A/N Please don't forget to REVIEW. I hope you guys are liking the new chapters, but without reviews I can't know what you think. Don't be a stranger, and please don't be afraid to tell me what you don't like.
I'll never be one to hold new chapters hostage for reviews. All I'm saying is I just need people's opinions so I know if my story is even worth continuing. I give you my word I won't turn into one of those writers who disappears in the middle of a story for months or years at a time. Especially not as long as I know there is interest.
Hopefully, I'll be coming to the end of this fanficton very soon. But a new one will come one day soon after this one ends. It'll pick up with a new school year.
In case it's unclear, here are the gang's ages at this point in my story: Bender-17, Claire and Andy-16. Allison, Brian and Saidie-15. Allison is almost 16. Allison, Saidie and Brian are all freshman at this point. Bender, Claire and Andy are sophomores; Bender having been kept back a year. We'll find out why later.
"All the girls could never make me love them the way I love you"
-Red Light, The Strokes
Andrew was interrupted out of his thoughts by the arrival of Allison and Brian, coming from the library. He smiled at the sight of them. Allison was wearing black jeans, a blue tank top, and, around her waist… his blue sweater. This made Andy smile even wider. He'd almost forgotten that he gave it to her. He had to admit, it looked much, much better on her. He already knew that she'd sown his patch onto the inside of her "jam-bag", as he now liked to call the bag Allison carried with her everywhere.
All thoughts of Bender, or Claire, went out of his head as he walked up to Allison and Brian. He nodded a guy nod at Brian and smiled at Allison. He took the sweater from around her waist and hoisted it on her shoulders. Blue looked so good on her. She smiled back at him.
"Um, guys, have you seen Bender?" Brian asked.
Allison shook her head, but the mention of Bender's name brought Andrew back to reality. "Um, yeah, I just saw him. He's out back with some girl. They were really going at it, man."
Brian shook his head, hanging it low. Andrew knew that Brian was Claire and Bender's biggest supporter. He just didn't understand how hard relationships could be.
But he couldn't be concerned about Brian, or Bender and Claire right now. Not when Allison, the most unique girl he'd ever known, was standing right in front of him. "Hi," he said to her, in that soft voice he'd used when he first saw her after Claire's makeover.
"Hi back," she said, just as softly.
But luck wasn't on their side that day. Just then, the end of lunch bell rang, and the three Club members realized it would only be a matter of seconds before the halls became flooded with other children. Brian cleared his throat. But before he could say anything, some of the jocks were coming out of the cafeteria and headed right in their direction.
Andy noticed this and began to get nervous. He opened his mouth to say goodbye to Allison, but before he could, Stubbie was calling to him. "Yo, Clark! Where'd you go? Come on, man!" he looked quizzically at Brian as he grabbed Andy and pulled him away, while Andy was looking back at Allison helplessly.
That was the thing about being invisible. Stubbie hadn't even seen how close Andy had been to Allison. He hadn't seen Allison at all.
Brian and Allison exchanged a knowing look. Allison looked at him the way she had when Brian had first laid eyes on her Claire makeover, only this time the look said, "I told you so."
Brian cleared his throat again. He didn't know what good he was if he couldn't offer words of comfort and reassurance to Allison. So he said, "I-I'm going to see if I can find Bender before class," before giving Allison as warm a smile as he could, and taking off.
Bender's day, while it appeared to be going great to Andy, was full of turmoil; more than appearances showed.
He'd been determined that this would be the week he got back to being the old John Bender; the one before a certain crazy redhead had put him in danger of losing his mind and becoming everything he stood against. He hadn't spent time with any of his girls recently, and so he'd spent Sunday, after he left Saidie's house first thing Sunday morning, smoking and hanging out with one girl, a blond by the name of Donna. He hadn't slept with her, which was unusual for the two of them when they got together, but there had been a lot of making out and other questionable activities. And he remembered what it was like to kiss someone who actually knew what passion was; knew what it was like to be to sexually aroused and not ashamed of it. In short, he remembered what it was like to not have to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing, and to just enjoy being with a hot girl.
He'd been worried that the first or second time he hung out with one of the girls he was considering, that he'd have one of those stupid revelations that guys were always having in those stupid chick flicks his cousin Mariah always watched and made him watch with her. That he'd be in the middle of kissing Donna or some other girl, and suddenly it wouldn't feel the same and all he'd be able to do was think about Claire and how kissing some virgin tease was some stupid, life-changing event that was going to rock his world and force him to get his life together and become some stand-up citizen.
He was almost relieved that none of that had happened. He was still able to enjoy kissing other girls, and feeling up other girls. And he didn't even have to feel guilty about it.
