Beside You - Ashton Irwin

9

                                                                **Flashback - 5 Years ago**

                                                                                 April 28

Anthony Gomez Pentworth had turned 18 only 2 months previous to this day. After finishing basic training, he enlisted to the United States Marine Corps on his 18th birthday. Andrea was only 12 at the time when Anthony got his letter of deployment. She didn't understand that he had to go away in his cool green outfit and leave the country. Her parents didn't want to tell her the risk of their pride and joy not coming home. As painful as it was for the parents of the oblivious girl to leave her under the impression that she might never see her favourite person again, it had to be that way.

Andrea held Anthony's hand as they walked up to the baggage drop, collecting his boarding pass to his flight to Texas where he would embark on his journey on a Lockheed Martin's C-5M Super Galaxy plane to Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan. Anthony had shaved his head to a buzzcut in basic training and had decided that he would keep his hair short while he was deployed. Andrea often made fun of his hair, but he took it in his stride. Andrea was always his baby sister, he did everything he could to protect her. But suddenly, it hit him that while he was in Afghanistan, he couldn't be the protective brother of her. 

The thought had only crossed his mind once that he might never come back. That thought passed through his mind when he was playing family monopoly with his favourite people. His dad, who he had always looked up to, his mom, who had loved him and taken care of him his entire life, and Andrea, or Reeree as he had always called her. He was the only person who had called Andrea, Reeree and everyone who was close with the Pentworth family knew that it was Anthony's thing. Andrea always referred to her big brother as Antie since when she was younger she was unable to pronounce the 'th' sound. 

Everyone else in their family knew Anthony as Ant but as he grew older, the name lost its worth, and he was known to everyone as just Anthony. After their Grandpa's sudden death 6 months ago, he had to become a man. He was no longer the sweet, caring boy who treated his sister and cousins like babies, although he wished he still did, he had partially shut down because of the loss and grief. Everyone understood the influence Grandpa had had on Anthony. He had passed it off as growing up.

The family of four walked alongside a few other military families towards the gate where they would say their last goodbyes to their son. Anthony and his parents were aware that the Marine Corps was stricter on communication back home since they were more protective of sensitive information about missions and intelligence. Anthony knew that he could only contact his family through a monitored letter once a month since posting letters would be hard during deployment. 

Anthony turned around and crouched so he would be at the same height as his younger sister who had glossy eyes, only now understanding that Anthony had to go. "Bye-bye Reeree. I love you so much. When I come home we can go to as many Broadway shows as you want, Ok?" It stung Anthony's heart because he wasn't sure if he could keep his promise to Andrea. He hugged his parents, whispering 'goodbyes' and 'I love yous'. One of his army mates waved at him, letting him know it was time to board the plane. I looked at his family, taking a mental photo so that he would have something nice to dream about at night. 

He gave one last kiss on the cheek to his mom and Andrea, and one last handshake to his dad, who unexpectedly pulled him into a hug. His dad had never been a hugger or someone who expressed his emotions at all, but Anthony could see past his concrete exterior and saw tears in his eyes. He waved one last time and walked into the bridge to get on the plane.

The half Hispanic, half caucasian family stood by the gate, waving until they couldn't see their eldest son anymore.

The last time I saw Anthony ever was when he turned around and walked away from our family. I often thought about this pitiful turning point in my life. It became easier every day when I tried to remember the good moments I had with Anthony. He was my rock. He looked after me while our parents were busy. He always made sure to take me to the Broadway shows I wanted to go to when dad couldn't take me. And he never put up a fight when I asked him to do someone that I would enjoy when he wouldn't. He made sure that I was happy. When I was younger, I wanted to be like Emilia, but as I grew older, I realised I wanted to be more Anthony. He cared about the people he loved. And that was my favourite thing about him.

I sat in an empty seat next to Eddie, waiting for Mr Cooper to arrive to class. Ashton just sat in silence at the back of the classroom. A man who looked considerably younger than my father. He placed his briefcase on the desk at the front of the room, opened up his laptop, and connected a presentation about WW2 to the projector. "Good Morning class." He looked around at all the students, who seemed very engaged with the class, and extremely excited to discuss WW2 war crimes. "Come on guys, at least try to look alive! Irwin, sit up in your chair, this isn't nap time." 

Ashton started to turn red from embarrassment as he sat up in his chair. I could already tell this teacher was an incel. He was oddly excited about WW2. That shouldn't be a topic one is enthusiastic to talk about. He started off discussing things we all already knew, like who the Nazi party was and the basic timeline of WW2.

"Miss Clarke? Did you hear what I said?" There was silence from Eddie. "No Mr Cooper." Eddie snuck a look at me as I tried not to laugh. "I asked, who did Hitler want to exterminate?" Eddie looked at me as I tried to write down the answer. "Uhh... he wanted to kill the Jews, R-Romanians so the Gypsies uh-" I could see how awkward this was for Eddie to speak about since she was half Romanian, "-The disabled, Polish politicians, soviet soldiers, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals."

Just then, Mr Cooper made a disgusting comment about Eddie. "Miss Clarke, You're blonde. Hitler would have liked you." The entire class gasped and their eyes opened wide as Mr Cooper looked around frantically at their reaction, expecting people to 'laugh' at his attempt at a horrible 'joke'. Eddie looked like she was in a state of shock, trying to process Mr Cooper's gross joke, so I decided to speak up. "Mr Cooper, Eddie is Romanian. That was a disgusting thing to say." 

Mr Cooper widened his eyes as he turned around so his back was towards the class. "Uh, everyone is dismissed at lunch period early. Miss Clarke, can you please stay back." Eddie silently sat in her seat, looking at her desk as the rest of the class walked out the door, I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze as I followed Luke out of the door. Mikey was right about Mr Cooper being wack.