The Finding of Clarke Kennedy

Chapter One: My Best Friends, Ben and Jerry

It's about nine o' clock at night when I show up at my friend Daniel's house. He opens the door after the third knock, and I, like the melodramatic, tragically, romantically hopeless person I am, collapse onto him in a puddle of tears.

Now, you must understand that while Daniel is the single straightest person I know, and probably the straightest person in the universe, he and I have been best friends since we were fetuses. And no, I'm not talking about those embarrassing sixth-grade pictures that always seem to show up at family reunions: his mom and my mom were friends before they both got knocked up and had two incredibly weird baby boys, and a girl named Samantha, who is Daniel's twin sister and older by 6.72 seconds. He was the first person I came out to. He was my first kiss, back in a game of spin-the-bottle in the ninth grade. And he's my number-one shoulder-to-cry-on-candidate. Which is exactly what I'm doing now.

"Hey, hey it's okay," he says in a soothing voice, patting me on the back and kicking the door closed with his foot. "C'mon, let's get you some coffee."

Four minutes and a strong cup of coffee later, I'm sitting on Daniel's leather couch, sniffling and gripping the warm mug between my hands.  "You ready to talk about it, Clarke?" he asks gently after a while, taking the cup from me before I drop it on the floor. I nod and wipe my face with my sleeve.

"B-B-Brendan broke up with me," I say quietly, fresh tears spilling out of my eyes. Daniel walks over and squeezes into the chair beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I lean into him, sobbing into his shoulder.

"I can't believe it's over," I sniffle, gripping his sweater lightly. "Just like that. We were at the park, just walking around after the movie, and I tried to hold his hand but he pulled it away and he told me that he didn't think it would work out and I asked him what he meant and he sighed and said, 'I want to break up, Clarke.'" I let out a wrecked sob and he strokes my hair. Straight as a pole, but he knows exactly how to make me feel better.

"I'm sorry," he murmurs when I finally calm down. "I know how much he meant to you."

"How could he just leave me?" I whimper, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. "I thought...I thought..."

"I know," he says softly. "It's going to be okay."

I look up at him. "You're right. It'll be okay. Especially with the help of my best friends."

He smiles a little. "Me and Layla?"

I frown. "No. Ben and Jerry. Do you have any strawberry cheesecake left?"

He looks at me incredulously. "Clarke, I swear to God, you are the single biggest ice cream addict in the history of the world." He stands and walks to the freezer, digging out two containers of Ben & Jerry's. "Um, chocolate fudge or caramel nut?"

"Chocolate fudge," I say sadly. He grabs two spoons out of the drawer and walks back over to me.

"How about I put in a movie?" he suggests, and I nod. "Do you have any Fantastic Four DVDs?"

Daniel holds up two cases and grins. "Do you even know me?"

We end up on the couch, watching movies, until one in the morning. My legs are tucked up under me, and my eyes are glued to the screen, automatically bringing spoonfuls of chocolate fudge ice cream to my mouth. Daniel passed out on the other end of the couch an hour ago, his empty ice cream box laying haphazardly on the floor by his head. I mute the TV and grab two blankets from his room, draping one over him and wrapping myself up in the other one. I try to sleep, but my eyes stay open, fixed on the repeating menu screen. They don't close until much later, when all of the ice cream's melted and the golden rays of sunrise peek through Daniel's curtains.