Distant beepings…the sound of slow, deep breathing…a voice, one he had not heard in about two years…Where was he? Who was he?

Too tired to open the eyes yet. Images of a red-haired girl with a cute smile…Claire. That was her name. Images of a parking lot and arguing, then a car…then sudden pain and darkness. Head becoming clearer. He was in an accident. That's right. The breathing was his own and he stopped for just a second to check. He was John Bender and he had been hit by a car. He was alive. He felt more awake now and opened his eyes.

Everything took a moment to come into clear focus. When it did, he looked around, realizing he was in a hospital bed. The beeping was coming from a monitor he was attached to. The voice, he realized slowly, belonged to Rachel, his sister. Why was Rachel here?

She was talking on the phone next to his bed, trying to stay quiet. Her back was to him so she did not realize he was awake. He tried to say her name but nothing came out. His throat was too dry and his body too weak. He tried again, but it still would not come out. He needed some water.

"Get this through your fucking head!" Rachel hissed. "You and dad boned each other without wearing a damn condom, and out came me. You did the same thing again, and out came Johnny. We don't exactly want to be, but we're your kids, and you're our parents, so why don't you take some goddamn responsibility for that fact for once?!" There was a pause. "Oh, I see, you have more important things to be doing than making sure your kids don't get hurt, like what, sitting on your ass?" Another pause. "It's not your fault if we're too stupid not to get hurt? Hey, in case you haven't heard, Johnny saved a girl's life on Tuesday. That's better than anything you guys have ever done." Another pause. "Don't blame me and Johnny for being born, that's your fault, you dumb whore. You could have put us up for adoption. We all probably would have been better off." Another pause. "You KNOW that was not the case!" Rachel hissed so mutinously that it was worse than any shouting. "I can't believe you're still too ignorant to look at the facts. Johnny saw what happened. Why the fuck do you think he helped me get out? I didn't want my own father…UGH! Just show some damn decency for once in your pathetic life and see how your son is doing!" One more pause. "Yeah, well if I thought he'd be better off, I'd have him move in with me in a second, but he needs to graduate high school and my work is too far away, and if he transfers now, he's gonna be totally confu-oh, that's right, I'm sorry, you don't give a shit!" She hung up the phone.

John took a deep breath through his nose and looked up at the ceiling in frustration, then back at Rachel. It was hard to tell with her back to him, but he figured she was trying to calm herself down. Their parents were very good at making them angry.

She finally took a deep breath in and out and stood up, paced once back and forth, then glanced at John and stopped, realizing he was awake. She smiled grimly at him and said, "Hey."

John raised the corners of his mouth and his eyebrows in response.

"How do you feel?" Rachel asked.

John swallowed and tried to speak again. His throat was still very dry. He mouthed, "water", however, and Rachel retrieved a cup for him. She helped him tip it down, receiving an irritated expression, and he felt better.

"Thank you," he managed to say hoarsely.

"No problem."

"What are you doing here?"

"Mom called me on Tuesday and told me you were hit by a car and at the hospital. She and Dad don't care enough to see how you are, so she thought she'd let me deal with it."

"Sorry," John grinned.

"Pshf, it's not your fault. I'm kinda proud of you actually."

"Really? For getting hit by a car? Well if that's what gets me on people's good side maybe I'll do it more often."

Rachel chuckled. "I meant for saving that girl."

Red hair and cute smile. Claire. "Oh. So I did save her, right?"

"Yep," Rachel smiled. "She and your other friends came to visit you while you were out."

"She did?" John asked in surprise. "Who else was she with? Jake? Robby? Duke?"

"All three of them, plus three others I've never seen before."

"Three others…what'd they look like?"

"Well it was two guys and a girl. The girl was dark-haired, kinda weird-looking. One of the guys had short brown hair and a letterman jacket on. The other guy was skinny with blond hair. Ring any bells?"

John sat there thoughtfully. A lot of people had come to see him. The whole Breakfast Club had come to see him. Had their bond truly been that strong then? He came back to reality and nodded slowly. "Yeah, rings a few bells. So…what's the dice on me, then? When can I get out of here?"

