"I haven't seen Claire all day," Andy remarked, sitting at lunch with Brian and Bender. "Do you guys know where she went this morning?"
"Allison was the only other one up when we left, and I think she went back to sleep right after." Brian replied with a shrug.
He sounded calm, which said a lot for Brian. Sur, he acted calm most of the time, but Andy could always hear the tension in his voice. He'd learned to recognize all his nervous habits, like biting skin of his lips until they bled or cracking his knuckles. Despite the mannerisms making Andy worry, though, it was strange not to see them. Unnerving, almost. It was as if someone else entirely was controlling his body. Andy coughed nervously and folded his hands on the table.
"I'll bet you ten bucks she ditched to go shopping again," Bender joked.
"I wouldn't count on it. All the friends she would ditch with sort of left her in the dust after that weekend in detention."
"I'm sure she's fine, Andy, don't worry." Brian smiled sympathetically.
"Oh, sure. That coming from the King of Worry himself. 'No, I can't do that, I'll get in trouble!' 'If I don't study five hours a day I'll die!'" Andy mocked angrily. "But as soon as one of the people you're dating goes missing, there's nothing to worry about! Good old reliable Brian, only ever worried when it's his ass on the line!"
Brian was taken aback. He froze solid for a moment before he started chewing on his lip. It didn't take long before he started tasting blood.
"Why don't you shut the fuck up?" Bender demanded. Andy raised an eyebrow. "You heard me, fuckass. What gives you the right to make Brian feel like shit? For once in his life he doesn't feel like killing himself and you feel the need to fuck that up. And for what? Because he looks out for himself?"
"Well would it kill him to look out for us once in a while?"
"Yeah, it probably would! Just like it'd kill me to try and look out for my stupid mom!" Bender was on his feet now. "Look, Sporto, I get your dad puts a lot of pressure on you, but you don't have the right to say anything when you don't get what we get at home."
"Uh, fellas, can we calm down a little?" Brian asked nervously, glancing around at the people staring at the scene. "You guys don't have to fight."
"I think we've established that we all have shitty parents, Bender. Get over yourself and move on."
"At least your parents love you!" Bender yelled. "Even just a little bit!"
The entire cafeteria went silent, all staring at Bender. The last person they'd ever expect such an outburst from. Andy sat in rigid silence, the color drained from his face in horror. Brian stood up calmly and walked Bender out of the cafeteria, leaving Andy sitting alone. All eyes shifted to him. He laid his head on the table, humiliated. Minutes passed. Slowly the noise returned to the cafeteria. He didn't move, though, until his suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder.
"Andy?" Claire asked softly.
"Jesus, he's such a fucking asshole," Bender muttered to himself, pacing around the hallway.
Brian sat on the floor quietly, leaned up against the wall of lockers. He hated when the group fought. Everyone always split into sides. He always had a hard time picking sides because everyone made good points. This time, though, it seemed he was on Bender's side by default. Or maybe Bender was on his side... It was too hard to tell. He knew Andy was right, though. Even when he was worried about something other than himself, it all seemed to come back to whether or not he would get in trouble. At the same time, though, Bender was also right. Even though there were similarities between Andy's father and Brian's parents, Andy still had his mother, who really did love him. They'd all met her, so they knew. Neither of Brian's parents loved him really. They just loved his potential and that was it.
"I'm so pissed," Bender huffed. "I just need to hit something."
"You can hit me if you want." Brian said.
Bender stopped dead in his tracks. His gloved hands twitched slowly into fists and he shouted towards the ceiling, punching himself in the face over and over. Brian panicked, scrambled to his feet and ran to the other boy, grabbing his arms and pulling them down. Bender's expression softened ever-so-slightly.
"Oh, God, I'm turning into my dad!" He yelled, pulling away from Brian and slamming his head into the wall of lockers.
"Hey, knock it off!" Brian cried, trying and failing to pull Bender back.
Eventually they both sunk to the floor in exhaustion. Minutes of silence passed.
"Don't ever say something like that again." Bender huffed.
"You aren't your dad, Bender." Brian reminded him.
Bender refused to turn around. He kept worrying he'd turn around and Brian would be gone, and he didn't want him to leave. Even if they weren't talking, it felt a little bit better just to know he was there. Just minutes before the bell rang, he did slowly turn around. Brian was still there. Slowly, he leaned towards Brian and pressed his lips gently to his. Brian was shocked. For such an aggressive person, Bender was a surprisingly soft kisser. He didn't break away. A gloved hand moved up his neck gently, holding just below his ear. The kiss lasted for a good three minutes, then the bell rang and they immediately broke apart. They held eye contact for a few seconds. Brian jumped to his feet.
"I gotta go to class," He said quickly, and ran off.
Bender smirked slightly and got to his feet, walking in the opposite direction.
Back in the cafeteria and quite a few minutes in time, Andy and CLaire sat together consoling each other. Andy had explained Bender's outburst, which prompted Claire to justify her absence, which in turn sent the two into endless tizzies of self-hatred. At the moment, Claire was facedown on the table, sobbing.
"I'm such a horrible girlfriend!" She cried, muffled by the table. "I didn't even try to stand up for myself or for her... I just let her walk away without saying a word... She probably thinks I don't care about her at all!"
Claire had come up from the table and was shaking Andy's shoulders and yelling in his face. Andy waited for her to calm down before pulling her into a comforting embrace. She laid her head on his shoulder.
"You're not a bad girlfriend. We're gonna talk this out with Allison and she'll understand. She's very forgiving, you know that." Andy said quietly. His voice was strained. He'd been yelling a lot that day.
"You think so?" Claire asked, looking up and rubbing her eyes.
"I know so." Andy kissed her forehead reassuringly.
"What about you? If you talk it out with Brian and John I'm sure they'll understand you didn't mean what you said. You were just scared."
"I don't think it'll be that easy, Claire." Andy ran a hand through his hair. "This is Bender we're talking about. He's not exactly known to 'forgive and forget'."
Claire squeezed Andy's hand in an attempt to comfort him. The bell rang and they walked to their English class together. Allison already sat in the back. Andy signalled for Claire to wait a minute and sat down in the seat beside Allison. A minute later Claire entered and sat timidly on Allison's other side. She smiled nervously and Allison sunk down lower into her seat, tugging her her parka hood over her eyes. Claire looked frantically at Andy, who shrugged and gestured back towards Allison. Claire thrust her hands into the air, demanding an explanation, but was just met with another shrug. She rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration before leaning towards Allison and placing a firm hand on her shoulder. She immediately pulled away when Allison flinched. She pursed her lips and looked back up at Andy. He mouthed "softly". Claire nodded and slowly returned her hand to Allison's shoulder. She didn't move this time.
"Um, Ally," Claire spoke gently. "I'm sorry about this morning. John's right, I'm a coward and I fucked up. I should have said something." Another nervous glance at Andy met with a nod.
"I shouldn't even be mad," Allison admitted quietly, poking her head up. "You couldn't have done anything, really. We're gay girls. We should be used to it by now."
"I just don't want you to think I don't care about you, Ally. You're one of the most important people in my world and I wish I was able to prove it to you."
Allison bit off a piece of her thumbnail and scraped it across the inside of her cheek with her tongue. She turned to Claire and smiled softly.
"I think you just did." She said, reaching under the table for Claire's hand.
Claire grinned and pulled Allison into an embrace. When the bell rang Allison separated from the hug and took Andy's hand in her other. The three sat linked together all period. Andy was glad that Claire and Allison managed to make up so fast. Of course, perhaps it was mainly because neither of them were really in the wrong. As for him, though, making up with Bender and Brian was sure to be a different story.