Taming 7

Gibsie lies in bed with Claire, thinking about Mark. He decides that he needs to tell her. However, when she wakes up, he instead tells her about Dee. To Gibsie’s surprise, she reacts with anger toward Dee. She insists that she needs to tell someone about it so she will face repercussions, but Gibsie angrily tells her that she needs to keep it a secret and that he is fine.

On Friday morning, Claire goes immediately to the office. She confronts Dee, telling her that she is going to talk to the administration and the police. Dee begins to cry, insisting that she was only 21 when it started and that she never had penetrative sex with Gibsie.

Gibsie then comes into the office, demanding that Claire stop, as she doesn’t understand the situation. He warns her that, if she breaks his trust and tells anyone, he will break up with her. After a minute, Claire agrees; however, she demands that Dee resign in exchange for her silence.

After school, Gibsie calls Johnny and tells him what happened with Dee. Johnny sides with Claire, insisting that Dee deserved it. He also tells Gibsie that he is proud of him for confessing the truth to Claire.

After, Gibsie pulls out the note from under the mattress and reads it. He refers to it as Caoimhe’s “real” suicide note, “the one she left just for [him]” (382).

Claire wonders if Gibsie is going to show up to pick her up for the Winter Ball. To her surprise, he does, and he asks her if they can talk about everything later and just have a good night without fighting. She willingly agrees.

In the limo with their friends, Gibsie realizes that he forgot their tickets. Claire goes into his room to get them, scooping everything off his bed into her bag—including Caoimhe’s note.

Gibsie and Claire dance together for the first part of the ball. He is fixated on making her enjoy herself, ignoring what they have just been through.

At one point, he stops dancing to go to the bathroom, where he finds several of his friends with a bottle of tequila. As they drink together, he learns that Feely brought Lizzie as his date.

As Claire and Shannon use the bathroom, Claire checks her bag for lip gloss. Instead, she finds Caoimhe’s letter. She reads it.

In the letter, Caoimhe apologizes for not believing Gibsie. Eighteen months before, he told Caoimhe that Mark was abusing him; however, she chose to believe Mark over him. Then, when she was babysitting Gibsie, she walked in on Mark raping him. She writes all of this in the letter, then instructs Gibsie to take it to his mother or Claire’s mother so they will know the truth. She ends by saying that she knows she caused even more pain for Gibsie by not listening to an “innocent child” (390).

Shannon takes Claire outside. She insists that Claire needs to keep what she read a secret, just for the night. Claire is desperate to tell someone, begging Shannon to let her go to Gibsie’s mother or the police. Shannon repeatedly tells her that the dance is not the place to talk about it, as it will make Gibsie relive everything in public.

Although Claire is extremely uncomfortable with the idea, she returns to the dance. She and Gibsie dance to “Fade into You” by Mazzy Starr. She thinks of how much he has hidden over the years behind his smiles and joking façade. She is heartbroken by how much he has suffered. She kisses him while they dance, and Gibsie can tell something is wrong, but he kisses her back.

A while later, Claire and Gibsie go into the common room. Claire performs oral sex on him. Gibsie thinks of how it’s something he has never done before, as he wasn’t sure he could handle it after his trauma. However, with Claire, he enjoyed it.

Lizzie and Hugh then come into the room and start arguing, not realizing that Claire and Gibsie are there. Gibsie turns on the light, and Lizzie makes a rude comment to him. Claire aggressively defends him, telling Lizzie to leave Gibsie alone.

Meanwhile, Feely, Aoife, Joey, Johnny, and Shannon filter into the room. Claire continues to argue with Lizzie, insisting that she is choosing Gibsie over her because she doesn’t know the truth of what happened with Caoimhe. When Lizzie yells that Mark raped her sister, Claire vehemently denies it. She tells her the truth: Mark raped Gibsie.

The room erupts into chaos, with Lizzie angrily accusing Claire of lying and everyone else trying to figure out what is happening. Through it all, Claire can see the betrayal in Gibsie’s eyes, warring with other emotions but winning out.

Gibsie leaves the room and goes out into the night. Claire follows him, with Johnny behind her. She calls Gibsie’s name repeatedly. She thinks of how she messed up by bringing things up in her anger but is still adamant that she needed the truth to be heard.

Finally, Gibsie stops and turns to Claire. He tells her that he doesn’t need her help or anyone else’s, as he is “always okay.” She pleads with him to forgive her for bringing it up, while still arguing that he needed to tell people to deal with it appropriately. Gibsie tells her that he does not want to be her friend or her boyfriend anymore, then walks away.

Johnny comes up to Claire with Shannon, begging to be told what’s going on. Shannon gets the letter out of Claire’s purse and gives it to him.

Shannon assures Claire that they will find Gibsie. She goes inside to get Joey to drive. When the door opens, Claire hears Lizzie yelling inside, so she follows Shannon in.

Lizzie calls Claire a liar, insisting that Gibsie is “twisting” the story. She is adamant that she read Caoimhe’s letter and knows the truth. Claire tells her that there is another letter. She accuses Lizzie of taking her pain out on everyone else for all these years. When Lizzie still denies it, Claire tells her that she is done being her friend and never wants to see her again.

Gibsie goes back to his house. He starts trashing everything in his room. His reality blurs with the past. He thinks of the moments when Mark abused him, vaguely hearing his parents’ voices punctuate his memories. He then thinks of the first time Dee convinced him to touch her. When he hears Johnny’s voice in the present, he remembers the first day Johnny started at his school. The other boys used to bully Gibsie, but Johnny immediately became his best friend, convincing him to take up rugby.

