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Whatever he saw on my face in that moment caused him to back down. “No, he’s down the station with the other one.”
“The Garda station?” my heartrate spiked. “With who – Shannon?”
He gave me a clipped nod. “He’s missing an important fucking training session for her, too.”
“Why?” My eyes widened. “What happened to her?”
“Some young ones gave her a hiding on the way to school.” There was no emotion in his voice, no affection or concern. He truly didn’t care about his daughter.About any of his children.“That girl has never brought anything but hassle to her mother.”
No, that’s you, dick.
Not bothering to say goodbye, I turned on my heels and made my way back to where I had parked my car.
“You know,” he called after me. “If you ever get tired of letting my young fella dick ya, you could always let his old man show you how it’s really done?”
“No thanks,” I called over my shoulder, repressing the urge to show weakness and shudder. “Thatyoung fellaof yours is more than capable of keeping me satisfied.”
“Prick-tease,” he muttered after me.
I rolled my eyes. “Scumbag.”
DO YOU THINK THEY’LL LEAVE ME ALONE NOW?
OCTOBER 18TH 2004
JOEY
“How are you feeling now, Shan?”I asked, as I sat opposite my sister in the chipper, and watched as she toyed with the same chip that she’d been holding for ten minutes. “Any better?”
“I’m okay, Joe,” she replied, voice barely more than a whisper. Her eyes glazed over as she clearly drifted in and out of her thoughts.
She wasn’t eating again, and I was fucking terrified of letting it go to a stage where she couldn’t come back from it.
I knew all about falling over the edge of bullshit, and I didn’t want that for my sister.
“Just eat another five chips,” I coaxed, pushing the tray closer to her. “I won’t ask for any more than five.”
“I’m not anorexic, Joe,” she explained weakly, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I’m just…I’m just…” she exhaled a ragged breath before whispering, “not well.”
Yeah, I knew how that felt.
When I didn’t feel well, I self-medicated.
When my sister didn’t feel well, she starved herself half to death.
Her reaction to stress was as real to her as mine was to me.
But that didn’t make it easy for me to sit back and watch, especially when everything inside of me demanded that I fix this.
That I fix her.
I couldn’t blame her for feeling the way she did.
On the way to school this morning, she’d been jumped by Ciara Maloney and Hannah Daly.
I wasn’t with her, because I’d hung back to have a smoke with a few of the lads from my road.
I had never felt so goddamn helpless in my life, when I finally caught up with her and saw her getting attacked.
