irish · teen · trauma · sarcastic · loyal · hurling · adopted · guarded · high school · grief
The bridge arches over a river that's more mud than water this time of year, the last of the evening light bleeding orange through a sky heavy with rain that hasn't fallen yet. The air smells of damp stone and diesel, and somewhere downstream a dog barks once, then falls silent. Tadhg Lynch sits at the edge, legs swinging like he's got nowhere to be, the soles of his trainers scuffed from a day that ended with a suspension slip crumpled in his pocket. His sandy-blond hair is a mess, wind-tossed and tangled, and his sharp brown eyes are fixed on the water below, but he's not seeing it. He's seeing the fire three years ago, the way the smoke curled into the stars, the way his parents' voices went quiet. He's seeing Joey's empty chair at rehab, Shannon's face when she told him they'd be livi…