The next few moments were awkward ones. Bender and Allison just stared at each other a moment. Allison was suddenly very embarrassed of the display she'd put on in front of the entire town…and now that someone she knew had seen it, she'd wished she'd pulled Claire into the alleyway or something.

Bender saw her turn red. Why? She'd just done the #1 most incredible thing anyone had ever done for him in his life. His own parents wouldn't defend him so loyally like that! Allison certainly was one in a million.

"You wanna grab a bite? It's almost lunchtime," Bender said. Allison shook her head.

"I don't have any money with me," Allison said, sighing woefully afterwards. Bender shrugged.

"I know a guy who can hook us up," Bender said. "You gotta not mind eating in a garage, though. You won't, will you?" Allison shook her head again. Bender smiled. "Nah, I figured. It's only a block away. My band rehearses there and my cousin Ernie runs the place." Bender and Allison began walking, Allison having so many thoughts in her head that she could barely walk erect.

Allison thought it was odd that after "Thanks," he hadn't mentioned Allison jumping Claire in his defense at all. Now it was suddenly worth talking about eating lunch in an auto shop and cousin Ernie? Allison wrinkled her nose. As was the ways of John Bender. He didn't like mushy prolonged "Thank you"s much. Allison knew in her heart that he was grateful…but internally.

Only a few steps brought the pair to a two-story auto ship with three garage doors and an office entrance. All three garage doors were open, a car being worked on by a few mechanics. The garage was labeled "Fender Bender's Garage." Ernie was on Bender's father's side if he still had the "Bender" name. Allison and Bender went through the far left garage door. A radio was blasting rock music by Queen over the loudspeaker, and a few of the men were singing along and goofishly dancing to the tune. In the corner of the garage, to Allison's surprise, was a small carpeted nook with a few small sofas and a spot where Bender's band could be set up easily. Allison could tell this was where the band rehearsed, because a drum set covered by a clear tarp and an empty keyboard stand were set up in the nook. A candy and soda machine stood side by side in this nook as well, up against the wall. A short, puny man with shaggy hair spotted Bender and suddenly looked perky. Allison giggled. Standing next to John, Ernie looked like a midget.

"Hey coz!" Ernie yelled joyfully. Bender smiled and leaned down to whisper in Allison's ear.

"Look out for him…he's a dingleberry with whipped cream!" he joked. Ernie laughed as he went to hug his cousin (albeit a manly hug).

"Johnny, man! What's the news from South Shermer? Haven't seen you since x-mas, man!" Ernie said excitedly. Before Bender could answer, Ernie looked up and down Allison. "What happened to Big Red?"

Bender was silent. Allison bit her lip. Ernie nodded.

"Dumped?" Allison looked at Bender. He was visibly uncomfortable. But he probably wouldn't speak for himself. Allison decided that she had to.

"Well, not exactly—"

"—yes," said Bender. Allison was startled by Bender opting to speak for himself. "Dumped me for a boneheaded Dickface!" he sneered. Ernie was about to ask if that meant Allison was his rebound, but Allison shook her head, and Ernie understood everything, and kept quiet.

"So…what brings you here?" asked Ernie. Allison instantly took a liking to Ernie. He definitely was rough around the edges, but he clearly was like John…an M&M. A hard shell, but sweet and soft inside. Too bad the Bender family seemed to prefer the outer shell.

"We're starving, butthole," Bender said, snickering. Ernie laughed.

"I missed ya around here man! Wanna introduce the lady to my partners in crime?" asked Ernie. Bender nodded. "Alright, three for the Fender Bender Express!" Allison laughed now. Ernie was also very corny.

"This is Jeb…" Ernie said, pointing to an older, scruffy-looking man with a goatee fixing something in the hood of a red BMW. He looked up and waved at everyone before quickly getting back to his work. "…and Jason…" a brown-haired man in his late 20's flashed a peace sign from his spot behind the red BMW.

"Jason plays bass in the band with me, too bad his singing sucks," said Bender. Allison smirked and waved back at Jason. Jason, hearing Bender, held up his middle three fingers.

