Claire's POV

I awoke the next morning with an all too familiar feeling of piercing headache and a body so sore it hurt to move. I kept my eyes closed for awhile, but when I did open them I saw the sunlight peeking through my curtains, the sun was shining so brightly it had to have been noon or past. This was very unusual for me because I have always been a early bird and up by nine at the latest.

I rolled around and saw John sitting on my mattress with his torso leaned up against my wall. He had nail marks running up and down his arms and bruised knuckles. All of the sudden the events of the previous night came flooding back to me.

Josh tried to fucking rape me. Wait, that means he now knows where I live. Well isn't that fucking peachy. I shot up from the bed which caused John to wake up in a hurry.

"Claire, are you okay?" John asked

I just looked at him. He looked just about as tired as I was and he did absolutely nothing to deserve it. An overwhelming sense of guilt washed over me. If I hadn't been so stupid and stayed with Josh or bring him into the mess with my dad, his life would still be carefree and he wouldn't have those nasty marks on his arms or hands. It could have just been me, same as ever, but no, I had to bring other people into my sob story and now the people I love most would be getting hurt and this is probably not the last time this will happen, considering Josh now knows where I live.

"Claire?" John asked snapping me out of my thoughts. Just then I broke down and cried.

He scooped me up and told me that everything was going to be okay. I wasn't a fool, I knew this problem would continue and things wouldn't be okay, for me, for John and for Paul and George.

"John, I'm so sorry," I managed to choke out in between sobs, "I brought you into all of my shit and now you're all bruised up and..." I wasn't able to finish because John interrupted.
"Claire, don't you ever think say that! You hear me? Never." he said started sternly but continued with a much softer tone, "You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, I don't mind getting a couple of scratches for protecting you? Claire you are absolute gold and you should be treated like that. I wanted to rip that bloody wankers head off when I saw him on top of you. I wish none of this shit ever happened to you, and I can and will do everything in my power to make sure nothing comes even close to hurting you again, you hear me?"

I respond with a nod before he pulls me into a tight hug and a kiss on my temple.

"John, I love you so much," I say with tears streaming down my face.
He holds me tighter and murmurs into my hair "I love you to Claire, more than you will ever know,"

John's POV

I was rehearsing with boys upstairs when I heard a blood curdling scream that sounded like Claire. The boys and I looked at each other for all of a half a second and then sprinted down the stairs and out the door. What I saw outside made me want to puke. Josh was pinning Claire down and tearing off her, already torn, shirt.

I threw myself on top of him and I wanted to punch him until his face was inside out. Eventually Paul and George dragged me off of him and I told them to take him to a bus stop. I turned around and saw Claire with blood pouring down her head and she was headed towards the ground. I ran up to her as fast as I could and carried her into the bathroom. I got a warm washcloth and wiped off the blood on her face and her hair. She had stopped bleeding at that point so I carried her to bed and stayed with her.

I sat up and watched her for as long as I could, making sure nothing bad happened to her. Even when Paul and George came in, telling me I should go to bed, I held my position. I felt that if I took my eye of her for a second something or someone would come in and hurt her. At about 4:00 I fell into a sleep, filled with dreams of different scenarios of what could have happened to Claire. It would start with her going outside then Josh appearing and him doing countless unspeakable things to her then he would hold up a knife to her throat and then the dream would start over except he would appear in a different way or he would do different things to her.

With everything that has happened to Claire, I felt so powerless, I mean I moved her out of her fucking house and yet her past still comes to haunt her. I would give up everything in a heartbeat for Claire to have not gone through all the shit she has. I feel like a horrible person for coming to her complaining about school work or Mimi or any little petty stuff while she would go home to her dad beating the living shit out of her and her boyfriend doing the same and sleeping around.

I awoke to Claire jolting up and looking very panicked, when I asked her if she was alright she didn't respond she just looked like she was zoning out, I called her name again and she broke down and cried. That made my heart break in two. She doesn't deserve to be treated like shit or told that she is nothing, I wish I could tell her how much I really love her and how much she means to me. But I know she doesn't think of me that way and it would just make things awkward between us.

When I heard her apologize I wanted to just hold her and kiss her. She has always been very self-blaming, I think it is because that she has been told that she does everything wrong from such an early age, but no matter how much I tell her how absolutely perfect she is, she still seems to think so lowly of herself and that if she is being treated well, she is a nuisance and if someone tells her that she is absolutely wonderful, that they are lying.

We laid together for the majority of the afternoon until she got up telling me that she wanted to do something. She seemed cheered up, that is one of the ways she amazes me, she can always seem to shake things off and cheer herself up. So she decided on making all of us cookies.

Claire, Paul, George and I went to the store and we got everything we needed. Paul and George seemed to be very surprised that she didn't come downstairs this morning sobbing but with a smile on her face. We joked around all day while she made cookies and we attempted to crack eggs but just ended up getting loads of egg shells in. When the cookies were ready we finished them in all of ten minutes and nursed our full stomachs while listening to the latest Elvis record.

After the record was over we just talked and laughed so hard our stomachs were hurting and our eyes were watering. At about eleven o'clock Paul retreated to bed and George followed shortly after. Claire and I were left alone and beginning to doze off on the couch when she spoke,

"I love you, Johnny. Thanks for the fun day." she said and I could practically hear the smile on her face.
"How do you do it Claire?" I ask
"What do you mean?" she responds with a confused tone
"You can shake things off so easily and be so forgiving, I mean this time yesterday your life was put into question and you spent almost all day laughing as if nothing ever happened," I said
"I don't know," she says after a moment of silence "I guess moping around never helps anybody, so once I've gotten a good cry out, I try to get myself to move on, suck it up a bit. I just don't want to seem so...helpless. I hate feeling like a burden and needing people to take care of me, so I just put my big girl shoes on and carry on with my life." she says slowly.
"Claire you have to let people take care of you sometimes, you can't think you have to go through everything alone, you know Paul and George will help you and if anything ever bothers you I will be at your side before you can blink," I said looking at her right in the eyes.
"John-" she started but I cut her off her by putting both of my hands on her cheeks and kissing her lips.