Alex, the Best Friend

No matter what people said about Alex, I knew he was a true friend. Even though my mother warned me about it, I couldn’t help getting closer to him, he was mysterious, passionate, and intriguing. We spent countless hours talking over the phone and endless nights planning everything so it could be ready for the date we wanted.

My dad advised me on keeping things friendly and safe, but up to this point, no one could stop me from taking the risk, Alex was exciting and fun to be around, anything was possible with him, so I decided to take the leap and make the jump.

We agreed to meet on Saturday 14th; he was going to show me everything he had talked about, that is what a true friend is for. It was a windy October morning, so I took my glasses and a light jacket to run out of my house with my hopes high as heaven. I was finally going to meet him after all this time; I couldn’t help but being head over heels for everything that was happening.

I saw him there, with a knife on his right hand and a gun on his left. He saw me and smiled. He had a malicious smile that I will never forget. He opened the trunk and it was like Christmas to me, the corpses were there… his gift was the best thing anyone could’ve given me: the bloodiest Friday 13th ever.

It was January when we met for the first time at a butcher’s; he was staring at the glass cabinet with a faded expression. I was intrigued immediately, who was this guy? I had never seen him before. The shop was fetid, the smell was absolutely repulsive; but every person knew that this place brings the best meat in town. Walls were full of blood, and the ceiling was taken from a horror movie. Nothing seemed to work properly in that place, and it struck me with curiosity since the first visit. 

This guy's face was pale, with a zoned out expression that showed nothing but a blank mind. The butcher called him at least thrice, but he never reacted. I touched his arm and he seemed to wake from a tormented nightmare, his eyes swelled until they reached a normal look. "One pound of meat please," he asked politely, with a tremble in his voice. He reached the package and left. 

I couldn't remember what I needed so I only asked for some pork, the butcher was fast to notice my curiosity and mumbled: "His name is Alex, but don't mess with him, he's a problem you don't want to deal with."

That made the trick; I did want that problem in my life. I wanted to know everything about him, and I was not going to let other people tell me what to do or not to do with him. I packed my lunch and left my house in order to find him, but no happy day was that. A day or two passed before I realized I needed to change the tactics, anxiety took the best of me and I started computing new ways of finding him. I even offered the butcher to clean his messy shop in order to see Alex again, but nothing seemed to work out for me. 

Months of anxiety turned to deep angst, only to finally cover myself in misery. I felt gloomy and lonely, the light touched my skin as the sun would touch a vampire, and it hurt even to get close to it. I was absorbed in the deepest of the tempestuous depression. Food stopped tasting like it did, and I became to look like that one faded boy I met at a butcher. Somehow, I liked how I looked; it reminded me of old days I had something to look up to. 

Nevertheless, the day I was finally going to meet Alex never arrived, I found myself staring at an empty glass window inside a butcher shop unable to hear or feel anything. The owner decided to kick me out after the fifth call, and then it happened. I was saved by the guy that left me to wonder around life. I was angry but completely satisfied with life. Even the butcher seemed to be surprised, that kiddo was back in town for the next wave of problems, and nobody wanted him close. 

"Are you ok?" he asked, with pain in his voice, showing a scarred past through the big dark eyes. "I sure am" I replied, feeling a wave of terror. He wasn't looking at me just as I remembered, he had a darker and deeper look. His eyes made me experience hell with only one glimpse of them. He told me how things were always the same way and that the butcher always end up kicking someone out of the store for some reason. Nevertheless, I wasn’t paying attention at all, I was absorbed into his lips and how his brows moved with every blink he did. The air was cold so we parted our ways; I walked for five minutes and then stopped abruptly to sit in the bench near the park I was passing through. He was there; I knew it. So, I looked around and wondered why he was there; to my surprise, he had been following me around, “you don’t just say goodbye to that kind of eyes” he mentioned when I discovered him. 

