Beautiful Mess || Johnny Rotten

Chapter 18: Can You Stay?

Third Person POV

John sat in an arm chair next to his bed, watching Violets sleeping form intently. He'd never seen her so peaceful before.

Violet was a firecracker, always lively and bouncing about, however this might of been the burnout that everyone was yet to see.

He'd been up most of the night worrying about her, and it reminded him of when he was little and his mum would get sick. Since he was the eldest son the responsibility of taking care of her fell to him.

John knew Nancy was a bad influence on Sid and he'd tried hard to prevent it, but now she was corrupting Violet too. Sweet, excitable, ray of sunshine Violet, the only real bit of light in his dim life.

It hurt him that she'd resort to dirty drugs when things start to go wrong. Sidney had always been rather impressionable, never really thinking for himself but that's why he had John to look out for him. However he least expected this from Violet, she was strong and very opinionated, or a loud mouth as he liked to call her.

She stirred slightly and her eyes began to peel open begrudgingly. It took her a second to get her bearings but when she did she shot up quickly, realising she wasn't in her own room.

"It's alright" he told her as her eyes landed on him finally,

Her expression softened a little and she let out a relieved laugh, falling back onto the pillow.

"How you feelin?" He asked, fidgeting with his hands,

"Peachy" she grimaced, rubbing her forehead as a shitty attempt to get rid of her growing headache,

"Oh please" John scoffed at her lies,

She glared at him for a second before responding "Why'd you come get me?"

"Sidney called me" he told her plainly,

"Yeh but you didn't have to, you could of left me there I would of been fine"

"Fine!" He exclaimed "Look at your arm, Nancy was pumping you full of drugs and you call that fine"

"It was my choice, I don't need you to babysit me" Violet retorted,

"Clearly" he spat, getting up out of his seat,

"Look I don't know why you feel the need to get involved in my shit but I'm telling you now to stop" she fumed getting up after him, not satisfied with how he was ending the argument "We are not friends, you are not my friend"

Her words struck him like a knife to the chest as he watched the small girl step to him.

"You've made it perfectly clear just how much of a shit you give about me" she continued to twist the knife,

"Oh yeh, it's not like I came all the way out to help you last night" he fired back,

"Well you shouldn't have" she hissed,

...

"What happened to you?" John whispered after a moment of silence,

Violets face changed from anger to one of slight confusion and hurt.

"You used to be good and you used to care about everyone. No matter how much of an arse they were, now look at you. You're so beautiful but you're destroying yourself"

Violets eyes were wide and starting to blur with tears.

"Don't do it to yourself love" he pleaded,

Violet wobbled slightly taking a deep breath, clutching onto Johns jacket to steady herself.

"Violet?" he asked concernedly, wrapping his arms around her to help "C'mon let's get you cleaned up"

John led her into the bathroom, starting to run a warm bath, as she perched on the side of the tub playing with her hands.

"Can you stay?" She mumbled,

Johns eyes widened but he quickly concealed his surprise with a smile and a nod as he flicked off the tap.

"Turn around then" Violet giggled as he stood there looking lost,

He quickly faced the other way, mentally kicking himself for being so awkward. Violet undressed herself, dipping her toes into the warm water before clambering in, pulling her knees to her chest, facing the wall.

"You can look now" she told him as he took a seat on the toilet lid, his eyes occasionally landing on her bare back but then feeling like it was wrong of him to stare,

"Johnny" Violet hummed, starting to wash herself whilst watching the way the water sloshed around in the tub,

"Yeh" he replied,

"Did you really mean it, when you said you'd never be with someone like me?" She asked, referring to that time back in the office where they'd been accused of dating in secret,

"...no" he admitted,

Violet reached out to grab the shower head, turning it on. Freezing cold water shot out making her flinch and quickly suck in a breath of air.

"Give it ere" John sighed, rolling up his sleeves, taking it from her and adjusting the the hot and cold as he held it over his hand to test the temperature,

"How's that?" He mumbled, letting the water run down onto her shoulder,

Violet nodded contently as he began to move it over to her back, the gentle drops painting her fair skin. John watched her fondly as she lent her head back to wet her hair. The water trickling down her face as she washed last nights make up off, in his opinion she'd never looked more beautiful. She seemed so peaceful and vulnerable that just the sight of her played with his heartstrings.

The moment was so intimate, the way he was caring for her since barely anyone ever had. It made her cheeks tint pink.

He flicked off the taps seeing she was done. Violet turned around resting her arms on the side of the tub whilst he moved to sitting on the floor in front of her.

John gave her a small smile, one which a cheeky school boy might give when he'd been doing something he wasn't really supposed to.

"You're not so heartless after all Johnny Rotten" She admitted teasingly, resting her chin on top of her hands,

"Maybe not. Just don't tell anyone, it'd ruin my image" he joked, their faces so close together he could see the water drops dripping from the tip of her nose,

"Don't worry, your secrets safe with me" she hummed closing the gap between them,

John smiled into the kiss, his hand coming to hold her face, tilting her head whilst his thumb grazed over her cheekbone. Violet leaned into his touch, opening her mouth to allow his tongue to roam.

After a while the two pulled apart wearing matching guilty looking grins. There was a second of silence which caused the pair to start laughing, realising how stupid they had been before and how much they'd really wanted this for themselves.

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. I'm not so sure where I want to take the story from here so please either message me or comment some suggestions. They'd be much appreciated :)