A/N: Two chapters in two days! I'm on a roll. Anyway, it might be helpful for this chapter to remember who Bender's friends are. Davis is the guy that ate Bender's brownie and made the sexual innuendos about Janie (the girl that Bender woke up next to in chapter one). Billy is the skateboarder, Damien is the one who asked Claire for a mint, and Zeke is the guy that was worried Billy would hurt himself by skateboarding down the ramp.

Chapter Fifteen: In Over My Head

6:42 P.M.

After he left his house, Bender walked straight over to Zeke's house, which was only a five minute walk from his own. Zeke's father died when Zeke was a baby, and his mother remarried just before Zeke started high school. Both his mother and his step father worked full time, which meant that Zeke spent most evenings taking care of his baby siblings until his step father returned home from work.

When he opened the door on Friday evening, Zeke looked surprised to see Bender standing there. "Hey, I thought you weren't coming over 'til later."

Bender shrugged. "Got bored. Can I come in?"

Zeke nodded and held open the door for him. "Yeah, sure. Joshua's sick, and Gene isn't home, so we can't go to Harrison's yet, but…"

"It's fine." Bender walked into the living room, and Zeke closed the front door. The television was turned on to The Rockford Files, the same show that Bender had been watching when his parents got home, but the episode was almost over by that point. At least he'd get to find out who the bad guy was.

"Do you want a Coke or something?"

Bender looked up from the screen. "Yeah, okay."

Zeke went into the kitchen to get the drinks, and Bender sat down on the armchair in front of the television. To his right, Zeke's baby sister Anna was clinging to the side of her playpen, her tiny fingers wrapped around the plastic-covered edge as though her life depended on it. Bender nodded politely in her direction and looked back at the television.

A couple of minutes later, Zeke returned to the living room, and the two of them finished out the episode in silence. As he drank his soda, Bender flexed his fingers idly, hungry for a cigarette. Zeke was very adamant that smoking was not allowed in the house, and he never let his friends light up, even if the kids were in bed asleep. Bender didn't know what the big deal was. His parents smoked all the time when he was a baby, and he'd turned out okay.

When the program ended, Zeke looked over at him. "You hopin' Janie'll be there tonight?"

Bender shrugged.

Zeke nodded. "Do you, um…you know her friend Christina?"

Bender looked over at him. "I think so. Blonde, right? Quiet?"

Zeke nodded. "Yeah, that's her." He cleared his throat. "Think she'll be there tonight?"

Bender cocked an eyebrow. "Probably. Why?"

Zeke shrugged. "I don't know. I was just wondering. She's…"

"Hot?" Bender offered.

Zeke nodded sheepishly. "Yeah." He paused. "You think she'd go out with me…you know, if I asked her?"

Bender shrugged. "Maybe." He took another sip of his Coke and looked Zeke up in down. "If you change that shirt, your chances will double."

Zeke looked down at his t-shirt, a faded black number with a big white skull on the front. "You think?"

"Yeah, I think."

Zeke sighed. "Probably."

"Seek?"

Bender and Zeke looked up to see Zeke's brother Joshua, hardly two years old, standing in the doorway awkwardly. "I did mess," he said, embarrassed.

"Oh, shit. Okay." Zeke jumped up from the couch. "I'll be right back," he called over his shoulder.

Bender nodded and looked back at the television screen. His fingers were still dancing nervously, desperate for something to hold onto. After a few moments, he snuck a peek down the hall and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket. Just as he started to light up, Bender heard a little babbling sound coming from somewhere nearby. He looked up to see Anna watching him, her mouth opening and closing like a dying goldfish.

"What are you lookin' at?"

Open. Close.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not bothering you."

Anna let go of the bar and reached towards him, her slimy, stubby fingers grasping at the air.

"Now, that's where I draw the line. Maybe when you're older, but not before you've started teething."

She let out a little shriek.

Bender cocked an eyebrow. "Temper, temper. Are you one of those chicks that thinks that if she can't have any, then the rest of us can't either?"

She made a little gurgling sound.

Bender shook his head. "Well, too bad. I haven't had a cigarette since lunch, and I'm not going to let a woman tell me what to do. No, ma'am."

Anna stretched her mouth open, and a thin line of droll started running down her chin.

Bender pointed a finger in her direction. "Don't push me," he warned.

The girl's eyes widened, and she tilted her head back. She stood absolutely still for a long time, her eyes never leaving his face. Finally, Bender sighed.

"Typical woman," he said, pushing the cigarette back into the pack. "Can't let me have one minute to myself, can you? Have to find something to bitch about."

Anna's mouth opened again, and this time she smiled, scrunching up her face so that her tiny little eyes were hardly visible behind the folds of baby skin. Bender sneered at her, and she let out a high-pitched giggle, clearly enjoying her power over him.

A few seconds later, Zeke came back into the room smelling faintly of vomit and baby wipes. He collapsed onto the sofa, and Bender cocked an eyebrow. "New cologne?"

