“She will be allowed to sit her leaving cert in one of the local schools, but she will not be welcome back at Tommen. Her locker has been cleared out, her phone has been confiscated, and all images she took of Shannon have been erased,” John continued to reel off in that no-nonsense lawyer voice of his. “Natasha O Sullivan and Kelly Dunne have both been given a week’s suspension for their roles in the incident. Due to Shannon’s statements, though, and following a lot of discussion, it has been decided by the board that both girls will return to Tommen after their suspension and will be permitted to sit their exams there.”
“That’s bullshit,” we both chorused in unison.
“Pick your battles, boys. This is a good result.” Accepting the cup of coffee his wife held out for him, John kissed her before turning his attention back to us. “Take emotion out of the equation and look at the result for what it is: a win.”
“And Cormac?” Johnny pressed. “How’d you manage to pull that one off? He was hell bent on pressing charges earlier.”
“With a great deal of persuasion.”
“Well shite.” Leaning back in his chair, he let out another whistle. “Remind me to never go against you.”
“It’s not all good news. You’ve been expelled from Ballylaggin Community,” John added, turning his attention back to me. “Apparently, you were on your final warning, following seven suspensions this year alone and countless others tracing all the way back to your first week of first year.” A flicker of guilt flashed in his blue eyes when he said, “I did what I could, Joey, but they’re not budging. Committing an act of violence against another school while wearing your BCS uniform is against their policy and punishable by immediate expulsion.”
“It’s okay,” I replied, too numb to give a damn. Nyhan and Lane had been chomping at the bit for years to get me out of BCS. They finally had their excuse. I wanted to care about it, but I just… couldn’t.
“Okay?” Kavanagh looked at me like I’d grown an extra head. “But you’re supposed to sit your leaving cert next month.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does,” he argued, tone passionate for a fella whose future this didn’t affect. “It does fucking matter.”
“I wasn’t going anywhere anyway, so it’s all the same to me,” I replied, which was mostly true. I never planned on college. I never planned on leaving Ballylaggin. I couldn’t, so why worry about it?
“What the hell, Joey? This is important,” my sister’s boyfriend argued. Turning back to his father, he asked, “ Is there anything you can do for him?”
“My hands are tied, son. Joey here has a record for violence that makes Gibsie look like a saint.” John sighed heavily. “They’re unwilling to negotiate having him return to school - not even to sit his exams.”
Of course they weren’t.
Those fuckers had wanted me out since first year.
“What about Tommen, love?” Edel asked, worrying her lip.
“Tommen is private, sweetheart.”
“Another public school then?” their son suggested, running a hand through his dark hair in obvious frustration, which puzzled me because why the fuck did he care?
“Not in the area,” John explained evenly. “Nothing public, at least.”
Meaning the only way that I was stepping foot inside of a school to sit my leaving cert was if I had the cash to bribe my way through the door.
“The city then?” Kavanagh, ever the optimist, suggested.
“No school will touch me with a ten-foot barge pole,” I interrupted, just about done with the whole conversation. I wasn’t his pet project. He didn’t need to find solutions to my problems. All he needed to do was treat my sister well and we were golden. “Your dad’s right, Kavanagh. My record is shocking. No one’s going to want me, and it doesn’t matter anyway, because I don’t care. So, don’t waste your breath talking about it.”
“Jaysus.” Sounding thoroughly deflated, he sighed heavily, shoulders slumping. “What a disaster.”
Yeah, this was all getting a bit too fucking chummy for me.
A little too family-meeting-ish for my liking.
“Can I use your bathroom?” I asked, standing up. “Please.”
“Of course you can, Joey,” Edel replied, waving me off. “You don’t have to ask, love.”
“Thank you.” Feeling like a dick for doing what I was about to do but knowing that I honestly couldn’t handle another minute, I stopped in the kitchen doorway and added, “For everything.”
“No problem, Joey,” John called after me. “Remember what we said,” he added in a meaningful tone. “The offer’s on the table and it has no expiration date.”
“Yeah.” I nodded stiffly. “I’ll think about it.”
And then I got the hell out of dodge.
I WON’T BE LONG
AOIFE
“Oh, thank god,” I strangled out when Joey’s name flashed across the screen of my phone a little after nine that night. “Joe?” Trembling, I pressed my phone to my ear and bit back a sob. “Are you okay?”
“Molloy,” his voice came down the line and I collapsed in a heap on my bed, body flooding with gratitude. “Are you good? Did you get checked out at the hospital? Did they scan you? Is the baby okay?”
“Yeah, they did and everything’s fine,” I told him, heart thumping hard in my chest. “It’s all good, Joe. Our baby’s healthy as a horse.”
“Oh Jesus.” I heard him release a huge sigh of relief. “Thank fuck for that.”
“Joe, where the hell are you?”
“I’m on my way to your place,” he replied. “It might take me a while.” The sound of traffic whizzing past filled my ears. “I’m walking back into town from the Kavanagh’s place.”
“Johnny Kavanagh?” I frowned in confusion. “What were you doing there? What happened with the Gards?”
“It’s a really long story, queen,” he replied. “I’ll explain everything when I get to you.”
“I’ll come and get you,” I hurried to say, searching my room for my keys. “Just wait there, and I’ll drive—”
“No, baby, stay where you are,” he instructed. “I’m like twenty minutes away tops. Just relax and rest up, okay? I won’t be long.”
“Joe.” Instantly suspicious, I demanded, “Tell me you haven’t?”
“I haven’t.”
“Promise me.”
“I haven’t, I swear.”
I sagged in relief, wary, but needing to believe him. “Come straight here, okay? Don’t get sidetracked.” Don’t fuck up. “I’ll be waiting for you, okay?”
“I love you, Molloy.”
“I love you, too.”
“See you in twenty.”
THE APPLE DOESN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE
JOEY
After bumming a lift halfway there, and then running the rest of the way into town, I was rounding the corner of my girlfriend’s street in Rosewood Estate, when a dark figure stepped out from a side alley.