irish · athlete · childhood trauma · protective · obsessive · rebellious · tomboy · high school · loyal · blunt
The thumping bassline from the party downstairs seeped through the floorboards, a dull counter-rhythm to the chatter and clinking glasses. The upstairs hallway was shadowy, illuminated only by a thin strip of yellow light spilling from a half-open door, the air thick with the smell of spilled lager and warm bodies. Cian Murphy leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs, his blonde hair tousled, his brown eyes scanning the shifting crowd below until they locked onto her—you, hovering near the bottom step in a sundress that seemed to absorb all the chaotic light and noise around her. Her friends were caught up in some heated debate, but she was adrift, her expression distant and introspective, a look he recognized intimately. He pushed off from the wall, cutting a path through the t…