"Well…they aren't sure. It depended on when you woke up too. They'll be in to check on you again in a little while and then they'll probably figure it out."

"What's today?"

"It's Thursday morning. So you were out a little over thirty-six hours."

"Geeze," John groaned, making an attempt at moving his various body parts and getting some painful results.

"They'll probably knock you out with some morphine when they come to check on you."

"I love drugs," John said fondly. After a moment, he said, "So was that mother dear?"

"Yep," Rachel answered with pursed lips. "I've been trying to convince them to at least come see you. Once your friends got here on Tuesday, I tried going over to the house. That was a pleasant welcome," she ended sarcastically.

"Does Mom still think you seduced Dad?"

"Oh yeah. Because having sex with my asshole father was really my decision."

John clenched his fists, just the memory making him angry. When he had been thirteen and Rachel had been seventeen, their father had gotten drunk and decided that his daughter had grown to be quite attractive. One day, he had tried to rape Rachel, who fought him off pretty well until he hit her head on the floor. Before too much could happen, John had entered the room, seen what was going on, snuck up behind his father, and threw him off. That was the only fight John had ever won against his father, probably because that was the only time his fear had ever given him so much strength. They had told their mother what had happened but their father said that Rachel had seduced him, and their mother believed him. That night, John and Rachel plotted Rachel's escape, knowing that there was good reason to believe this could happen again, and that if it did, both of them could end up dead from the struggle. So Rachel left with some cash she stole from their parents, and managed to make it on her own. She was now bartending a few counties away and living in an apartment by herself.

"Hey," John said awkwardly, "Thanks uh…thanks for comin…I know it's not easy for you to be back here."

"Well somebody had to come to make sure that your hard head was fine," Rachel smiled.

It was early Thursday morning when the alarm clock went off. Andy felt himself being slowly pulled out of sleep and wondered why his father was not waking him up. Then he remembered he was not at his house, but Allison's, and he smiled.

Allison's fist pounded the alarm clock, knocking it off the nightstand and jerking Andy awake. He opened his eyes and sat up, looking at her laying next to him, burying her face into the pillow of her bed.

"Hey, we have to get up for school now," Andy told her, patting her arm. She merely moaned. "All-i-sooon," he sang, walking his fingers up her arm playfully. "Wakey, wakey."

"All right!" Allison groaned, sitting up. Her dark hair was messy and her eyes were heavy with sleep. Andy thought she was the cutest thing in the world at that moment.

He had now slept at Allison's for two nights, and he loved it. Her parents did not ask questions, merely nodded in acknowledgement. He could understand how living alone with them could be lonely for Allison, but he appreciated that they did not interfere in their relationship.

Andy's mother had called Allison's house Tuesday night when he did not come home, having found the number and address for her house on a piece of paper in his room for when they were going to go on their date. She had told him it was okay to come home, that his father would not really attack him or call the cops on him. Andy told her no. She always said that his father had a temper and was stubborn, but that he had good intentions. Andy could not agree. He knew that if he had returned home, he would probably have had the police called on him by his own father. His mother would yell at his father to stop, but his father would not listen. Andy told his mother he was not going home yet and after much arguing, she finally agreed.

They left for school and went to the student center when they arrived. There, like yesterday, they met Claire and Brian and sat at the same table. Claire had become quiet and sat there barely listening to the conversations for the last two days. She typically just gazed off into space. Andy was sure she was thinking about John and when he would be awake. Brian started talking a lot about what he wanted to study in college. It was a conversation that had been started Wednesday morning and was being continued that Thursday morning.

"I mean, I really have a lot of interest in being a physicist, but then I'm not sure if I'd rather not be some kind of technical writer," he was saying this morning.

"Where do you see yourself being more happy?" Andy asked.

"I'm not sure, because I really enjoy physics and math, but then there's something about being a technical writer that just intrigues me."

"Being a technical writer intrigues you?"

"Well, yeah," Brian said as if it should intrigue everyone.

"Okay," Andy laughed.

"Well what do you wanna do?"

