To all your friends you're delirious
So consumed
In all your doom, ooh
Trying hard to fill the emptiness
The pieces gone
Left the puzzle undone
Ain't that the way it is
-Beautiful, Christina Aguilera

Bender and Freddie had dropped Brian off at his house, and Freddie (realizing Bender was too boisterous and angry a drunk to help without waking up Brian's parents) had helped him sneak back into his home.

When he got back into his car, Bender had turned the music up so loud he was surprised it couldn't be head throughout the entire neighborhood.

"So," Bender said, lighting up, "what the fuck are we gonna do now?"

Freddie smiled at him in the patronizing way he had when Bender was messed up; a way that Bender would only tolerate from him. "Shouldn't we be getting you home, boozer?"

Bender turned on him in a fit of drunken rage. "Do I look like I can't handle my alcohol, numb nuts? I don't fucking want to go home."

Freddie started the car. "Fine. You friend Andrew told me about some party. If you can tell me how to get to his house, we'll go there."

Bender just shrugged.

They arrived at the Clark house on the other side of town to find it was a zoo. There were people everywhere. Mostly jocks and cheerleaders. Bender, started to feel himself in the beginning stages of sobering up, wondered if any of Andrew's old friends were there. He even started to wonder how Allison might be handling it all.

Once inside, locating Andrew in the mess was actually difficult. But Bender eventually found him in a corner by himself drinking and eyeballing the partygoers.

"Sporto!" Bender called out. Andrew knew immediately who had arrived. Only Bender would still call him that, even though he'd quit most of the sports he'd been involved in.

Andrew almost choked on his beer. "Bender, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Freddie dragged me here. Said he wanted to check out your little preppy party."

Andy rolled his eyes and pretended to be frustrated. "I invited him, not you, you jackass," he said, but he was smiling.

"Where's Klepto?" Bender asked. Andy shrugged. "Around, somewhere. She got dragged off by some of Claire's friends. I think they think she's a new girl." He laughed at that.

"Let me guess. That Annabelle chick?"

Andy nodded. "Yeah, I think so." Bender smirked, but tried to look all tough as he turned to Andy and said, "I'm warning you, jock strap, if they turn Klepto into some giggling prep, I'm kicking your ass."

"Dream on. I think I've already proven that you can't take me."

"I told you. I let you win."

"Shut it, Bender." Andy said, handing him another beer.

"Where is Freddie, anyway?"

"Still out at the car getting high. He'll be in in a second."

Freddie did make it back inside eventually, just as Allison and two other girls, Annabelle and Caroline, came back upstairs. Allison looked uncomfortable, but happy to be included, and made her way over to Andrew, trying desperately to hide herself behind him.

"What'd they do to you, Klepto?" Bender asked.

She just looked up at him and squeaked. When Bender didn't turn away from her, she finally gave in. "We drank beer while they sat there and talked shit about those other girls that Claire hangs out with." Bender gulped. That meant they'd talked to Allison for a reason. They must have known that she was friends with Claire. Had Claire actually told them about Allison? Was that why they were being so nice to Allison?

If that wasn't enough to think about, it surprised Bender to think that any of the girls Claire hung out with would do anything other than trash Allison on sight. He'd been so sure that all of his Cherry's friends were super bitches who'd never accept any of them, not even Andy at this point. Could he have been as wrong about them as he'd been about Claire herself?

Then Allison smirked and looked Bender right in the eye. "I think your girlfriend has started some kind of war between the rich girls." Bender didn't say anything, but he couldn't have been more proud of Claire. Not only was she becoming a better person, but she was bringing some of her friends along with her.

It was kind of funny to think that he, the school criminal, had been a positive influence on good-little-rich-girl Claire.

By about an hour into Bender and Freddie being there, he'd gotten so drunk again he'd passed out, and so had Allison. While everyone else around them was dancing and having a great time, Andy and Freddie sat in the kitchen drinking and talking.

"That asshole just had to get Alli drunk, too." Andy said, slightly irritated that he wasn't getting to spend time with Allison like he'd wanted.

Freddie just laughed quietly.

"Anyway, thanks for coming, man. It's nice to have some friendly faces here, other than just Allison, I mean." Andy continued.

Freddie nodded. "So, your friends haven't come around?"

Andy shook his head. "None of them even showed up tonight. I thought at the very least they'd show up since some of the older jocks are here, and that worst case scenario they'd just ignore me all night. But they didn't even come."

