The Next Saturday - John Bender

9.

The rest of that Saturday's detention passed somewhat uneventfully, though Bender never really gave her an answer to her request, and now with a mere two hours left they sat beside each other at the table, nibbling on leftover snacks Laura had had in her bag from lunch. He hadn't spoken much since that morning, but he hadn't tried pushing her away.  Laura had done most of the talking, actually, she'd even read to him for a while, which John found he enjoyed much more than he thought he would.

Laura made him feel like just another kid. It was a nice change.

Vernon entered once they only had an hour left and spied John's bruised eye before he could slip his sunglasses back on and sneered, "Fighting again, Bender? That's typical. Can't even stay out of trouble when you're away from school. Pathetic."

John probably could have mouthed off to the man, and part of him wanted to, but he was tired and simply uttered a "Yes sir."

"I mean honestly," the older man continued, reveling in the fact that Bender wasn't giving him the usual crap, "how hard is it to not punch someone, dimwit? Keep on living the way you do. You'll be nothing. You are nothing."

Bender just sat, glaring at the floor, pretending that he didn't hear or care about the words coming out of the older man's mouth. He pretended that they weren't eerily similar to the words his own father told him so often.

Laura, on the other hand, was glaring daggers directly at her uncle, and when the man finally did look over at her, he stopped in his tracks. He knew of their budding friendship as was evident last Saturday and by the fact that she'd been asking about him during the week, but she seemed much too angry for simply having insulted a new friend. In fact, the way she was eyeing him was a little unsettling.

She got up slowly, and for a second Richard Vernon thought his niece was actually going to hit him, but instead she glided past him and out into the hallway, gesturing for him to follow her. Maybe five minutes passed before Laura re-entered with her uncle in tow still agitated, but like she had gotten something off her chest. 

Bender didn't know what she said to the man, nor would he ever find out, but Vernon muttered a quick, "I'm sorry, those particular comments were uncalled for on this occasion," and promptly left.

They wouldn't see him again until school Monday, and Bender gaped at the girl sitting next to him. So she took after her mother in that regard too. She could be a bitch when she needed to be.

He liked that very much.

"Oh my goodness! What happened to your eye?" Angie asked worriedly when she arrived to pick up her daughter. Bender was about to speak when he caught Laura looking at him and knew she silently asking permission to tell her mother what had happened.

He stared a moment, looking between his worried friend and her confused mother, and nodded, going back to sit on the steps.

Laura brought her mother to stand by the car and quietly, calmly, went through every detail with her, tearing up at times but always pushing through. Her mother was appalled at what her daughter was telling her and her heart sank when she realized that her phone call likely played some part in his treatment that week. When Laura asked if he could stay, there was no question. She'd asked already, Laura informed her mother, but she'd been given no answer.

Angie would talk to him, she decided, "But first, why don't you two wait here on the steps. I need to have a conversation with my brother."

"I see where you get it from," John teased Laura quietly in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Angela heard him though and grinned down at the boy, "Nuh-uh. I get it from her."

She left them there, Laura smirking, and Bender pondering what she'd said. As her daughter had done, she emerged after only a few minutes and sat down on John's other side.