“You’re not gonna eat that either?”

The question came after a long, infuriating silence, in which Casey and their new house guest spent staring each other down from across the table ( mostly Casey, Ben seemed rather oblivious ). The constant mental image of Ben wandering the apartment in a towel, using his toothbrush as if he lived there was enough to kill Casey’s appetite for the next five years if not more. It was as if he were slowly trying to shove Casey out, down to taking over his possessions.

Wanda had yet to mention his little stunt at the store apparently. That, or Jennifer didn’t care, since he got caught anyway, the toothbrush conundrum going unsolved until he felt like bringing it up, which he didn’t. In the back of his mind, he contemplated waiting it out for awhile. A two-dollar toothbrush wouldn’t phase her, but an enormous dentist bill for her kid’s rotting teeth might do the trick.

“When did you start hating my cooking so bad?” Jennifer went on. She was trying Casey’s patience with her Visiting Jennifer act, and even more annoying, Ben was buying into it, smiling, eating like no one was watching him.

Ben injected himself into the conversation with an ear-piercing laugh without even swallowing his food, smushing Casey further into silence, pushing him out little by little. “My little girl used to be like that too. One week, she loved broccoli, the next we couldn’t even have it in the house. Asked for lasagna every night, then decided she was a vegetarian on a whim. At twelve!”

“He’s not suddenly vegetarian, he’s just being a brat.” Jennifer rolled her eyes.

“Where is she now?” Casey finally piped up.

Ben’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Your little girl — where is she? Shouldn’t you be hanging out with her?”

“Casey!” Jennifer snapped.

“I’m just asking. He keeps wanting me to talk so bad, that’s what I wanna talk about.”

Jennifer slammed the palm of her hand into the table, but quickly retracted when Ben started laughing again, halting both of them. “Whoooa, easy, now. You still upset about the toothbrush? I said I was sorry, kiddo, I thought it was an extra. I got you a new one.”

“I don’t care what you thought, you don’t live here. You can’t just walk around here in a towel, you can’t just use peoples’ stuff. Stop laughing!”

“Enough.” Jennifer held a hand up, then pointed at Ben. “Quit laughing at him. You, quit being a brat. Eat your dinner. Apparently it got taken care of, so just knock it off.”

Even though Ben stopped laughing, he was still grinning. He wanted to laugh and Casey could tell. To Ben, he was just a ridiculous kid throwing a tantrum. “It’s not funny,” he snapped. “It’s gross.”

“I wasn’t in my right mind,” Ben admitted. “A little too far on the booze, you got me. But hey, we can still be pals, right? I said sorry, I made it right.”

Casey shook his head, shoving his plate a few inches away from him and standing up. “We’re not gonna be friends.”

“Casey, really?” Jennifer glanced at Ben, then up at Casey. She looked more exhausted than furious. Part of him was satisfied to wear her down first when it was usually the other way around. “Do you have to embarrass me in front of everyone who comes to visit? You know what, no, never mind. Go to your room if you want to so bad.”

Sometime later, Casey found himself outside on the curb, knees pulled to his chest and chin leaned atop them as he watched cars pass back and forth along the street. He didn’t want to be inside where Jennifer and Ben were. Even having to hear them was making him sick. If he had the guts, he’d have run off and never looked back. How far did the sidewalk go? And the road after? And the road after that? How far could he make it before he passed out from exhaustion or worse?

What did he really have to lose?

“There you are.” Ben’s voice came from behind, but Casey didn’t look. “Your mom seems pretty convinced you ran off somewhere.”

“Yeah, here.”

“So, my kid lives out-of-state with her mom.” Ben came to sit beside him. Casey scooted an inch or so away to keep the gap between them as large as possible. “That’s what you wanted to know, right?”

Casey shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter anymore. I’d rather know why you thought it was cool to use a toothbrush in a random house.”

“Hey, like I said, wasn’t in my right mind. We all make mistakes, right?”

“Well, that’s a pretty big mistake.”

“I know. I didn’t know there was someone else in the house.”

What was worse: the fact that Ben was drunk and decided to use his toothbrush? Or that Jennifer forgot to even mention he lived there, leading Ben to believe it was free game?

“Let’s start over, what do you say?” Ben proposed, holding out a hand, but Casey remained hugging his knees.

He shook his head slowly. “You should really just get out while you can, dude. Even if you don’t, we’re never gonna be friends.”