Title: I've Seen You Before
Author: TWBasketcase
Rating: T for language, drugs use, violence
Chapter Summary: So after being dumped out in the cold by the 'richies', Allison and Bender sober up over some black coffee.
A/N: Okay, second last chapter. I want to thank people who are still reading.


Chapter 6 – Drinking Black Coffee

He peered across the top rim of the porcelain mug at his companion; again, she was strangely mixing her drinks together. Him, he was fine with straight, black coffee. He was quite aware of the fact that coffee wasn't some form of hang over medicine, but it did keep him awake and it did keep him from going to sleep drunk. The clock on the wall of the small diner read 3:30 am. It wasn't unusual for him to be out this late on a Friday night/Saturday morning. On a night where his parents were up drinking late, he was far away from home as possible.

The diner they were in was a small musky one on the corner of Lincoln and King, which was situated in the south end of the city. Bender's house was probably only around five blocks away, which made the neighborhood familiar to him.

He had been coming to this diner a lot in the last couple of years. It was one of the only twenty four hour diners that Shermer had, and probably the only one at all in the south end. He remembered a quite a few years ago when a lot of diners and variety shops stayed open late, but with the crime numbers coming up and a lot of them getting nailed with robberies and such, most of them closed before ten pm.

This one wasn't so bad. The lights in it were usually dimmed at night, and the heat worked. It wasn't a very big place; only had a row of about fourteen tables at the left side of the room, a bar on the left front corner, and a jukebox and a pool table in the back left. At night a lot of supply truck drivers stopped in, as well as street people. Coffee was cheap; only 30 cents a cup and the pie was the best in Shermer.

"Why did you get so angry back there?" Allison cut him out of his thoughts.

He shook his hair from his eyes, "I don't like muscle heads."

She cocked an eyebrow, "You know those boys then?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, "I guess so…they go to my school."

He watched as an amused smirk played across her face, "You go to school?"

He rolled his eyes and placed his cup down in front of him so that he could take out his cigarette pack. Lighting one up, he exhaled a cloud of smoke and spoke, "Why? That hard to believe?"

She shrugged, "No, not really. I thought I'd seen you before."

"You go to school too?"

She smirked and rolled her eyes, "The one and only Shermer High."

He nodded and brought his cigarette back to his lips. He thought she had looked familiar. Of course there were a lot of kids who frequented the club that he had seen around at the school…and strange girls like her were no exception. "So you're not really a street kid then, are you?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I guess that depends how you look at it."

He cocked an eyebrow, "How so?"

She frowned and her eyes went downcast. He figured right then and there that she didn't really want to talk about it. He knew a lot of kids like her. Some of them – like him – had parents that would drink too much and holler…and sometimes get violent. Some of them had parents that could care less what they did – even if they got brought home by the cops. Some of the kids he knew didn't even have parents anymore; they had thrown them out of their houses. Allison looked like some of the kids he knew, and the look in her eyes told him that was the case.

"My folks aren't ever really around…and when they are I don't get shit from them." She folded both of her hands around her coffee mug and stared down at the table top.

He nodded, "They drink or something?"

She shook her head, "No, not really. They both work shabby jobs. They make enough to pay for the car and the house…pay the bills. Just told us that if you want something in the world you have to get it yourself." She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, "Things were tight when I was a kid, but…sometimes I wish they would at least acknowledge the fact that we're trying…maybe show that they care or something…"

Bender shrugged and drew circles on the table with his fingers, "Sometimes its better that they don't though."

She raised her eyebrows and locked gazes with him, "Why's that?"

He shrugged, "My folks have money problems too…it makes 'em fight. I think I would rather have them ignore me then kick the shit outta each other."

She sighed unhappily, "I never thought about it that way."

Bender noticed her sudden disposition and changed his approach, "But folks would be a lot cooler if you knew that you actually made them happy, right?"

She smiled at him, "Yeah, they would be."

"I don't care what they think about me anymore…" he trailed off.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "Why?"

He shrugged and tensed up, "Why the hell should I? They don't care…so why should I? Fuck 'em, that's what I say. I'm better off without them."

Her eyes softened and she frowned a bit, "Have you always been this hard?"

He dropped his gaze quickly back to the table and into his mug. No, he wasn't always that hard, he thought. There used to be times when his parents meant the world to him; that he just wished his old man wanted to play with him…or his mom would read him a book. Years ago, he craved their attention. He would do anything to show them just how much he loved them…drew them pictures and tidied his room up. After awhile it didn't matter to him any more.

Nothing he did was good enough and they were pretty vocal about that.

Sometimes he had wondered if he had been a total accident or something. His mom getting wasted when she was like seventeen and getting knocked up. It seemed like they would just get a baby-sitter whenever they could or leave him alone with his younger brother for long periods of time. He got sick of wondering when they would get home…in fact some nights he had dreaded it. Once he was old enough to realize what they were going out and doing, he didn't want them to come home. They would throw the door open and bump into things, pissing each other off and yelling.

Their children were just burdens; little distractions to their good times and they let them know it.

So he stopped caring…why should he just cry and mope in their way?

He looked back at her and she looked away, "Sorry…I didn't mean to ask you that."

Bender shrugged, "Don't worry about it." He looked at her, "Did you get anything good from that house?"

Allison shook her head quietly, "No."

Bender cocked an eyebrow, "What? You're all bragging earlier that you are queen shit lifter…what happened?"

