Binding 13

Not one person intervened on Ronan's behalf as the giant, fair-haired, man-child marched him through the corridor.

"Get the fuck off me, Gibsie," Ronan was screeching, trying and failing to break free of the monster man's hold. "I was only messing around."

"You know he's going to kill you, don’t you?" Gibsie asked, tone laced with humor, as he walked Ronan over to the front entrance and then ceremoniously tossed him out the double glass doors.

"Gibsie!" Ronan was screaming, red-faced, as he battled with the door handle. "Stop messing around. I was only being friendly to her."

"That didn’t sound friendly, kid," Gibsie taunted. "That sounded desperate – and a little rapisty."

Right now, both boys were pulling; with Ronan furiously trying to pull the door open, and Gibsie pulling it closed with reasonable ease.

"Let me the fuck in, Gibsie!" Ronan roared, yanking on the handle like a lunatic. It was a push and pull system and he was failing to push it inwards. "I need my inhaler."

"Nope, don’t even try that shit with me, McGarry," Gibsie called out with a laugh, holding the door shut when Ronan tried the handle. "You knew the rules – and you don’t have asthma."

"So, what?" Ronan demanded, looking outraged. "You're just going to lock me out of school because he said no?"

What?

"Absolutely."

What the hell were they talking about?

"He's not my captain!" Ronan snarled, pressing his forehead to the glass.

I was so confused.

"Oh, but he is," Gibsie called back, still laughing, and I was sure he was finding the situation highly amusing. "And dogs that can't behave themselves around Cap's new buddy stay outside."

"You're going to pay for this, Gibs," Ronan hissed. "I swear to god, if you don’t let me in, I'm going to tell my uncle about this."

"Is that so?"

"You'll be thrown off the team for this."

"For the threat, I'm going to fuck your mother, McGarry," Gibsie shot back. "And then I'm going to cum all over her tits, and she's going to love every minute of it." With another chuckle, he said, "Go and tell uncle-coachy all about what I have pla

"I'm going to kill you!" Ronan screamed, slamming his fists against the glass.

"Suck my balls –"

"What's going on?" a familiar male voice boomed through the air.

Recognition immediately dawned on me.

I knew that accent.

Without conscious decision, my eyes searched frantically for the owner of the voice, and when I found him, walking stiffly out of the lunch hall, holding an icepack to his right thigh, my heart hammered wildly against my ribcage.

Standing a good twenty or so feet away, I was at a visual disadvantage, but I was close enough to see how every inch of Joh

His legs were long, his thighs thick and muscular, all of which were caked in grass and mud. I noted the small tear on the sleeve of his jersey where his bicep was bulging.

Lord, he was quite literally bursting out of the fabric.

He was dressed identically to the other boys, in the same jersey and shorts, but was incomparably different because of the sheer size of his body.

He was almost too big.

Too muscular.

Too scary.

Too beautiful.

Too much.

Shaking my head to clear my wandering thoughts, I focused on the heated discussion occurring at the far end of the hall.

"What did the little bollox do now?" Joh

I mentally noted that he was walking with that same slight limp I'd observed on countless occasions.

It was barely noticeable, but if you looked closely enough, like I constantly seemed to do, it was clear that he tried to keep weight off his right leg.

My gaze danced between all three of them; moving from Ronan, who wasn’t yanking on the handle anymore – in fact, he'd taken a few steps away from the door – to Gibsie who was gri

Seriously, as tall as Gibsie was, Joh

There was a streak of dried mud on his cheek that he attempted to bat away with the back of his free hand.

His dark brown hair was sticking up in forty different directions.

Probably from sweat, I mentally noted, or playing outside in the rain.

He was standing in such a way that I could see his side profile and the way his frown deepened as Gibsie spoke quietly in his ear.

I couldn’t make out what they were saying and was unwilling to leave the sanctuary of my corner outside the bathroom, knowing I could always bolt inside and lock myself in a toilet cubicle and phone Joey if this turned ugly.

Seconds later, Joh

Tossing the icepack on the ground, his hands balled into fists at his sides as he turned to glare out the glass, revealing the number 13 on his back.

He took a step forward, stopping just shy of the door when Gibsie clamped a hand on his shoulder.

"You're fucking kidding me!" he roared, reacting to whatever his friend was whispering in his ear.

Joh

His eyes landed on my face and holy crap, he looked livid.

It was only a fleeting glance and he quickly turned his attention back to Ronan.

This time I could clearly hear what he was saying.

"I'm going to give you a five second head start, Prickface," he roared through the glass panel. "And then I'm going to cut your cock off and feed it to you."

"Fuck you, Kavanagh," Ronan shouted back, but his face was much paler than earlier. "You can't touch me."

"One," Joh

"What are you waiting for?" Gibsie called out, waving his hands in the air encouragingly. "Get going, Forrest."

Were they really going to fight?

Over me?

Was this really over me?

It couldn’t be.

They didn’t even know me.

No way.

I didn’t like confrontation, I couldn’t cope with it, and this sure looked like it was about to snowball.

Deciding to detract myself from the situation, I turned on my heels and bolted into the bathroom, not stopping until I was safely tucked away in one of the stalls with the door locked behind me.

With trembling hands, I pushed my bag off my shoulders, allowing it to clatter against the tiled floor.

Dropping down on the closed toilet, I leaned forward, rested my elbows on my knees, and buried my hands in my hair, reeling.

What the hell just happened?

What was that?

What would I have done if Gerard or Gibsie or whatever his name was hadn't come?

Where would I be now?

As my earlier adrenalin deflated, tears dripped down my cheeks, but it wasn’t because I was upset.

Okay, yes, I was upset, but my tears were those of anger.

I was pissed off actually.

Who the hell did Ronan McGarry think he was?

More, who did he think I was?

Inviting me into the bathrooms with him.

God, he looked like he actually expected me to say yes.

Blinking away my tears, I clenched and then unclenched my fists, knees bopping as anger and humiliation coursed through me.