Walking back into that house that they'd escaped just that afternoon was strange for Allison. In the past, she had snuck into plenty of abandoned houses, whether to look for interesting things to take or to just for the hell of it. The houses were usually dirty and broken down and sometimes there were shady stains and whispers of vagrancy. But this house wasn't even abandoned and it was easily the worst place she'd ever seen. There was still broken furniture and glass lying in a pile or scattered across the musty, off-beige carpet. There were still stains of blood sunk into the floor. John's mom still lay where they'd left her, limp beside the now-empty water bottle.
John walked in without pausing at the sight of the wrecked place and went straight to the bathroom. "Don't do anything crazy." He looked back at her a moment as if deciding whether to change his mind and kick her out, but then shook his head and continued walking. "I'm gonna clean up."
Allison looked around the living room, thinking that Mr. Bender might throw a fit when he came home to this, and John couldn't take another near-death experience. "Yeah, me too."
To start, she took out the trash. She needed the trash bin in the kitchen to carry out the broken pile of wood, and there were no trash bags, just the bin full of rotting food. She took it out back and dumped it in the neighbor's yard with a smirk, then went back inside and came back out with the bin full of broken wood, glass, and trash from around the room. When she came back inside, the place was still in a sorry state but far more manageable. She took a rag from her bag, wet it at the kitchen sink, and wiped the blood from the TV and then pressed the cool cloth to the bruised head of the unconscious woman lying there.
When John came out of the bathroom, he stopped in his tracks at the sight. He'd been sure the basket case had wanted his mom to die, but there she was helping her.
Allison looked up to see John standing there with his hair wet and a towel around his waist. There were gashes on his chest, scabbed over. His shoulder was bruised dark along with a good amount of his torso. It was pretty impressive that he'd been able to fight in that condition, but she was preoccupied with the fact that he didn't flinch to let her see. He trusted her, they really were friends.
"Need something?" She asked, standing and facing him.
"Uh," Bender paused. "Gotta wrap these." He gestured down to his chest. Understanding, his friend stood and took the big roll of gauze from his hand. He seemed annoyed with himself for asking for help, but she led him to the couch and looked at his chest and back.
"Do you have Neosporin?"
"Behind the mirror," He nodded toward the bathroom. She came back with the bottle and applied the gel to the leaking cuts. The ones on his back were more serious, but a little older than the front set, so each warranted equal amount of attention. Next, she held one end of the cotton gauze at his side and began to wrap it around him. She wound it up and then back down, and there was enough gauze to wrap two layers around, covering his entire torso. Nothing bled through, and he relaxed a little as soon as it was done. He felt better now, and very tired.
"So, wanna get drunk?" Allison proposed. "There must be some liquor in this dump."
John let loose a sly smile. "Got some." He stood and they went into his room, where he had some liquor hidden. They sat on the floor, leaning against the wall and cracking open a few beers.
"Your folks won't mind if you just don't come home?" He drank and tilted his head back against the wall.
"My folks..." She spat out the word like it was sour on her tongue. "They won't notice."
"In most cases, I'm sure that sounds pretty shitty, but to me it sounds pretty good."
She huffed indignantly and chugged her bottle, to an approving grunt from her companion.
They talked and bickered until the beer ran out. John had drunk most of it, but they were equally tipsy - not enough. Still, it was enough for the tired teens, and John's eyes drifted closed in the comfortable silence. Allison looked over and scrunched her nose up; she didn't feel like dealing with a pissed off Bender, but she couldn't let him pass out unless she wanted to be dealing with a dead Bender.
"Eyes open, princess," She quipped. He obeyed with a glare.
"Surprised you haven't stolen something this whole time."
"Hah!" The basket case rolled her eyes. "What would I steal from a place like this?"
John looked at her pointedly, then nudged her bag. It clinked. "Beer bottles? Really?"
She shrugged. "The glass makes good mosaic material."
"It's brown."
"I prefer sepia."
John shook his head. "Fucking weirdo."
"I'm not the one sitting here naked."
He looked down absently to see he was still in a towel from his shower. "Look at that."
"I'd rather not," Allison stood. "I'll go check on your mom while you get dressed."
"You don't have to do that," He mumbled as he focused on getting up.
