WE DON'T OWN THE BREAKFAST CLUB.
Thursday. April 5, 1984. Shermer High School. Clarendon Hills, Illinois.
(Claire)
Luke seemed subdued in the morning. He went through a lot last night. Damn that woman. It might be unladylike, according to my mother, but I was right, there is no other word for her but bitch.
I stewed with impotent anger most of the morning. If this is what I felt, what must it be like for Luke? Lunch finally came and I was on my way to the caf when I saw a disturbance right by the door. When I heard Brian's voice, I hurried forward. That ass Skyler was yelling at Brian. Skyler had Brian by the collar and was shaking him.
"What are you doing, Skyler?" I shouted. "Put him down!"
"Aww, ain't that sweet, our former prom queen here to stick up for some nerd."
Luke burst through the circle of students. Oh no! Skyler's friends were there watching. It would never be a fair fight. What was Luke doing?
"I've had enough for the day, lame ass," Luke yelled. "Go take your low IQ somewhere else."
Skyler laughed. "Luke the Puke here to save the day. So touching, isn't it guys? Two nerds against the four of us?"
His three friends detached themselves from the crowd and moved forward. Suddenly one jerked forward as if he had been pushed from behind. As everyone watched this, another one went flying into the middle, Andy on top of him. They landed on the ground, a struggling heap. Bender pursued the guy he had pushed from behind, getting hold of his arm and twisting it up behind his back. Luke took this opportunity to punch Skyler in the face.
Brian fell loose, looking dazed. Then his eyes got a crazy look and he tripped Skyler's other friend getting ready to join the fray. He fell on his face. Bender must have called his own friends, because most of the wastoids were shouldering their way into the circle. Skyler and the other jocks were now surrounded.
"You think it's funny to mess with my friend? Huh?" Bender shook his captive a bit. "Do you?"
"No, no, let me go," the boy babbled.
"What will you do if I let you go?" The boy whimpered. "I think what you are going to do is walk away from this. This stops here. Luke and Brian are my friends, you remember that, asshole."
Meanwhile Andy had his opponent face down and squirming under his wrestler's hold. "The same goes for you, bozo," Andy said as he let him up. "This stops right here, right now, like the man said."
"What's going on here?" boomed a voice. Vernon! The wastoids melted back into the crowd. Luke and Brian followed suit. The last jock scrambled to his feet and somehow Bender was gone, too. That left the four bullies standing alone in the circle. Vernon looked around at the ring of students and the four jocks. "I said, what's going on here?" He surveyed the crowd.
"Nothing, sir. We were just talking. Umm, talking about the next game."
"I think there was a fight going on here."
"No, sir, we were practicing... Practicing moves for the game."
"I catch the four of you fighting again, it'll be detention." Vernon turned to the crowd and said, "Go on, get to lunch, there's nothing to see here."
I saw Bender's head above the crowd, so I quickly followed him into the caf. At our usual table, the guys were gathered around, laughing.
"Luke! How could you have done something so crazy as to punch Skyler?" I demanded. Punching the biggest bully in school seemed just insane.
"Yeah, Luke, where'd you get the gonads?" Bender asked, impressed.
"I just get sick of it. My dad, my mom, now here at school, I am sick of it all."
"Thanks for helping me out," Brian said to Luke. He looked at Andy and Bender and said, "You guys, too. I don't think Luke and I could have dealt with all four of them."
"They're a bunch of losers, they only pick on people when it's four to one," Andy contributed.
I noticed Luke rubbing his knuckles. "Luke, are you hurt?" I moved forward to take his hand. I gently ran my fingertips over his reddened knuckles.
"Ah, don't worry, Cherry. Skyler's face is feeling a lot worse than Luke's hand," Bender reassured me.
I kissed his knuckles, feeling the heat with my lips. When I looked up, Luke was giving me a clear, pure gaze that I fell into. I pulled him closer so that our hands were pressed between our chests. Our communing was broken when Bender whacked Luke on the shoulder.
He was saying, "And Luke here gave him a wicked punch in the face." I looked around and found Bender was bragging to Allison about what happened. She had missed the whole thing.
"But won't this make it worse?" she asked. "With them all pissed off and humiliated?"
"Well," said Andy. "I don't think so. If it was just the four of us, maybe, but we've got all the wast- I mean all of Bender's friends. And they carry knives."