"I don't know. I mean, all I've ever really known is competing…I guess I would be a coach or something."

"Is that what you're really interested in though?" Claire asked, joining the conversation for the first time today.

"I'm…not sure," Andy replied slowly. What was he interested in? Now that he thought about it, he had never really given it much of his own thought before. He had always just gone on the path of what he knew he was skilled at: sports.

What WAS Andy really interested in?

Allison was enjoying having Andy live with him so far. They slept together (without having sex), ate together, talked together…it was nice. She had company for a change while her zombie parents went to work and came home and did nothing. They went to school together and left together afterwards. It was quite enjoyable.

The bell rang telling the students they had five minutes to get to their first class, and she said bye to Andy, Claire, and Brian before going to her government class. She took her seat and looked at the empty one that John should be occupying. Wednesday had been filled with buzzing all over the school about the car accident in the parking lot, but today it was now old news. She just wished he was there to throw wads of paper at her.

Before the class even started she took out some paper and started sketching a volcano. Why a volcano, she was not sure, but it was just what she felt like drawing. She was going to sketch it so that it showed the extreme calmness before it erupted.

Brian entered his classroom for advanced physics and saw that Larry Lester was still not there. He frowned, wondering if he was okay. Larry was one of the few people before the Breakfast Club that Brian could almost call a friend.

His teacher entered the room, looking grim and flustered. He went up to his desk, sweaty and pale, and looked anxiously up at the speaker box where the announcements came out of. Once the final bell rang, Principal Vernon came on, which was unusual because the announcements usually began with one of the student council kids asking everyone to stand for the pledge.

"Good morning, everyone," Principal Vernon said quite soberly. "There has been a terrible incident within our school that you must all know about." He took a deep breath over the speaker and everyone in Brian's classroom was silent. "It is with my deepest regret to have to tell you that a student in our school named Larry Lester committed suicide last night."

Brian's stomach lurched. What?

"Larry was a senior at our school that was a victim of bullying. We as staff were not aware of this until it was too late, but we hope that those students who participate in any kind of bullying take a closer look at the effects it can have on people. I'd like to have a moment of silence for Larry at this time."

The whole class remained silent. Brian could not believe this. Larry was dead? He killed himself? It seemed too unreal, especially as six days ago Brian had intended on doing the same thing to himself.

After a moment, Vernon came back on the speaker. "Anyone who was friends with Larry or knew him or just needs to talk to someone, there will be counselors in the library all day today. Just tell your teacher you need to go and they will all oblige. If you feel you cannot be in school today due to grief, please report to the office and your parents will be called to pick you up. I am sorry for this terrible loss and I hope we will not suffer one again."

He ended his announcements at that, and the class stayed silent for another few minutes. It was a strange concept to accept, that a student in their school had killed themselves. Brian himself had a hard time dealing with it. Larry had killed himself because he was bullied too much. The last day he had been at school was Friday, the day that Andy had jumped him.

Poor Andy, Brian thought. What was he going to think? What was he going to do? Brian knew how horrible Andy felt about the incident and knew that he had done it because of the pressure from his father, not that it was an excuse, but Brian knew the cruel act had not been done out of cruelty, if that made any sense.

Then Brian started thinking about what if he had killed himself that Friday? What if he had gone through with it? It would be him on the announcements they talked about. Would they know the reason it had happened? Probably not. If Brian had killed himself on Friday though, maybe Larry would not have. Maybe he would not have since someone else had just done it. It would be him sitting in his desk hearing about Brian's death.

It suddenly made Brian very glad that he had not killed himself. Right now, however, he just wondered what Andy was going through.

Andy sat there shaking in his desk. Those in his classroom that knew about how he had taped Larry's buns together on Friday kept casting furtive glances at him. He could not believe this…someone was dead, and it was his fault.

He slowly stood up from his seat, his legs feeling like Jell-O. "Mrs. Sabley?" he said in an unsteady voice to his teacher. "I need to go."

Mrs. Sabley nodded and jerked her head at the door saying it was okay. He ran from the room and sat down against the wall as soon as he was in the hallway. He needed to compose himself. How could this happen? Larry was dead. Larry was dead because of him. He had humiliated him so much that it had driven him to end his life.

