The Breakfast Club (Brian and Claire(

1

       “I'm not a cherry,” Brian says under his breath, trying not to let it on too obviously to Claire or John that he had never done anything of the sort before. What would his parents think if they saw him sitting here, talking about his virginity to other children, except those children were barely even children. They sure as hell weren't adults, either. “When have you ever gotten laid?” John smuggly asks. He knows Brian's never even seen a Playboy. But just for the fun of it, he tries for nag Jim on and on about it until he admits it. “I've laid lots of times,” replies Brian. He's embarrassed. Embarrassed that he has to lie about something so simple. That he's never even had his first kiss yet, let alone had sex with someone. John doesn't believe it though, and says, “Name one.” Brian shrugs and replies with, “She lives in Canada. I met her at Niagara Falls. You wouldn't know her.” John calls B.S. and smacks his lips. “Ever laid anyone around here?” He asks, trying to get Brian to fess up. Instead, he just keeps the story going, and points at Claire, not thinking about the repercussions if John decides to say something. Which of course, he does. Being a smartass, John asks, “Oh, so you and Claire did it?”

       Claire finally looks over and buds into the conversation, after hearing her name. “What are you talking about?” She asks. Brian realizes what he's done, and tries to save himself, by saying, “Nothing, nothing… We'll talk about it later, ok? Let's just drop it.” Going back and forth, John explains to Claire that Brian was trying to say they slept together, so Brian is left to try to defend himself. Eventually, John and Claire both make Brian confess that he is a virgin, and Claire says, “I don't mind a guy being a virgin.” And she glares at John, angrily. “Really?” Brian asks. And she nods, smiling warmly towards him. He stares at her and feels butterflies. He puts his head in his hand, hiding his smile. He realizes that she's the thing he wanted this whole day.

       Of course, John messes the whole thing up again, and says, “What, you got a little crush on Claire?” He lifts his head up and sees Claire looking at him, smirking. “No, of course not.” He only says this because he has the understanding that if he admitted, not only John would make fun of him, but so would Claire. He couldn't stand the thought of Claire finding out and hating him for it. Or worse. calling it cute. When a girl calls you cute for something like that, or at least Brian, it just meant they thought it was funny because he had no chance to be with her. So he decided to hide his feelings. Because who would like him? Nobody. That's who.

       “Why not?” John says with a sarcastic tone, “Everyone likes princess Claire.” Claire scoffs at him, “I'm not a princess. And I don't think anyone likes me, really.” As she says this her eyes start watering up, and she looks to the side, kind of hiding her face from everyone. Right there Bryan could tell something was deeply wrong. He sympathized, because he knew what it felt like to feel like that. Like the whole world hated you, like you failed at the one thing you were supposed to be good at. For her, it was being liked by others, and for him, it was being smart, being good at school. But out of nowhere, Bryan heard a laugh from John. A horrid, loud laugh, that made him feel even worse for Claire. “You really think you're fooling anyone with that sob story. Everyone likes you Claire. That's why you're so popular. You're a bitch and you know it. Stop trying to get even more attention than you already have.” And that really hurt Claire. She couldn't help it but have a tear run down her cheek, as the words princess and bitch run in her mind over and over, on repeat.  “Come on, John. That's not fair and you know it.” Bryan says. “Shut up, dweeb. You know it's true. We all do. You guys just don't say anything, because you know she will cry over it, just the same way she is right now.” John replies. “It's ok, Claire. Just ignore him.” Bryan says, trying to listen to his own advice. Claire gets up and walks out of the room, and walks into the school bathroom.

       “Well done, Brian. You hurt her feelings.” John says, clapping slowly. “Oh, I hurt her feelings, huh?” Brian says, getting up and going out into the hallway to find Claire.