Zeke glared at him. "Shut up." Then he paused and lifted his shirt up to his nose to smell it. "Oh."

Bender smirked. "Maybe she'll like it."

Zeke looked over at him. "Who, Christina?" He sighed. "I'm gonna go change."

"I think that's a good idea."

Zeke pulled himself up off of the couch and disappeared down the hallway again, muttering to himself under his breath. Bender glanced back at Anna, who was still watching him as she slobbered all over her hand, and sighed.

"Women."

6:45 P.M.

Dinner at the Johnson household was quieter than usual on Friday night, which was really saying something considering it was never very animated to begin with. Brian's seven-year-old sister Jamie spent the entire meal reciting the alphabet over and over and over until their mother finally told her to stop talking and finish her carrots. Mr. Johnson tried to make conversation with his wife and children, but Jamie was the only person that responded. Brian and his mother remained quiet during the entire meal, only speaking when necessary.

After dinner, Jamie went into the living room to read, and Brian went back to his bedroom. He pulled his Latin textbook out of his backpack and opened it up to the vocabulary section that he was supposed to memorize for his test on Monday. He stared at the page for a long time before he realized that he wasn't even reading, much less comprehending, anything on the page. He closed the book and laid his head down on the cover, closing his eyes.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Brian sat up straight and wiped his eyes. "Come in."

The door opened very slowly, and Jamie walked in. "What are you doing?" she asked, coming up beside him.

"Studying." Brian sighed. "What do you want?"

Jamie ignored the question. "Is Mommy mad at you?"

Brian hesitated. "Why?"

"Because..." Jamie squinted up at her older brother. "Did you do something bad?"

Brian clenched his jaw. "No."

"Are you sure?" she asked, drawing out the last word in a sing-song way.

"Yes," Brian said irritably.

"Because she seemed mad. She seemed-"

"I didn't do anything!" Brian snapped. "Okay, Jamie? I didn't do anything wrong!"

Jamie paused, her teasing grin fading into a confused frown. "You don't have to yell at me," she said quietly.

Brian sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I just want to be alone right now, okay?"

Jamie's lower lip started quivering and tears formed in her eyes. "You're so mean," she said angrily. Then she turned and ran out of the room.

"Jamie!" Brian called after her. He stood up and started to go after her, but stopped when he got to the doorway, suddenly very tired. Why did he have to deal with someone else's jumble of emotions right then? He was already having a hard enough time with his own.

Without looking into the hall to see if his sister was okay, Brian shut the door and locked it, but kept his hand on the doorknob, unsure of what to do next. After a moment, he closed his eyes and sagged against the door, taking deep breaths to stave off the tidal wave of emotions that threatened to knock him over from the inside out.

8:13 P.M.

After dinner, Allison spent some time alone in her bedroom listening to music. Danielle was doing homework in the study, so she had the room all to herself for once. She stayed in there alone until about 8:15, when she decided that she was thirsty. She turned off the music and went downstairs to the kitchen, where her mother and the twins were practicing Latin vocabulary at the circular table in the center of the room. Michelle glanced up when she walked in, but quickly looked back at her mother, who was reading phrases from a workbook. Allison turned away from the table and went to the refrigerator for some milk.

Not eager to interrupt the study session, Allison took her milk into the living room, where her younger brother Steven was sitting on his knees in the middle of the floor, hovering over a large building made of Legos. Allison came up beside him and sat on the couch.

Steven looked up at her, wrinkling his nose to push up his glasses. "Hi."

Allison swallowed a sip of milk. "Hi."

Steven returned to the project he was working on and Allison surveyed the area around him. In addition to the humongous collection of Legos, which Steven had spread out all over the floor, there was also a small stack of folders and books that had been pushed off to the side. Allison picked up the top folder, which had Steven's name written across the top in big, bold letters, and opened it up. Inside, she found a handful of worksheets that had been either half completed or hadn't even been started. She could see faint markings behind the answers that had been filled in, evidence of rejected answers that he had done a poor job of erasing.

Allison held up the folder. "What is this?"

Steven tore himself away from his Legos and looked back at his sister. When he saw the folder, his face darkened immediately. "My reading folder."

"Is this your homework?"

Steven nodded.

"Is it due tomorrow?"

He nodded again.

Allison paused. "When are you going to do it?"

Steven shrugged. "I don't know. Later, I guess."

"Why don't you do it now?"

Steven frowned. "Because I'm working."

Allison glanced over at the Lego building, then back at her brother. "You could ask Mom to help you."

Steven let out a deep breath, his nostrils flaring slightly. "She's helping Jenny and Michelle!" He grabbed a stray Lego from the floor next to his knee and clutched it tightly in his hand. "She told me to come in here and do it."

Allison felt a wave of anger rush through her body, but tried to control it. "Maybe Dad could help."

