Friends ask me how I feel and I lie convincingly
'Cause I don't want to reveal the fact that I'm suffering
So I wear my disguise 'til I go home at night
And turn down all the lights and then I breakdown and cry

-Breakdown, Mariah Carey

As soon as Brian opened the door and walked out of the closet, reality set back in.

He was late for class. By almost fifteen minutes. He was never late. And because of that, he didn't know the proper protocol for how teachers handled tardy students.

At least he had a good reason for his tardiness. A reason that would put a smile on his face for at least the rest of the day.

It had been the most fun and daring thing he'd ever done, next to smoking in the library with the administrative staff in the other room. And it made him feel like somewhat of a rebel to be in a closet with a girl, making out. The fantasy-turned-temporary-reality had been nice while it lasted.

But now it was time to go back to the real world, and be the real Brian Johnson.

He was just trying to figure out what he should do about class, when he saw Bender leaning against one of the exit doors. Giving him a once-over.

Brian blushed furiously. Had Bender seen him come out of that closet? What would he think? Brian knew how he'd react if he saw his sister Emma coming out of some closet and some boy coming out right after her. Was Bender going to threaten him?

Bender continued to stare at him. Then his mouth slowly went into a grin. "Congratulations. You're a man, now, dweebie." He said dramatically and jokingly. Brian blushed again. So, that answered that question.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Bender stopped him. "I don't want to know about it, dweebie. If it were any other girl, sure. But I don't wanna fucking hear about what you did in a closet with my fucking best friend, who's practically family to me."

"So…you're not mad?"

Bender rolled his eyes. "Please. Where do you think she would have gotten the idea? She didn't come up with that on her own, that's for fucking sure. She stole one of my moves."

Brian grinned. Bender still stood there staring at him. Then he opened the side door leading outside the school.

"You coming or not, dweebie? Klepto's already waiting under the bleachers for me. I ain't got all day."

Brian hesitated for all of five seconds before heading towards the door. It wasn't like he'd be able to concentrate in class right now anyway. Not after that.

Brian, Bender, and Allison hung out under the bleachers in comfortable silence. Allison twirled around on the poles with her eyes closed, while Bender smoked and Brian just watched both of them.

Bender eventually broke the silence by saying, "So… Cherry tells me that Sporto's got it pretty fucking hard right now. What with quitting the wrestling team and his friends being the dickwads I always knew they were. I gotta say, even though Sporto has never been my favorite person, I kinds of feel bad for the guy."

Allison had stopped twirling, and locked eyes with Bender. "His friends? What about them?"

"What, Cherry didn't tell you? The assholes dropped Sporto as soon as they found out he was quitting wrestling. He won't talk to them, they won't talk to him."

Allison's eyes drooped at that. Poor Andy. It was like everyone who he cared about was abandoning him. Allison had broken his heart, and her own, to protect him and to keep his life intact, and he'd still lost the very things that she'd broken up with him to keep him from losing.

Allison was now exchanging looks with Brian. She knew he was practically reading her mind, knowing she still cared about Andrew.

Bender was looking back and forth between the two of them. "Ooooh," he said, in his teasing way he had, "you still like Sporto." He concluded, pointing an accusing finger at Allison.

Brian didn't know what to say, and Allison just ignored him, looking back down at the ground.

"So why the hell did you break up with him, genius?" Bender questioned.

Allison felt cornered, her eyes getting teary again. "No. It's just…Just because we're not together doesn't mean I'm not allowed to still care about him." She said softly.

But Bender was not so easily shaken. "Klepto. That was the whole reason you broke up with him, wasn't it? Because of his stupid airhead friends."

Neither Brian nor Allison answered, but the fact that they were now purposely not looking at each other told Bender that he was right.

Allison braced herself for some sarcastic, smartass remark, but instead Bender just sighed. "Well, I can't say I blame you. Sporto's such a fucking lost soul, he'd probably have done anything for you. And trust me, Klepto, you don't want that shit on your conscience. At least this way, you know it's not because of you. Sporto made his own choices. If he'd stayed with you, and things turned out the exact same way, and you were responsible? Well, like I said, you definitely don't fucking want that."

Allison closed her eyes again. "He's going to be okay, right? I mean, maybe now that he's had to deal with all this fallout, maybe he'll come to his senses and go back to wrestling and his friends and his normal life." She said.

Bender shrugged. "Maybe." He said. "Maybe this is just how it should have been in the first place. Us weirdo types together. Maybe Cherry and Sporto would have been right to choose their regular lives over us." He said, gesturing around at the three of them.

This caught Brian off guard. "I thought you and Claire were doing okay?' he asked.

