"...Where were you?" Laura asked quietly. John had been staring straight ahead behind those sunglasses since Vernon had left.

He cleared his throat, shrugging, "Out of town."

"Where?"

"None of your business," he said a little too harshly.

Laura got out of her seat and slowly approached the boy, who seemed to be tensing up the closer she came. She eased herself up to sit on top of his table.

"What happened, John?" she spoke softly.

God, she was breaking his heart. He didn't want to hurt her, not after everything she'd done for him, but he didn't want to get her involved in his shitshow of a life even more. Besides, she would run screaming if she knew. Better to maintain some of his dignity.

He heaved a sigh, leaning back in his seat with a small wince, "Nothing happened."

"You're acting...off," she told him. He was hiding something, she was sure. She had her suspicions as to what, but she didn't want to push him too much.

He scoffed, finally looking up at her and giving her a humorless grin, "Maybe I just don't wanna talk to you, Laura. Maybe I'm sick of you. Spent just about three full days with you, didn't I? Maybe I don't wanna hear your prying or your nagging or your pity or your mothering."

She was taken aback at the sudden, harsh explanation, but merely furrowed her brow and stared him down - or tried to through the sunglasses he still wore.

"I don't mean to pry, John, and sympathy and pity are two different things. I consider you a friend and I give a shit about what happens to you," her words, though they were a little sharp, were calm and smooth and completely controlled.

He gulped, trying to stick to his guns, "Well maybe I don't consider us friends. I got what I needed from you. Would have been nice to get a fuck out of it, but hey. Win some lose some."

She raised a hand to run it through her hair, not missing the little flinch he gave when she did so and appraised him. Sure, his words were meant to hurt, and she really had only started getting to know him last weekend. He could have been telling the truth. Maybe he really was just that cold.

But something, and she wasn't sure exactly what it was, told her that wasn't the case. She had a sneaking suspicion that even for only knowing him three days, she was one of the people who understood him the most.

"Why are you lying to me?" she pressed gently.

Inside he was a little shocked, she was still trying to help? After that?

"Who says I'm lying?"

She leaned forward, legs dangling off the table, "You're trying to push me away. Something happened and you're trying to keep me out of it. Maybe you don't want me to get hurt, or maybe you're scared that if I know what's going on I'm gonna leave, or maybe you're just embarrassed by whatever the hell it is you're hiding." she paused, taking a breath, "You don't have to be my friend if you don't want to. I'm a big girl, I won't run crying if that's the choice you decide to make but John. I. Am. Your. Friend. That's my choice, and I've already made it, so I'm not going anywhere."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

Bender looked down at the floor - a habit Laura discovered - knowing he'd lost this fight. He'd never met someone like Laura before. She was so stubbornly kind to him, and she seemed to see through his badass, criminal persona he worked to keep. She wanted to help him...the real him.

He sighed, shoulders slumping, looking back up at her and saying weakly, "Anyone ever told you how hard-headed you are?"

She shrugged, a small grin forming on her face, "Once or twice."

He gave a "Humph," but didn't say anything else.

"You were limping when you walked in here today." it wasn't a question, and Laura saw she was right as he tensed up again.

"Just a sprained ankle," he half-lied.

She tilted her head, nodding, "What's with the glasses?"

"It's bright in here."

"Didn't bother you last week."

"It's bright outside."

"...It's raining outside, John."

He paused, "They stopped me from getting water in my eyes."

"Can I see?"

"...No."

"How come?"

He watched her for a moment, concern evident on her face. Why'd she have to be so...Laura? Why couldn't she be like everyone else and let him be miserable? He let out another breath, slowly reaching up to remove the dark glasses.

Laura gasped, and Bender honestly half-thought she was gonna walk away from him, but her little fingers tentatively, tenderly, came to rest over the dark purple black-eye that was trying to fade into yellows and blues and red's around the edges already. He'd earned that one last night.

She stared, a mix of emotions playing out in her eyes as he watched them scan his injury.

"Anything else?" she asked.

He knew what she meant, and he gulped again, sliding out of his leather jacket, then his denim one, and raised his shirt up over his abdomen.

Laura was horrified. That wasn't just one instance that had left the layers of purple, black, yellow, and red bruises on the right side of his torso. Had this been going on all week? She also did not miss the circular scars scattered about his person, though they seemed mostly old and healed. She ran her fingers over them, being as gentle as she could, while he looked on cautiously, ready for her to call him a freak, or laugh in his face, or tell him to suck it up or call them fakes.

Laura, in the meantime, was beginning to see red.

She nearly trembled for the amount of anger she held toward Chuck Bender and the life he'd subjected his son to.

Her eyes flashed up to meet his, "Your dad?"

She gestured to his eye, and the bruises on his stomach, and his ankle. He nodded lightly, slowly, still unsure how much longer she would stay.

She pulled his shirt back down to cover his stomach, and got down to the floor, taking his hands and squeezing them.

"Don't go back there," she told him adamantly.

He was stunned, had he heard that right? Where would he go if not back home?

"...What?" he whispered, shocked.

"Don't go back." she repeated fervently, "Stay with us. Mom won't mind, she loves having you, and you don't have to go back there to that."

He stared at her, mouth agape, completely struck speechless.

"You don't need to live like that anymore, John."