She shrugged and he frowned, "Jock boy?" She rolled her eyes and said nothing. He just stared at her and twitched his lip, "You goin' soft on me already, basket case?"

She glared at him, "No. I just thought that girl had a sad house. I think I felt bad for her."

He was not expecting that. That girl was a bitch – to him. She didn't give a shit that the two of them got thrown on their asses out of her house. In fact, she had everything she wanted and nothing to be upset about. How the hell was this crazy bitch sitting here and saying she felt bad for her? "Come again?"

She looked him dead in the eye, "I don't know why…I just felt bad for her."

John shifted his eyes around in confusion, "How could you feel bad for someone like her? She has everything…everything you don't have. You shouldn't have to feel sorry for some spoiled little bitch…hell she probably thinks people like us shouldn't even exist."

Allison's shoulders slumped down further and she sighed, "I just think that she was unhappy, or something. I was sitting in her room…something about it, I just couldn't take anything."

Bender rolled his eyes impatiently, "Yeah she was probably just unhappy because some muscle head nailed her and then laughed at her. Did you see her?"

She quirked an eyebrow at that, "They threw her out of her own house into the snow."

He knew that those people were ignorant assholes, and he was the type of person who really let them get to him – although he didn't visually show it. It bothered him to no end that they were everything that he couldn't be; they had perfect houses, perfect family, perfect friends…perfect, disgusting little lives. Could it be true that even they treat each other the same way they had treated Allison and Bender?

He wasn't sure if he could believe it.


This boy in front of her was intriguing. She had no interest in him romantically, but he still had to be one of the most interesting people she had ever met. She could tell the ongoing bitterness and anger towards the rich kids ran deeper than he let on. She too had felt resentment for the same group of kids at times, but she – unlike him – wasn't a very hateful person.

It was a dead give away that the activities at the party had bothered him. Although at the same time she blamed him for dragging them there in the first place. Sure he had gone in with the intentions of having some fun; neither of them expected to run into those people, let alone what had transpired. The conversation she had with Andrew…it was the last thing she expected in a million years.

No matter what he said the haunting image of the girl still burned in her memory. Not because she was pretty…not because she was sad, or rich…but because no matter how different they were, that girl reminded Allison of herself; so lonely and afraid – angry at the world. Yes, there were oceans of differences between them but Allison felt she could connect with the girl – no matter how strange it sounded.

She looked back at Bender and sighed, "Did you get anything."

His eyes flashed momentarily and he just smirked, "Just some pictures."

Allison furrowed her eyebrows, "Pictures? Why would you want to steal some pictures?"

He shrugged and grinned mischievously, "For my own entertainment purposes."

Allison scrunched up her face and he laughed out loud. She didn't think she really wanted to ask him just what he had meant by that. Where he had found the pictures? She didn't think she wanted to know the answer to that either. The kid was a strange one that was for sure. It totally cracked her up that he thought she was crazy.

"Anything else?" she asked carefully.

He shook his head, "I did get my hands on a pair of the princess' – undergarments – but I decided to be a gentleman and give them back."

She cocked an eyebrow, "Oh yeah…how gentleman-like of you."

He smirked and brought his coffee mug up to his lips and took a long drink, finishing the contents completely. He wiped off his lips completely with his sleeves and smacked his lips. "It's not like you are very lady-like yourself. You slurp, and burp…and play with your food. You even sit with your legs open."

Allison laughed and grinned at him, "No…I don't think the whole posh princess thing suits me very well."

Bender grinned back and drawled, "Well looks like we make a good match then."

Allison snorted, "I don't want to make any sort of match with you."

Bender raised his eyebrows playfully, "What my rugged good looks and witty remarks aren't enough to get ya down on your knees?"

She didn't think she would ever get down on her knees in front of someone like him; god knows what ideas he would get, "No. They aren't."

He shrugged as if her comment didn't faze him at all, "So was that your first time at the club tonight?"

She was surprised by the question, "No…I try to go as often as I can."

He nodded, "I don't remember seeing you around there."

She smirked at him and placed her cup on the table, "Perhaps that's because you are too busy getting your ass handed to you by blonde haired rocker girls that tease their hair too much." He narrowed his eyes, which made her grin, "Or perhaps you are just too busy plowing over smaller girls on the dance floor."

He leaned over the table and grinned at her from under his hair, "Well it seems to work in getting them to have a drink and leave with me."

Oh the nerve! The boy was pushing it; but she had to admit that he was good on the come-back front. Every single thing she had on him was shut down just as quickly. "Maybe they only leave with you because of the drinks…did you ever think of that?" When he smirked she continued, "You know…my senses were quite impaired."

He shrugged nonchalantly, "Oh well, I like them better that way."

She cocked an eyebrow challengingly, "Just like your red headed princess?"

He said nothing and slapped a ten dollar bill down on the table and stood up, "I think it's time that we head out, huh?"

She knew she had him won. No matter how much he tried to hide behind that tough boy façade, she wasn't fooled. "Whatever you say, homeboy."

He shook his head and walked towards the door, pulling it open with ease. "Don't you know it, bad lady."

TBC


A/N: Recommended reading: Aikido Chick's 'Another Brick in the Wall'. Seriously, I'm loving that fic. You guys should seriously check it out. It's under my favorites…but if you're that lazy just change your TBC main page to allow rated 'M' fics. It's not only an eventual Bender/Allison fic, but it features all of the other clubbers as well. You'll like it, I promise! Cheers! I hope you enjoyed, please review!