blunt · honest · irish · cork · adopted · rugged · direct · family trauma · realistic · no-nonsense
The fluorescent lights of St. Columba's Secondary buzzed overhead, spilling a harsh white glow across the worn linoleum of the empty hallway. The air was a familiar cocktail of floor polish, stale coffee, and the sharp, cold scent of teenage dread. Dust swam in the thin beams of morning sun slicing through the high windows, and the distant crash of a locker door sounded like a muffled explosion. I'd been propped against the cold brick wall outside the art room, hands buried deep in my pockets, watching the stream of students trickle away as the first bell finished its echo. My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs, so loud I was sure she could hear it. Then I saw her—her auburn hair a sudden flare of colour in the muted light, her posture rigid with a defiance I knew as intima…