I couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh at the look that everyone had on their faces.
Claire grimaced, "Very nice"
"I don't think from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape, since I paid him. What do you think Nina? I mean you should know your mom's an attorney." Allison asked me with a smirk
I smiled and replied, "Oh defiantly, if anything he would get arrested for prostitution, you know since you did pay him and all." I could feel John's chest shaking from suppressed laughter.
"He's an adult!" Claire shouted incredulously
"Yeah… he's married too." Allison told her with a smile and I just knew she was relishing in this attention.
Claire was practically gagging, "Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?"
"Well the first few times…"
Claire interrupted her, "The first few times? You mean he did it more than once?"
Allison shrugged, "Sure."
"Are you crazy?" Claire demanded
I snickered, "Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink." Both me and Brian said at the same time
Allison smiled at me then turned to look at Claire, "Have you ever done it?"
Claire hesitated for a minute but then scoffed and told her, "I don't even have a psychiatrist."
"Have you ever done it with a normal person?" Allison reiterated the question
"Didn't we already cover this?" Claire asked, obviously trying to get out of answering
John spoke up cutting off her escape route, "You never answered the question."
Finding no way out of answering Claire said to them, "Look, I'm not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers."
"It's kind of a double- edged sword, isn't it?" Allison mocked her
"A what?" Clair asked her, confused
I smiled catching on to what Allison was saying, "What Allison means is, if you say you haven't you're a prude. If you say you have, you're a slut…"
"It's a trap. You want to but you can't but when you do you wish you didn't, right?" Allison finished
Claire scoffed again; I was beginning to think there was something wrong with her throat. "Wrong."
"Or are you a tease?" Allison asked her
Andrew answered for her, "She's a tease."
"Oh why don't you just forget it?" Claire was starting to get aggravated
"You're a tease and you know it, all girls are teases!" Andrew told her
John looked over at Andy, "She's only a tease if what she does gets you hot." He replied gently squeezing my hip.
"I don't do anything!" Claire shouted at them
Allison smiled, "That's why you're a tease."
"Okay, lemme ask you a few questions." Claire said to Allison
Allison suddenly gets defensive. "I've already told you everything!"
Claire shakes her head, "No! Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love. I mean don't you want any respect?"
"I don't screw to get respect. That's the difference between you and me." Allison told her smartly
"Not the only difference, I hope." Claire mumbled
I sighed, "Face it Claire, you're a tease."
She growled angrily at me, "I'm not a tease!"
John scoffed behind me, "Sure you are! You said so yourself sex is your weapon, you use it to get respect."
Claire looked like she was thinking over what she had said, "No, I never said that, she twisted my words around."
"Oh then what do you use it for?" John asked innocently
"I don't use it period!" She told him looking on the verge of tears
"Oh, are you medically frigid or is it psychological?" I asked her with a smirk
"I didn't mean it that way! You guys are putting words into my mouth!" She shouted at everyone
"Well if you'd just answer the question."
"Why don't you just answer the question?"
"Be honest." "No big deal."
"Yeah, answer it!"
"Answer the question, Claire!"
"Talk to us!"
"Come on, answer the question!"
"It's easy, it's only one question!"
Claire silences all of us by screaming. "No! I never did it!" Everyone was silenced by her outburst for a beat or two.
"I never did it either, I'm not a nymphomaniac...I'm a compulsive liar..." Allison told her and I could help but snicker at the look on Claire's face
She stared at Allison angrily "You are such a bitch! You did that on purpose just to fuck me over!"
"I would do it though...If you love someone it's okay." Allison told them matter-of-fact
Claire was glaring at her, "I can't believe you, you're so weird. You don't say anything all day and then when you open your mouth...you unload all these tremendous lies all over me!"
I smirked at Claire, "You're just pissed that she got you to admit something you didn't want to admit to."
She sighed, "Okay, fine, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre."
"What's bizarre? I mean we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Andy spoke up
"How are you bizarre?" I asked himAnd Allison decides to field that question. "He can't think for himself."
"She's right...do you guys know what, uh, what I did to get in here? I taped Larry Lester's buns together." Andrew spoke quietly
I knew that boy; he was a friend's of Brian's. He had been over to our house for dinner before. I could hear Claire laughing at what Andrew had done.
"That was you?" Brian asked him, and I could see his anger hidden in his eyes at Andrew for what he had down to his friend.
"Yeah, you know him?" Andrew replied
"Yeah, I know him." Brian told him
"Well then you know how hairy he is, right? Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off and some, some skin too." Andy said
"Oh God." I whispered and I felt John squeeze my hand reassuringly
"And the bizarre thing is, is that I did it for my old man...I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool. He's always going off about, you know, when he was in school...all the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone, right...So, I'm...I'm sitting in the locker room, and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah...he's kinda... he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him...And my friends, they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards, when I was sittin' in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry havin' to go home and...and explain what happened to him. And the humiliation...fucking humiliation he must have felt, It must have been unreal...I mean," Andrew is sitting there with tears running down his face as he tells us this and I can feel myself tearing up as well.
"I mean, how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way...it's all because of me and my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him! He's like this...he's like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore..."Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family...Your intensity is for shit! Win. Win! WIN!" You son of a bitch! You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give...and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me." Everyone is taking a minute to digest what he has said. And you never would have thought that Mr. Perfect jock could have such a horrible father.
John looked up at Andy and tells him, "I think your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling." That has everyone laughing briefly
Brian speaks up quietly, "It's like me, you know, with my grades...like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't." I sigh. I had tried talking to Brian about this at home but he just shut me out.
"What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asked him
Brian gives a mocking laugh, "'Cause I'm stupid...'cause I'm failing shop. See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um...and we had eight weeks to do it and we're s'posed ta, and it was like a lamp, and when you pull the trunk the light was s'posed to go on...my light didn't go on, I got a F on it. Never got a F in my life... When I signed up, you know, for the course I mean. I thought I was playing it real smart, you know. 'Cause I thought, I'll take shop, it'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average."
I could feel John stiffen behind me and I just knew that this was not going to end well, "Why'd you think it'd be easy?"
Brian scoffed and asked him, "Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?"
John growls, "I take shop...you must be a fuckin' idiot!"
"I'm a fuckin' idiot because I can't make a lamp?" Brian asked him angrily
John scoffed, "No, you're a genius because you can't make a lamp." He said sarcastically
"What do you know about Trigonometry?" Brian asked him, being a smart ass
"I could care less about Trigonometry."John told him with a frown
"Bender, did you know without Trigonometry there'd be no engineering?"
"Without lamps, there'd be no light!" John told him
"Okay so neither one of you is any better than the other one." Claire spoke up trying to defuse the argument.