Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)

by Chloe Walsh

“Exchanging love letters?” Gibsie taunted as he made his descent to the back of the bus. “How romantic!” “Go fuck yourself, Gibs,” Johnny shot back, sounding irritated as he folded up the note and shoved it in his pocket. “I’m not in the form for your shite today.” “Yeah, well, I’d tell you go fuck yourself right back, but I can see you already have that sorted,” Gibsie called back with a laugh. His comment received plenty of attention from other students, who decided to jump on the bandwagon and toss out suggestive comments. “See that, lads? They stayed on the bus when we were inside.” “He wasn’t hungry for what they had in the shop.” “Hup out that!” “Gowan, Johnny boy!” “Get in there, kid!” Anxious, I stretched up to flag Claire and Lizzie, praying one of them would switch seats with me, but quickly sank back in my seat when my eyes landed on Ronan McGarry two rows up on the opposite side of the bus. Another dozen rows up was Bella. Feeling trapped, I looked to Johnny, who had turned in his seat and was exchanging verbal insults with the lads in the back row behind us. “He scores on the pitch, he scores on the bus. How many tries did you hammer into her goal line, Johnny?” I flamed in embarrassment and dropped my head, quickly learning that spending any amount of time with Johnny meant being on the receiving end of a lot of attention. Unwanted attention. I didn’t quite catch what was said next, but Johnny leaped out of his seat and stalked to the back of the bus, so I pr...