Oh, you poor, sweet summer child.
“Oh, I’m your worst nightmare, bitch,” I snarled, knocking her off Joey’s back and onto the flat of her own. “You like terrorizing little girls? Try someone your own size.” Losing my ever-loving shit right there and then, I straddled her chest. “Think you can call my boyfriend a scumbag? Think you can bully his sister, huh? Think you’re safe because you’re a girl and he can’t hit you back?” Narrowly avoiding a nail to the eye, I reared my fist back and socked her in the nose. “Well, I can!”
“You’re a psycho,” she screamed, as she tried to tear and scratch at my face.
Bitch please. She was about to get schooled real fast.
“Nails?” I spat, deftly pinning her arms to her sides with my knees – a skill I’d honed to perfection after countless battles with my asshole twin. “You think nails are going to do it?” I reared my fist back and hit her again. “Rule number one, you boundary-absent, morally-lacking, conniving bitch: if you put hands on another girl’s fella, make damn sure you know how to throw a punch!”
“How’s your money fairing out for ya now, rich boy?” I heard Joey taunt from nearby, as he got the better of Bella’s beau and pinned him to the ground. “Being a scumbag has its benefits, doesn’t it?”
“I’m calling the Gards,” I heard their principal command. “Stop it this instant or I’ll have every last one of you arrested!”
I couldn’t stop. People were shouting and arguing around me, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. All logic had flown out the window and I was running solely on temper fumes.
Six years.
Six long ass years I had watched Joey Lynch take beating after beating.
Seeing Bella put hands on that boy had been the straw that broke the camel’s back in my mind.
Besides, she had this coming.
Fucking around with other girl’s boyfriends when their backs were turned.
Bullying and tormenting girls younger and weaker than her.
She deserved everything she got and more.
“Molloy – come on, baby.” A pair of strong arms came around my waist then, lifting me off my target and away from the fight. “She’s not worth it.” With his hand wrapped protectively around my middle, and his chest heaving against my back, Joey continued to pull me away from trouble. “You can’t be fighting in your—”
“She called you a scumbag,” I choked out, struggling to rein in my fury now that it had finally been unleashed. “I’m not having it, Joe.” My voice broke and I sucked in a shaky breath, feeling like I needed to scream at the top of my lungs to project the anger raging inside of me.
“I know, baby.” Breathless and panting, he turned me in his arms to face me and cupped my face between his hands. “But I need you to be careful.”
My heart jackknifed in my chest as reality smacked me square in the chest.
The baby.
“Oh shit.” My hand automatically moved to my bump hidden beneath his oversized hoodie and I sagged against him. “Oh god, Joe what did I do?” Disgust filled every pore in my body. “I didn’t think.” I shook my head, feeling helpless and filled with self-loathing. “I’m so stupid! What if I hurt the baby?“
“No, you didn’t. It’s all good, Molloy,” he was quick to soothe, tightening an arm around me. “You’re grand, and the baby’s grand, okay?”
“But what if—”
“Everyone, follow me to the office. I’m calling your parents,” the principal yelled, commanding everyone’s attention, as he ordered Bella and her bloodied beau in the direction of the school. “All of your parents.”
“You do that,” Joey sneered, still keeping ahold of me. “Be useful for something!”
Parents meant Gards.
Gards meant handcuffs.
Reality hit me like a wrecking ball, and I stiffened.
He was over eighteen now.
The Gards in this town weren’t going to give him any more chances.
“Joe.” I couldn’t hide the fear in my voice. “You’re on a warning.”
“Listen, I need you to get out of here.” Catching ahold of my hand, Joey led me towards where I had haphazardly parked my car, sounding more composed than he had in months. “You weren’t here, and you didn’t see shit.” Stopping when we reached the driver’s side door, he turned to face me. “You got that?”
“What?” I gaped at him and shook my head. “No, no, I’m not leaving you—”
“Get in the car and go home, baby,” he cut me off and ordered. “Now.”
“Joey, no, I can’t leave you!”
Reaching up, he cupped my face between his hands and gave me a meaningful look. “Nobody’s going to mention you.”
“No, Joe,” I strangled out, chest heaving. “No, I can’t.”
“Aoife.”
“But you’re going to be…”
Fisting my hair, he leaned in and pressed his lips to my ear. “You listen to me,” he said, low enough that only I could hear him. “You get your ass in that car and straight to the hospital. Don’t worry about me, okay? I’m grand. You tell those doctors whatever the fuck you need to tell him to make them scan you check our kid is okay.”
“Joe.”
“When they give you the all-clear, because they will give you the all-clear, Molloy, I want you to go home and stay there. Don’t come looking for me, and don’t go fighting my battles, baby. I can do the fighting for the both of us.”
“But—”
“I’ll look after everything else, okay?” He exhaled a harsh breath and momentarily sagged against me before straightening back up. “All I need you to do is look after yourself and my kid.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I blurted. “Come with me.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.” My heart bucked wildly in my chest, as it cracked down the center. “They’ll arrest you if you stay.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter,” I cried, clinging to him. “You matter. You—”
“I’ll be grand. Just go and I’ll call you when I can,” he cut in, pressing a hard kiss to my forehead. “I’ll be seeing ya, Molloy,” he called over his shoulder, as he walked away.
And then he was gone.
JAILHOUSE ROCK
JOEY
It was no big revelation when the only handcuffs the Gards withdrew at Tommen were the ones they used to cuff me with.
Nor did it come as a surprise when I was read the usual ‘I’m arresting you under section 4 of the criminal justice act’ spiel, because, quite frankly, I’d heard it a dozen times before.
Thrown into the back of the squad car, I’d been taken straight to the station, where I had been searched, stripped and slapped around by none other than Paul the prick’s daddy. All that before being tossed in the cells for a time-out, while I waited on legal aid to show up and escort me to the courthouse.
Unapologetic for my actions, I took my punishment on the chin, unwilling to show emotion or feel bad for defending my sister.