The Breakfast Club - Monday Morning

Chapter 17

May 1984

John didn't call her Sunday. She tried to tell herself it didn't matter.

But on Monday he wasn't in school. When he didn't show up on Tuesday either, Claire found herself repeatedly going back in time, over-analyzing what'd been said Saturday, debating if she'd somehow misunderstood. He agreed to go to prom with her, but he seemed frustrated about it. Maybe he was having second thoughts and didn't have the balls to face her.

On top of John's absence, as though the world was scheming to crush her into the ground, Mike wasn't in school, either. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"I need your help," Allison whispered to Claire on Tuesday after lunch. It was the first time Claire had seen her voluntarily removed from Andy's side since they'd gotten together. "Can you go to the mall with me after school?"

Claire's initial response was to say no. But then she remembered John hadn't been waiting for her behind the shed yesterday. She'd checked, even though she knew he wasn't in school. She was hoping he'd skipped school but would still show up at the shed for her.

He hadn't.

"Yeah, I'm free. What do you need help with?"

Allison needed a prom dress.

"I wasn't sure if Andy was going to be able to take me," Allison explained once they'd arrived at the second-hand formal store. "He asked this other girl a long time ago and couldn't figure out how to break it off with her, but over the weekend she called him and said she was going with someone else."

Claire already knew about Kathy dropping Andy. The two of them never dated, but Kathy was determined to go to the prom with a Jock and had asked Andy months ago to guarantee herself a date. Kathy was a manipulator and one of the nastiest people Claire had ever met, so she'd taken a fair amount of pleasure watching Kathy's frustration over the drama created by Andy and Allison.

It disturbed Claire how often she now found herself thinking her friends were horrible people. She hadn't spent much time feeling disturbed about it before detention. She'd even been offended when in detention, John claimed that "activities people" were assholes. She still believed not all activities people were assholes.

But it was becoming apparently obvious that her friends were.

In the end, Kathy got what she wanted anyway. Nasty people always did. She announced at lunch that she'd "dumped Andy" and had a new date for the prom. The new date was another Jock named Stubby who up until last week had been dating one of Kathy's friends. It had been widely rumored that the couple was having relationship problems, but considering how quickly Kathy swooped in, Claire wondered if she hadn't been the problem in the first place. It all seemed a bit too coincidental. But the drama it created knocked Claire's quirkiness and Andy and Allison's relationship out of contention for hottest rumors, and for that, Claire was grateful.

But she was really starting to wonder what she'd ever seen in her friends.

Allison, oblivious to everything, glowed with happiness over being able to go to prom with Andy. "What about this one?" She asked as she twirled, showing off the pink silk ruffles.

Claire wrinkled her nose. "I don't know. I'm not sure pink is your color."

"It's really not, is it?" Allison posed in front of the mirror, jutting out a hip and pouting. "Andy suggested I make something, but I think I'd go all artsy crazy and I don't want to stand out too much." She sighed and backed up to Claire for help with the zipper. "I'm not sure what I'm even looking for. I don't know the first thing about these generic prom dresses."