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Katie looked around in confusion before pressing a hand to her chest. “Me?”
“Are you offering?”
“No, she’s not,” Hugh cut in, moving to intercept his girlfriend before trouble found her. “Stop it.”
“Too bad,” Lizzie replied breezily.
“Are you honestly considering going out with that eejit?” Gerard asked, recapturing my attention once more. His tone, for once, was serious, and his gray eyes held none of their usual twinkling mischief. He took another wolfish bite of Robbie’s roll before adding, “I mean, seriously?”
“He hasn’t even asked me,” I said, trying to placate at the same time Lizzie shouted, “Yes, she is!”
A perfectly aimed sweet smacked Gerard upside the head, and I turned just in time to see Joey offer Gerard what looked like a coded wink. “Come on, Gus,” he said, standing up. “Let’s get some fresh air.”
“Good fucking plan, Lynchy,” Gerard huffed, dropping his food onto the counter, and stalking off in the direction of the door. “Good plan indeed.”
“Oh no, no, no! Don’t even think about it.” Springing to his feet faster than any boy his size should be able to, Johnny chased after them. “I know what your version of fresh air is and I’m telling you now, Gibs, I will make you pay for every one of those filthy cigarettes on the pitch.”
27
Counsel and Cougars
GIBSIE
Raging. I was absolutely raging and no amount of fresh air in the school car-park with Lynchy or coddling from Kav could bring my mood out of the darkness.
“Just walk away, Gibs,” Johnny instructed for what had to be the fiftieth time as he hung slightly back from where I was standing and barked orders like the dutiful captain he was. “Whenever that girl tries to start drama with you, lad. Don’t react and walk away.”
“I can handle the Viper, Kav,” I shot back, taking a furious drag of my cigarette. “She’s the least of my worries right now.”
It was the truth. Nothing Lizzie ever said or did could prepare my body for the punch to the solar plexus it received upon hearing the good news.
“Fucking Jamie Kelleher,” I bit out, still reeling, as I tried to get a handle on my emotions, only to fail miserably. “I hate him, Cap. I really fucking hate that spotty-faced swat.”
“I know you do, Gibs,” Johnny soothed in agreement. “Me too, lad.”
“Good-for-nothing brainiac,” I continued to rant, growing more incensed by the second. “Why her?” Anger bristled inside of me as I allowed my mind to linger and dwell. As I drove myself mental from overthinking. “Why?”
Jamie didn’t know Claire. Not really. Not at fucking all. He didn’t know a damn thing about her love of fashion or her prized collection of stuffed animals. He had zero insight into her obsession with Johnny Depp, nor had he any inclination of the letter she wrote to Leonardo DiCaprio when she was seven, asking him to visit Ballylaggin.
I was the one who knew her small parts, the insignificant oversights that made up the best parts of her personality. I was also the one who rescued her from that noisy bastard of a bull in the field behind Johnny’s place when we were kids. I was the one that took the shocks off the electric fencer so she didn’t have to. I was the one who spent every waking hour of my life not only adoring her but protecting her with my life. Not Jamie fucking Kelleher!
Leaning against an expensive-looking parked Mercedes, Joey took another drag of his cigarette, observing my meltdown unfolding around him like a caged lion would: slightly bored and momentarily contained, but absolutely lethal if provoked.
I knew he wasn’t much older than me, but I never felt like I was on the same playing field as Shannon’s brother. He had an old head on his shoulders, a lot like my bestie, but he had a jaded element to him that wasn’t present in Shannon or the younger boys. Christ, it didn’t even seem to be present in Darren. An element that expressed that he had felt every one of his eighteen spins around the sun, and it had weathered him to the point that he was an old man in a teenager’s body. I mean, he was a father, dammit. He was an actual dad to an actual human being. That alone blew my mind.
“What I don’t understand is why you’re not with her already,” Joey finally joined in the conversation by saying in a lazy tone.
“Who?” I gaped at him in horror. “Lizzie?”
“Yeah,” Joey replied, tone laced with sarcasm. “Because that makes sense.”
“He was referring to Claire,” Johnny interjected with an expectant look. “And don’t waste your breath, Lynchy, because I’ve been saying the same bleeding thing for years, and it’s still falling on deaf ears.”
“Because it’s not the right time,” I ground out, feeling my body break out in a cold sweat at the thought. “I’ve already told you a thousand times, Kav, not everyone wants to settle down in secondary school.”
“Except that you do,” Johnny pointed out in the know-it-all tone of his.
“How’d you figure that one?”
