sincerely yours ⤇ john bender

eight

EISLEY HAD LIED BACK DOWN ON TOP OF A TABLE AGAIN, THIS TIME JOHN'S, ONE ARM OVER HER STOMACH AND THE OTHER OVER HER EYES. She knew that John would find his way back, she just didn't know when. Until then, she decided, she would try to rest a little. 

Turns out, she didn't have to wait for very long, because her rest was interrupted a few minutes later by a loud crash followed by an even louder, "Oh shit!"

Eisley shot up and looked around, eyes wide and alert. John stomped down the stairs, freezing when he noticed the eyes of his peers on him. "I forgot my pencil," he said, as if it were obvious. Eisley grinned, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared when Vernon was heard cursing just outside the library door.

John dove under the desk Eisley was at and she quickly took a seat. Andrew and Claire discreetly but quickly moved their desk back a little bit to cover John better, throwing their jackets over the front of the desk so that he couldn't been seen.

Vernon threw open the door and stormed in. "What was that ruckus?" he demanded.

"Uh," Andrew said, "what ruckus?"

"I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus!"

Brian helpfully asked, "Could you describe the ruckus, sir?"

Vernon pointed a stern finger at the boy, "Watch your tongue young man, watch it!"

John shuffled a little bit under the desk and bumped his head, letting out a groan. Andrew and Eisley covered up the noise by making more noise, banging their hands on their desks.

"What is that?" Vernon demanded, "What? What is that? What is that noise?"

"What noise?" Eisley asked, then froze. All at once, a tsunami of both gratitude and regret for wearing a skirt crashed into her. She could feel Bender's hands on her legs, spreading them open. He caressed her inner left thigh and placed light kisses on her right one, making her lose focus. When his hand came to rest on her lower abdomen, below the table enough so that Vernon wouldn't see and just above his main target, she moved her arms from the table to her lap and discreetly flicked him in the forehead as hard as she could, making him yelp. To cover the noise, everyone began coughing loudly. "That noise?" Eisley asked Vernon, voice a little choked up from coughing and having John's head between her thighs. "Was that the noise you were talking about?"

"No, it wasn't," Vernon replied snappily. "That was not the noise I was talking about. Now, I may not have caught you in the act this time, but you can bet I will." Allison giggled. Vernon pointed to her, "You make book on that, missy!" He moved his finger to point to Eisley, "And you! I will not be made a fool of!" He turned and stormed away, giving them all a view of the toilet seat cover stuck to his pants. While everyone laughed heartily once Vernon was out the door, Eisley's was forced.

When John climbed out from under the table, Eisley frowned at him. "Tease," she taunted quietly, just so that he could hear.

"What," John asked, pouting out his lip to playfully mock her, "you want more?"

"Not here," she replied, smiling at the way his eyes widened just a little. When he was up on his feet, he bent down to meet her lips for the second time that day. They both smiled when they parted a few seconds later.

John sauntered to Brian. "So, Ahab, can I have all my doobage?" he asked, his words so fast that they almost molded together.

Brian sighed like a disappointed parent and dug the bag of drugs from his underwear to give to John. Once it was between John's thumb and pointer finger, he turned and took Eisley by her hand and pulled her with him to the back of the library.

"Yo, waistoids," Andrew called irritably, "you're not going to blaze up in here!" Both John and Eisley paid him no mind.

In the back, Bender sprawled himself out on a chair and brought Eisley to the chair next to him, leaning her against him as he rolled the blunts. Moments later, Claire joined them, sitting in a chair next to them. After Claire came Brian, and eventually Andrew. Allison didn't join them, though that fact didn't really surprise Eisley. She couldn't really picture Allison smoking with them, the mental image she got was so unnatural.

John passed out the blunts and the party got started. Andrew went off to the second floor of the library and disappeared into the foreign language room. It didn't take long for Brian to act like a fool, trying on John's sunglasses before bursting into giggles, sending everyone else into laughter as well. John lit a match with his teeth and used it to light Claire up. Immediately, the girl coughed, making John laugh a little.

Eisley had turned herself sideways in her chair so that her legs were thrown over the side. Her head was on John's shoulder and he wrapped the arm she was against around her shoulders. Her eyes were closed and her left arm was draped over her stomach, blunt between her pointer and middle fingers, and her right hung down over the side of the chair lazily. Every so often often she'd take a drag and exhale the smoke upwards. "Do you think," she said lazily, "that flowers have feelings?" Everyone laughed at her bizarre inquiry, and nobody answered her. She was so relaxed and zoned out that she felt as though she could fall asleep easily, so that's what she did after she finished her blunt. She didn't even wake up when Andrew emerged from hotboxing the room he was in and danced and yelled.

After a while, John noticed that Eisley had fallen asleep and tried his best not to stir her as he and Claire swapped belongings so that they could snoop through each others' things. He got into the cosmetic brushes in her purse while she found pictures of girls in his wallet.

"Are all these your girlfriends?" Claire asked him, quietly as to not wake Eisley. She found it suspicious how close they had been acting, even kissing occasionally, but he had so many pictures of other girls. She'd thought for sure that they were dating.

John glanced at Claire, then at the pictures in her hands, and pursed his lips. "Not anymore," he said after a few beats of silence, and then looked at Eisley, sleeping peacefully and leaning against him. He pulled her a little tighter against him. Claire paused again as she took in the sight of them together. The way he was looking at her... that's the look girls only wished their high school boyfriends would give them. Breaking away from his stare, John went back to the cosmetic stuff and then at the rest of the items in Claire's purse. "How come you got so much shit in your purse?" he asked finally, shoving things back into the purse.

Claire shrugged a little, "I don't know. I guess I never throw anything away."

John only hummed.