Six months later John Bender is propping up a bus stop sign. He has a fresh black eye and a splint on his finger. People tend to not ask... they assume they know and leave it alone out of fear. Or maybe pity. Depending on what they assume. Fist fight, beating from his father, whatever. Anyway, he sure as hell isn't telling anyone what really happened.
He looks up the street at the brick building he's just come from. That's another thing no one will know about if he has any say. But then he sees Allison Reynolds emerge from that very building. She's heading towards the bus stop. Just what he needs, Psycho showing up. She's got her head down, face covered by her bangs as usual. She walks past a City of Shermer sign which designates the building as Department of Social Services. Inscribed at the bottom is Dr. F. Panz, PhD. He watches as she rambles towards the bus stop.
"Hey Psycho," Bender says, as she arrives. He looks her up and down. Same old Allison.
Allison turns her head a bit and one eye shows through her bangs.
"You never came back." Well that certainly dispenses with the formalities.
"Hey, what can I say? Vernon finally got me chucked from school. It was my nontraditional entrance to the library that did it."
"Claire and Andy weren't expelled. They just don't want to be around me." She would be pathetic if she weren't so damn honest. She's the most honest compulsive liar he's met.
"What happened with them?" Being kicked out means he hasn't seen Sporto and the dweeb at all, and this is the first he's seen of Allison. Claire hadn't said anything. In fact, now that he thinks about it, it is strange she said nothing about the dweeb or Psycho at all. She'd mentioned Sporto once or twice. But not the two others. Why hadn't he noticed?
"Andy let the jocks think for him. Monday, I tried to... I tried to say something, talk to him... He wouldn't even look at me. The jocks all laughed and he turned his back on me. He ignored me."
He's afraid Psycho might start crying right here at the bus stop. He turns away and shrugs his shoulders uncomfortably.
"He was always an asshole. Totally." He mocks Andy's words. "And the others?"
"Brian's gone now. Gone to that high power math and science prep school. He had no choice. His parents were always pressuring him." She looks beyond tears now. "He used to sit with me at lunch."
"What about Claire?" Claire interests him. What had she been up to, why had she said nothing to him?
"Claire... She would say hello, but she never really talked to me. And I heard her laughing with her friends. Called me a weirdo and a basket case. Then she stopped pretending."
"Yeah, well, Claire doesn't want to be around me either." Understatement of the year.
The bus wooshes up. They take their seats in silence. It bothers him that Psycho thought he had ditched her after the breakfast club. He wouldn't do something so shitty. Queenie wouldn't have liked it though, if Psycho was right. There was a lot Claire Standish didn't like about him. Why did she get that crazy notion in the closet?
That had gone all wrong. What did Cherry expect? A rich girl like her and a delinquent like himself? They argued, constantly. Let's get sushi, let's get Chinese. Let's see Spinal Tap, let's see Sixteen Candles. Don't even mention music. Duran Duran? And the whole doobage thing. But something must have been right between them... for a while at least. She risked her social position, defied her parents, was willing to give up so much for him. But she thought she could change him into what she wanted. Law abiding, sober, responsible. It was like she had been in love with the potential Bender she imagined lay inside him, not himself.
As for love... he'd never loved her. He'd tried. He'd wanted to. He sometimes deluded himself into thinking he did. Some kind of disability with love, he just couldn't feel it for her... And really, had she loved him either? She never saw the real Bender. He kept himself locked up. The few times he did let down the side a bit, she never seemed to understand what he was showing her.
Sometimes these thoughts start climbing the walls of his mind. He can sleaze up to girls at those big Chicago parties, getting them off by themselves, breaking down resistance using his irresistible Bender moves, leaving them smiling and asking for more... He can do that. But real stuff? He couldn't give Claire what she wanted. Fuck it. Goddamn fuck it. The idea that he is boyfriend material is laughable. Keep filling your wallet with Chicago girls. These high maintenance chicks are not worth it.
It was those pictures that got him at last. Why she gave her virginity to him, he doesn't know. He certainly didn't ask for it. But he accepted what was offered to him. Then, dammit, he screwed up. He should have waited. He shouldn't have brought it up right afterward. Damn, he shouldn't have asked at all. But he did. He'd asked for her picture while she was still catching her breath from the wild ride he'd given her. She knew what all those pictures in his wallet were. Trophies.
Shaking his head, he tries to get rid of the memory of her face draining of color, her indrawn breath, the huge slap she had dealt him. He'd had a red mark on his face for days.
Allison pulling the cord to signal the driver for the next stop draws him from his dark thoughts. He'd forgotten she was there.
Sherwood Heights... he didn't know Psycho's parents rated this neighborhood. She sure doesn't look like a richie. He'd assumed all these Sherwood Heights people were like Claire and her richie friends. Go figure.
"Bye, John," she says as she stands by the rear door, waiting for her stop.
"Yeah, see you Psycho."