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“He’d be a lot better if all of youstoppedstaring at him,” Claire hissed, shifting her body so that Gibsie’s face was hidden from view from the rest of us. “He’s not a fucking circus!”

Whoa…

“Gibsie, I’m sorry,” Lizzie blurted out, tears streaming down her cheeks as she rushed toward him. “I swear, I didn’t mean to—”

“Get away from him!” Claire snarled, taking a defensive stance in front of a boy who was more than twice her size. “Get back. All of you!”

“I didn’t mean it,” Lizzie choked out. “I swear—”

“Just give it a bleeding rest,” Johnny growled, climbing to his feet. “You could havekilledhim.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry!” Lizzie sobbed, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean it—”

“You never mean it,” Hughie muttered, stalking over to Katie, who was holding a towel out for him. “But we’re all getting really tired of hearing that excuse, Liz.”

“I said I’m sorry—”

“Well, ‘sorry’ doesn’t bleeding cut it this time.”

“You can chalk that down, Cap.”

“You could have killed him! What part of that don’t you get?”

“Guys, stop,” I choked out, feeling a huge swell of sympathy for Lizzie, who looked genuinely remorseful—and seconds away from a nervous breakdown. “She didn’t mean it.”

“She meant it, Shannon!” Hughie snapped.

“Hey, don’t snap at her,” Johnny warned, coming to stand in front of me.

“I wasn’t.”

“You fucking were!”

“Alright, lads, just simmer on down,” Feely interjected. “Lizzie knows she was wrong, she’s clearly sorry, so there’s no need to start throwing shit at her—or each other.”

“But she—” Hughie started to object, but Feely cut him off.

“You’re perfect now, Hugh?” he asked, arching a brow. “And you, Kav?” He turned to Johnny. “You’ve never lost your head in a fight?”

“We’ve never tried to drown anyone,” Hughie shot back, glowering at Lizzie.

“She didn’t try to drown him,” Feely stated calmly. “Don’t be so fucking dramatic. She lost her temper and pushed him. He fell in and panicked. We know why. It’s shit, it sucks, it happened, now let’s getonwith it.”

“And I’m so sorry,” Lizzie sobbed.

“They know,” Feely replied. Turning to Lizzie, he crooked a finger and said, “Come here.”

“Wh-what?”

“I said come here,” he repeated in a no-nonsense tone of voice. “Now.” Stunned, I watched as Lizzie complied without a word and walked over to him. “Now, you and I are going to go for a walk and let them all cool off,” Feely said, taking ahold of her hand. “And we’re going to come back when everyone here remembers that they’re not perfect angels.”

“O-okay.” Sniffling, Lizzie nodded and let Feely lead her away from the campsite.

“Are you okay?” I asked, following Johnny as he walked over to our tent and crawled inside. “Johnny?”

“I’m grand, Shan,” he replied, digging a towel out of his bag. “I’m just a bit rattled.” Sinking down on his knees, he toweled off his chest and back before sighing heavily. “This day is a bleeding disaster.”

“Not necessarily,” I offered, scooting onto my knees to watch him clean up.

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