Chapter One-Hundred and Sixty-Two
Clarissa brushed John's hair out of his face, noticing the small smile on his face. "Pumpkin, it's time to get up." She whispered, gently nudging his shoulder to wake him.
John's legs stretched under the blankets, letting him roll over onto his back as his eyes slowly opened to look at her. "Five more minutes."
She shook her head, kissing his forehead before she tossed some clothes onto his bed. "You said that five minutes ago."
He groaned, throwing the covers back and pulling on fresh boxers and jeans. "I hate school."
"If it wasn't for school you might not have been able to deliver Johanna." She called as she started down the stairs with slow steps.
Amelia climbed onto her chair in the dining room, watching as John sat beside her with an unusually large amount of food on his plate. "You're eating all of that?"
John nodded, lifting a forkful of French toast to his mouth. "Yup." He mumbled, looking up at the adults. "Coach Lauchner said if I can gain ten pounds by next week, he'll let me on the team."
Chris chuckled, knowing that even without the extra weight John was a vicious fighter. "He didn't let you spar, did he?"
John shook his head, taking a few gulps of coffee to settle his stomach. "No. He checked my weight and told me that if I don't go up in ten pounds, I won't get on the team."
Andy kept a close eye on John as he struggled to keep his meal down, praying that his body wouldn't reject it. "I need to go down a couple pounds for wrestling."
Dana looked at her son, confusion on her face. "I thought you didn't want to do wrestling this year."
Andy nodded to John, smirking at the thought of John actually being in a school activity. "If he can box, I can wrestle." He chuckled, watching as Claire kissed John and licked the powdered sugar from his lips. "Besides, with the training he's gonna get, I'm gonna need to find an upper hand on him."
"Ha!" Cody barked a laugh, knowing that on the rare occasion that John actually had weight on him and he wasn't in pain, that he was someone you didn't want to tangle with. "You got lucky that last time Clark." He remembered the bruises he'd had the one time he'd tried to tangle with John over some stupid thing when they were both so high that neither one could remember what it was now. "Believe me, if he had been expecting that pin, you wouldn't be walking as well as you are now." He tapped his hand on his shoulder. "He's the reason I can't move my left shoulder as well as my right one."
John shook his head, picking up his coffee. "What the hell -err, heck- were we fighting about again?" He asked, quickly correcting himself as he thought about the swear jar on the counter.
Cody shrugged, taking a bite of his bacon. "No idea. Could be anything from a girl, to some hallucination from whatever we were on."
Amelia stole a sausage from John's plate, stuffing the whole thing in her mouth as he gave her a fake glare. "I asked, Miss Wendy about what high means." She stated, not seeing how John blanched. "She said it's like being really happy." She looked around the table at the burners. "Why don't you want to get high anymore?"
John swallowed, his hand pressing over the ridges of his ribs. "Because… it makes you really sick when you come down. And that's why I had seizures, and get really sick after I eat."
Her brow furrowed as she looked at him, remembering how sick he had been. "Why did you do it then?"
He gave her a broken look, guiding her hand to the scars on his arm. "Because, it hurt when I got these and I wanted to stop hurting… but… after a while, I started thinking that it was fun and I didn't realize how bad I was hurting myself." He pushed her hair behind her ear, looking into her eyes. "Don't you ever get high. It's not worth it." He kissed her nose, hugging her close. "And if anyone tries to get you to do it, I want you to call me and tell me. I will come pick you up."
She nodded, pushing him back and looking at him with hope in her eyes. "Can you bring your motorcycle?"
He laughed, ruffling her hair. "Sure thing, Squirt."