"What's wrong?" Johnny was sitting on his chair, with his hand wrapped around my wrist, looking up at me with a concerned expression. "Shannon?"
Shaking my head, I pulled on my hand but Johnny didn’t let go.
Instead he pulled me closer to him, making this so much worse.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"I, uh, need to go home," I squeezed out, glancing around nervously and finding several pairs of eyes trained on my face. Turning back to Johnny, I whispered, "I need to go now."
"Home?" Johnny frowned. "Why?"
"Take a look around, Mister Fucking Hotshot," Lizzie hissed, coming to stand beside me. "Or better still, open your ears."
"My eyes are open," Johnny replied as he released my hand and turned his attention to Lizzie. "And my ears are right here."
"Lizzie," I croaked out, shaking my head. "Just drop it."
"No, if she has something to say to me, then she can say it," Johnny drawled. "Go right ahead."
"Fine," Lizzie growled, taking ahold of my hand Johnny had released. "Your evil whore of a girlfriend is spreading lies about my friend, and I'm holding you entirely responsible for neither straightening the facts or putting her in her place."
"What's she talking about?" Gibsie, who was sitting across the table from Johnny, asked.
"No idea," Johnny bit out.
"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," Johnny snapped, eyes flicking to me.
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 announced, hands up in the air as he approached his girlfriend with caution. "It's all my fault."
"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?" Johnny asked, drawing everyone's attention back to him.
"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 Shannon. I was talking about everyone saying my friend must be a fantastic fuck to turn your stupid, rugby-ball head."
"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," Johnny snapped, bristling with tension.
"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, Johnny," Lizzie continued to talk over me. "This is on you. She's your crazy ex. So, fix it."
Johnny remained completely motionless for about fifteen seconds, eyes locked on Lizzie, not saying a single word, before bursting into action.
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 Johnny.
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, Shannon –"
"I am not going over there," I repeated, trembling at the thought. "I don’t want to."
"Fine," Johnny growled, stepping around me. He kicked a chair out of his way, causing Pierce and Lizzie to part out of his way like the Red Sea before rounding the table. "I'll sort it myself."
"No –" Hurrying after him, I caught the sleeve of his jumper and dug my heels in. "Please don’t."
Johnny dragged me along for about five feet before finally halting. "Then what do you want me to do?" he demanded, swinging around to face me.
"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."
Johnny stared hard at me for a long moment before shaking his head. "Yeah, well I do," he finally said. "I fucking care!"
"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 Johnny. "Take a breather from the drama," he added as he clamped his hands down on Johnny's shoulders. "And have a little craic."
Johnny glared at him. "What are you talking about?"
"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?"
Johnny nodded slowly, gaze flickering between Gibsie, Hughie, and the table behind them. "She left yesterday morning."
"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 Shannon?" He gave me a meaningful look. "Fancy getting out of here before Kav turns the lunch hall into a scene from The Game of Thrones?"
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 Johnny's chest before slinging an arm over his shoulder and steering him towards the exit. "Let's go," he called over his shoulder before disappearing through the archway. "Now."
I had no idea what was happening, but I fell into step with the others as we trailed after Johnny and Gibsie.
"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," Johnny snarled as he broke free of Gibsie and stormed past all of us. "This is getting sorted now," he roared as he rounded the table and stalked towards Bella.
"For fuck's sake," Hughie groaned.
"You just can't fucking help yourself, can you?" Johnny roared, pointing a finger in Bella's face.
"I didn’t do anything," Bella laughed. "Except state the truth."