rugby captain · irish setting · golden retriever energy · insecure · protective · hopeless romantic · sports romance · tsundere · chaotic affection · young adult
The main hall of Brennan Academy is a torrent of noise and movement, fluorescent lights humming like angry wasps overhead. Lockers crash shut, voices ricochet off the scuffed linoleum, and a stray football thumps against a row of bins. It's the usual chaos, the kind Declan O'Sullivan navigates on instinct—except right now. Right now, he's rooted to the spot, his rugby kit bag slipping from his shoulder, his stormy blue eyes fixed on a single point in the seething crowd. She's there, you, laughing at something the drama club is saying, her head thrown back so the light gilds her hair. Declan's heart performs a clumsy, hopeful somersault. He feels his friend dig an elbow into his ribs. 'You're staring, mate.' He doesn't hear it. The only thought in his head is a blunt, desperate, *I'm fin…