Public Displays of Affection.
"Jesus Claire, I knew I was wrong about you!", John fumed, pacing around the empty classroom.
Pissed off, was probably an understatement to describe how he was feeling. Betrayed would be more accurate, not that he was going to tell her that.
"You haven't changed at all. You're still just as up-your-own-ass and bitchy as you were the first time I laid eyes on you. And now you send me a note saying you want to meet up in an empty classroom after the stunt you pulled. Well, Fuck You!"
Claire sat on the desk closest to him, not crying as she would have the previous Saturday. Her face was as emotionless as a sphinx, fighting back the storm of emotion she was keeping locked up inside.
She only just about refrained from asking him why the hell he had showed up to talk to her if that was the way he felt but clearly they had unfinished business to attend to and he was already pissed off enough.
"John, I'm sorry I reacted the way I did but in my defence you launched yourself right on me completely out of the blue in front of the whole school."
John rolled his eyes, cackling sarcastically. "No Claire, there's clearly more to it than that. I remember you quite enjoying me launching myself at you when I showed up at your house on Saturday night."
Claire blushed faintly at the memory of him sneaking into her room after detention on Saturday evening but said nothing.
John continued; "It's fucking obvious! You think that you're too good for me and you want to keep us a dirty little secret so all your ladies in waiting still love you and so daddy in his BMW still thinks his daughter is the perfect little princess. Well, I'm not hanging around for bullshit like that. I'm an all or nothing deal from here on out."
Flustered Claire slid off of the table, eyeing him defiantly. Her cheeks were almost as red as her hair.
"You know what John, it wouldn't kill you to treat a girl with respect. I hadn't even told any of my friends about us and you tried to make out with me in front of them. How was I supposed to react? Just say, 'Oh hey girls, this is my boyfriend John Bender. You might recognise him as they guy who pulled the fire alarm last week and spray painted Vice-Principal Vernon's car bright orange the week before', because that would go down great", she finished sarcastically.
"Sweets, I dealt with our situation the best way I could think of", John answered bitterly. "I wasn't gonna go have a big heart to heart with my buddies about why I want to be with the prom queen, so I was just letting everyone know how I felt about you...but they know now don't they, they know the famous Claire Standish turned me down."
Claire rolled her eyes, finally letting her tears fall. They ran hot and salty down her face. "So that's what's wrong!", she deadpanned, unsurprised. "It's not about me at all, you're just worried that your friends won't see you as 'Womanising John Bender with all the girls photos in his wallet' anymore, all because someone finally rejected you."
John shook his head in frustration. His first reaction was to give her some snarky-ass reply but instead he didn't. "No, Claire. I'm upset because the one girl I decided to let in, the one girl who just for a second got me believing in that 'one guy and one girl' nonsense, decided that she was too good for me".
He sighed, as though he felt annoyed with himself almost as much as he felt betrayed by her. "I should have listened to you on Saturday when you said you wouldn't talk to any of us again."
With that Shermer High's resident 'Burner/Bad Boy' turned and stalked out of the classroom, not waiting for some other half arsed excuse from her highness. "See you around, Princess", he told her with a small salute.
Claire watched in complete and utter shock as he left, more tears fell down her face and for the first time, she couldn't find it in herself to bother about her mascara.
So it wasn't about her damaging his 'bad boy' image at all, she had genuinely hurt him. She hadn't thought that would be possible.
Was it all her fault? He had only tried to kiss her, but she had rebuffed him and laughed in his face with her friends when they had unanimously agreed that he was stoned out of his mind...God, she shouldn't have done that.
Deep down was Claire really so stuck up that she didn't want to be seen with him in public. "John wait!", she whispered, her heart breaking a little.
He was already gone.
"Oh my God, have you guys heard who Andrew Clarke is dating?", Natalie said, dropping her voice as though preparing the other four girls for something seriously dramatic. "Allison Reynolds", she whispered.
Jennifer, Anita and Sarah all gasped dramatically. Claire sighed quietly, managing a small discreet smile. At least one of the Breakfast Club couples were brave enough to take the plunge into a relationship. She wished she had been.
"I know, right?", Natalie said, clearly happy with Jennifer, Anita and Sarah's reactions to her news. "Like, what on earth is he thinking?"
Anita looked between Jennifer and Natalie a little confused. "Isn't Allison Reynolds that scary loner girl with all the long black clothes?"