She went anyway, closing the door behind her. The house looked a lot different than when she'd gotten there the first time hours before. Now she could almost imagine that not so much was wrong as if she'd just come over on an uneventful day to hang out. Not that she really 'hung out' with anyone on a regular basis. Maybe she would with Andy sometime, but would she come back here again someday for a good time, to light it up and watch something dumb on TV? She wasn't sure. John Bender wasn't a clear read yet. How could he be cocky, yet so ashamed? So angry with everyone, especially himself? He was no angel, but he wasn't the demon child the school made him out to be. And he might need help sometimes. It was good for him to have a friend like Andy, but he'd need someone without obligations, without someone waiting at home for them. Allison figured they could be decent friends, since they kind of needed each other.
The basket case considered this as she looked at the empty space where his mother had been, now gone without a trace. She probably woke up and got out of here without realizing or caring that the house was silent, safe for now. She wouldn't have gone to a hospital - maybe she had a friend who she'd stay with until she was healed up. No way she could escape, make it out of town, in her condition. She was coming back.
As Allison was about to go back to John's room, the front door opened and his dad stumbled in. It was dark out now, and for a second she imagined that he was an inky shadow leaking from the tar outside. This was not good.
"Th' hell?" John's dad slurred. "Who the fuck're you?" His harsh tone melted and he cooed, "What's a lady like you doin' in a place like this?"
Allison looked back to John's room, but the door was still closed. Good. John didn't need to try to defend her and get himself killed, she could handle this. She looked back to the man standing in front of the exit... the door. She didn't need to worry about getting out, she wasn't leaving John. She could pull the weird card, make him feel awkward and distract him, but he might just get angry if he didn't get answers to his questions. Hmm.
"Oh, hi. Sorry, sir, I'm just hanging out with John. I hope you don't mind that I cleaned up a bit, force of habit." She smiled falsely.
The older Bender looked confused for a second, then almost ready to get pissed at the mention of his son, but he appeared to settle on being flattered by the rare respect. He hadn't been called sir in way too fucking long, in his opinion. "Don't mind having a real lady's touch around here," He looked around the room with a grunt of approval.
"Well, it was nice to meet you, sir!" She grinned sweetly and turned around, heading straight for John's room. The second she was inside, she closed the door and leaned against it, listening hard to hear if he was coming looking for his son or settling down. John looked at her in question and he pressed a finger to her lips to signal silence. After a minute or two, she moved to his side of the room and sat beside him again.
"Your mom's gone and your dad's back," She muttered.
John looked surprised, angry, anxious. "He see you?"
Allison nodded, still watching the door. "I acted real polite, he was surprised. I think he passed out on the couch out there."
"He does that."
Another moment passed and both decided that it was safe for now.
"You should really go," Bender jutted his chin out to gesture toward the window, suggesting she sneak out.
"Fuck you," Allison responded calmly. They both knew she wouldn't suddenly punk out, she was here for a reason. Too bad the reason she wanted to stay was the same reason John wanted her to leave - the danger.
"Well, we can't drink, we can't make noise, and I can't sleep. Not much to stay for."
"What do you usually do in this situation?"
John shrugged one shoulder. "Can't smoke in the house, so I usually sneak out to light up, or sleep. Read sometimes."
Allison's brows shot up in shock. "Read? You read?"
John mocked her surprised expression and then growled in annoyance. "Yeah, amazingly, I can do that."
"I'm surprised you do it for fun."
"It's not fun, it's something to do."
"What do you read?"
"Nothing," He mumbled.
She looked around the bare room. When she spotted a book by the other end of the mattress, she got up and grabbed it, returning to the wall to check it out. "Huck Finn? A classic, nice."
"It's trash. I'd rather have a couple of pornos, but you get what you get."
Ignoring his response, she turned the novel over in her hands and examined it. The thing was ratty and worn, its edges a little rounded and softened from years of use. The book looked pretty used and well-loved to her. Dumb bastard, always trying to be off-handed and unaffected. He couldn't show sentiment if his life depended on it.
"You take it, I've got a book of my own." She pulled one out of her bag - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. She smiled wryly when he recognized the title.
"There's no way you just happened to have that."
"I have everything."
He took back his book, and together they began to read. Bender almost refused to at first, thinking it was pretty lame to hang out with someone without going to a party or getting high, but since there was nothing to do, he conceded.
