Dear, can't you see?

It's them, it's not me

We're not enemies, we just disagree

-Is This It, The Strokes

Brian Johnson was tired.

He had spent the past few weeks playing negotiator and mediator in the matter of Reynolds and Clark versus Bender and Standish, and in the matter of Standish versus Bender. Normally, he relished the role of being the person that his four new friends went to with their problems. But now, he just found it annoying. Because they were all acting like brats.

It was all so exhausting.

Claire was so angry at Bender for not appreciating all her efforts, and for having the bright idea, the audacity, to tell her to go back to her rich pre-detention friends. And so, knowing that he didn't really mean it, she had done just that. If only to piss him off further.

Bender saw this, and realized he had screwed things up yet again, probably for good this time. And so this made him even more pissed off. At Claire and at himself.

Allison saw Claire's return to her pep squad friends—the people who had not only insulted her, but even more importantly been little shits to Andy when he was going through a really rough time—as a betrayal. At first, Allison felt sorry for Claire. She had tried to do such a nice thing, and it backfired on her. She didn't blame Claire for that. But instead of having the guts to apologize to the humiliated members of the Club, or even face them at all, she had chosen to make amends with the other members of the Queenie circle instead. In Allison's mind, she had shown once and for all where her loyalties were, and that was that.

Andy was still upset with Bender, blaming him for the humiliation, belittlement, and anger, because he knew he couldn't take it out on Steff and the others, especially not Stubbie. He couldn't admit it to himself, but trying to confront Stubbie would have made him burst into tears. There would come a time when he would have to face the pain of his best friend turning his back on him, but he hadn't reached that point yet.

Allison and Andrew were of course speaking to each other, but other than that, no one else was really hanging out anymore with anyone but Brian. They weren't exactly in a fight, but they weren't exactly acting like friends either.

Claire was no longer speaking to Steff, Benny, or even Blaine. Erica and Charlotte had heard about what happened at the dinner, and while they hadn't completely banished Annabelle and Claire, both of the latter knew that they were on thin ice; Erica rarely spoke to them, and when she did it was in a fairly icy tone. Without the Club around to give her a reason to want to part from her friends (who she secretly called "the bitches"), Claire was doing everything that she could to get back into Erica's good graces. But she did find herself spending more and more time with Sloane. Especially the more questions Erica asked her about that Bender dude and why he was somehow invited to the dinner when she wasn't.

Even though no one was mad at him, not having the group all together actually made Brian feel more alone than ever. Especially since he himself wasn't actually speaking to his brainiac friends anymore, since his fight with them in the cafeteria about Saidie and Bender. And never planned on speaking to them again.

And so being angry at his former friends, annoyed with his new friends, and frustrated because he and Saidie were so busy that they had agreed to slow things down a little and take a step back, Brian had about reached his breaking point. What put him over the edge was one day having to listen to Bender whine about Claire's bitchy friends for the thousandth time at lunch, and then later that day witnessing Andy and Bender almost come to blows in the hallway upon bumping into each other (luckily that had been deescalated before Vernon or some other member of the faculty could get involved), and then the final straw was when he had been exiting the school with Bender, only to overhear Claire talking with Annabelle about some date for a dance, and how this time she wouldn't turn down being asked out by an older boy. Bender had stopped in his tracks, turned around, and (unable to control his temper) gotten right in her face.

"Didn't take you long at all, huh, Queenie? Must feel good to be right back in the world you belong in."

And then the strangest thing had happened. Claire didn't blush. She didn't cower. She didn't look angry. She didn't even look ashamed or embarrassed. She looked Bender right in the eye and looked at him with the blankest expression. Devoid of emotion. As if she didn't even know Bender.

Then she just shrugged and said, "At least it's preferrable to putting up with your shit." Not in anger. Not in hurt. Just a matter-of-fact statement. Not budging. Not running away from Bender. Not even trying to get away from him.

And it wasn't just Brian that realized this, either. Bender obviously did as well. The look on his face was one of pure shock. He looked as if he'd been slapped. Claire had never spoken to him like this before. Not even in detention. The entire time they had known each other, there had always been some kind of emotion behind all their interactions. Hatred, disgust, lust, like, sympathy, empathy, amusement, even love. But now, there was nothing in Claire's words.

Anger, Bender could deal with. But this? This was new. Brian could practically feel him processing the thought that he couldn't get to her anymore.

And he knew that, that? That was the one thing that could hurt John Bender most of all.

He knew he had to put an end to all this, once and for all.