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“You’re my business!”
“It’s okay,” I attempted to calm her by saying. “It’s going to be fine. They’ll write up the usual reports, send the usual people around for a home check and Mam will feed them the usual drivel. Then in a few weeks, it will be all brushed under the table.”
“How?”
Confused, I looked at her and asked, “How what?”
“How can this be brushed under the table?” Her green eyes blazed with fury. “Hebeatyou, Joey. You’re his son and he broke your damn nose! He hit your mam. He slapped your sister. And Tadhg!” She choked out a sob. “He hurt him not too long ago. That’s not normal, okay? Contrary to whatever bull-crap your parents have fed you, thisdoesn’thappen in other homes. So,howis this going to be fine?”
“It just is, okay!” I snapped, feeling my defensive walls shoot up around me. “Fuck.”
“Bull,” she shouted, turning back towards the Garda station. “You’re being used as a scapegoat for your father’s crimes. Your mother just threw you to the wolves to save her abusive husband’s skin. She should have been down here with you last night, straightening all of this out and telling them that they arrested the wrong person. Instead, she was with him, plotting and scheming up a story to tell the world about how her son has anger management issues, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. You’re not the instigator in this, he is, and I’m not about to sit back and watch you take the blame.”
“Aoife.” I held up a hand in warning, feeling like she had just stabbed me through both the chestandthe back. “If you say a word about this to the Gards, then I swear to god I willnevertalk to you again.”
Her mouth fell open. “I’m trying to protect you!”
“You swore you wouldn’t,” I reminded her. It was why I opened up to her. “You fucking promised me!”
“Well, I have to do something, Joey,” she strangled out. “I can’t watch this happen to you. I love you!“
“Well, don’t!” I roared back at her. “If loving me means betraying my trust, then don’t fucking bother! Don’t love me and don’t get involved. I can take care of my own shit.”
“Joey.”
“I shouldn’t have told you a damn thing,” I choked out, shaking now. “Fuck!”
“Joey, wait!”
“No. No.No!” Shaking my head, I turned on my heels and walked away from her, needing to put some space between us before I lost the head and said something I couldn’t take back. “I mean it, Molloy,” I called over my shoulder. “Talk to the Gards and we’re done.”
SUSPENSIONS AND COLD SHOULDERS
DECEMBER 17TH 2004
AOIFE
Joeyand I were on the outs.
Ever since our fight outside the Garda station last weekend, I had been on the receiving end of his cold shoulder.
All week at school, he had walked right by me in the halls like I wasn’t there, and even in the classes where we were assigned to sit together, he never once relented.
Of course, neither did I, and I had all but goaded him until I was blue in the face for a reaction.
I didn’t get one.
Not when I sat on his lap at lunch.
Not when I stabbed him with a pencil in English.
Not even when I flashed him a boob in PE.
Nada.
It was fairly evident that my threat to talk to the Gards had backfired on me in epic fashion.
Joey was beyond furious with me, and on the rare occasion that I had caught him staring at me, the look of betrayal in his eyes directed towards me had made me wish I hadn’t.
