Binding 13

"Fine," Lizzie growled, taking ahold of my hand Joh

"What's she talking about?" Gibsie, who was sitting across the table from Joh

"No idea," Joh

"I'm talking about my friend's reputation being tarnished because you were stupid enough to stick your dick inside that girl," Lizzie snarled.

"What girl?" Hughie Biggs turned his head from where he was nuzzling his girlfriend's neck to ask. "Who'd you stick your dick in, Cap?"

"Fuck off, Hughie," Joh

I blushed scarlet and dropped my gaze from his.

"Oh, Jesus," another boy who hung around with them asked. Patrick Feely, I think I remembered Claire calling him once. "What did you do now, Gibs?"

"It wasn’t me, Feely," Gibsie snickered.

"Yeah," Patrick muttered. "For once."

"Can you all stop distracting me?" Lizzie barked. "I'm trying to sort something out here."

"Baby," a shaved-headed boy called from a few seats up the huge table. "What are you doing?"

"Mind your own damn business," Lizzie shot back.

"Baby –"

"We're in a fight right now, Pierce Ó Neill, so don’t even look at me."

Releasing what sounded like a pained groan, Pierce shoved his chair back and rounded the table towards us.

"Saint," Gibsie fake-coughed, clapping his arm as he passed by.

"I'm sorry," Pierce a

"What are you sorry for?" she asked him.

"Everything?" Pierce replied, though it sounded more like a question. "Whatever you want me to be sorry for?"

"Was there a point to your big talk just there?" Joh

"Yes," Lizzie bit out, glaring daggers at him.

"Then get to it," he countered coolly.

"Fine," Lizzie hissed. "I was talking about Bella telling everyone that the reason you ended things is because you're riding Sha

"His head's not shaped like a rugby ball," Gibsie scoffed. "You said that about my head, too."

"Not now, Gerard," Claire admonished as she slumped onto the chair beside him.

"She's lying," Joh

"Obviously," Lizzie sneered, shaking off Pierce's hand as he tried to place it on her shoulder. "So now I want to know what you are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing," I croaked out. "He's going to do nothing about this because there's nothing to do!"

"It's your fault, Joh

Joh

He shoved his chair back and stood up, eyes locked on me. "Come on."

"W-what?" I choked out, gaping up at him.

"Come with me," he ordered, holding out his hand for me. "We're sorting this, now."

I looked from Lizzie, who had her hands folded across her chest and a satisfied expression on her face, to Gibsie who looked ecstatic, to Claire who was cringing, to the other boys who just looked plain confused, before finally settling on Joh

He looked furious.

And expectant.

"No," I strangled out, shaking my head. "No way. I'm not going over there."

"She's going to apologize to you publicly," he told me. "She's going to set everyone straight, publicly!" He glanced around the room before adding, "And I'm going to straighten out every other piece of shit that went along with her lies, publicly!"

"No." My eyes widened in horror. "It's okay. I don’t want an apology."

He exhaled a frustrated breath. "It's not okay, Sha

"I am not going over there," I repeated, trembling at the thought. "I don’t want to."

"Fine," Joh

"No –" Hurrying after him, I caught the sleeve of his jumper and dug my heels in. "Please don’t."

Joh

"Nothing!" I spluttered, still clutching his sleeve. "Absolutely nothing."

"I can't do nothing." He ran his free hand through his hair, clearly agitated. "They're talking about you."

"It doesn’t matter." I shook my head, ignoring the stares I knew I was receiving, and tugged on his sleeve. "I don’t care."

Joh

"Why don’t we all fuck off out of here for the rest of the day?" Gibsie interjected, as he practically fell out of his chair in his attempt to intercept Joh

Joh

"Good plan, lad," Hughie offered as he slid over the table and moved to stand next to Gibsie.

"I'm up for that," Claire piped up.

Gibsie flashed her a grateful look. "Your Mam's gone back to London, isn’t she?" he asked, tearing his gaze off Claire to look at his friend, hands still clamped on his shoulders. "You've an empty house?"

Joh

"Then we'll head over to yours and hang out for an hour." Gibsie stated calmly before turning his grey eyes on me. "What do you think, little Sha

I shuddered at the thought, having read all of those books.

"Actually, Thor's making sense for once," Lizzie said, putting in her two cents. She turned to me and said, "Go with it."

Go with it?

Go with what?

"Uh…okay?"

"Perfect!" Gibsie performed a little drumroll on Joh

I had no idea what was happening, but I fell into step with the others as we trailed after Joh

"They're probably going somewhere so she can suck his cock," a horribly familiar voice called out loudly enough to once again garner everyone's attention. "You know about those ones from Elk Terrace. They're up for anything."

"Oh, hell fucking no," Joh

"For fuck's sake," Hughie groaned.

"You just can't fucking help yourself, can you?" Joh

"I didn’t do anything," Bella laughed. "Except state the truth."

"The truth?" Joh