Ben Austen

I was sitting there and I was like, man, these are my friends, you know, that I grew up with.

And so I started friending them.

I, like, broke my rule.

And there was, like, this kid Chaka that I hung out with and this girl Alana and Malcolm Speller.

I just started friending all of them.

And then there was this one other kid.

His name was Eddie.

And I paused.

We both transferred to this public school in sixth grade.

And I remember hearing that his mom told like the office lady at the Jewish day school who told my mom that the reason Eddie transferred schools followed him to the public school, i.e.

Ben Austin, meaning me.

I was the reason he transferred.

Yeah.

So I was like, he probably doesn't want to hear from me.

And there seemed to be like a 2,000-word essay that he wrote me in response.

Let me ask you to read a little bit of that.

Okay.

Okay.

Before I broadcast to the world via my 2,100 Facebook friends that you and I are friends, I need to get something off my chest.

This may sound petty, but when we were boys at Akiva Schechter, I felt insecure in your presence.