Benjamin Murphy, a second-year engineering student, was brimming with excitement when he first hooked up with Jenny Smith, the girl he sits next to in the English course he’s taking to fulfill a breadth requirement. His friends, who he assured us are very cool, had told him all about the pluses to a “friends-with-benefits” relationship. Benjamin was excited to take full advantage of the benefits he thought would come from his non-committal English class romance.
One chilly October evening, tragedy struck Benjamin and he found himself with a woefully-chipped tooth. When asked about the details of the incident, Benjamin told The Boundary a half-baked story involving a skateboard and a kickflip he knew how to do. Some “freak accident” had caused him to fall into the pavement.
Soon after, Benjamin was rushed off to the nearest dentist, where he had faith everything would be easily sorted out and he would go back to his normal, everyday, chipped-tooth-less life. The dental team was able to make quick work of his tooth, restoring his smile to its former glory.
But that’s when the real devastation hit. At the end of his visit, Benjamin was handed a bill amounting somewhere in the hundreds. His face paled, light glinted off the cold sweat on his forehead, and he felt his hair stand on end. What about his benefits? How could the promises of his not-relationship with Jenny betray him like this? He felt his heart drop into his stomach when the person behind the desk informed him all he had known had been a lie.
Benjamin wants his story to be a cautionary tale to all who hear it. Before assuming the benefits, please do your research. Or maybe learn to commit.
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