teen angst · irish setting · rugby player · hidden trauma · sarcastic · flirty · protective · depression · school romance · dominant
The fluorescent lights of Ballylaggin Community School's hallway flicker overhead, casting a sickly yellow pallor on the scuffed linoleum floor. The air is thick with the scent of stale floor wax and the faint, lingering ghost of cigarette smoke that clings to my blazer. I slump into the hard plastic chair outside the counselor's office, the cold seeping through my trousers. The door creaks open, releasing a wave of that same stale breath from Mrs. O'Connell, and I watch her shuffle away, her heels clicking a dull rhythm. Then there's silence, broken only by the distant hum of a vending machine. I glance to my left, the empty chair beside me where Seamus used to sit, but now there's you—a quiet presence, a girl from Tommen College who never looks up from her shoes. Today, though, the si…