The Dave

The name it self is enough of a warning. Dave.

Daaaayyyyyve. What kind of a name is that? Everyone must have had a Dave in their life at some point. This story I now write to make sure that on recognising the Dave signs you do not pat him on the head, you run swiftly away. .

A Dave is a person of not many friends, in fact usually he has none. Naturally he is insecure. When girls got their first periods, Dave got his first anti depressant. For him that was the moment of entering a physical maturity. He than had an excuse to hide behind to get out of any thing that was asked of him " I cant I am depressed and have pills to prove it". Why Dave was allowed out of physical education so he could instead wallow in his depressive burrow of a room I never understood.

The problem with Dave is, one does naturally feel sorry for him.When you see him so lonely, he automatically becomes a personal mission. You want to become his friend, you want him to have friends ,you encourage him to do sports an feel better about life. So you drag him everywhere trying to make life better for him. And just when you think your effort might sprout cntentment, they always start to cry out of self pity, or retrospect.And than you snap.

I have encountered dozens of Dave's, which is how I became allergic to them.

We had to revise for months to pass end of school exams. For some reason Dave chose that moment in time to start calling me every day. He asked if I mind, which of course I did not. Poor thing just needed to talk to someone . The conversations at first lasted half hour, than days later for two hours, eventuay they would streech ower a whole day from morning to night, which I could not spend revising for the exams . He would call, and if would so much suggest I needed to hang up he would snivel. I coud not hang up. I would get head aches. My phone ear would get hot. I would want to vomit from the samness, of conversation and complatins, but I thoguht I was helping Dave, and so I would spent half the night writing essays instead. Ben had felt sorry for him. He had taken on and introduced the Dave mission.Poor thing. Nice chap. Needed friends. Dave was sweet everyone agreed. Ben made sure people accepted him at school, and soon Dave would come home from school at holidays and stay with Ben and all his friends. The group of friends adopted Dave. He went to the band practice and concerts and hung out in a town million miles from his own home.Dave became a mascot.

But when he got back to school he would call me.The girl fired of his new best friend. Oh he loved Ben so much. The way Ben looked. The way he talked. The way he just was. The way he dressed. Dave would borrow Ben's clothes to look like him more. Than he would buy off Ben's clothes. He would purchase the clothes Ben tried on and liked in the shops, despite it all looking wrong when Dave wore it. I wondered if he was gay. But no he was not in love with Ben,he assured me he just saw Ben as his alter ego. Ben was everything he was not and everything he wanted to be. And than it came out, amidst tears.

He had a fantasy. He did not know if he should tell me. He did not know if i ould mind. He wouldn't do anything about it it was just a kind of a dream. But..

He really wanted Ben to be dead.