"Read between the lines, dildo!" he joked. Again, Bender laughed.

Boy, Allison thought. They sure have a cruel way of joking with each other! If someone had done that to him in school, Bender would have them looking out of two black eyes for a month.

"And this is Harry, Jude, Alden, Mack, Mark, Marc, Marco, Mitch, Fred, Joe, Little Joe, Big Joe, Jackass Joe, Lumberjack Joe…" Ernie said, pointing at each guy, and them waving back.

Did ANYONE know more than 3 names anymore? Allison thought it was interesting that John's name was so unique in this group of grease monkeys.

"And this is our newest jerk: Jerry!" Ernie said, pointing at a handsome young man about 3 years Allison's senior. He had a nice face and roughly combed red hair. Allison liked his smile. Jerry smiled at Allison and mocked a bow.

"Pleasure," he said. Allison blushed. Ernie rolled his eyes.

"Oh Christ! Not another one! Missy—"

"—I'm Allison," said Allison. Ernie nodded.

"Allison, be wary of Jerry. He's got his Ellie at home."

"Ellie?"

"Girlfriend," Jerry sighed woefully. "God bless the blind date!" Allison was confused, and Jerry could see that. "My friends set me up, and since then she's been glued to my side. What's a guy supposed to do, Allison?" Jerry smiled. Allison shrugged, which made him chuckle.

"Jerry, can you show our guests to their table while I scavenge up some eats?" asked Ernie. Jerry nodded. Bender almost immediately stepped in between Jerry and Allison, almost as if he wanted to put a wall between them. This didn't disturb Allison. Her mind was still in 100 different places. Jerry led them back across the garage into the office area. The office really wasn't much more than a desk littered with various papers and items, a small TV in the corner, a clock on the wall, and a door on the opposite side of the room. Jerry pulled a key out of his pocket and went to the second door, unlocking it. After Jerry opened it, Allison was pleasantly surprised to see a small secret stairwell leading up. The stairwell smelled like motor oil and stale gas as Bender, Allison, and Jerry climbed the stairs. Jerry opened another door to reveal a huge vacant space (the second floor of the garage).

This vacant space was incredibly huge (the garage downstairs was so cluttered it seemed a lot smaller). A worn wooden floor graced the bottom. Windows surrounded the two long walls, floor to ceiling windows. Allison could see a large bathroom with even a shower (it did look unused for a long time). It was sunny out for a moment, but through the huge windows, Allison saw ominous sets of black clouds looming to the west. It would be a big thunderstorm that hit them…and it looked about an hour away.

"I'm sorry there's no table," said Jerry. "The Pattersons moved out, as you can see, Johnny."

Bender nodded. "They just scared away customers downstairs anyways. Dumbasses," he muttered. Allison wished she'd known Bender longer. This was a very interesting building. The ceiling to floor windowpanes reminded Allison of Andy's old sunroom. "We won't mind eating on the floor, right Psycho?" he asked Allison. She nodded. Jerry nodded.

"You guys look beat. I'll tell Ernie to tell Mingo to rush that chow mein…that's alright?"

Bender and Allison nodded now in unison. Jerry bowed out of the room, closing the door behind him. Allison looked at Bender. "Mingo?"

"The weird Chinese guy in the take out place next door. He gives us free food if we fix his delivery cars." Allison nodded. She whirled herself around. "You like this place?"

"It's so roomy! Bigger than my whole apartment!" Allison said.

"It used to be an apartment that a newlywed couple rented out from us. But they'd always tell us to turn off the noisy music and the huge generators and drills…and we told them they should have thought about that before moving above an auto shop! Talk about morons! Anyways, they had a baby and moved out after that. So now this is just the useless second floor," Bender said. "The guys have been discussing using it for storage of old parts or something. I dunno. I don't work here."

"I think I'd like to live here. It's like a huge sunroom! Imagine at night, you could see stars and stuff from your own bed!" Allison said. Bender shook his head.

