John Bender was as good as his word. He did nothing about Rose. That Monday morning he died a little inside when she walked into homeroom, looking more perfect in his eyes than she ever had, in tiny denim shorts and a cut off white T. For a moment, she caught his eye and he thought she was going to walk over and sit next to him, grabbing his hand under the table, grinning so hard her nose wrinkled. But then John realised she hadn't locked eyes with him at all. She had looked through him, so pointedly he felt she'd taken her damn razor blade to his heart. Razor blade. He looked down at her arms, and though he couldn't be certain, he thought he saw an angry redness. He'd check it out in English, he promised himself.
In English, just a little more of him died. She came in grinning, wearing Scott's letterman jacket. She sat down near John, not having any choice, ignoring him completely. Not even noticeably ignoring him, it was like he was invisible. Like she was the Princess and he was the Criminal, so low that she couldn t even register him. It was then he remembered the angry flash of red earlier and looked at her arm. Instead of another column of military straight cuts three long slashes ran diagonally along almost the length of her forearm.
Calmly and without saying a word, without breaking concentration, Rose reached into her pocket and carefully placed John Bender's switchblade knife on the table in front of him.
"Rose..." He muttered quietly. She held up a hand. "YOU'RE A FUCKING BITCH! YOU'RE A FUCKING WHORE PRINCESS BITCH." He got up, ignoring the dirty looks from his teacher. "YOU ARE A STUPID SLUT AND I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN FUCKING THE BRAINS OUTTA THE BRAIN DEAD QUARTER BACK!"
"Oh shut the fuck up John Bender. Just because you're too frigid to fuck, and to goddamn stupid to realise when someone might actually just give a fuck whether you live or die."
"Rose Dubois and John Bender!" Their teacher finally screamed at them. "Both of you detention this Saturday. Now sit down, shut up and we can continue with Lord of the Flies."
That Wednesday, Allison made her way tentatively into her art class. Her heart in her mouth, she glanced at the desk her and Rose shared. Rose was already there, working on yet another picture, this one on a huge canvas and she was using acrylics, not pencil. Allison looked down at the floor and attempted to remain as silent as possible. John had told her about the stony silence, followed by the shouting match that had got them both a detention and she hated the idea that Rose would scream at her. Confrontation was not something Allison was good at.
"Hey Ally,"Rose smiled, although perhaps it was a little forced, and Allison was slightly shocked and somewhat suspicious. "Don't look at me like I m gonna eat you hun!"
"You're... you re not mad?"
"Not at you Ally-May. I should have seen it before, really."
"Seen what?"
"You and John! It was so obvious. I mean, you're like made for each other," She smiled
"But... Rose... me and John, we re not...We don't like each other... like that..."
"Ally, please. John obviously likes you. Otherwise, well otherwise he wouldn t refuse to have sex with me and then go straight to yours and attempt to get in your pants... Obviously he was trying to get over you by being with me but it didn t work...And I'm glad, you guys are cute together." she gave a small, very forced laugh.
"But Rose, he doesn t like me at all..."
"Ally. If he doesn t like you at all then the truth is that he just never liked me at all. And that'd be okay if it was just a guy. It'd be fine, if it wasn t John. If it wasn t Bee. I think he's the only guy I've actually ever started to like. It's just easier if I can think he's always loved you. Because otherwise he's never liked me."
Allison remained silent.
"So no, Ally, I'm not mad, because I can understand why you went with it. John s good looking and... charming I guess in a strange way. I'm just, annoyed at him that s all."
And with that, Allison s heart went out in sympathy with Rose s, and broke.