But, truth be told, there was a slight change. Bender did come to a small realization as he was making out behind the school with Leigh Dorian. See, he'd always only been concerned with his own enjoyment when making out with girls before. There was no romantic attachment, but the girls he considered were his friends...in a way. He'd never had to worry about whether or not they were enjoying kissing, or sex, or whatever they were doing together. And his own enjoyment of it had only been about the sensation, not about who he was doing those things with.
But Monday, getting hot and heavy with Leigh, he realized that these girls felt the same way about him. They were using him for the physical enjoyment just as much as he was using them, and they were no different from Claire's friends in that they had no problem making out with him but would probably never actually date him. It had never dawned on him until that day that the anti one-guy, one-girl thing hadn't been completely his decision. He'd always just assumed that any one of those girls would have jumped at the chance to actually go out with him or be his actual girlfriend if they had the chance.
But then the bell rang and Leigh broke away from his neck and from touching him, and climbed out of his lap saying, "Later, dude." And took off all nonchalant, as if she had just been taking a test or something.
And then he thought about what Saidie had said to him about how girls thought he was hot but most of them would never do anything about it. Damn. Even the girls of the heavy metal vomit crowd didn't think he was good enough to date, if he'd even wanted to. And he couldn't say that he blamed them. He was angry, aggressive, sarcastic, and the furthest thing from sweet or kind or romantic. Somewhere deep down, Bender had always known that when it came to girls, his main attraction was his good looks and sexy rebellious attitude. And it had worked for him. Big time. It'd gotten him more than his share of hot girls, but never anything more than that. It had never bothered him before; he wasn't exactly sure why it was even on his mind now. But it was something that he couldn't shake from his mind for the rest of that entire day.
The next day, he realized why that had been. He hadn't smoked anything that entire day. It made sense that his thoughts would run wild on him.
That was why, when he saw Brian prancing through the halls excitedly toward him, he'd never been so happy to see the dweebie's face. "Hey, dork." He greeted.
"Hi, Bender. Long time, no see." Brian joked lamely. It had been about four days. "Where've you been?" he asked.
"What do you mean? I've been around." Bender replied.
"I-I tried calling you over the weekend and I didn't see you yesterday."
"Yeah, dweebie. I stayed over at Saidie's on Saturday night."
Brian blushed and looked down. "Oh." He said.
Bender smirked. "Relax, Big Bri. All she did until I went to sleep was talk my ear off about you." At this, Brian blushed an even more ridiculous shade of red and grinned that goofy, satisfied grin of his. "Oh," he said again.
Bender rolled his eyes in an amused way. "Let's go to lunch, Big Bri," he said, patting Brian on the back.
They headed out the side doors to Freddie's car, since Freddie always spent his lunch with the other burnouts.
"So," asked Brian, when they were all settled in, "what did Saidie say about me?" he asked nervously.
Bender looked at him with wide eyes. "What do I look like, your gossiping girlfriend?" he asked sarcastically.
Brian looked down. "Right. It…it doesn't matter. I mean, we're guys, right? No big deal." He said.
But Bender could tell he was dying to know. He rolled his eyes again. "She said that you were a perfect gentleman. And that she wished you would have kissed her." Bender said. "Now that I'm sufficiently a girl, are you happy now?"
Brian smiled. "I could have kissed her?" was all he said. He didn't know what to make of that. He hadn't ever known what it was like to have a girl actually wanting to kiss him.
"She appreciated that you didn't though. Trust me, dweebie, you're the only guy that wouldn't have tried to." Bender replied.
"I… I thought she was mad at me. I've barely gotten a moment to talk to her since we went out."
"Why would she be mad at you?" Bender asked, narrowing his eyes at Brian. "Did you do something for her to be mad at?"
"Well… I haven't called her since the date. But it wasn't my fault! I…I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. I didn't know if I should have asked her out again, or if she'd even want to go out again. And I didn't see her around much yesterday."
"Why would she be mad about that, Brainiac? Did you tell her you'd call her at a specific time and then didn't? Did she ask you to call her?"
"No. But, Claire… she says that if a guy likes a girl, he should call her after the date to tell her that he had a good time, and that he should call her within the next two days to check in with her if he wants to go out with her again. That's what she told me. I didn't call Saidie that night because she mentioned that you were supposed to be coming over to see her…"
Brian went on and on, but Bender had stopped paying attention. He'd been thinking about Claire since Brian brought her up. Stupid Queenie and her stupid rules. Brian must be a real shit-for-brains to buy into her crap.
Who did she think she was to manipulate the dweebie with her stupid rules? Why couldn't she just live her own life? And why was it that she could be all involved with what was going on with Brian and his love life (good God, Bender could hardly believe that the dork now had a love life) but couldn't even talk to Bender about why she'd acted completely crazy on him and came to school after their date and wanted nothing to do with him?
But maybe this was his chance to find out. If Claire and Brian were such gal pals that they talked about dating and shit, maybe Brian had some insight as to the inner workings in the mind of a princess.