"We're too smart to use them, but the pretty boys don't know that," Bender clarified. "I think you'll be OK, dorks. And you too, sporto."
"Luke isn't a dork," I said. "Neither is Brian."
Bender said,"Ok, brain and weirdo. Is that better, princess?" Bender just couldn't seem to help calling people names. I gave up.
I was very glad it was Skyler who was punched in the face, not Luke. It would be hard to explain away a black eye, but red knuckles would go unnoticed. Daddy didn't seem to notice anything unusual, he never did. My quiet pride in Luke's bravery had been growing all afternoon. No one stood up to Skyler. Even when I was the darling of the popular crowd, I never liked Skyler, and to see Luke punching him in the face made my heart rise. He'd had it coming to him for years. He was a senior and picking on freshmen was his delight, the coward. Always, he outnumbered and outweighed his victims. Always.
We had a quiet night. Neither Luke nor I said much over dinner, and we did our homework at the kitchen table in silence. I didn't know what was on Luke's mind, but my mind was busy with schemes to get Luke alone. I went to bed at the usual time. I changed into my nightgown, turned out the light and lay down, but didn't go to sleep. I listened to my father and mother walk about, then I heard both enter their bedroom. I waited 45 minutes. In my bare feet, I tiptoed to Luke's bedroom door and gently pushed it open.
I could see Luke sleeping. The darkness was pierced by the dim glow that came from the nightlight in the adjoining bathroom. One arm was thrown over his head and the covers had slipped down to show he wore no shirt.
I sat on the edge of the bed and brushed his shoulder, barely touching him. He jerked awake. When he saw me he relaxed, a slow smile on his face. "Claire-" he murmured, but I cut him off with a shake of my head, pointing towards my parents' bedroom. He sat up so that we were facing each other, I with my legs dangling over the edge of the bed, he with his lower body shrouded by the luxurious bed clothes.
I leaned in to kiss him, sliding my hands across his bare back, pulling him closer. I felt his wiry muscles flex under my fingers, skin so smooth.
I stopped to say, "Scootch over, you're hogging the bed." When he made room for me, I swung my legs up into bed and stretched out beside him, on my side. His arm went around my waist and we joined again in a kiss. He was rubbing the small of my back, pulling me closer. I couldn't keep my hands off his bare skin, his shoulders, his chest, his back. I broke off to push him onto his back so that I could kiss his neck. I trailed my lips down to his shoulder, where I tried flicking my tongue over his skin, salty and intoxicating. He made a sound deep in his throat that thrilled me. I pressed myself against him and caught his wandering hand, guided it under my top. He stiffened and stopped stroking me.
"What?" I whispered.
"Claire, we can't- we shouldn't-" He sat up suddenly, grabbed his t-shirt from the foot of the bed and quickly put it on. "We need to cool off a bit."
I kissed his ear and murmured, "Why? I love you, Luke."
"I know you do, and I love you, too, but this…this is too much. We need to get you back to your bed." I sat up as well, hurt. He kissed my cheek and said, "I love you, but you need to go." When I stayed where I was, he urged me, "C'mon, Claire, you'd better go."
My shoulders drooped and I stood up. If he didn't want me, I would go. At the door, I turned to look at him. He made a shooing gesture and I left.
What was wrong? What had happened? I flopped on my bed and turned on the bedside lamp. He seemed to enjoy it, what we were doing. That wasn't what was wrong. He said he loved me, that wasn't what was wrong. Then my mind flashed to detention. When Bender was taunting me, saying, "Have you ever kissed a boy on the mouth? Have you ever been felt up...over the bra, under the blouse, shoes off, hoping to God your parents don't walk in?" Was that what I was doing? Lewd behavior, being a slut? John made it sound so dirty and wrong. With Luke it felt so right and good. But maybe I was a slut. Under all my pretty princess ways. Did I want to do it? It? The whole thing, all the way? Finally I decided, No. No, I didn't want to go all the way. Then why was I in bed with a half dressed man, trying to get him to feel me up? Shame burned my cheeks. I was no better than the girls in Bender's wallet. A slut. I turned off my bedside lamp but it was a long time before I fell asleep.
CAN CLAIRE AND LUKE RESOLVE THEIR INTIMACY ISSUES? REVIEWS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.