Andy started crying as he sat in the hallway. He did not care if anyone saw him. In fact, he wished an angry mob would find him, tie him up, and drag him somewhere to be stoned to death. To be humiliated to death as Larry had been. That would be the least he deserved.

And he had done it just to earn a nod of approval from his father. He had done it to impress his stubborn, jackass father. It was such a stupid reason, such a stupid, pathetic reason.

He was crying and he could not stop. He could not move. He did not know what to do with himself. He had just started trying to be a better person. He wanted to be more friendly, more open to other people, even if they were different. He wanted to be the one that started standing up to the bullies.

Andy hated himself right then. He wanted to beat himself up, humiliate himself, suffer worse than Larry had. He wanted to be punished. He would do anything to make up for this, anything.

Could he ever?

He was still slumped against the wall when a gentle hand started pulling his arms upwards. Without even looking up to see who it was, he obeyed the touch without thinking about it. He was pulled to his feet and found himself face-to-face with Allison, who was looking at him with tears in her eyes.

"Come on," she said quietly. "I don't think this is where you want to be."

Right now he did not care. He let her lead him through the school and outside. He did not care about getting in trouble. He just needed to be away from here. He needed to be with Allison. She would help him.

He felt a surge of anger at himself as he thought that he did not deserve to be helped.

"No, I shouldn't leave," he said.

"I'm pretty sure you should," Allison answered quietly. "A lot of people know about how you jumped him."

"Exactly," Andy replied. "It's my fault and I need to take responsibility," he told her, his voice shaking a lot.

"Being here isn't going to do you any good. You need to go."

"No, I have to stay."

"People might go after you!" Allison said angrily.

"Good! They should! And it's my responsibility to tell them that it was my fault their friend or classmate or brother or cousin or whatever else he was to people that he is dead!"

"Andy, I know you feel bad but this isn't going to help. I'm really worried that you'll get hurt!"

"And if I do, I deserve it! I'll go through all the pain I have to if it means making up for what I did!" Andy's voice broke. He could not take this. He could not. "I've gotta go back in."

"And what are you going to do?" Allison asked quietly.

"I'll go to the library where the kids that are the most upset will probably be, and I'm going to tell them it was my fault that Larry is dead and I'm going to give them the best apology I can, whether they accept it or not."

He was still crying, still shaking. He was so angry with himself and upset and guilty. He did not think he could ever forgive himself. How could anyone else?

"Okay," Allison nodded. She went back inside with him and they both entered the library, where many sad students were sitting together along with the guidance counselors. Some of the students were crying, some were just staring quietly into space, looking lost or angry. Andy did not know what to say. He was responsible for all of this.

As he and Allison slowly approached them, the grieving students looked up, and many of them glared.

"What are you doing here?" one lanky boy with glasses and shrunken clothes asked menacingly.

"Jordan, everyone in this school has a right to be here," one of the guidance counselors, Mrs. Pikeling said calmly.

"HE doesn't!" Jordan spat. "It's HIS fault that Larry's dead!" Jordan was pointing a shaking finger furiously at Andy, who just stood there, feeling so ashamed.

"All right, let's talk about this," Mrs. Pikeling suggested. "Andy, how about you have a seat, and Jordan, you can civilly discuss with him how you feel."

"I don't want to be civil with him! I want him to have some kind of idea, some kind of fucking inkling of how the rest of us are feeling!"

"Jordan, let him talk," a familiar voice said. Andy did not see Brian sitting amongst the crowd. He stood up. "Guys, I had detention with Andy on Saturday, and I heard what was probably the most genuinely remorseful confession I have ever heard. Do you really think he doesn't feel bad at all?"

"Yeah, now he does that the kid he picked on is dead," a chubby girl with a lot of zits said fiercely. "He would never have cared if Larry hadn't…" she trailed off and tears started burning her eyes. She sat down.

"That's not true," Brian told them all, voice quivering but defiant. "I heard how sorry Andy was before this happened! It was really bothering him a lot, and if you'd been there, you would have realized just how shitty he feels, and you guys are probably making him feel even shittier!"