The other girls nodded. Claire just tried to keep her cool, she was used to them gossiping about people all the time anyways. In a couple of days they would have found something besides Andy and Alisson to talk about.
"Isn't she homeless? I always thought she was with that big bag she carries around?".
Claire held her tongue even though she was dying to tell them to shut up. Even if Alisson was a bit strange, she didn't deserved this kind of bull shit.
"No, I don't think so, but she's definitely into witchcraft! She probably put some kind of crazy voodoo curse on Andy to make him like her."
"Maybe Andy is dating her as a bet, or something?"
Claire decided it was best to just tune them out, so she looked around the room in search of four particular familiar faces.
Brian, Allison and Andy were sitting together at the table Allison usually sat at on her own. Brian looked a lot happier than usually, clearly delighted that some of The Breakfast Club were still talking to him. Andy looked happier than Claire had ever seen him, his arm wrapped around a happy and slightly tidier than usual looking Allison.
Meanwhile, John was sitting at the other side of the room with the rest of the burnouts who were howling in laughter at some, probably very crude, joke one of them had told.
He looked a little more sullen than the rest of them, clearly still affected by what went down between them in the classroom, and at that moment, he chanced a glance across the room.
John's dark eyes caught her's quickly and Claire felt a blush creep up on her cheeks, she barely managed to tear her gaze away from the intensity of his.
Out of the corner of her eyes she thought she saw him smirk humourlessly. Damn him and his effect on her!
Claire couldn't help the next words that rushed out of her mouth. "I'm actually very happy for Andy and Alisson, they seem like a really cute couple."
"We moved on from that ages ago, Claire", Natalie said with a little laugh, trying not to frown at her friend's strange opinion and how she seemed really out of it today. "We were talking about how that crazy burnout practically tried to assault you this morning. Imagine it, you could get mouth herpes or something from a guy like that."
Claire shook her head, "Actually it's not like that at all!".
"Well, what's it like then?"
How on earth was she going to explain this to them? Claire covered her face with her hands, whining in frustration. "It's like...it's like...how would you feel if someone popular decided to date a person that was in a totally different group from them?"
Natalie rolled her eyes, "We do date people in different groups from us, Claire...The Jocks."
"No, I mean like really different."
Anita shrugged. "Well, I would think they were throwing their popularity away. What about you girls?"
The other three nodded. "Absolutely."
Claire sighed in frustration, biting her lip. How was she going to make them see, make everyone see. "But what if the two people really cared about each other?"
"What are you talking about, Claire? You've been acting really strange today. Is everything okay?"
"I'm fine", Claire replied distractedly , making her decision. If John had been willing to make a statement about them in front of the whole school this morning so would she right now!
All of a sudden, with a momentary surge of confidence, the redheaded teenager stood up on their table to the surprise of all the equally popular students around her. "Hey everyone, listen up!"
The hall fell silent, everyone turned in shock to Claire at her extremely out of character outburst.
The girls looked up at her like she was crazy. Andy and Brian looked pleasantly surprised, Allison amused, but it was John Bender that Claire sought out.
His eyebrows were raised, his expression unreadable but he was watching. Claire felt her face flush a brighter shade of red. She couldn't look away from him this time. No matter how embarrassed it made her.
"I think most of you know me but in case you don't, I'm Claire Standish and there is a guy sitting here in this hall right now who I really really like and who I think really likes me too", she could feel her legs shaking, her face burning but she could see the expression on John's face changing a little, so she continued and he kept on listening.
"He came up to me and my friends this morning and I pretended that I didn't know him because I was afraid what people would think of us being together but I want to let him know that I'm not afraid anymore and that I'm sorry for being a bitch."
Claire saw a little smirk appearing on John's face. Was she being forgiven? The possibility made a little bit of relief flood through her and gave her the strength to stay going.
"You told me that I was the one girl that you wanted to let in. I want that too, John", she said, addressing him directly. The other tough looking teens at his table turned to him and smirked and guy sitting next to him whooped loudly. John waved them off, with a glare and turned back to her.
He could feel his resentment loosening a little and threw her a half smile.
"I want to let you in, I want you to know who I really am beyond the person that everyone else sees. I don't care if that makes me unpopular or if it makes my friends hate me...because I think I'm falling in love with you and I don't know what to do if I'm the only one who's falling."
