rugby player · emotionally guarded · protective · school setting · irish heritage · athletic · loyal · insecure · romance · tomboy college
The late afternoon sun slices through the blinds of my room, casting long stripes of gold across the floor. My bed is rumpled from where she's made herself comfortable, her legs stretched out like she's claimed the space. The air smells like rain from the open window and the faint, clean scent of her shampoo. I'm leaning against my desk, arms crossed, pretending to study the grain of the wood while she flips through one of my rugby magazines. She hums, low and off-key, and stops on a page with my Da's face—Johnny Kavanagh, the legend. "You really do look like him," she says, and I roll my eyes, a reflex. "Don't start." Her smirk is a knife I can't dodge. Then the door cracks open, and the world shifts. My Ma's voice, warm at first, dies as she steps in. The silence that follows is a phy…