A/N: Every time I start out a new chapter, it always ends differently then I anticipate it.
Please review and let me know what you think.
It had been three weeks since she last saw him. Okay, that was a lie. Three weeks had past and there was no sign of him except his occasional presence in the hallway. She didn't count that because he never saw her. Or never acknowledged that he saw her. So, it had been three weeks since she saw John Bender and she was happy for it. Her feelings had begun to fade like the pink lines in the sunrise and it was going to be a beautiful day!
When she decided to skip class to go shopping and return to school with her designer bags, she hadn't meant to walk by the principal's office and get caught again, it just slipped her mind. And when she got sentenced to Saturday detention she was angry, I mean, who goes to school on a Saturday?
On Saturday, when she freaked out at her mother because her favourite skirt wasn't clean, it was simply because she wanted to wear it that day. It was comfortable and practical for sitting in a classroom all day, and plus, it was her prerogative, wasn't it? She had nobody to impress but herself, and she wanted to look good for being stuck in that dingy library again.
When she strolled into the library she tried to put the "I hate my life, I hate Saturday detention" look on her face but her muscles just wouldn't cooperate. She looked around at the faces that sat with her and recognized nobody. Not even Allison was there. Ever since Allison and Andrew had got together, she stopped showing up. John was always late, so she didn't worry. Not that she was there because of John. She was there because she was skipping class again.
When Vernon walked in and announced "Okay kids, everybody is here and here is what you will be doing all day …" she zoned out. What? Hadn't John been punished to, like, a million Saturday detentions after the one they were all in? There had to be some kind of mistake.
"Um, Mr. Vernon?" She asked raising her hand. "Aren't we still missing somebody?"
"Are you questioning my authority, Miss?" He asked aggressively. "I know when all the slackers are here, and if one was missing I would know about it." He stated and stormed out mumbling something about what the world was coming to.
After all day of mind-numbing boredom she figured that her life was officially pathetic. She had spent an entire Saturday in the library with four jerk-offs who got into a locker room fight and one who had got caught scaling the walls of their precious institution.
When she arrived home she treated herself to a tub of Haagen-Daz vanilla fudge and sat at her bay window and stared at the dock that John and she had been on weeks earlier. She thought of the look on his face and the heat radiating off of his calloused hands and shivered.
She sun was setting in the sky and the beautiful colours that were in the sky were blinding. Instead of being her logical self and thinking about the pollution that was encouraging these colours, she allowed herself to be wistful, thinking of the beauty of the world and the sadness that can so easily accompany it.
She thought of John Bender again, his upbringing, and the hate that must reside in his household. She worried about his well-being and wondered if he still thought about her. She liked to think of him sitting in his bedroom looking at the earring she had given him and thinking of her. But she new it was just a pipedream, John Bender never pined over anybody.
She sat there until the wee hours of the morning trying to will John Bender back to her, but he never came.
The next morning came too soon and she felt troubled and uneasy. She knocked quietly on Vernon's office door and it opened easily. He was sitting at his desk, seemingly undisturbed. "Excuse me, Mr. Vernon?" She asked. When he raised his head she continued. "I just, I'm here because of John Bender, sir. I'm worried about him, and when he wasn't there on Saturday …"
He stared blankly at her for a moment and then finally said, "I didn't know you and Mr. Bender were friends." There was another pause, when Claire didn't respond to the baiting remark he continued. "Mr Bender's business is none of your concern. If you're interested, you should ask him yourself."
"Mr. Vernon, please, I just, I need to know that he's okay." She pleaded. For the umpteenth time that month she cursed John Bender for making her do this. Making her feel this. Making her care.
"Mr. Bender is fine, Ms. Standish, now I suggest you move on." He stated cleanly and promptly returned to the papers at his desk.
The words that came out of his mouth were meant to encourage her out his office, but she wondered if they could have meant more. Maybe it was time to move on. If only she knew how.