"He's working," Steven said, getting more and more upset as the conversation wore on. He pushed his glasses up with his index finger and turned away from her, facing his Legos once again. Allison didn't say anything else, just looked back at the handful of papers in her hand. She ran the pad of her thumb over the childish scrawl, tracing the big, awkward letters with her finger, as the sound of her sisters' voices trailed in from the kitchen. "Inscitus…"

Allison looked over at her brother, who was facing away from her, pushing another plastic block into place on top of the building. He was concentrating so hard on the building in front of him that he didn't seem to even notice that she was still sitting there. He reached out and adjusted one of the Legos making up the wall of the castle, then frowned and moved it again.

"Stolidus…"

Allison watched him for a few minutes before she reached forward and ran a finger along the edge of the outer wall, skimming the pads of her fingers across the bumpy, plastic surface. Steven didn't seem to notice. Very carefully, he leaned forward and placed a small red Lego to the roof of the castle, its purpose a mystery to everyone but himself. His brow, furrowed in concentration, relaxed a bit, and he smiled softly, pleased with his work.

"Hebes…"

Allison curled up in a ball at the edge of the sofa, where she had a clear view of her brother's creation. She watched him work for the better part of an hour, never speaking, until her eyelids grew heavy and she fell asleep.

8:51 P.M.

Zeke's stepfather arrived home from work a few minutes before nine o'clock and took over for Zeke, who had been on active throw-up duty in Joshua's room for the past two hours. Bender had done his part by staying in the living room with Anna watching re-runs of Kojak on television.

When Gene was finally able to convince Zeke that he had a handle on the situation, the two boys left and started walking towards Harrison's, Shermer's only heavy metal club. It was hardly more than a big, smelly basement with a bar and a stage, but Bender loved it, mostly because it was the only place in the whole damn town that he always felt at home.

When they arrived at the club, Bender went to the bar to get them drinks, and Zeke wandered off to find Billy and Davis. As he waited, Bender leaned against the wooden bar and watched the band, a local group from Chicago that was big into Metallica. Halfway into a cover of "Hit the Lights", the bartender brought over his beers, and Bender ventured into the crowd in search of his friends.

He found the three of them sitting at a small table next to the wall in the corner of the room. Davis was completely absorbed in a cup full of peanuts that he'd most likely stolen from the bar, Billy was tying his shoelaces, and Zeke was staring out over the dance floor, his eyes glazed over with longing.

Bender took a seat on the stool next to Zeke and plopped one of the beers down in front of his friend. Startled, Zeke looked up. "Oh, hey, thanks," he said loudly, his words hardly audible over the music.

Bender nodded in the direction of the dance floor. "You gonna go?"

Zeke shook his head. "No, I was…" He pointed to the right side of the floor. "There."

Bender followed his gaze to a group of five or six girls bobbing their heads and thrashing around to the music. Janie was there, arms raised above her head as she swayed, and next to her was a pretty girl with dark blonde curls and a nose ring. Bender looked back at Zeke. "Christina?"

Zeke nodded. "You think I should go talk to her or wait 'til she comes up here?"

Bender shook his head. "Make her come to you."
Zeke nodded again. "Yeah, okay."

Bender glanced back in the direction of the dance floor, but his view was blocked by Damien, who was walking towards their table. He nodded in Bender's direction, then went over to the other side of the table, where Billy was bobbing his head to the music, and leaned over to whisper something in Billy's ear.

Bender watched Billy jump in surprise, then relax when he realized who was speaking. His startled expression gave way to one of confusion, and he turned to look at Damien, who was still speaking quietly. When Damien stopped talking, Billy paused, then nodded, stood from his chair, and started walking towards the club's side exit. Damien started to follow him, then turned back to see Bender watching him. Their eyes met, and Damien flashed him a cold smile before he disappeared through the door.

Bender watched the door close, then turned to Zeke. "Hey, did you-"

"Oh, man, she's coming. What do I do?" asked Zeke.

Bender frowned. "What?"

"Christina!" Zeke nodded towards the dance floor, where Bender could see the two girls weaving in and out of the crowd, obviously headed in their direction. Bender remembered waking up in Janie's bed that morning, his stomach churning from too many beers and his head filled with questions about what they'd done the night before. He wondered vaguely what she was going to say when she saw him, if she was going to pretend like nothing had happened or if she was going to switch into girlfriend mode and sit next to him all night, shooting dirty looks at any girl that dared to get within twenty feet of him. Bender sighed. Left with those choices, he was starting to think that he might have been better off staying at Zeke's house and watching television with Anna, who drooled, but didn't get upset if he checked out other women.

When she saw him, Janie gave Bender a slow, sexy smile and walked straight over to him. He nodded in her direction and opened his mouth to say hello, but before he could get anything out, she bent over him, her straight brown hair falling to form a curtain around their faces, and kissed him full on the lips.

Shit.

Disclaimer: I can't imagine that smoking a cigarette with a baby in the room is very healthy (for the baby or the smoker, for that matter), so please don't do it. : )

Also, please review. I really enjoy getting feedback for this story and would love to hear what you think.