay."

"I'm going to go upstairs. Benji, we'll talk about this tomorrow," I nod my head and give my mom a small smile. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

"I feel so stupid," Jorge begins to cry again when my mom is out of the room.

"Baby, no," I wrap my arms around him again. "Why?"

"Well, for starters, I just cried in front of your mom," He tries to laugh, but it comes out as more of a sigh. "I don't know. I guess everything just came out at once. You might be leaving, my senior homecoming feels like it's been just taken away from me, you got in a fight-"