Bender's not mine, but I sure as hell wish he was.

Was he ugly? Well, he wasn't conventionally good looking, that was for sure. There was something about him though, a certain character about his face that made him so damn interesting. His personality wasn't ugly either, no bed of roses, but not ugly. He was complicated to say the least, layered. Everyone saw him as the local crim, the guy voted most likely to be living in a garbage can at age thirty; he emanated that gritty bad-boy image. His boots were seared from all the times he had lit them on fire in an attempt to light up a cigarette off them and his pants were ripped at the knees. He had a certain affiliation with the greaser monkeys who spent their days getting high in the parking lot and fashioning odd, yet dangerous, articles in shop class.

He was failing almost every class, well expect shop of course, but he was no idiot; street savvy you might say. He'd been around the block more times then you could imagine and his bed post was probably riddled with more notches then his belt. There was still something about this boy though that drew you in and begged sentimental girls out there to pull him for a big hug, although he'd ever comply. His parents think his dirt, so as a result he thinks so too. He can be brought down by an authoritarian, yet still keep composure. I've seen Vernon rip him to pieces and if you watch closely, you can see that on the inside he's agreeing with everything the man says. Underneath those quips and smart remarks, there is a broken little boy, just begging to be encouraged.

Encouragement, a word he's probably all but forgotten. When his father gave him a pack of cigarettes for his last birthday, he gave up on the man who has routinely treated him like crap. The grey streak in his hair is another form of rebellion, rebellion against the system, the man, his own heart. Underneath all of the latent hostility, the anger and rage, lies a little boy, desperately seeking his father's approval, something he will never get.

Everyone's afraid of him, and they should be, because desperate men are the most dangerous.