Fan Fiction -- "Sidekick"

The website Fan Fiction is a forum where amateur writers can publish their own stories based on various movies and other genres. The website has 184 fan-fiction stories about the movie Dirty Dancing.

Here I will summarize a fan-fiction story titled Sidekick, written in 2013 by an British woman whose pen name is StarkidPotterlockFannibal.

Avatar of
StarkidPotterlockFannibal

The story is written from the point of view of Billy Kostecki, Johnny Castle's cousin. Billy is in love with Penny Johnson from a distance.

Billy Kostecki, sidekick of his cousin Johnny Castle

The story's first paragraphs (repunctuated by me):

I don't know when I started loving her. All I know is I always have. So when Johnny put his arm on my shoulder and old me to "make sure nothing bad happens to her", I was more than happy to step into his shoes and show her that I could be a real man.

You see, I had always been the sidekick. Johnny would always be her hero, the one she turned to when she needed help, the one she joked with. I was the one who was always there along for the ride.

Actually, most of the time I messed up. Keeping secrets wasn't my strong point, but I was working on that.

But now Johnny was going, and I was more than happy to take over his role.

I finished work for the day, so I went and sat in her cabin with her while we waited for him to arrive. We sat in silence. She looked scared and unsure about what was about to happen. She said this is what she wanted, but I wasn't so sure. She'd loved Robbie and thought that, when she'd found out she was expecting, he would take her away to get married, and they'd live happily ever after. Of course, Robbie never had any intention of any of that happening. He was only with her for one thing, and he'd strung her along so easily. After all, she was head-over-heels in love with him. She really thought it was something special and was heartbroken when he turned his head on her and the baby, accusing her of sleeping around. It was obvious she hadn't. She was in love with him -- and besides, Penny's not like that. But he wasn't having any of it, so she was left on her own with a baby on the way.

I asked her if she wanted anything, and she said no, so we went back to sitting in silence. The silence was almost too much to bear. I tried to concentrate on something else, but it was so hard, so instead I listened to her breath. It was uneven and shaky -- not much good as a distraction.

Suddenly there was a knock on the cabin door and a sickening atmosphere came into the room -- an atmosphere of dread, fear and a weird sense of relief.

I turned and looked at Penny. She'd turned a ghostly pale. I offered her my hand and helped her to her feet.

"Do you want me to answer the door?"

She nodded in response, her body shaking slightly. I pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear, "Everything's going to be alright, I promise. You're going to be alright. This guy's a real MD, remember?"

She nodded again and let a small cry.

Oh, God, why is she doing this to me? I can't let her go through with it. I can't I can't.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

I just had to be sure.

She pulled out of the hug and wiped her eyes while looking me in they eye and said, "Yes, God damn it, Billy. Now just answer the door."

The abortionist -- "a middle-aged man with greasy, slicked-back hair and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth" -- comes into the cabin. Billy exits Penny's cabin and goes into his own, next-door cabin.

I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what was happening next-door.

No, don't think about that, Billy. Think about .... Think about ... Oh, I don't know what to think about, so I just went back to lying there.

Slowly my mind drifted off, and I remembered the first time I aw her. I was about seven, and me and my family were vising Johnny and his family. He took me off to play with him and his "best friend in the whole, entire universe" Penny. She had long, blonde hair and a sky-blue dress on. She was beautiful then, and she's beautiful now.

She took my hand and said: "I'm Penny Johnson. I love to dance and eat ice cream."

So, I replied with: I'm William Kotecki. I love to play being a knight". ...

Billy's daydream continues. Billy remembers Penny telling him and Johnny that Robbie had dumped her after she had informed Robbie that she was pregnant.

He [Robbie] had promised her the world and not delivered, and for that I wanted to kill him. HOwever, she was putting on a brave face, as she still had to work and couldn't risk Max or the little boss-man finding out. So, instead I played the faithful sidekick and comforted her when she needed someone most.

Suddenly I was pulled to my senses by a scream and cry coming from next door. ...

Billy runs to Penny's cabin, but the door is locked. Billy tries to break the door down, but is unable to do so. The abortionist comes out, and Billy punches him. The abortionist runs away. Billy goes into the cabin and talks with Penny. Billy wants to call an ambulance, but Penny says no. Penny's voice becomes weaker, and her face becomes paler. A crowd of employees gathers at Penny's cabin.

Johnny arrives in his car. Billy runs outside to the car and tells Johnny what has happened. Baby runs to bring her father, a doctor. Dr. Houseman enters the cabin and determines mistakenly that the pregnancy was Johnny's fault. Dr. Houseman tells everyone to leave, and he treats Penny. He comes out of the cabin and leaves with Baby.

Billy and Johnny go into the cabin. They see that Penny will recover. Johnny assures Billy that he is not mad at him and that he himself would have done all the same things that Billy did.