"No. We're right downtown, it's always too bright to see stars. You'd have to go back to my place to even see one star. We're pretty close to Chicago too, so that doesn't help."

Allison nodded. It was incredibly roomy in that room. She wouldn't really mind the noise downstairs. Actually, she through if she was bored, she could go down there and talk with the workers and jam to the radio. Allison wondered why nobody had bothered to rent the space already. It made Allison never want to go home.

"Lunch is served!" Ernie said proudly, coming up with a handful of Chinese food cartons and such. Allison's eyes glowed. She didn't realize how hungry she was until she smelled the food. Ernie had a yellow blanket draped over his shoulder. He handed the food to Bender as he set the blanket out on the floor, then proceeded to set things up like a picnic. "I'm sure you don't mind eating out of the cartons? Allison isn't a germaphobe or nothing?"

Allison shook her head. "We're all human. We all have the same germs in some way or another."

Ernie grinned widely. "She's a smartie! Well, we just got a jeep in with an antifreeze leak, so I gotta go down and make sure Lumberjack Joe doesn't poison himself again…"

"…wasn't that Jackass Joe?" asked Bender. Ernie shook his head.

"No. Jackass Joe tried setting Mark and Marco on fire with his mind and got his hair stuck in the fan belt," said Ernie.

"Oh, that's right!" said Bender. Allison had to laugh. She felt that she was missing out on knowing about this place and these people. Being at home was like living under a rock. Maybe if she'd known them sooner, she wouldn't have gone so long without friends.

Allison looked out and window and opened a carton of rice. She found a pair of chopsticks among the cartons and immediately started eating with them. Bender had been stabbing at a broccoli floret with a single chopstick, then resorted to using his hands. Seeing Allison be so fluent with chopsticks made him stare.

"You eat takeout a lot?" asked Bender. Allison nodded.

"My parents are out all the time. They're home less than 3 times a week, and I can barely boil water without burning it—"

"—ah!" Bender nodded, understanding. It was similar at his house. Only Jack pissed at Roxanne to make a pot pie…and Roxanne couldn't. SO Bender would end up running down to the store and getting a frozen one. Some nights, he'd eat Mingo's food with Ernie in the garage in between sets with his band.

"Do you guys just rehearse down there, your band?" asked Allison.

"On Saturday night sometimes we'll gather a small crowd, and they'll sit on the couches and listen to us. We're called Jesus and the Pirates," said Bender. Allison spit out a clod of rice and laughed louder than she had yet to laugh.

"JESUS and the PIRATES?" Allison laughed. Bender looked pleased that she was laughing.

"I'm Pirate #2," said Bender with mock-pride. "Our drummer is a Latin guy whose name is pronounced Hay-zeus…but we call him Jesus because that's how it's spelled."

"That name kicks ass," said Allison. Bender took a bite of chow mein. Suddenly, Claire and Andy invaded her mind again, and Allison sighed. "It's good to know we're not totally alone. I mean, with Andy leaving me and Claire skunkbagging you," Allison said.

"Assholes, both of them," said Bender.

"You can't blame Andy, really," said Allison. "He didn't WANT to abandon me. He left a phone number, you know," said Allison.

"You called him?"

"Well…no. I chicken out," Allison said, blushing. Bender shrugged it off. "John?"

"What?"

"Will you still hang out with me on Monday?" asked Allison.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because Brian went back to NYU early…it'll just be us two from now on," Allison said. The rain suddenly hit outside. It clattered against the glass like pebbles. Allison liked the way the water running along the glass distorted everything outside. It reminded her of how she and Andy sat in his sunroom watching the rain fall.

"I don't see much of a difference," Bender said coldly.

"Aren't you afraid? I am," said Allison. Bender quickly shook his head and stuffed his mouth with a spring roll.

He didn't want to tell Allison that he was more afraid than she was.

A/N: "Jesus and the Pirates" was the name of an old garage band in my hometown, and i thank them for allowing me to use their names here (their actually NAMES appeared here as some of the auto mechanics). luv u guys...you were better than "Fallout Boys" or "Black Eyed Peas" will ever be!