The Perfect Man--Ben

“David, you have to get your act together!” This time it was his counselor telling him this but he had heard it from many adults. Before this meeting, he hadn’t even known the name of his counselor yet now he was being called “buddy.” ​What a pal!​ The mood didn’t feel very friendly though. Mr. Dunmire was starting to get a little agitated. David thought this was a reasonable response because he was intentionally being a jerk. Partly because he knew his mother had organized this intervention (interrogation) and partly because he just didn’t like the guy. ​Or did he?​ There had to be some reason he didn’t like him. There was a reason for everything. Dunmire had been talking this whole time but David wasn’t listening anymore.

Yeah, now that he thought about it he was fairly certain it was because Dunmire licked his fingers​ before opening up David's file. ​Yeah that’s why! The man was an absolute monster! His actions had created an... an unacceptable teaching environment. A breach of basic human decency and cleanliness standards and so he was justified in rendering Dunmire’s words as unworthy of his attention. In fact, Dunmire was lucky that David hadn’t groaned in disgust when the incident happened. It was the flu season for God’s sake!

David often did this. Sometimes a small part of his mind would tell him that he was making a really idiotic.... decision. But to prevent himself from feeling guilt David would create a new reality where his actions had been justified. He would replay these fictions enough in his own mind that they became true. David’s reality was the only reality that mattered anyway. David was now unsure if Dunmire had ever licked his fingers. But who cared, David didn’t.

He was proud of his method. It worked very well. He was in control. He was of a higher caliber than his fellow seniors. A higher caliber than the general population for that matter.

He left a defeated Dunmire with fifteen minutes until lunch. He went into the crappy bathroom and encountered a group of vaping boys crowded inside. Once done, he washed his hands then used hand sanitizer, something friends teased him for. David didn’t care about his friend’s opinions anyway, they were just temporary entertainment. They were like leaving the tv on for background noise. It filled the space well but you didn’t actually listen. Once high school was over he would forget about them quickly. Life goes on right? His current friends were in no way special. But he was.

He walked to go eat lunch with his friends. Since Dunmire had been particularly irritating, he told his friends Dunmire had wiped his nose and then licked his fingers. Or something like that. David couldn’t remember. Besides that, it was rather uneventful. It was generally a variation of this for the school year. The repetition was comforting but it worried him. 40 years later on the path he was going, David would be working some mindless factory job. He would come home to his crappy suburban house with his wife and three kids and beat up minivan, and he would get out a 6-pack of beer and watch the football game to forget it all. What a life! But these thoughts were extremely brief. He rarely remembered them.

He went to history. Mrs. Adler was a decent teacher. He almost felt guilty when she had to talk to him after class about his poor grades. But no, it wasn’t his fault of course. ​Mrs. Adler, despite being a nice teacher, was an insufficient one for someone of David’s mental aptitude. A genius in such a class would obviously fail due to lack of mental stimulation. In fact, David’s time was spent much better learning other things, things his simpleton classmates (and teacher) couldn’t begin to understand.​ But anyway, life goes on.

He sat in class sort of paying attention. He stole a glance at the pretty girl with the braids. He had liked her until he had heard her voice. It was nasally and reminded him of his mother’s. Something about this reasoning made David uncomfortable but now he remembered that she had never returned a pencil, no no $50 to his dear friend Rebecca despite her constant requests for the money back showing that the girl simply was a m​ oral degenerate​ and would not be a good person to talk to for David or quite frankly anyone. Not to mention her frequent use of heavy makeup shows how much of an egotistical self centered person she was.

Adler finished early and David looked out the window. By some slim chance of fate he saw Gerald Loastein who he didn’t care for. Gerald dropped his papers and the day was a bit windy. A recipe for disaster. His suffering was amusing to David. Gerald was a nice guy, had good style, a handsome face. David was easily more attractive. Gerald would have been another background character in David’s life but Gerald hadn’t burned out. He survived the game and that meant he was stronger than David.

David was a bright boy at first but then he had screwed up. He had had perfect grades, volunteer work, a college admissions advisor his parents blew money on. David was lazy though. But he was expected to be perfect. So David had become perfect. His ability to lie was addictive and it poisoned his mind. His sense of reality was extremely warped and filled with false events now. David knew all this. But who cares, ​life goes on.​

Gerald stopped inside to deliver some paper to Adler. David noticed how eyes were drawn to Gerald, full of respect and admiration. A flood of jealousy went through David that he quickly suppressed. David watched as Gerald pranced around the room before going up to the pretty girl with the nasally voice and whispering something in her ear. She let out a squeal of laughter. Anger rushed through his body. They must be talking about him. He began to mutter his lies aloud “​Gerald abused his last girlfriend Cynthia, he cheated on his SAT, he had a vaping addiction, etc.”

He looked up. Gerald had left now. David’s friend was looking at him with wide eyes but David didn’t care, ​life goes on right​. With a hoarse voice he asked to use the restroom and soon he was walking the way Gerald had gone and hey there he was!

What a coincidence. David decided to say hi to his ​BUDDY​ Gerald. He had timed the encounter so that they would meet behind the science building which was absent from cameras. ​Now why would he do that?

“Hey Gerald, how you been man?” David was smiling(grimacing).
“Pretty good man pretty good. Hey listen I’ve got more classes to go to so-” “Oh don’t worry Gerald this won’t take long.” He then explained that he would appreciate it if Gerald stopped flirting with the girl he was talking to.

“It's a pretty rude thing to do man but don’t worry, we all make mistakes sometimes.” David smiled like he was doing a favor for Gerald and really he was. It wasn’t Gerald’s fault, he was just a bit slow that was all.

Gerald gave up on the forced niceties and began to get pissed off.

“What are you talking about? I’ve been dating her for four months now. Claudia told me you texted her over and over like a creep until she threatened to report it to the school. I knew you had problems at home so I never said anything but you better stay away from her.” This was the gist of what Gerald had said but with much more cursing. Something like that. But who cares anyway, David didn’t.

“I’m just messing with you man take a joke,” David replied with maniac laughter slowly backing away. He bit his tongue and tasted blood.

Gerald swore at him much more and then bent down to pick up his papers. He then ​licked his fingers​ and flipped through them while still cussing David out.

David who was backing away stopped. His mouth was dry. The fingers..... Horrible grief passed through him because for a second he saw reality, he saw that he was the miserable worm of a man. He was the inferior one! The horror of it was incomprehensible and in his moment of clarity he whispered “I’m sorry” to not just Gerald but his mother, his lost friends, even old Dunmire for he was the bad one and a terrible rage seized him .... And then he shoved Gerald. No he ​helped Gerald​. Yes that was it. That was his job after all. “With great power comes great responsibility right!” Spiderman:Homecoming was his favorite movie!

Gerald had been occupied with the mess of papers. He tumbled backwards slamming headfirst into the wall before collapsing into a pile on the floor. His head made a sound like a bongo drum.

David stood emotionless above, partly unsure of how he got there. He poked Gerald with his shoe like some roadkill. Blood had begun to trickle down Gerald’s nose. He checked for a pulse (or did he make sure there wasn’t one?). Gerald was dead. Had David done this? Murdered the golden boy? No no it was self defense of course. No what had happened was ​Gerald had threateningly​ ​cornered David, almost foaming at the mouth like some rabid dog, while screaming obscenities before physically confronting David multiple times. David tried to calm him down but he had to defend himself, any sane person would have done the same thing...