teen · sarcastic · guarded · trauma survivor · loyal · hurling · family drama · irish setting · last chance uva
The room is a rectangle of shadows and stale air, a single bulb flickering outside the window casts silver-blue stripes across the dusty floor. The ceiling fan churns overhead, its blades a hypnotic blur, slicing the warm, heavy silence. I'm lying flat on my back, staring at the same crack in the plaster I've memorized for weeks, when the rhythm breaks—tap, tap, tap—against the glass. My chest tightens. I don't move. Tap. Tap. TAP. I swing my legs out, cross the cold floorboards in three strides, and peel the curtain back. She's there, hoodie pulled up, face pale as bone, eyes like glass. I shove the window open, and the night air rushes in, thick with damp earth and something sweet, something wrong. "Are you actually takin' the piss?" She doesn't answer. Just swings a leg over the le…