Chapter One-Hundred and Forty-Five

John stepped through the door to the Breakfast Club house, stumbling backwards as Claire's body slammed against him her lips pressing to his in a firm kiss.

Clarissa chuckled as she watched the pair from her seat in her rocker in the sitting room. "There's my boy." She smiled, when Claire finally let him look at her. "Give me a hug."

John smiled, walking over to her and placing his backpack on the floor to hug her. "I missed you."

Clarissa squeezed him tight, pushing her tears back as she listened to his food pump in the bag at her feet. "You stopped eating again?" She asked, touching the tube that was taped to his cheek.

John dropped his gaze, guilt filling his chest as he thought about the weight he'd lost. "I couldn't eat without puking my guts out." He let her feel over his body, knowing that she was checking his weight under his shirt.

"Did you clean your cuts at all?" She asked, able to feel a lump under his shirt where he'd had a particularly deep cut.

John nodded, wincing as she squeezed the tender lump under his ribs. "Yeah."

She shook her head, knowing that the lump was an abscess from the infection that had been raging in that particular wound. "I'll have Ryan look at it when he gets home." She cupped his cheek in her palm, able to see that the drugs he'd been forced to take were wearing on him. The dark circles under his eyes were back, and his skin had turned almost ashy with how dull it had become. His hair was dry and brittle, and there were obvious signs of withdrawal in the shaking of his hands and the odd movements that his fingers made. "I'm so sorry that happened to you, Pumpkin." She kissed his head, trying to ignore the warmth of his skin on her lips. "If I could have stopped it, I would have."

He nodded, kneeling at her feet and resting his head on her lap as Chance licked her hand. "I'd rather take it than let you be in that accident."

Claire sat beside him, remembering John after Dominic had taken him to the hospital and listening to the doctors talking to her parents after the results of the rape kit had come back. Six men had forced John to take them, and it was a miracle that he didn't have any STDs from them. "I'm glad you're home." She sighed, kissing his neck as his body relaxed against the girls in his life.

He smiled, his lips cracking as the chapped skin stretched. "me too."

Kaylie leaned against Brian as they watched the meteor shower from the roof, smiling as the nerd wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "This is nice." She sighed, turning her green eyes to look at him.

He nodded, pointing to another constellation in the midnight sky. "That one's called Cassiopeia the Queen."

Kaylie squinted at the stars, struggling to see quite that far. "It looks like a big W."

He chuckled, showing her the outline of the queen. "She's sitting on a chaise, and that's her dress and feet. See? And over here is her glass of wine and her head is right here."

She squinted more, the whole thing still looking like a bunch of blurred out dots in the sky. "I don't see it."

Brian looked at her, noticing that she was struggling to see. "Do you need glasses?" He asked, knowing that she'd probably never had her eyes checked.

"I don't know." She stated, looking back to her boyfriend and kissing his lips. "I don't think I do."

He kissed her again, pushing his fingers into her choppily cut hair. "We'll ask mom about it tomorrow."

She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder to enjoy the rest of the night.