The sole mention of his name made my whole family nervous; they were all concerned with my health and never wanted me to sneak around with someone that was undeniably problematic. I stood up for him in front of my parents, letting the heat of the moment burst out of me into tears. I was confused and annoyed, the table was set with different types of forks and knives, so I grabbed one and valiantly said, “it is his choice to be like that, for all we know, he could’ve have gone mad after a terrible thing happened to him.” Then the noise stopped. My mom only explained how worried she was of my sudden change of personality and how this guy was coming to destroy my old self. I paid little attention and started walking away to my room. 

Later that night, I was on my bed with my eyes closed, pondering about everything that has happened to me those past months and how everything crumbled at the end. The night seemed to be colder than any other night, I could hear the birds on the tree right outside my bedroom and their noise made me feel mad. I just wanted them to go away. My phone vibrated unexpectedly, I couldn't help but notice a tiny smile on my face when I recognized who the message was from. "Are you still ok?" the message read, and I knew nobody else was there but him, my good friend Alex. "Sure thing" I replied, with a little tremble in my fingers as I wrote. Just then, my phone rang. I didn't quite know what to do, so I accidentally hung up. He called again and I decided it was time to step up the game and talk as if we were friends from childhood. "You look really nice tonight! I like the jacket you're wearing" he mumbled. "Where are you?" I asked, afraid of him being too close for me not to have spotted him earlier. "I was just guessing, since its getting colder, I figured you were wearing a jacket. I'm in my house by the way" was his reply; and it calmed me in an instant. 

After several nights of talking over the phone, we decided to meet. My birthday was October 13 and he wanted me to have the best day ever, but I didn't quite know how to do that. "It's a Friday" he said, "We should make something memorable." One thing led to another, and in the midst of the night, we talked about our deepest and darkest desires. He mentioned how much he liked suffering, and that crept me out a little, but as the conversation continued, I discovered I felt a fascination with his words. I was completely trapped in his mind and how he viewed the world. Later that night, or should I say earlier that morning, he ended up a sentence with the word "blood", and shivers went down my spine. "What did you just say?" I inquired, hoping to get a similar feeling again. Everything derived from there, and after weeks, we started figuring everything out; we were both weirdos who liked to fantasize about blood dripping all over the place. It is not as if we wanted to harm anyone or as if we wanted something bad to happen, we just liked looking at blood altogether. 

So it was decided. He was going to surprise me with the bloodiest Friday 13th ever; he was going to pull some strings in order to make me the happiest person alive. 

We had to keep everything as a secret, my relatives would freak out if they knew what we were up to, so we planned everything in the darkest hours of the night. The plan was complicated, but it was doable. We set everything so it could be ready for next week. October 14th was coming up fast and we wanted to meet up at dawn, because it was easier to sneak around.
On tuesday from that same week we agreed we were not going to talk to each other anymore to build up tension and curiosity. I almost went crazy, days went by extremely slow and I found it hard to sleep at night. I planned something very special for Saturday, Alex was not going to believe it; such surprise would be the pivotal point of our friendship, he would do everything for me... would he?
Friday came, and no sign of Alex whatsoever. It was my birthday, how could he do that to me? I know we agreed not to talk, but we never said anything about visiting each other. I can't lie, I was a bit disappointed, but I kind of understood everything. My anxiety just grew bigger with every single minute that went by, I knew next morning was going to be memorable. 
And I saw him there, with a knife on his right hand and a gun on his left. He saw me and smiled. He had a malicious smile that I will never forget. He opened the trunk and it was like Christmas to me, the corpses were there… his gift was the best thing anyone could’ve given me: the bloodiest Friday 13th ever.
I run towards him and hugged him politely, the pool of blood was there, accompaining the dead bodies that he had done with silicone. I was ecstatic and couldn't control my emotions. Alex explained how easy it was to get hold of the materials, later he explained a little more on how to create false blood and make it look real. 
His eyes were shining with pride, he made it, he genuinely surprised me. Now it was my turn. I called him and he let go of the gun, leaving it by the wheel. He stood up gracefully and started walking towards me. I hugged him again and grabbed the knife he was still holding on to. My right hand touched his back, I leaned away from his face, looked him straight in the eyes as I pierced his heart with the sharp metal, I smiled as his face turned pale... "The bloodiest Friday 13th wouldn't be complete without you in it".