"Thanks, Brian," Andy said softly, "but I think it'll be better if they hear this from me." All of the students there watched him, waiting to hear what he had to say that was supposed to make them feel better. Andy swallowed. "On Friday, in the locker room, Larry was next to me, and I noticed his physique, and all that I could think about at that moment was my father's talks about weakness. See, I've always been very…very skilled athletically, and my father used to be a big football player in high school. He-he's always wanted me to be just like him, and-"

"That's very touching," the boy named Jordan interrupted sardonically. "No offense, but we really aren't interested in your sob stories when the kid you tortured killed himself because of you."

"Let him finish!" Allison snapped.

"Settle down, everyone," Mrs. Pikeling said. "Please, Jordan, let him finish. It might help you gain some understanding."

Jordan nodded grudgingly and Andy went on.

"My dad…he's always pushed me to be a-a winner. To be better than those around me, to set an example for those that are weaker. When…when I saw Larry, that as all I could think about, and I just started-started jumping on him because I thought it would make my dad happy. I thought my dad would finally-finally give me some approval for teaching someone weaker to toughen up. I did it…I did it to make my dad happy. But I started thinking about it afterwards and I thought about Larry's dad, and Larry telling him what happened. I would be making my own dad proud, but I probably made Larry's dad ashamed, and-and probably Larry ashamed. How horrible to do someone, you know?" At this, Andy glared as more tears fell from his eyes. The glare was not directed at anyone around him, but to himself. "How horrible, to make someone feel so low, to make someone feel so incompetent. He must have been so humiliated." Andy's voice staggered for a moment and he had to take another breath and keep going. Everyone was dead silent. "I can't even imagine how humiliated he must have felt. And my dad…my dad was proud of me for this." He kicked a nearby unoccupied chair leg. He was so angry right now, at himself and at his father. "He was PROUD because he said I taught Larry a lesson, that I showed Larry survival of the fittest and that hopefully now Larry would learn to toughen up. Larry didn't need to toughen up though. He just needed confidence. The poor kid probably just needed people to be happy with him for the way he was, to just be nice to him for god sakes! And then I came around and humiliated him and probably made him feel like SHIT, just to impress my stupid father! It was the most stupid, selfish, ignorant thing to do, and I don't know how to apologize to any of you, or how to make up for the fact that your friend is d-dead because of me!" He was crying hard now and he couldn't stop the guilt as it flowed like a stream from his eyes. "I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I want you all to know that I-I am so sorry. I'm sorry I did this to you, and I'm sorry I did this to Larry. I truly mean it. I need you to know that I mean everything I'm saying, whether you forgive me or not is your choice, but please just realize that I am very genuinely sorry!" He was sobbing uncontrollably now and he felt arms wrapping themselves around him in a hug as his face was pressed into a soft shoulder. He knew it was probably Allison, but he still did not feel he deserved a hug, even from her. He held her tight, however, because he needed to show her he really cared.

"Andy," a familiar voice said, quavering from the strain. Allison let go of him and he looked around to see Jordan looking at him, tears going down his own cheeks too. "I-I forgive you," he sobbed.

Andy's breath was coming in and out uncontrollably. He did not know what to do or what to say. He tried to regain his composure for a moment and nodded, saying, "Thank you. Thank you so much." Jordan nodded too, and put his face in his hand as he choked on more sobs.

Andy looked at the others. Many sat there with their faces in their hands or staring down at the table, sobbing. Brian was looking at Andy with tears in his eyes and gave him a grim smile of reassurance.

The next few days, weeks, months-however long-were going to be hard, Andy knew. But right now he felt that it might be possible to handle them, and to come out of all of this and be okay. He had friends. He had the Breakfast Club.

Author's note: Thank you all for the reviews. I really appreciate the feedback. I hope you continue to like this story. I'm going to try to get at least one more chapter in before I leave for college on September 5th. Either way, I'll continue to try to keep writing at college, just realize I might be busy and may not be able to post chapters very quickly. Thanks, and happy reading. :)