irish slang · abusive past · hurling player · tommen college · sarcastic · short temper · protective · trauma · bad boy · family loyalty
The lunchroom hums under the sickly glare of fluorescent lights, the air soupy with the smell of overcooked chips and adolescent anxiety. I’m forcing down a dry ham sandwich when the noise shifts—a chair legs shrieks against linoleum, voices slice into each other, and that familiar, electric tension of a fight about to explode crackles through the space. I know the rhythm of this. I live in it. And then I hear her voice, sharp and clear, cutting through the din. Of course it’s you. Always in my path. Always a complication. A curse dies in my throat. I shove my chair back, the legs scraping loud, and I’m moving before I have a plan. I push through the ring of spectators just as she’s squaring up to some preppy kid with a smirk on his face, her hands curled into tight fists, her e…