The hall stayed perfectly quiet for a few minutes, no one daring to speak.
Claire kept her eyes on John, daring him to walk up to her table. Daring him to put his neck out again like she just had. There wasn't a hope in hell she would turn on him this time.
Before Saturday, Claire had never considered herself a very emotional person but John seemed to bring that out in her. He cut right past her exteriors, straight to her core where she was at her most raw and vulnerable.
She stood there awkwardly as a handful of people started to talk again, and the tears came, just like they had earlier on, streaming down her face, burning.
John wasn't going to get up, he wasn't going to come. Oh God, what had she done?
She climbed of the table without a second glance at anyone and rushed for the canteen door, more than half of the school's eyes still glued to her as she made her way there, passing the burners table on her way.
John watched her, his heart thumping in his chest. Did Claire just say that she was falling in love with him?
Nobody had every told him that! Nobody had ever told them that they loved him period, not even his own mother.
He sprung up out of his seat after her, completely ignoring the catcalls from his group of friends.
"Claire wait!", John called, grabbing her arm and whirling her around to face him. Her eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks wet and pink, her lips pursed in determination.
Claire looked up at him with a glare. "Don't say anything, John", she warned.
She didn't need him to make fun of her in front of everyone after what she had just done, she had made enough of a fool of herself without him taking any part of it further.
John smirked affectionately, pulling her close to him, and pushing both of their bodies right up against the canteen door for all to see. "Works for me, we both know I prefer action to words, Sweetheart", he said, his lips achingly close with her's.
Was he asking for permission this time?
Claire tugged him in the few remaining vital centimetres in response. She wanted this! Of course she did. She wanted him no matter what happened.
The room around them burst in applause (save for a few of the popular crowd) and no table was louder than the one that seated the other three members of The Breakfast Club.
Not that either John or Claire noticed...or cared much.
At first his lips were slow and soft, cautiously teasing and testing to see if that was what she wanted. It felt just like it did when they were saying goodbye after detention, sweet and hopeful.
John groaned into her mouth, eliciting tiny sparks in the pit of her stomach. With handfuls of hair, Claire pulled him closer to her, carefully tracing his bottom lip with her tongue.
This time they had the liberty of her father not being a few feet away in his car.
Gripping her hip bones roughly, John caused Claire to moan loudly. Needing no further encouragement to explore her mouth for himself just like he had in the closet on Saturday, John went right for it and Claire fought back determinedly, a battle for dominance.
But suddenly...
"BENDER! STANDISH! This is not the time or place!".
Claire and John reluctantly pulled apart from one another, only to come face to face with a pissed off looking Richard Vernon.
"Oh, I'm sorry Sir. You know teenage hormones? They really can run wild on you", Claire said quickly, without thinking. Her voice was over the top sweet, an innocent look on her face.
John smirked. "You'd know all about hormones though, wouldn't you Sir? Carl tells me you have a fine magazine collection."
"Shut up, you little shit", Vernon answered, his tone firm as he pointed to John accusingly. One of these days he was going to have a heart attack and it was going to be the fault of punks like John Bender. "My office NOW!"
"You see, Sir. I'm not too sure how much time I'll have for you now I have a full time girlfriend. I wouldn't want you to be getting jealou-"
Vernon cut him off angrily, throwing a pointed look between John and Claire. "Detention this Saturday, both of you!"
"Sir, you already have me booked in for seven, so is that an eighth to add to my calendar"
"Shut up, Bender!"
"Touchy Touchy. I see someone's one their period, right Dick? Remind me to keep better track of your menstrual cycle in future"
The older man scowled in frustration. "You listen to me and you listen good, John Bender. You are toeing a very narrow line and when you cross it, your ass is grass. Understand?"
And with that Richard Vernon turned and stalked off in a huff, earning a salute from his least favourite student. All the students in the hall went back to their own conversations like nothing had happened.
Everyone was well used to 'The Richard Vernon vs John Bender Show'.
John smirked, grinning at Claire. He still couldn't believe what she had said earlier and damn, if her standing up like that in front of everyone hadn't impressed and surprised him even just a little..."Now, the question is, Cherry. What are we going to do with eight full hours of alone time?".
Claire looked up at him, amused and took his hand. She could be annoyed that John had landed the two of them in detention for the second week in a row, but she wasn't. They were going to have a blast next Saturday. "I think I've got a few ideas."
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