John sat high up on the top row, staring down across the now empty football ground. It was cold, the wind gusting past his hunched form, causing him to flip his collar up against the chill. He barely noticed when it started to rain.
He'd been there for more than an hour, most of that time alone. He'd watched the football team finish their training session, seen the activity types disperse, and now nobody was left. Just John.
Just for a moment, the door had opened. There had been a chance that today wouldn't be the same as yesterday. And the same as the day before, and the week before that. Just for a while, the world was different.
He closed his eyes, and remembered the touch of her hand on his face, the smell of her perfume in his nostrils, the feel of her lips on his. He remembered the slightly odd taste of her as their tongues gently met, the taste of her sushi lunch and her post-meal gum.
He remembered the slight tension in her grip as they kissed the next time, leaning against her mother's car in the late afternoon sunshine. Then she left. And he walked home, aware more than ever of the sights and sounds around him. Somehow, after a day where he'd realised that the people he looked down on were no different from himself, there was the potential for things to be different.
Just for a day, he had been accepted. Not grudgingly, but slowly, and genuinely. For who he was.
But really, what should he have expected? That his whole world could instantly change? That all five of them would have been able to break the boundaries of their cliques, their lives, as completely as he wanted to? That a series of apparently random events could lead to his finding happiness? He should have known better.
Hands still on his collar, his finger moved slowly to touch the empty hole, where just an hour before had sat a single diamond stud. Sure, Claire had been embarrassed to ask for it back, muttering apologies, and blaming her parents for demanding that she did so. Maybe that was how it was. Maybe she wasn't lying. Maybe she really did care for him, at least a bit. It didn't change the truth.
No, there'd be no happiness for John Bender. Not now. It'd be cold wind, and chill, driving rain, and no respite from this life.
But for a moment - almost….