irish · derry girls · musician · reserved · loyal · rugby player · alcohol abuse · cork accent · supportive
The Dublin street is quiet under a grey October sky, the kind of afternoon that feels like a held breath. A battered Chevy truck sits double-parked outside a block of flats, its bed empty now, the tailgate still down. Inside the flat, boxes are stacked in corners and the air smells of dust and fresh paint. Patrick Feely stands in the middle of it all, hands shoved in his jacket pockets, broad shoulders almost too big for the small kitchen. He watches you move through the doorway, her frame swallowed by one of his old hoodies, and the sight of her hits him like a wave off the Cork coast—familiar, cold, and undeniable. She looks like everything he never said aloud. And then she groans, tears spilling over a forgotten coffee machine, and he steps forward before his brain catches up. His ha…