Hate Every Beautiful Day
Chapter 8
By: Makena
Benji woke up the next morning hang-over free, but tired none the less. And sore. Football practice had taken it's toll and Benji could hardly move. Every bone in his body ached. He groaned and gently sat up, weakly propping himself up on his elbows.
Joel rolled over in his own bed and clumsily flicked the radio alarm clock off. He rubbed his eyes and glanced over at Benji, surprised to see him awake already.
"The football star has awoken!" Joel said, flashing a cheesy smile at Benji.
"Eat me," Benji groaned, slowly getting out of bed.
"Watch as the exotic football beast climbs out of it's nest, upset by the taunting the endangered baseball animal has inflicted upon it," Joel said, beginning to pull his pants up.
Benji shot a nasty "shut the fuck up" glare at his brother and dug out his Rancid t-shirt from his dresser drawer.
"Notice the threatening looks it sends the baseball animal as it puts it's fur on!"
"Shut up, Joel," Benji said in a threatening tone.
"The football beast roars out a threat."
"Eat me!" Benji said, not liking whole taunting/teasing thing. It wasn't like he had chosen to play football.
"A second threat! This may get ugly - a football beast awakening from sleep is always an extremely dangerous thing to be around! He may attack!"
Benji grabbed a pillow from his bed, heard Joel say "uh-oh," and began to pound his brother.
"AGH!" Joel yelled. "It's attacking! There's no hope left for the endangered baseball animal - the football beast is too vicious for him!"
"Seriously, Joel!" Benji shouted, beating his brother over the head a couple of times. "Shut the fuck up! This might be funny to you, but if you think I'm enjoying it, you're wrong."
"Okay, okay," Joel said, dodging the pillow. "Jeez... lighten up. I was just messing around with you!"
Benji rolled his eyes and threw his pillow back to his bed before finishing getting ready for school.
"It's finally Friday!" Joel said finally, shoving books into his backpack.
Benji froze. Friday? Of COURSE it was Friday - how could he have forgotten?
"Shit," he muttered to himself.
"What?" Joel asked.
Benji looked over at Joel and shook his head. His first football game of the season was that night, and the last thing he needed was his brother there to make fun of him.
-----
Benji went to school and got through the day like he had gotten through every day - alone and bored.
"It's just so sad," Nicole said with a small sigh, inserting a straw into her milk carton. "I mean - there he sits, all alone."
"No one's calling on the telephone," Shannon sang, moving her head to the side.
Nicole frowned at her and Makena laughed a little.
"What?" Shannon asked, looking around the table. "It rhymed. It could be a song."
Makena laughed and shook her head.
"Anyway, not only is little Benjamin just a loner and an alcoholic," Nicole said, pretending Shannon hadn't said anything. "But he also happens to be a football player."
"Really?" Brian asked. "How did you find this out?"
"Makena made me hang out with her after school," Nicole explained, jerking her thumb at Makena in the seat next to her. "She watches football practice, and Benji came out there the other day."
"Yeah," Makena said, blushing slightly. "It was kind of weird. I mean, he had kind of talked about it yesterday during first hour, but I didn't think he was being serious. I figured he was trying to piss Aaron off, but..." She sighed and paused. She picked up her soda and looked at Billy as he began to talk.
"Yeah, I saw him too," Billy announced. "Paul and I were at the press box smoking, and Nicole came and found us."
"Wait," Shannon said. "So... we're stalking him, now?"
"Well... yeah," Nicole replied.
Shannon frowned and pouted. "I wanna stalk too..." she said.
Makena laughed and watched Benji for a moment. He had bought himself a milk and what looked like fish nuggets that day, but he hadn't touched the fish. Instead, he sipped on his milk and wrote some things down in a torn, read MEAD notebook. He looked so alone and sad, and she almost regretted yelling at him before, but - he did deserve it. He hadn't exactly been the definition of hospitable, but he wasn't the definition of hostile, either.
"Maybe we could go see him play football tonight?" Nicole said out loud, breaking Makena's concentration and bringing her back into their group and away from Benji's loneliness. She frowned at the idea and shook her head.
"I don't know why you guys want to be friends with him," she said. "He's... well... a jerk."
"Maybe we could change that," Nicole said.
"You're friends with the people you hang out with because you like who they are, not because you want them to be who you want them to be," Makena reminded her.
"My thought's exactly!" Brian spoke up. "Come on... we don't exactly need another birth defect in our group. We've got seven now - we're good."
"You met him yesterday, didn't you?" Makena asked him.
"Yeah," Brian said. "Not exactly the nicest person I've ever met."
"I still think he needs a friend," Shannon interjected.
"Me too," Nicole said. "All in favor, raise your hand."
It was five to two, which meant nothing, because Paul was soon talking about the up-coming play try-outs and Billy was reminding people his band was going to be performing some where on Sunday and Benji was silently rejected once again.