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I WILL ALWAYS STICK UP FOR YOU
JANUARY 7TH 2004
JOEY
“Hey,Joe, have you seen your sister?”
Seven words I had learned to fear, especially if they were spoken at school.
Shoulders stiffening to the point of spasm, I stopped unraveling the new grip on my hurley, and glanced up at Danielle.
“Why?” My tone was hard and flat as I crouched on the grass, clad in my school jersey, shorts, socks, and football boots. I was about to head out for training with the rest of the school team. “What happened?”
“She’s bawling her eyes out in the bathroom.”
Again?
“Why?” I demanded, rising to my feet, and towering over the petite, blue-eyed blonde in front of me.
Chewing on her lip, Danielle gestured towards the school building. “I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I heard she and Ciara Maloney had a few words.”
“A few words?” Reaching for the clasp on my helmet, I snapped it open and ripped it off my head. “Any chance these words turned into a few slaps?”
Danielle shrugged, looking nervous. “Listen, I don’t want to get involved, okay. I don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side. I’m only telling you because you’re a friend.”
Friend?
That was a stretch.
Friends cared about each other.
I could count the people I considered my friends on one hand.
My sister was one.
Podge was another.
Alec, thick as shit that he was, still made the cut.
Tony Molloy, for obvious reasons.
Aside from my sister, there was only one girl that held court in my affections, who held the highest rank of friendship my heart could offer, and it sure as hell wasn’t the girl who I lost my virginity to back in third year – the one I had made the mistake of hooking up with on multiple occasions since.
Danielle was a girl I was friendly with, but she wasn’t myfriend,and I had no intention of repeating the mistake I had made on New Year’s Eve.
The clingy texts I’d received from her most days since were more than enough of a wake-up call to let me know that particular ship had sailed.
I couldn’t remember a whole pile about the night – I had been too fucked up at the time to take stock of anything other than the fantastic fucking feeling of floating away.
The only part of the whole night that I did remember was the condom I’d clumsily rolled on my dick, and her hair.
It was blonde, and long, and smelled like coconuts.
The smell stuck in my nose for days afterwards.
Problem was, I couldn’t be sure if it was Danielle’s hair and scent that I remembered, or if it was Molloy’s.
She’d been there when I came to, had looked at me like I was responsible for breaking her heart clean open in her chest, and, after walking her home that night, hadn’t looked at me since.
