Binding 13

Royce delays the game for over two hours trying to prevent Johnny from playing, but they are unsuccessful. Tommen wins easily, with Johnny the star of the game. However, in the last play of the game, Johnny is tackled and lies on the ground for several minutes. Shannon looks on, panicked and afraid. However, he finally sits up, ignoring the offer of a stretcher, and is instead taken from the field by Hughie and Gibsie.

Gibsie gets Johnny to the emergency wing where he is stitched up. The doctor tells them that Johnny will need surgery immediately, as the wound from his previous surgery—which should have healed by now—was reopened and came dangerously close to doing more damage.

Gibsie yells at Johnny, telling him that he needs to stop. He reprimands him for never letting the injury heal and for lying about it to everyone. Johnny tries to object, saying that rugby is “all that matters,” but Gibsie corrects him that his “health” is what matters (550).

Shannon waits outside the locker room for over an hour for news on Johnny, as everyone else goes to the bus. Finally, Gibsie comes out and finds her there. He tries to get her to go to the bus and lies to her, assuring her that Johnny’s injury is fine. However, when she tells Gibsie she doesn’t care about Johnny the “rugby player” but Johnny the person, Gibsie agrees to let her into the locker room.

Shannon finds Johnny in the locker room in extreme pain and upset about his injury. She distracts him by asking him about his different injuries as she holds his hand. She then asks to see his most recent injury and Johnny hesitates, but then allows her to see his inner thigh.

Despite being upset at how serious the injury is, Shannon forces herself to touch the area and comfort Johnny. After a few minutes, she realizes that Johnny has an erection. She apologizes but then kisses him; however, he again does not kiss her back.

Embarrassed and feeling rejected, Shannon quickly goes to leave the locker room. However, Johnny stops her at the door and finally kisses her back.

The two kiss on one of the locker room benches. Shannon thinks that she is in love with him and “drowning in feelings” (562). She also appreciates that Johnny does nothing more than touch her hips and kiss her back.

After several minutes, they are interrupted by the coach and two paramedics. The coach is angry at Johnny and threatens to tell the school and both of their parents. Johnny argues back, but then Shannon realizes how badly his wound is bleeding from their kissing. She leaves the locker room.

Shannon and Claire are taken to a hotel room with the rest of the students for the night. She lies awake all night thinking about Johnny, aware that she has no phone and no way to know how he is doing.

At six o’clock in the morning, Gibsie knocks on their door and informs them that Johnny had an adhesion that was blocking his sperm chord as well as a sports hernia. Doctors performed emergency surgery, and he seems to be healing.

Gibsie is going to see Johnny at the hospital and asks Shannon to join him. Aware that her father will already be angry she didn’t come home after school, and knowing she could get in further trouble, she agrees to go.

Johnny wakes up in the hospital, confused and high from morphine. He tries talking with his dad, but he slurs his words and can’t focus. He asks about his private parts, which his dad assures him are working. He then rambles about being in love with Shannon.

He continues to talk about Shannon and how happy he is with her, as Gibsie comes into the room. His mother hesitates to let Shannon into the room, given how loopy Johnny is acting, but Johnny starts yelling for her.

Johnny repeatedly tells Shannon that he loves her, even asking her if she will have his babies. His mother apologizes and tries to get him to stop, as Shannon privately wrestles with her feelings: His words fill her with hope, but she knows he is high and may not mean what he is saying.

The nurse comes in and insists that everyone but one visitor leave. Johnny pulls Shannon onto his bed and declares that she needs to stay. His mother—trying to protect Shannon from the embarrassment of the situation—tries to get Johnny to let her go, but he refuses. She then decides to let Shannon stay as long as she is comfortable with it.

Alone, Johnny again insists that he loves Shannon and makes her say it back. She does, realizing that it is her “truth.” However, she is also relieved that Johnny likely won’t remember the conversation later.

Johnny then informs Shannon that he won’t ever play rugby again, claiming he is “broken.” However, Shannon insists that it “doesn’t matter,” and that she doesn’t care if he “never picked up a rugby ball for the rest of [his] life” (584). Johnny then confesses that he has loved her since the first day he saw her.

Shannon attempts to get Johnny to sleep, but he continues talking. He then asks her who hurts her, insisting that she not lie anymore. She finally tells him that it is her father, but when he doesn’t answer, she realizes that he has fallen asleep.

Johnny wakes up the next morning, confused and in pain, adamant that he needs to know his prognosis. Shannon tries to comfort him, but he sends her to go get his father—not wanting her to see him break down.

Johnny’s father comes in and tells Johnny that he won’t be playing rugby for six weeks, which puts him in danger of missing the U20 tryouts to make the national team. His dad also scolds him for lying about his injury and risking his future. Johnny agrees to be honest moving forward and do what he must to be able to play again, as his dad assures him that he believes he will make the team and that he loves and supports him regardless of what happens.

Johnny then asks about Shannon, regretting having dismissed her earlier. His dad tells him that Shannon went home and that the coach told him about catching them kissing in the locker room and likely told Shannon’s parents as well. Through it, Johnny remembers Shannon saying “My father” the night before but can’t remember what it meant.

As soon as Shannon walks into her house that evening, her father hits her in the face. He yells at her that she is a “tramp” and that he knew that she was having sex with Johnny. He beats her relentlessly, punching her in the face and kicking her on the ground.

Shannon’s 11-year-old brother, Tadhg, comes into the room and yells at their father, who then turns his wrath on him as Shannon attempts to protect him with her body. She tells her other brother, Ollie, to go next door and call Joey. As her father beats her, Shannon tries desperately to think of Johnny and withstand the blows.

Just as Shannon begins to “fade” from the pain and loses the image of Johnny, she hears Joey’s voice. He tackles their father and begins punching him. As Shannon recovers, she yells at Joey to stop, telling him that he’ll go to prison and then she’ll lose him.

Joey stops hitting his father. Their mother tries to speak, and Joey aggressively tells her to stop. She goes over to comfort their father, and Shannon feels shocked that her mother would comfort their father while both she and her brothers are injured and bleeding.

Joey sends his brothers upstairs to pack their bags. He then tells his mother that she has a choice—send their father away or lose her children. She begins to argue, but Joey interrupts her and demands that she “make a choice […] him or us” (601).