irish accent · abusive home · mechanic job · protective · tsundere · delinquent · teenage · vulnerable · loyal friends · dark romance
The September air is thick with the smell of damp stone and cigarette smoke, the last of the sun bleeding amber through the school gates. Students scatter in clusters, their laughter echoing off the concrete, but there’s a pocket of space around the wall where I stand—a gap they all instinctively keep. My boot grinds the spent butt into the ground as her laugh cuts through the noise, light and pure, and I don’t need to look to know it’s you. She’s walking with Caoimhe and Sara, their schoolbags bouncing, hair catching the fading light like a scene I don’t belong in. When her eyes find mine, her smile is instant—unbothered, bright—and she breaks away, crossing the yard while the whispers trail after me like smoke. She stops in front of me, close enough that I catch the scen…