Freddie just stared at Andrew, not knowing what to say and not wanting to make him feel worse. So he simply said, "That bites, man."

Andy nodded, but quickly looked away, over to where Bender and Allison were lying spread out and sprawled against each other, sleeping off their drunkenness.

"No one has questioned you yet about what us non-popular kids are doing here?" Freddie asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Nah," Andy answered, "these are mostly Lyle's friends. They're seniors, so they couldn't care less what anyone else who isn't a senior is doing. Not even a fellow 'jock'." They both laughed at that.

Then Andy nodded over at Bender and Allison. "I don't get Bender sometimes. I mean, he hates it when people think badly of him, but he's always being a jackass and giving people a reason to not like him. Then he gets mad at ya for not liking him. I don't get it."

Freddie smiled slightly and shook his head. "That's Bender. He treats people like shit to keep them away, then throws himself a pity party because everyone hates him. To tell the truth, I think he just likes to test people to see who's gonna keep trying to get through to him, and those who do get through? It makes him respect them even more. That's how he and I became friends. And I'm guessing it's how you guys became friends with him. Because you tolerated his bullshit and still kept him around."

Andy smiled at that. "How did you two become friends? Because you seem so…nice, and simple. I don't mean that in a bad way. You're just laid back. And I can tell by your car that you guys aren't from the same neighborhood. I thought he hated all rich people."

Freddie laughed. "I'm not rich. Far from it. Bender and I don't live that far from each other. I just have a grandmother who loves me and whose dead husband left her a lot of money that she spends on me from time to time. That's all."

"Oh," Andy said, feeling bad about making assumptions.

"The thing is, Bender and I only met because we were both the oldest guys in our grade, and because we both used to get detention a lot. See, I used to miss school a lot because I was sick all the time in middle school. Long story. I'm doing better now. But when I first got sick, I was so angry about it, and how unfair I felt it was, that I just started acting out. I was just like how Bender is now. So we used to see each other a lot at detention and in the principal's office. So we kind of just started hanging out."

Andy nodded. "Yeah, but it looks like you grew out of that acting out, rebellious phase. Bender didn't."

"That's because it's harder for him. I got better. And I realized I was just lucky to be alive, so I stopped being angry and had no reason to act out. Bender has to deal with the same old shit every day. His father is an abusive alcoholic who treats him like it's his fault his mom died-"

"-Wait, his mother is dead? I had no idea. He's never mentioned that to us. Wait, then who's that woman that he talked about in detention? The one who calls him ugly and disrespectful? Or was he actually lying about that?"

Freddie snorted his derision. "That's Rosa, his stepmother. She hates Bender, and she's made his dad hate him, too. They got married a year after Bender's mom died. She hates children, and hates the fact that her husband had a son with another woman before her. To cope with the fact that the only woman besides the original Ms. Bender who would have him is an evil bitch who hates his son, Mr. Bender drinks. A lot. And that's when he hits Bender. He thinks that if it weren't for Bender, he and his wife could actually be happy. That's the shit that Bender has to deal with every day. I don't even think he's gotten over his mom's death yet. He won't even talk about her. And then he has to go to school every day and have people treat him like shit because he's poor and because they think he's worthless because he's not doing well in school. None of those asshole know that the reason he misses school so much is because he's either in too much pain to come or has too many bruises that he doesn't want the school administrators to see."

Andy felt almost as bad as he had about not believing Bender in detention. He felt bad for his friend. No matter how much crap he took from his dad, and no matter how hard Brian's mother was on him, none of them had to deal with a life as bad as the one Bender had.

Andy really felt like he was beginning to understand Bender a little more. He certainly knew the pain of not having a mother in his life. Bender's was dead; his was alive and well but still didn't want him, and it hurt like hell, no matter how good he'd gotten over the years at pretending that it didn't bother him.

"Freddie? How come you know all this? We both know Bender isn't the type to just open up about stuff like this."

Freddie laughed to himself. "Yeah, no shit. Bender doesn't open up to anyone. Not even me. These are just things I've picked up on from being around him for so many years. And from little slips that Bender has made. Sometimes in his own rage he'll say things that he doesn't mean to let slip."

Andy nodded. The night had started off boring enough, but he was a little pleased with how it had ended. He felt like he'd learned so much more about his still-new friend Bender, and while doing so had even found a new friend of his own in Freddie.