Chapter Three-Hundred and Twenty-Seven

Claire held her arm out as John choked on his own vomit, stopping Brian in his tracks. She could see the red tint in the discarded food, knowing that it was blood. "I'll take care of him." She stated, kneeling beside her man and brushing her fingers over his shoulder. "Bite your lip?"

He shrugged her off, spitting the last of the puke onto the ground. "Go away." He gasped. "I don't want you to see me like this…"

She glared at him, pissed that he didn't trust her enough to let her see him in his weakest form when he wasn't incapacitated from detoxes. "No." Her dark eyes met his, reflecting his stubbornness like a mirror. "If we're going to get married, then you need to learn to let people see you at your worst."

His eyes darkened. "You have seen me at my worst." He snapped.

"No. I saw you going through detox. Not when you could tell me to go away or when you were in your right mind." She squeezed his hands. "If you'd been thinking right, you would never have let anyone get that close." She curled her lip. "If you want to marry me, you need to learn to let me through that damn wall-" She was cut off as John's hand brushed against her cheek, his thumb gentle against her full lips, his fingers tangled in her hair, his eyes softer than the finest velvet.

"I don't mean when I was detoxing." He whispered, lips brushing her forehead in the barest breath of a kiss. "I mean detention."

She blinked, shocked at his words. "What?"

"When we were in detention… I had my switchblade on me because I figured no one would be in there with me."

Claire's eyes widened with realization. "You were-"

"Going to commit suicide." He nodded, dropping his gaze to his lap.

She covered her mouth, fear filling her heart with the thought of how close she'd been to losing him. If she had never gone shopping and gotten caught that day, John would be dead in the bathroom, or in the halls, maybe even on that sofa that they'd all gathered on to smoke weed and laugh.

"Claire, I would be dead now if it weren't for you." He wiped a tear from her cheek, taking a deep breath as he began to bare his soul to her.

Dominic glared at Justin as he and Asher talked, covering everything about the family from Jacob to foster care, to he and Jade getting pregnant, and even the detoxes that John had gone through. "Fucking prick." He growled, shrugging Jade's hand off as she touched him. "Get off."

Jade huffed, smacking the back of his head like Thomas often did when the Bender Boys were being assholes and needed some sense knocked into their thick skulls. "Grow up." She hissed, pulling on his hair. "You'd think that you were on your period instead of me."

He rubbed the back of his head. "Please, fifty percent of you hens are probably on Satan's river right now." He yelped as she hit him harder. "Ow!"

"Stop it, or I'm putting you on diaper duty until the Flower Garden Gang is potty trained." She stuck her tongue out at him, taking a seat on his lap as he pulled her to him.

He rolled his eyes, kissing her throat. "Do that, and I'll teach Flynn to piss in your shoes." He smirked.

She wiggled around on his lap, grinning as she felt her menstrual pad shift so that in a few minutes, she would leak onto his jeans. "Then I'll teach the girls to steel your pants."

"And I'll start replacing all of your panties with thongs."

"Then I'll use all the hot water before your shower every morning."

He chuckled, patting her hip. "Fine, you win."

She kissed his nose, shrieking as he picked her up and started for the bunks. "Dom! What are you doing?"

He laid her on their bunk, pulling his shirt off and pressing his calloused hands to her stomach. "You flipped my switch." He gasped, moving his hard against her through his jeans.

She shook her head, trying to ignore how he was turning her on as well. "But I'm on my period."

He kissed her collarbones, moaning in pleasure as his hands moved over her body. "If I can walk through mud, I can fuck through blood." He gave an animal like groan as she undid his button, pulling the curtain closed so that they had a little more privacy.