Ben had never been too good at dealing with it when his friends were falling apart. Everyone around him was going through something. Calvin was dealing with his breakup with Katie and his burgeoning ability or whatever you want to call it and that – the former at least – was stressing Charlie out. Fiona was dealing with Rory’s rejection and all the false signals he was tossing at her. Jacen, though…Jacen had a full plate of crap, plus a side dish and a large drink overflowing. There was a lot Ben was regretting recently, but nothing quite so much as the fact that he hadn’t been around for Jacen as much as he should have been. The ‘good friend’ thing was his job; it was his forte. To think that he was slipping because he had too much on his own plate? Yeah, it bothered him.
His imminent collapse; the ever-present threat of a looming nervous breakdown wasn’t crossing his mind in the slightest. Jacen, Calvin, Fiona and Charlie weren’t okay and in Ben’s world, that meant that he cast aside his own well being until they were all at least on the way to being better.
Thus, when Jacen had texted him about staying at the Bailey domicile for a few days, Ben hadn’t hesitated. Were roles reversed, he knew that Jacen wouldn’t have hesitated, either. He sat in bed in his pajamas, calc book open in his lap and coffee cup steaming on the table behind him. Yeah, it was late and yeah, he had school tomorrow, but he’d spent all weekend working and he had a test tomorrow that he hadn’t studied for yet. His phone was on and resting on the side table as well, waiting for the signal that Jacen had arrived, and when it came, Ben practically leapt out of bed and bounded down the stairs to greet his friend at the door.
As soon as he’d spoken to Jacen earlier, he’d set the guest bedroom up, but they’d worry about that later. First, Ben wanted his friend to talk. Maybe he didn’t want to talk, but Josie-problems tended to need a reasonable amount of airing, and Ben was pretty good for that kind of thing. At least he liked to think he was. He pulled the door open and gave Jacen a concerned smile.
“Hey dude,” he stepped aside so that Jacen could get inside. “Here, let me help you carry some of your stuff.”