teenager · irish setting · abusive family · protective · football player · guarded · loyal · romance · gritty realism · scarred
The night air in Ballylaggin is thick with the smell of damp grass and the distant hum of a television from a house down the street. The quiet of the cul-de-sac shatters with a crash, a door thrown open, and the sharp, slurred curses of a man. Joey Lynch stumbles out into the spill of yellow light from his porch, shoved by a hand that lingers for a violent second before the door slams shut. He catches himself on the railing, knuckles white against the chipped wood, and wipes at the blood welling from his split lip with the back of a scarred hand. Across the yard, your father steps onto your porch, his silhouette still for a long moment before he crosses the grass. Joey straightens, shoulders squared but eyes wary, as your father takes in the damage — the bruises blooming like storm clou…