Bar Red's Redemption ✔

c h a p t e r. 34

"I like it when you speak dirty to me, papi."

"Go fuck yourself, shithead."

"Send AJ down here and have her do it for me," Gus screams back, cackling with joy when Feb leans over the edge just to flip him off. "Love you too, bae!"

Bar felt the hands on his back too late and turned just in time to catch Clementine by the waist when he fell back, both of them crash in through the air.

The brute, still worried, held the goddess close to his body so when they hit the water he got the brute of it.

Releasing her, the couple both swam up to the surface, the water slightly chilled but pleasant when mixed with the sun's bright rays.

Bar inhaled deeply when he came up to get air, dark eyes instantly looking to make sure Clementine wasn't hurt.

He swam over to her, feet kicking the water as he pulled her body closer to his, effortlessly becoming buoyant.

"You okay, babygirl?" Bar asks, hands traveling down her bare arms.

"Yep!"

"Good," He nodded. "But if you ever push me off a cliff again, I'm going to spank you raw."

"I won't," Clementine smiled sheepishly at him. "But see! We're still alive. No haunting people, yet."

"Bummer," Bar muttered, swimming them both over to where Gus was playing with a snail on the shore. "I have some people I want to freak out."

"Like who?" The little goddess tilted her head, shaking off the water from her legs once they were both able to stand on the sand.

"My dad," Bar shrugs. "Mrs. Burns. Conway. Creed and a couple of other people from school."

"I understand everything but your dad," Clementine admits as they walk past Gus, her waving when he ecstatically salutes them and tells them that the snail's name is Salty No-McSalted and that the snail named himself out of pure fucking spite.

The couple just rolled with it and Clementine suggested the middle name of Mustard, which Gus agreed to.

And thus the snail, Salty Mustard No-McSalted, was given a proper name.

"My dad's just not a good person," Bar said continuing the conversation, hands beginning to braid Clementine's hair as they walk back up the cliff so her curls didn't go all over the place and be annoying after she asked him to. "Just like what I said when I wouldn't let you meet him."

"Yeah, I-I know," The little goddess said. "But why is he a bad person?"

"Corrupt cop," Bar said, that not even being half of the truth. "And a drunkard."

"Does he yell at you?"

"Yeah, but it's okay." Bar pulled the hair tie off of Clementine's wrist and used it to keep the braid in place, moving to hold her hand when he was done. "I only see him once a month, and it's not like he screams at me for hours on end."

That was a lie. His father lectures him for two to four hours at a time whenever he's in a good mood or too lazy to deliver a physical beating but Talmai's verbal blows are just as bad.

"You're lying," Clementine calls him out, making Bar freeze, both of them coming to a stop. Her minty eyes stare up at him in concern and curiosity. A dangerous mix. "Why did you lie?"

"How did you know?"

"You bit your bottom lip," She reached up and cupped his face with both hands, searching his eyes. "So why?"