Ben Barc

A Story by Wolftyla

Most fairy tales starts with those four basic words, but this isn’t a fairy tale. It won’t start like that. It starts when I died. I know it’s kind of a dramatic and strange thing to start with. Well, as I said it’s not a fairy tale; it’s reality.

I guess everyone wish that their life would start with those four words because after those four words you already know that the ending would be a happy one. But in life “end” is the saddest part, because “end” is when you die and you leave everything you loved or everything you loved leaves you and then you die. Well, in my case, it’s the second version. And now all of you are wondering, “Why he is saying all this? Like we care about it. Yeah, you died like everyone else in this earth and so?” This is the point that I didn’t died like everyone else. I died in the worst way. Now all of you are wondering about it, right? So let me begin my “fairy tale”.

My name is Ben Barc with a ‘c’ and not with a ‘k’. I was 16 and now I should be 19 years old, but as I said I’m not alive anymore. At that time, I lived in Leeds in a small apartment with my mom and two little sisters. My mom, Nora, was working at a hospital. She was a doctor so most of the time she’s working and rarely was at home. My sisters, Viola and Marinala, were twins and at the time they were 13. Most of the time, I was babysitting them even though it wasn’t needed, but mom always paid me, so why not? And, well, my dad left us 4 years ago and since then we hadn’t seen or heard anything from him. So, when I wasn’t babysitting my teenage sisters, I went to Leeds City College. My grades were perfect because I was kind of a nerd but a popular one. I had many friends and everyone liked me. I had a beautiful girlfriend Siara. She was smart, friendly, warm hearted and everyone loved her. I loved her. I was lucky to have someone so perfect in my life. I met her at the party 3 years ago and since then I never let her go. And of course how could I forget to mention my best friend Nick. We’re best buddies since kindergarten. Nick always was a girl magnet. His black, shinny hair, blue eyes, tan skin and athletic body attracted every girl’s eye. He was well known for his looks in Leeds. But, as a friend he was perfect; I always could count on him. So I guess now you are wonder, “ If everything is so perfect why do you need to write this in such a dramatic way?” Well, I thought everything was perfect. In reality it was fricking far away from perfect. I was just blind and I didn’t want to see the truth. The last two weeks of my life changed everything… EVERYTHING!

It was 2014, 10^th of February. The shortest month, and a month for love. It was four days until Valentine’s Day. Me and Nick went to buy some gifts for our girls. And yes, Nick had a girlfriend, but like for two weeks. He wasn’t good at relationships. Anyway, we were searching for something special and for something that our girls would love to get. And no, we didn’t have an idea what we are looking for.

“Hey, dude, look at that sexy a*s underwear suit!” yelled Nick as loudly as possible so everyone would notice us.

“Are you serious?” I yelled back as I looked at him and raised my eyebrow.

“Hell, yeah man. She would look so fine in those,” said Nick, as he winked at me.

“ Ooohh, calm your dirty a*s down, Nick. She ain’t even your girl. But yep, you are right,” I responded while laughing and hit him playfully in the shoulder.

For the next two hours, we still were searching for the perfect gift. Well, finally we found what we wanted. I bought a necklace with imitation of diamond . Siara the shiny jewelry. Well, Nick is Nick. That’s the nasty season he thinks that an underwear suit is a perfect gift for a girl even though he’s dating her only for a week. Anyway, after we got everything we needed we went to my car and put our gifts on the backseat of my car.

“Wanna go somewhere to eat? I’m starving!” said Nick, as he put his hands on his stomach.

“Yeah, of course. Wendy’s is okay for you?” I asked as I was turning on the car engine.

“I don’t care. Just drive there or I will eat you instead,” said Nick with impatient tone in his voice.

So we drove to Wendy’s and grabbed some burgers.

While eating our food Nick looked at me with that look on his face that he had when something was not okay at all.

“Why do you have that look on your face?” I asked with an anxious voice.

“I have to tell you something…” he looked away and then stared straight into my eyes.

“Okay, you know you can tell me everything,” I said in the friendliest of tones.

“Yeah, I know…”

Nick took a deep breath and said the most heartbreaking thing, “I saw Siara yesterday. She wasn’t alone… Someone else took your place… I’m sorry, dude. I couldn’t hide this from you.”

I felt like someone just hit me in the stomach and I couldn’t breathe anymore.

“I don’t believe you,” I said.

“I know you don’t. But have I ever lied to you? Well, I have photo because I knew you would say that,” he said as he was unlocking his phone.

