Sidekick

Joey was a sidekick. Not the Batman-and-Robin type of sidekick, more the Johnny-Carson and-Ed-McMahon type of sidekick. You know the kind of guy. Always hanging around the leader or dominant person in a group of friends, agreeing with everything they say or laughing at all their jokes.

Well, that was Joey to his friend Matt. He couldn't really figure out any specific moment in which it happened. In grade school, they had just been best friends and on an equal plane. But once junior high and puberty started, things began to shift fairly rapidly. Matt hit puberty almost at once, gaining almost 6 inches in height in about 6 months along with a much deeper voice and more manly frame. He became instantly popular with the boys and an object of affection for all the girls.

Joey, meanwhile, didn't hit puberty until high school, and it didn't really do him any favors. He only grew a couple of inches and remained fairly squat. His voice got squeaky and his skin got oily and pimply. he got laughed at a lot. But to Matt's credit, even though he had his own min entourage of friends and hangers-on, he never abandoned Joey. Joey repaid the kindness by becoming slavishly devoted to his friend.

As they grew into adults and went their semi-separate ways, they would still meet up weekly and so their friendship carried on. With high school a memory, it seemed for a time that their relationship would continue along a more equal plane. At least, that was what Joey was hoping for.

This proved not to be the case, as Matt was so used to being the centre of attention that he didn't relinquish it easily and Joey had been second banana so long he wasn't sure how to be otherwise.

So the two carried on as a pair, Matt dictating what they would do, where they would go and when. Joey just went meekly along, growing more and more miserable and longing for independence he didn't know how to obtain.

Finally, Joey decided he'd had enough. He did the only thing he felt he could: he cut off all contact and just stayed away. Matt would call, e-mail, drop by and get no response. Matt went on trying to contact Joey for months with no luck. Finally, he stopped. Joey was free.

Or he thought he was. At first, it was great not be bossed around and to do the things he wanted to do. But he had no one to do them with. Even though he had achieved his goal, Joey found himself even more miserable than he had been before.

Finally, he slunk back to his friend. He discovered his life without his friend was no life at all. He just couldn't seize control of his own life, no matter how he tried.