"Oh, yeah, we're swell. I'm just fine with being Claire's dirty little makeout secret that none of her friends know anything about." Bender said sarcastically.

And that's when Brian realized that all his friends were miserable, but hiding behind a happy façade. Andy came to school every day as if nothing was wrong, Bender was hiding insecurities about his status with Claire, Claire was miserable pretending to be who her friends wanted her to be and faking that she liked it, and Allison was so clearly head over heels in love with Andy but doing all she could to make him believe she wasn't.

Brian was the only one of his friends who was even remotely happy.

"No," he said, almost in tears. "Andrew has made his choice. He doesn't want that life. His dad tried to threaten him into going back to wrestling, and he still refused."

"Threaten him?" Allison and Bender questioned at the same time. "You mean his dad was going to hit him?" Bender asked.

Brian sighed. He knew Andy might be mad at him for telling his secret, but he had to do something. They could possibly lose Andrew if he didn't.

"No. His dad lost his job. And because there's no money coming in, his dad is threatening to send him to live with his mother if he doesn't get a job soon, and if Andy keeps refusing to get back on the wrestling team."

He had their attention now. He could tell by the shock on both their faces.

He turned to Allison. "The guy's life is in shambles right now. No friends, no scholarship, no girlfriend, and no money. I think moving with his mother is starting to sound like a good idea to him. Allison, you might be the only one who can stop him. You-you need to tell him why you did what you did while you still have a chance. At the very least, you might be able to talk some sense into him and stop him from ruining his life completely."

He couldn't tell if he'd gotten through to her, because she refused to speak. Brian figured it was best to just let her process this new information.

While Bender had been venting about being Claire's secret from her friends, Claire had been in class, daydreaming about him.

Her friend Annabelle hadn't yet told her the name of the guy she had a crush on, but they'd spoken about him. Girls in Claire's group weren't usually insecure about guys, but Claire had never seen Annabelle so wound up over a guy. She was so worried the guy would see her as a total airhead and want nothing to do with her.

Claire was trying as hard as she could to be a good friend to Annabelle, but she didn't know how she could help her, without letting her know just how much she understood the situation Annabelle was in.

Which was why she was thinking about Bender while she was in class. She was beginning to think about telling Annabelle about Bender. Not just because it might help her commiserate with her friend, but because she was so happy with Bender that she wanted all the people she cared about to know about her boyfriend. As strange as it sounded, Claire was actually proud of John Bender. Proud to be with him. Proud of the fact that he made her want to be a better person.

Now, she just had to figure out how to go about telling Annabelle her little secret.

And speaking of secrets, when Brian Johnson got home that evening, he could barely get any homework done. His mind was more focused on Andrew than physics and geometry homework. He was worried about how Andrew was, and what would happen when Andy found out that he'd told the others about Mr. Clark.

Eventually he gave up trying to attempt his homework. Figuring that he could get back to it in the morning before school.

Just as he was about to watch some television before dinner, he heard a tap at the window of the den, the room he was in. "Dweebie!" he heard a voice say.

What was John Bender doing at his house, using a window instead of the front door?

Brian opened the window to let Bender in. "Um, hi. Um, what are you doing here?"

Bender climbed in and revealed a pizza he was carrying. "I've got great fucking news, dweebie. Something I've been working on for a while now. I got a job. It's official as of today. So as soon as I heard, I went to get a pizza to bring over here so I could tell you and we could celebrate."

Brian grinned from ear to ear. "You got a job? That-that's great, Bender, congrats, man!" He punched Bender in the arm in his uniquely dorky way. Bender smirked, holding up a Coke, and nodded his head in response.

"So, what kind of job is it?" Brian asked.

"I'm gonna be working at the radio station. I get to assist the jockeys with whatever they need and hang out with musicians that come to the station and shit like that. I mean, sure, it involves some menial tasks, but fuck, Big Bri, my own money and all. I don't need my fucking father anymore and maybe I could even do something nice for Cherry." Bender was practically giddy with happiness.

Brian smiled wider and sat down on his bed. "So, tell me everything." He instructed Bender. And that was how the two boys spent their evening.

Over at the Clark house, Andy had just arrived home. He'd picked up an extra shift at his job just so he could avoid going home and being around his father as long as possible.

He'd had just enough time to get home, change clothes, and start to reheat the dinner Lyle had cooked when the doorbell rang. Andy didn't bother making any attempt to get up and get it, since he no longer had any friends except the Club, and he figured it was one of the neighbors for his dad or some girl for one of his brothers or something.

But no one else must have answered it, because the doorbell kept ringing. Andrew sighed and went to answer it himself.

He was shocked to find none other than Allison Reynolds on the other side.