Franklin & Bash – 'Em Boys
The time Peter and Jared broke up was dark
For all that Jared and Peter had been best friends, partners and the most important person in each other's lives since they met, their relationship had had its dark moments over the decades. One such instance was the worst of them all and it took place during Law School. Janie, then Peter's long suffering girlfriend, would later comment that she'd never thought anything could get between the lifelong friends, and she was honestly shocked when their break up happened.
Hell yeah people considered it a downright break up, things were that bad, and things had always been that intense and heavy and important between the two idiots.
Like many things in their life, starting with the way they met, it started off small, insignificant and pretty much on its way to being completely forgettable. What followed, however, is what matters most, in particular how it affected their otherwise unshakeable bond.
Jared was hooking up with a pretty red head that Peter had once been interested in, and the friends were discussing it over drinks one night.
"I don't know how you never got in there, man" – Jared said first.
"And I am very impressed you managed, I swear I thought she was asexual or something, I never saw with anyone" – Peter continued.
"She just needed a special Jared touch, I guess"
"Yeah, sure"
Things could have ended there, things could have moved on like they usually did, but one thing that was instantly noticeable in the two goofballs, even many years down the road, was that they were children at heart, and do you know what kids love? Getting stuck on the smallest of things–
"What's that mean?"
–and extrapolating on them–
"Huh?"
"What, you think she's too good for me or something?"
"What! No, I didn't say anything like that!"
–without thinking about the consequences–
"Just because she wouldn't go for the magnificent Peter Bash and his magical dick?"
–not to mention bringing up old wounds at will–
"I only said that ONE TIME, and I was DRUNK!"
–to inflict maximum damage–
"Well, EXCUSE ME if I have a more magical dick than you!"
"What does that even MEAN?!"
"It means I could out fuck you any day of the week!"
"That doesn't make any sense!"
"You just don't want to admit that I can be more attractive than– Than, you know, tallness"
"Tall– That's ridiculous!"
"You're ridiculous!"
"No, you are!"
–though the preferred method of childish fighting is, of course–
"–fucking dick bag!"
"–shit faced asshole!"
–is good, old fashioned cursing each other out because, why not.
What should have remained a fight in the heat of the moment, fueled by alcohol, became the beginning of a terrifying time. Janie was the first casualty of the rift, having to handle Peter's terrible mood over being estranged from his beloved best friend, but everyone around the two young men soon learned the strength of their rage when pushed too far, to the point where even their professors noticed it.
Working together became impossible due to either the icy way they treated one another or the fiery, angry way they shouted insults from across the table (no one was insane enough to let them get closer than that after the first time they started fighting like lunatics in the middle of the cafeteria). They sat on opposite sides during class, fiercely competed for the professors' attention, and tried at every turn to outdo the other in assignments and tests.
On one hand, the professors liked to see them working so hard, on the other, they really wished they could get the goofy, playful, brilliantly ingenious boys they had gotten to know and actually really like since their first day, not to mention that it was a pain to have debates in class because no matter what side they would normally be on, they always went on the offensive against the other, turning every class into a near circus.
That and the fist fighting right after class. One would think such popular, flirty boys would want to preserve their faces, but they were nasty, vicious and constant in their punching, kicking and even scratching, to the point where even the campus police started ignoring it when it was just them (and, to their credit, it only rarely extended to the rest of the student population).
"I don't see what the big deal is" – Janie tried to tell Peter.
"What the– IT IS A HUGE DEAL!" – he would scream back at her.
"You dumbasses have been best friends since forever" – she tried with Jared.
"Then forever is canceled, 'cause we're so over!" – he would scoff at her.
Janie became a DA many years later, but she came this close from becoming a double murderer, if only for her sanity.
"I give up" – she told both of them (separately, of course).
"FINE! I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR HELP!" – they shot back at her (Peter only mildly calmer, not wanting to also break up with his girlfriend).
This went on for over two months, and it made everyone around them constantly on edge, wondering when the next explosion would come, because as they had proved since the first day into their break, the smallest of provocations was reason enough to fly across a class, somehow, just to trade a few slaps and bites and hair pulls.
Everything came to a head at two months and twelve days during a party that the two were attending. Everyone was trying to keep them at different rooms altogether, but it ended with a phone call.
"Oh God. Peter!" – one of their classmates came barreling into him – "It's Jared, he needs you, something happened!" – without thinking, Peter rushed on in search of his best friend. Jared was hyperventilating and sobbing as he clutched his phone, and Peter easily enveloped him in his arms.
"Mom" – was all Jared said, and Peter only hugged him tighter.
The two disappeared from the party like they'd never been there, and neither showed up for the next few days. Janie remained mum on the subject and the only person to really know what was going on.
When they returned, Jared was a lot subdued and Peter was a lot snarky at anyone who dared come too close from his now officially best friend again. The shorter boy would cling to him sometimes like a lifeline, and the taller one allowed it, snarling at anyone who gave them even one look, because the second earned them a quick curse or growl.
It hadn't taken long after the party incident for people to learn what made Jared break down (the wife of the great Leonard Franklin dying in a car crash? Big news on campus), but their condolences were received by Peter alone with nothing but anger and rejection. Jared was too out of it to even nudge his friend into being less aggressive.
No one quite blamed Jared for his state, though some disliked Peter's (these were the people who had never had a friend quite like him, and likely would never). Janie was asked many a times about her boyfriend's odd behavior, but she only raised an eyebrow at them and asked coldly how they would react if their best friend in the world suffered such a loss and still had to confront an entire school of stupid people trying to console them, and the only person who could actually do it was them?
That shut people up fast.
Despite the tragic event that re–started their friendship, the actual period they were broken up was remembered almost fondly as two–something months of pure insanity and hilarity, and as they healed and returned to their former selves, Jared and Peter could joke around about it, though the details of what caused their rift remained mostly a mystery even to themselves.
They became even better, closer friends after it, however, something that maybe his professors winced at until the moment they left school. They predicted great or terrible things from them, maybe even both things in equal measures. None of them could say they wouldn't wish to see them in action, in any case, because it would surely be quite an event.
For years to come, their friendship and brief break up were the stuff of campus legend, and as they became more and more infamous and then famous in LA, it only added to the allure of Jared Franklin and Peter Bash.