"Hey, dweebie," Bender said, interrupting Brian's ramblings, "has Claire mentioned anything to you about me?" Then he paused and added, "Jesus, I feel like such a chick."
Brian reddened. "Um, well, Bender, I don't think Claire would appreciate me talking to you about this. And she's trying to move on, since you decided you're over her, and—"
"—Aww, come on, Big Bri. You think Saidie would be thrilled if she knew I was telling you about our private conversations? And…wait, what? What the hell do you mean she's trying to move on because I'm over her?"
"Okay. Well, Claire came crying to me after we went to The Hut and you told her you didn't care if she went out with Dan Hogan. After we all made up after that big fight, she wanted to make up with you and wanted to go out with you again, but when you rejected her—"
"—Rejected her?! How the hell did I reject her when I didn't even know she still wanted me to go out with her? Fucking Claire, man. Did she also tell you, Big Bri, that she's the one who picked a fight with me after we went to the fucking arcade? Did she tell you that she's the one who came to school and flirted with Freddie in my face? Did she tell you that?"
"Well, I don't know about all that, but—"
"—But what? She's fucking nuts, I swear."
"I do know she's real sorry about that, Bender. From what she told me, she thinks it was a really stupid mistake to act like that. I-I think she was just upset because she was hoping you'd call her after your date, and when you didn't, she thought you weren't interested in her anymore. Lately she's been asking me what you and me and Andy did that night that we went out. I think she thinks you met someone else."
That shut Bender right up. All this time he'd wondered why Claire had come back to school acting like a mental case after their one and only date, and now he had his answer. Because he was such a dope he hadn't thought to call her. He thought about Freddie's words about how Claire wouldn't have been flirting with him unless Bender had done something to piss her off. And apparently he had. How was he supposed to know it was protocol to call a girl after a date so she'd know he was still interested?
He'd never have thought that Claire, the fucking queen of the school, could be that insecure. Part of Bender wanted to be angry. It served Claire right. That's exactly what she got for listening to her idiot friends and living her social life through some stupid set of rules.
But Bender couldn't really be mad. Regardless of the fact that Claire was a princess, she was still a girl, after all. Hell, Saidie was the least girly girl he knew, and even she fell victim to those same girly rules and insecurities. And over a dweebie, no less. He'd heard Saidie say that she'd never be caught dead calling a guy first.
Still, why'd Claire have to play stupid games and pick a fight with him? Why did she end things? Why couldn't she have just told him that she was mad at him for not calling her? Of course not. That would have been too easy. And being that vulnerable in front of him would have been out of the question for her. She had too much pride. Bender laughed to himself at that thought. The two of them really weren't so different, after all. Both stubborn egomaniacs.
And then he thought about the thoughts he'd had about girls over the past couple of days. How even the girls from his own social circle wouldn't be caught dating a guy like him. How they'd used him for sex just as much as he'd used them for the enjoyment (friendship and all) and how Leigh and Donna and the others would probably laugh in his face at the idea of him taking them on some sappy date to the arcade; let alone the idea of him actually calling them up on the phone to reassure them that he had feelings for him. And here was Princess Claire, all torn up because the school criminal hadn't called her. He hadn't been just some hot rebel to her. If what Brian was saying was true, he'd been much more than that. She'd wanted him. She'd actually been insecure after their date, and thought he'd found someone he'd liked better.
He had to find her and at least talk to her about things.
Brian was staring him down. "Did I say too much?" he asked.
Bender smirked. "Nope. For maybe the first time since I met you, dweebie, you make perfect sense. I think I need to make a trip to the cafeteria. See ya." He said, hopping off of Freddie's car.
He got halfway to the cafeteria when he realized lunch was ending. So he figured he could wait for Claire. She'd see him, know he was waiting for her, and slip away from her friends to talk to him.
Finally he saw her coming out of the cafeteria. Bender leaned against the wall, trying as hard as possible to look cool.
But Claire didn't even seem to notice him when she walked by with her friends. Or, if she did, she pretended not to.
She and her friends were deep in conversation. One of them was saying, "Well, okay, fine. So Dan was a little more grabby than you like. Fine. Is it just about him, or are you willing to let us set you up with someone else?"
Claire blushed. "I guess that would be okay. I mean, I didn't have a completely awful time with Dan. It'd be nice go out with another older guy. Just, no dumb jocks, okay? Maybe someone from student council?"
Another of the girls grinned wide and said, "I know why she wants an older guy. She knows everyone already expects her to be the only underclassman that gets invited to prom. Claire just wants to make sure it actually happens."
All four girls, Claire included, giggled as they walked away.
And Bender remembered something else Brian had said. The one part that hadn't really registered until now. "She's trying to move on." Brian had said.
Bender walked away thinking he would skip his next class after all.