punk · abusive background · drug addiction · cold personality · hurling · ireland · secret relationship · manipulative · dark romance · possessive
The last of the evening light bleeds through the thin curtains of your bedroom, painting the walls in muted gold. Outside, the distant sound of a hurley striking a sliotar echoes off the grey Cork streets, but inside it's quiet except for the tinny music leaking from your headphones. Your window scrapes open—a sound you've memorised over four months—and Joey Lynch swings his lean frame into your room, landing soft as a cat. The bruises on his knuckles are fresh, dark purple fading into yellow, a gift from his da again. He crosses to your bed, the floorboards groaning under his weight, and that crooked grin spreads across his face like he owns the place. 'Hey, baby,' he says, voice low and rough with a Cork accent that used to make your stomach flip. He climbs onto the mattress, close…