As Johnny consoles Gibsie in the present, he finally regains full consciousness. He realizes that he is holding a large shard of glass from the broken mirror. There is blood everywhere, and his room is trashed. He hears Johnny give the letter to his parents and tell them to read it. He then sits on Gibsie’s bed, holding him.

Hugh and Claire come into the room. They join Gibsie’s parents, with all of them trying to talk with Gibsie. Johnny tells them all that they need to leave. He then sits alone with Gibsie, who cries into his shoulder. He confesses that he is afraid that Johnny and Claire won’t love him anymore after they learn the truth. Johnny is adamant that he does—and always will—love Gibsie, as will Claire. Gibsie then tells Johnny his story.

A few days later, Claire watches Gibsie’s house from her bedroom window. She tells Shannon that she wants to be there for Gibsie. Shannon insists that what Gibsie needs is space. She uses her own experience with her abusive father to try to help Claire understand how Gibsie is feeling. He is afraid that no one will want to be with him when they learn how “broken” he is, but he will slowly heal. The best thing Claire can do is respect his wishes and continue to love and support him.

Aoife then comes into the room with AJ. She affirms what Shannon said. She tells Claire that there will be times when Claire will want to run away or hide, but she knows that Gibsie is “worth fighting for” (420).

On Christmas, Claire and Hugh sit with their parents at the dinner table. Claire and Hugh refuse to eat. Hugh tells his parents that he can’t enjoy Christmas knowing that Gibsie isn’t there. He argues with his parents, insisting that everyone protected Mark, including his family. Hugh gets up and goes outside. Claire’s mother begs Claire to stay at the table, but Claire follows Hugh out instead.

Claire and Hugh look at Gibsie’s house. No one is there, as Gibsie and his mother went to Johnny’s parents’ second home up in Dublin to get away from everything. While they were gone, Keith moved out, a legal separation already in the works.

Hugh asks Claire to forgive Lizzie, insisting that Lizzie needs her support. Claire tells him that she can’t, knowing how Lizzie treated Gibsie all these years and how much Gibsie was suffering.

On New Year’s Eve, Gibsie is back at home. The police tell him that they cannot locate Mark. He was supposed to fly to India to be with his wife and child but he never got on the plane. They then ask about Dee, hoping that Gibsie will give a statement against her. He says he does not want to prosecute her. He thinks of how they will never understand that she “kept [his] head from going under at a time in [his] life when [he] was drowning” (427). He can acknowledge that she abused and took advantage of him but he does not want her arrested.

After, Gibsie plays PlayStation with Johnny in his room. Johnny asks about Claire, but Gibsie reminds him that they broke up. Gibsie thinks of how he can’t handle seeing Claire when she would look “at [him] as less than a man” (428). He knows these fears are irrational, but as time goes by, it becomes even more difficult to face her.

Gibsie tells Johnny that he can go across the street to Claire’s and see Shannon for New Year’s Eve. Johnny replies that he will only go if Gibsie goes too.

Just before midnight, Shannon convinces Claire to go outside to watch the fireworks. When they get outside, Gibsie and Johnny are waiting.

Gibsie crosses the street, then asks Claire to talk with him. They go to the treehouse. Claire starts by apologizing to Gibsie for how his story “came out.” Gibsie expects her to apologize for reading the letter or telling his secret, but she is not sorry for it. She tells him that he needed help and she would do what she did every time to get him it.

Gibsie replies that he feels humiliated by everything, as everyone will always see him as the victim. He feels as though he was doing just fine hiding the truth. He starts to break up with Claire, but she interrupts him, insisting that they are going to figure things out together. She makes it clear that she loves him, no matter what, and that he did nothing wrong.

Gibsie asks Claire what they are supposed to do now. She responds that they should wish each other a Happy New Year, then kiss, then move onto the next step. Gibsie kisses her, then tells her that he will always love her. He then admits that he needs time to figure out who he truly is, as he’s been “hiding for so long” (435).

A few days later, Claire and Gibsie play board games by the fire at his house. His mother repeatedly asks if he is okay, with Gibsie growing annoyed by the attention she has been giving him. He isn’t sure where things stand with Claire, as they have only treated each other as friends since the tree house conversation. However, he is sure that he wants her in his life.

Claire suggests that they sneak across the street to her bedroom. She acknowledges that he is still healing but wants him to focus on the “happy” things in his life, too. Claire and Gibsie have sex in her room. She repeatedly makes sure he is okay, and he is certain throughout that it is what he wants.

The next morning, Gibsie wakes up to Claire staring at him. She excitedly tells him that he slept for three hours without any nightmares or disturbances. Gibsie jokes about how strange it is that she watched him sleep. The two then go for a walk.

On the first day of school after winter break, Claire and Gibsie prepare to go in. Gibsie is worried about how people will treat him now that they know his secret. Claire assures him that she will be with him no matter what. Gibsie also tells her that she is allowed to be friends with Lizzie, but Claire says that she can’t until Lizzie admits that she was wrong.

On the way in, Shannon also asks Claire to forgive Lizzie, but Claire refuses. She assures Shannon that she is allowed to be friends with her, but Claire won’t do it. People stare at them as they walk, whispering to each other. Johnny loudly comments about how everyone has a problem, causing people to quickly turn away.

When they enter the common room, Claire immediately sees how fractured their group of friends is. Lizzie stands in the kitchen with Joey and Hugh. She stops talking as soon as Claire and Gibsie walk in. Claire instinctively steps in front of Gibsie, staring at Lizzie. Gibsie then grabs her hand, asking her to go for a walk. As they leave the common room, Claire thinks of how “the lines had been drawn,” but that she “would forever stand with this boy” (445).