"Thanks, Johnny," I said, smiling at him.

"Watch her for me tonight, will you? I can't bear to be in this cabin any longer. Plus, any man who loves her like you should be the one to sit by her bedside all night long."

Well, that took me by surprise. He knew? How did he know?

"Billy, it's obvious. You aren't fooling nobody. Don't worry, she doesn't know yet."

With that, he got up, kissed her forehead and left with a sigh. ...

So, I was left alone with her. She looked beautiful when sleeping, and I could sit here and watch her all day.

This eventful night had changed me. I now was so much more than a boy; I was a man. I wasn't a lot of things -- that sure is true. I'm not the hottest, the smartest, the one who steals the show or the one anyone should know.

But I knew what I had got. I'd got what I felt in my heart, and that's what I was going to use to show Penny. how much I cared and how I was different to all the other guys she's gone out with.

I sat back in the chair and slowly fell to sleep, which was hard to do, because all I could see was her lying there in pain, and the thoughts going through my head that she was dead. But I did eventually fall asleep, but I never let go of her hand.

Because at the end of the day I may just be a sidekick, but I love being at her side.

[The End]

Usually when I summarize another person's fan-fiction story, I do not reveal the ending, but I felt compelled to do so in this case. The author's point was that Billy was the sidekick of both Johnny and Penny.

======

The story's ending is sad, because Billy fantasizes futilely that Penny eventually will reciprocate his love and engage in a sexual relationship with him.

In is daydream, Billy recalled that as a child he told Penny, "I love to play being a knight".

=======

The Health Guidance website includes an article titled White Knight Syndrome – The Need to Fix Your Partner, which includes the following passages.

Often someone who experiences white knight syndrome will find themselves drawn to relationships where they feel there is something they can ‘fix’. Thus, they might gravitate toward women who they see as being in need of rescuing – whether financially, emotionally, physically or all three.

This immediately creates problems.

For starters, it creates the perception that women – as a whole – are typically the weaker species in need of rescuing. This is a notion that the vast majority of women today would vehemently disagree with and be rightfully rather offended by.

It also places pressure and expectation on the man himself. It paints a picture of men as being either wholly good or evil – literally ‘black and white’ – whereas in reality we are all much more complex than that. A man with full-blown ‘white knight syndrome’ might be playing a role rather than truly being themselves, which will prevent them from being to express themselves or to show other sides of their personality. Men need rescuing too and we need to understand this if we’re going to develop healthily.

... this approach to relationships will instantly introduce an imbalance. It assumes that the ‘white knight’ (as they see themselves) is not in need of rescuing or fixing and therefore is the stronger or superior partner. Their way must be best and their partner must be indebted to them. That’s not a great start for an equal relationship.

Yes, of course some people will relish being taken care of and will enjoy getting to be the helpless damsel. But this doesn’t necessarily make it healthy – as they can then become far too dependent on that person to the point of losing some of their own identity or independence.

======

Seduction expert "Heartiste" has published a sarcastic article titled White Knighting Explained, which includes the following passages:

There is a popular theory that white knighters — those men who jump at the chance to defend the virtue of women at every opportunity, no matter if the defense is warranted — are beta males who hope their stirring gallantry will get them into women’s panties. Offering a shoulder to cry on or an indignant word after an asshole hurts the girl of their dreams, these men turn themselves into emotional tampons with the goal of sneaking into the pussy when she is at her most vulnerable. ....

Surprisingly few alpha males — those men who are good with women — are white knighters. Experience with women disabuses such men of any romantic notions of the fairer sex. You will hardly ever hear an alpha male praising the sublime virtues of women because he knows they have none (as a gender). ...

These guys [white knights] wear shirts that say “this is what a feminist looks like” and cross their legs when they sit. They are huge hypocrites, because despite having been on the receiving end of a lot of female neglect, manipulation and shit testing, they still cling to their unctuous little ideology. Ideologues are auto-brainwashed. They will never see the light. Best just to enjoy a cruel laugh at their expense.

Imagine a plush beta male who has experienced nothing but woe with women. He has been LJBF[Let's Just Be Friends]ed, ignored, pitied, humored, used, dumped and drained of all his resources except his balls. He’s not repulsive to women, but he just doesn’t much turn them on, and he can’t figure out why. He grows bitter with the years and the fat chicks and wrinkly cougars he manages to bang as a consolation prize.

The truth about women stares him in the face — in fact, smacks him upside the head every day — and yet he clings to platitudes and juvenile romantic idealism with all his power, afraid that should he let go, his whole dating life will be revealed for the sham it is. In self-deception, there is sanity. Oftentimes, the most emphatically dogmatic white knighters are these hopeless losers in love, teetering on the precipice of revelation, a hairsbreadth away from total ego meltdown.