He could keep his spin home.
I wasn’t that suicidal.
“I can’t,” I heard myself lie, as I stepped around him and moved for the gate. “I have to stop in at work before I go home.”
“Why?” he called after me, sounding impatient. “Have you wages to collect or something? Because I can drive you over.”
Oh, you’d love that, wouldn’t you. “No, I left my school bag at the garage.”
“Then you can walk your hole over there,” he barked. “I’m not your lacky, boy.”
Ignoring him, I kept walking and moved for the changing rooms, needing to put some distance between his fists and my body.
“Hey asshole,” Molloy called out when I stalked past her, letting me know in no uncertain terms that I still wasn’t entirely forgiven for calling her easy back in first year.
I had thrown the word out as a roadblock, a diversion, to send her running in the opposite direction of me.
It didn’t work.
Instead of avoiding me, like I needed her to do, like any normal girl would, she gave me hell. With smart-ass comments, and witty one-liners, Molloy continued to throw her version of shade at me, determined to get me back for offending her.
“Molloy,” I acknowledged with a small nod.
“Nice performance.”
“Nice legs.”
“Want to be a gent and walk these nice legs home?”
“Why?” With my hand on the changing room door, I turned back to glare at her. “Is he not coming back for you?”
Red-faced, she shook her head.
Fury erupted inside of me. “He just left you here?”
She nodded.
“He’s an asshole.”
Another embarrassed nod.
“Where’s your father?”
“Gone out with my mam for the night.” She waved her phone at me. “Phone’s off.”
“Jesus.” I released a frustrated growl. “The fuck are you doing with a tool like him, Molloy?”
“Will you walk me home or not?”
No.
No.
Fucking no.
She’s not your problem, lad.
Just walk away.
“Give me ten minutes to shower and get changed,” I heard myself mutter, mentally kicking myself in the balls.
Her eyes flashed with relief. “Thanks, Joey.”
“Hm,” was all I replied before slipping inside the changing room and heading straight for the showers. You’re absolutely not welcome.
UNWILLING CHAPERONES
OCTOBER 10TH 2000
AOIFE
Sitting on the wall of the GAA pavilion, I waited for my reluctant chaperone to emerge from the changing room, while furiously tapping out a text to the asshole who upped and left me on my own in the dark.
Aoife: I really hope you enjoy celebrating the win with your little pals because you won’t be celebrating anything with me ever again, asshole.
Paul: Don’t be mad, babe. I’ll make it up to you. xx
Aoife: Make it up to me? You LEFT me ALONE to go bowling with your teammates, Paul! You didn’t even offer me a spin home!
Paul: It’s not my fault there wasn’t any room in the car. Come on, Aoif. Don’t make a big deal of this. It’s not like you live in the countryside. You know the town better than I do. You’ll be grand. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, k? I’ll buy you lunch. xx
“Ugh!” Furious, I powered off my phone, unwilling to deal with him a second longer.
I didn’t want him to buy me lunch or anything else.
I wanted him to walk me home.
I didn’t think that was a lot to ask for, considering the only reason I had traipsed across town in the first place was because he had badgered me to come and watch him play.
It was a good forty-minute walk from the GAA grounds to my terrace on the other side of town, and while my parents were fairly chill, if my dad found out that I walked home alone, I would be grounded for a month. Minimum.
No way was I losing my freedom over some asshole boy.
When Joey finally emerged from the back of the building, his hostility was obvious.
With a gear bag slung over his shoulder, his helmet and hurley in hand, and a cigarette balancing between his lips, he inclined his head to where I was sitting and said, “Let’s go.”
Resisting the urge to taunt or goad him like I usually would, I hopped down from my perch and joined him on the footpath, knowing that having him walk me home would was the safest way out of getting hell from my dad.
My dad loved Joey.
What’s more, he trusted him.
Having Joey walk me home would be an improvement on Paul in my father’s eyes.
Looking wholly unimpressed with the position I had put him in, my classmate pounded the footpath beside me, silently seething, while he smoked his cigarette.
“Aren’t you a little young to be getting hooked on smoking?”
“Aren’t you a little nosey to be asking for answers to questions that are none of your business?”
“Seriously?” I laughed humorlessly. “You’re this pissed off because I asked you to walk me home?”
“No, Molloy,” he bit out. “I’m pissed off because that prick put you in a position where you had to ask me to walk you home.”
His answer was sharp, cutting, and precisely to the point.
“Listen, I’m embarrassed enough about it,” I heard myself admit. “No need to layer it on, Joe.”
“You should be embarrassed,” he snapped, tossing his cigarette butt away. “Embarrassed for giving an asshole like Paul Rice the chance to treat you like an option.”
“Whatever,” I grumbled. “I’m not fighting with you on this.”
“Because you know I’m right.”
“What’s it to you?” I demanded.
“Nothing,” he hissed, tone laced with venom. “It’s nothing to me, Molloy.”
Yes, it was.
It was everything to him, just like it was everything to me, but he was too damn stubborn to ever admit it.
“Well then, shut up about it,” I snapped, folding my arms across my chest protectively. “Damn.”
Joey was quiet for about half a minute until he blew out a frustrated breath and said, “All I’m saying is if some asshole treated my sister the way I watched him treat you tonight, he sure as hell wouldn’t be getting another chance to pull that stunt on her again.”
“Wow,” I deadpanned. “Keep it up, Joe, and I’m going to start thinking that you have actual feelings.”
“I do,” he shot back, not missing a beat. “For the people I actually care about.”
“Like your sister.”
“Like my sister,” he confirmed without a hint of embarrassment, which wasn’t something most guys our age would admit. “Although Shan’s not thick enough to fall in with a prick like Rice.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Like you’re such a saint when it comes to girls.”
Joey shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve never left my girlfriend alone in a dodgy side of town so I can fuck around with my buddies.”
“Because you refuse to have a girlfriend.”
“Which is a good thing for Ricey,” he snapped. “Considering I seem to spend most of my time looking out for his one!”