I knew he wasn’t lying because he never did but that moment I didn’t want to see the truth. Anyway, he showed me a photo and I felt the pain in my chest.

“I’m going home,” I said it in a calm tone and just got up from the table we were sitting. I knew that Nick knew that I wasn’t going home.

Actually, I drove to the place where Siara and I first went as a couple. It was a park. I parked my car, putted my earphones in and played the 6LACK song ‘Just In Time 4 Weekend’.

I walked for a while and then sat down on the same bench we were sitting on three years ago. I remembered our talk and the way she laughed and smiled. The way the wind was playing with her hair. It was at that time that I fell in love. And now I’m sitting here by myself and thinking about her and the thoughts of loving her make me sick. After some time, I got up and went to my car, turned the engine on and drove back home. I laid in my bed all night with my eyes wide open. I didn’t go to school next day I just stayed in my room.

“Gggg.” My phone vibrates. I ignored that.

“Gggg.” It vibrates again and again. “Who the hell could it be?” I thought. I looked at it and just as I thought, it’s my dear girlfriend.

She sent me some messages:

“Hey, where are you? Are you sick? heyyy, are you ignoring me?? I’m coming over.” She typed.

“Don’t.” I typed and pressed send.

“Why? What happened??” she responded quickly.

“I don’t want to see you... I know everything Siara. Stop acting.”

“What you mean?”

“I saw you with someone else.”

*seen* It was all I got at that moment, but I didn’t care because my thoughts been somewhere else. Then someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I shouted.

It was Nick.

“Hey, how are you?” he said with a caring expression.

“I’m fine, I guess.”

“You are not fine and you know it. I can see it in your eyes. But even though your heart is broken you still need to move on. She’s gone and she isn’t your girl anymore. It doesn’t mean you need to stop living and do nothing. Maybe she wasn’t right for you,” said Nick, as he looked at his phone.

“If you came here just to talk about this and you don’t have anything interesting to say, be good and just leave,” I yelled at him.

He came to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said with caring voice, “I see you want to be alone right now. But if you need something you can always count on me.”

He left.

Days went by and my grades started slipping. I avoided everyone. Eventually, I stopped going to school at all. I stayed in my room all that time and it seemed like no one really missed me, no one really needed me. Suddenly someone knocked on my doors.

“What?” I asked in angry voice.

And I heard soft Siara’s voice, “Hey, can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure.” I yelled.

And I saw her.

“Hey” I said with calm voice, while looking at her.

“Are you okay?” she asked while looking at me with the caring eyes.

I felt that anger inside of me,” Yeah, what you want?”

“I just want to talk about our relationships,” she said as she was looking around my room.

“Our? There is no “our” anymore, okay? It’s me and you. Two individuals, not a couple!” I yelled at her.

“Okay, I know you hate me right now but I can’t do anything about it because I can’t choose whot to love. It just happens. And it happened to me. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry, Ben,” she told with shaking voice.

She started to cry. I hugged her and asked with calm voice, “Why didn’t you tell me about it? You promised to tell me everything no matter what.”

“I was afraid and I knew that would break you… I…” I hugged her stronger.

“Everything is okay and you don’t need to cry about it. I understand everything. You know that I’m happy if you are happy, darling.”

She wiped her tears and looked at me for the last time and said, “ I brought your stuff… I’m sorry, Ben. Bye.”

She hugged me and left. I felt the tears fill up my eyes and then everything became blurry. But what can I do? I can’t be mad at her because I love her with all my heart and all I want for her is what is best for her. I hope she is happy now.

Here we go… the last three days of my life. I stopped going to school or even out of the house. Everyone tried to talk to me but all I did was just push them away. I started drinking a lot. So my daily routine sounds like this: wake up, cry, drink, cry myself to sleep. I felt dead inside and all I felt was the pain.

It was Friday evening and I was drunk as possible. So being drunk and stupid I made that Friday the last Friday of my life. I sat in my car, turned the engine on and started to drive. After 20 minutes my mom received a call, “Hello, am I talking to the mother?”

“Yes, who are you and why you have Ben’s phone?”

“I’m Maria Black and I‘m working at the police. And have to tell you something about your son.”

“What happened? Is he alright?” Mom was screaming with fear in her voice.

“I’m sorry about what I need to tell you. Your son died in car accident,” said woman.

Now it been three years since I passed away. I know what my mom still can’t believe it. My sisters are growing up fast and doing okay. Nick finally found his soul mate. Siara, well, she’s happy now.

I miss them a lot…