“Oh, Jesus,” Gibs groaned, shifting around in discomfort. "I'm hardly a comeback kid, Claire-bear," he added as he concentrated really hard on something.
Not getting a stiffy, I presumed.
Yeah, we’d all been there.
Poor bastard.
"No, Gerard." Shaking her head, she hooked an arm around his shoulders and leaned in close enough to stroke his nose with hers. "You're the broken boy. He’s the comeback kid.”
“If I’m broken then what does that make you, Claire-Bear?”
“I don’t know, Gerard,” she teased. “What does it make me?”
“My it girl,” he purred, arms coming arm her, as he closed the space between their noses. “My everything girl.“
“Claire!” Hughie barked. “Get off his lap. Now.”
“Okay, he’s definitely the annoying old bastard always ruining a moment,” Gibsie huffed, turning to glower at his friend. “I was having a moment, Hugh!”
“Yeah,” Hughie shot back, red-faced. “With my sister!”
"Fine!" Lizzie snapped then dragging my attention back to her, as she threw her hands up and glared at Feely. "Say it." Leaning back in her seat, she folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Give it your best bloody shot."
When he didn’t respond, I thought she might scream.
She certainly looked like she was close to it.
"Dammit, Patrick, just say something."
"Okay." Setting his water bottle down, he turned in his seat and gave her his full attention. "I think you have the loneliest blue eyes I've ever seen, and looking at you hurts, but not nearly as much as being near you hurts. Your fractured pieces are sharp and jagged and cut anyone who gets too close."
“Well, shiiiit,” Gibsie choked out a laugh when Lizzie stood up and stalked out of the lunch hall. “You told her, lad.” He held his hand up for a high five. “You silenced the viper.”
“Put your hand down, asshole,” Hughie snapped, rising from his chair. “You’re embarrassing yourself.” Without saying another word, Hughie walked off in the same direction Lizzie went.
Arching a brow, I took a moment to watch their friends’ reactions, and waited for the proverbial penny to drop for them.
It didn’t.
Fucking clueless, the lot of them.
Something was happening there.
Maybe it was years of substance abuse that had made me so damn perceptive. Maybe I had spent too many years as the third wheel in Molloy’s relationship with Ricey, and life had made me cynical.
I thought about it for a moment before shaking the thought off.
Nah, screw that, those two are definitely fucking.
“Shan?” Two girls approached the table then. “Is your little brother Tadhg Lynch?”
“Yeah,” my sister replied, brows furrowing in confusion. “Why?”
“He’s outside the girls bathroom getting into it with Ronan McGarry.”
“Oh god,” Shan mumbled, dropping her head in her hands.
“I’ll sort it,” Kav said, rising to his feet, but I was already on my feet, retracing my steps back towards the main hallway.
“Tadhg!" I snapped, pushing through the crowded corridor in search of my hot-headed baby brother. I could see his blond head at the far end of the hallway, clearly sizing up some older lad.
"Your kind don't belong in this school," the other lad taunted, and I knew his words would be like a red rag to a bull to my brother. "So, why don't you and the rest of your band of scumbag siblings go back where you belong."
"And where exactly do my kind belong?" Tadhg seethed, letting his school bag fall from his shoulders, as he stepped forward to shove the bigger lad in the chest. "Hmm? Come on, fuck face. Where do I belong?"
"Across town, in one of the council estates with the rest of your scummy kind." Grinning, the bigger lad added, "But you can leave your sister here with us, since she so willingly opens her legs for Cap —”
"You're a fucking dead man, McGarry!" came Tadhg's feral roar just as I shoved through the crowd and reached his side.
"Don't be thick," I warned, catching ahold of the arm my little brother had reared back. "He's not worth your time, kid. Walk away."
"But he called Shannon a —”
"He's a spoilt, entitled rugby prick, who's never seen a hard day in his life," I interjected. "We don't care about his opinion."
"Ah, would ya look at that," the prick sneered, tormenting Tadhg with a cruel smirk. "Big brother's here to bail you out." His gaze landed on me, and his grin deepened. "Heard all about you, junkie."
"Original," I deadpanned, entirely uninterested in wasting my energy on arguing with him. "Look at the ugly head on him," I continued, focusing on my brother. "Poor bastard's clearly never had the taste of pussy in his life. Walk away, kid."
Laughter erupted around us, all at the asshole's expense.
"I've seen plenty pussy," the lad snarled, face turning a bright shade of red.
"Coming out of your mother's hole doesn't count, lad," Tadhg shot back, as I pulled him away. "Sorry to disappoint ya."
"As opposed to you and that junkie brother of yours?" he countered. "Word around school is that big brother got a slut from BCS humped with his kid and —”
He didn't finish his sentence – couldn't if he wanted to, because I laid the bastard on the flat of his back.
A laugh tore from Tadhg's chest. "Thought we didn't care about his opinion?"
"Change of plans."
AT LEAST YOU MADE IT TO BIG LUNCH
JOEY
“Dellie, he called our sister a slut,” Tadhg defended with a huff, climbing into the backseat of her Range Rover, after she’d been called to come collect us from the office. “Yeah, Joe threw the first slap, but he goaded it out of him by bringing up Aoife and my nephew. And listen, before you say it, I’m not apologizing for kicking him in the nuts when he was on the ground either. The prick had it coming.”
“Well,” she sighed heavily. “At least you made it to big lunch.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered from the passenger seat. “I fucked it.”
“No, you didn’t,” Tadhg argued, reaching a hand through the seats to pat my shoulder. “You turned his nose sideways, Joe. It was a solid right hook.”
“Not helping, kid.” I dropped my head in my hands, knowing that I was in deep shit for my outburst. “How long am I being suspended for?”
“For the next two weeks,” Edel replied, pulling into traffic.
“Sweet,” Tadhg hooted. “Talk about a result!”
“Not you, Rocky,” she corrected. “You’re back on Monday.”
“Fuck my life,” number four grumbled. “I knew I should have thrown the first punch.”
“Hey,” I snapped, twisting around to face him. “Stop acting like a little shit. I did the wrong thing back there.”
“But you —“
“I did the wrong thing, Tadhg,” I reinforced, giving him a stern look of warning. “I was wrong, okay? Don’t copy me. It’s not a good thing. Do better, Tadhg. Be better.” Than me.