A few hours later, Allison reached the end of her book - she'd been partway through to start. She stretched with a groan and rubbed her eyes, which were sore from reading so long. She'd gotten so into the story it was like she was waking from a nap, coming out of it. She figured John was asleep, so she looked over to wake him - wait, no, he was still awake. He was still reading, too, one hand holding his chin and the other keeping the book splayed open. All of her shifting around and he was still focused.
"You hiding a porno in there?" She asked playfully, moving closer to look at the pages as if she expected to find a magazine tucked inside the small book.
He blinked and looked up, then inhaled deeply as if also waking up. "Huh?"
"Wow, you really do like reading. How far in are you?"
"Second chapter. Finished the book and started over," He explained as he gingerly stretched.
"Not too bad a way to spend time, huh?" She pointed out.
"For a basket case, you can be surprisingly normal."
"Makes the wild times wilder." She answered. Both of them were pretty discerning, though, and knew the 'crazy' thing was something she used to survive, just like he brandished a 'fuck you' attitude. It was part of them, but it wasn't all they were.
"Yeah, well, a trip to the pisser would be a wild time compared to this," He grumbled and got up, heading toward the door. He listened for a second before opening the door. It was a good thing that the bathroom was right next to the room, he wouldn't be in the line of sight from the couch. He closed his room's door behind him.
Allison put her book away and waited. It was still dark, probably still a few hours left until the sun would rise. The light on the ceiling kept it bright enough to read, but there was a quiet buzzing coming from it, and though it didn't exactly flicker, it faded slightly and sporadically. She was kind of mesmerized by it. The doorknob turned.
Then she heard John's dad bellow, "Get out here, boy!" from the living room. The doorknob turned back to its original position. No, Allison thought, this can't happen. He'd almost been back inside, what did his dad want?
"I said, get out here, now."
It was quiet for a moment. Then, she heard talking, muffled by the walls. Nothing drastic had happened yet. Maybe his dad wasn't always violent, maybe he just wanted John to answer a question or something, and John would be back and safe in a matter of minutes.
The voices escalated from speaking to yelling. Allison went to the door and cracked it open, looking out toward the living room. John was backing up into her line of view, being followed by his dad. John's back hit the wall behind him.
"You will show some fucking respect, you piece of shit," The man growled, then punched the wall. John flinched and looked away. His dad bellowed in his face. "What, you scared, Johnny boy? Not so tough now, are you?!" He pulled an arm back, balled his hand into a fist, and with a great swing buried it in his son's gut. With a wheeze, John tried to double over. The man standing over him grabbed his bad shoulder and shoved him back against the wall again. Bender swallowed a cry of pain, keeping silent and his eyes downcast. He couldn't talk back, too much risk.
"Hey," John's dad backhanded him then grabbed his chin, forcing the teen to make eye contact. "Where is my whore wife?"
The younger Bender tried to pull away, but his father held him to the wall with his free hand. John understood there was no getting out of this. He tried to channel his growing panic into a defensive reaction, but being trapped, all he could do was answer.
"Fuck you."
Allison's eyes widened as she watched from safety.
The man's grip moved from John's chin to his throat. "I asked you a question."
John's quickly gathered reserve started to crumble. He shook his head. "I d-" The hold on his throat made it hard to breathe. "Don't know."
His dad let go and stepped back. John gasped as soon as he could draw breath again.
"Well?"
John blinked. "She's just gone, I..." He shrugged. "She'll come back."
His dad looked him up and down skeptically. John flinched when he shoved him again, but this time the man just laughed darkly and left the house.
Allison rushed out. John watched her, and she stared back. She wasn't going to say anything, so Bender just passed her and headed back to his room.
"Where are you going?" She finally spoke.
"To sleep. I'm fucking tired."
Well, she couldn't argue with that. She followed. Bender fell to his knees on the mattress, then onto his stomach. Allison didn't even consider the floor: she lay on her back beside John, who was quickly falling unconscious. He didn't protest.
"I'm sorry for hiding," She uttered, not sure if he was still awake.
His eyes cracked open and looked at her. "I'm glad you did."
She nodded. "Okay."
Each with their reassurance, they fell asleep.