“They were never in a relationship to begin with,” I argued. “They slept together a few times. That’s it.”
“My case in point,” my best friend agreed. “It’s drives Danielle crazy that you can hold his attention effortlessly, when she spent the last five years trying and failing to do just that.”
“He lost his virginity to her, you know.”
“Pssh.” She waved a hand around. “That doesn’t mean anything. Losing their virginity doesn’t mean the same thing to a fella as it does to a girl.”
“That’s a fairly sexist statement, Case,” I chuckled. “How would you know that?”
“Because, my dear, sweet, summer child,” she crooned, pausing to pat my hand. “By the time boys grow hair on their balls, they’re desperate to give it away to the first girl willing to take it.”
“You’re terrible,” I laughed.
“Terribly accurate,” she pointed out. “It’s the truth, Aoif. I’m dead right. It’s a matter of getting it out of the way for boys, not holding onto it for dear life like us girls.”
“You haven’t been a virgin since third year,” I reminded her.
“Okay…” she drawled, rolling her eyes. “Holding onto it for dear life like you then.” She waved a hand around aimlessly. “Just like Paul was stupid enough to hand his over to that girl from Tommen, Joey just so happened to be equally stupid when he inserted his virginal pecker in our classmate.”
“Girls,” Mack interrupted with a friendly smile, as he slid into the seat beside Casey. “How are ye getting on?”
“Speak of the devil,” I snickered, offering Casey a knowing wink, you know, just in case she had forgotten who she gave her virginity away to. “Hiya, Mack.”
“Yeah, hi, Mack,” Casey bit out, giving me her infamous bring-it-up-and-you’re-dead look. “What’s new?"
“No one nearly as lovely as your good self, Case,” he replied, nudging my friend’s shoulder with his big one. “I was out having a smoke with Podge and the lads, but yer man from Elk’s Terrace is sniffing around, so I got the hell out of dodge.”
“Elk’s Terrace?” My ears pricked up. “Who?”
“That Holland creep,” Mack replied, and my heart sank into my ass.
Shane Holland.
“He’s one bad egg, girls,” Mack continued, unwrapping the paper covering his chicken fillet roll. “Skulking around the school carpark when he finished going here years ago.”
“Is he with him?”
Mack looked at me in confusion. “Who?”
“Joey?”
“Who?”
“Joey!”
“Ah, you mean Lynchy?” He chuckled to himself. “I was like who’s Joey? I’m so used to calling him—
“Focus, Mack. Jesus!” I practically shouted, as I leaned across the table and tapped his forehead with my empty plastic bottle. “Did you see Joey out there with Shane Holland?”
“Yeah, Jesus,” Mack grumbled, rubbing his head. “He’s outside with him now.”
Shoving my chair back, I jerked to my feet, leaving my bag, lunch, and friends behind me, and stormed out of the canteen.
“Aoife, wait up, I’ll come with you.“
“No! Don’t follow me,” I warned Casey, as I stormed through the hallway and out the front entrance of the school.
I was going to blow a head gasket.
Joey had been doing so damn well.
No goddamn way was I allowing this piece of shit to throw him off kilter.
“Hey!” I screamed, when the familiar black Honda Civic came into my focus, parked up at the far end of the school carpark. “Hey!”
Barging through a group of stoners from the year above me, I whipped out my phone, which absolutely did not have a camera on it, and pretended to take a picture of Shane’s car.
“Get out of the car, asshole!”
My whatever-the-hell-he-was, who was sitting in the passenger seat of a car full of much older boys, turned to look out the windscreen, with a look of confusion etched on his face.
However, the moment his eyes landed on me, his confusion quickly morphed into recognition before settling on anger.
Oh, be angry, fucker, because I can be angrier.
“I said get out of the car, asshole,” I demanded, slamming my hands down on the bonnet, uncaring of how much attention I was drawing on them. “Now!”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Joey snarled, throwing the car door open and climbing out. “Jesus Christ, Molloy!” Rounding the bonnet, he quickly slid between me and the car. “What are you thinking?”
“What am I thinking?” I strangled out, chest heaving, as I quickly searched his eyes for the familiar signs that he was high. “What are you thinking?”
Losing my cool, I shoved him out of the way, and kicked the number plate of Shane’s car.
“Hey!” Shane roared, rolling down his tinted window. “Get a handle on your doll, Lynchy, or I will.”
“I’d like to see you try, asshole,” I screamed back at the big bastard, and then I flung my phone at his windscreen for good measure. “I’m not afraid of you!”
“Molloy—“
“No!” Pushing Joey when he tried to wrestle me away, I strode back to the car and kicked it again before retrieving my phone. “He’s not interested in what you have to offer anymore. Do you hear me? He’s not fucking interested. So back off!”
“Molloy!”
“You said you’d try, Joe!” Feeling my eyes well up with tears, I roughly pushed on his big shoulders. “You fucking promised me that you wouldn’t—“
“And I haven’t!” he snapped, quickly snatching up my flailing arms and pulling me roughly against him. “Do you have a death wish?” Furious, crystal clear green eyes glared down at me. “You don’t fuck around with guys like him, Molloy.” Keeping my arms pinned my sides, he hissed, “And you definitely don’t go around making a scene in public and kicking their goddamn cars.”
“I don’t care,” I screamed back, and I meant every word. “I don’t. I don’t care about his bullshit threats. What I care about is what you were doing in his car, Joey!”
“I don’t answer to you, Molloy, which means I don’t need to explain myself either,” he was quick to say, eyes burning with frustrated heat. “I’m not fucking around behind your back with other girls. That, you can be rest assured of. I’m with you, and only you. But everything else I do, or who I do it with, when we’re not together, is not your business.”
“You are my business, asshole!” I strangled out.
Reckless and wild, I broke free of his hold, knotted his jumper in my fist, and dragged his mouth down to mine, kissing him hard and rough.
Pulling back, I hissed, “And if you gave one single shred of a shit about me, then you would understand why you need to walk away from this car.”
“Molloy.”
“Right now, Joey,” I cried out angrily. “It’s not a matter of pride, here. It’s a matter of laying your cards on the table and proving that I matter to you just as much as you matter to me.”