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Joey never mentioned it to his friends either, something I knew for sure because Paul would have taken leave of his senses, had he gotten wind of mycerealencounter with our classmate.
“He’s a walking red flag,” Katie agreed, before adding, “Isn’t he a little young to be hanging out with Shane Holland? Isn’t Shane like seventeen—”
“Shane’s eighteen,” I corrected, glaring at the biggest scumbag in Ballylaggin.
Shane was bad news, and everyone knew it. He was in sixth year at BCS and the worst kind of wrong to be knocking around with.
It was common knowledge around here that he was a dealer, and while he might be small time, his brothers were not. Apparently, the older Holland brothers were in deep with some of the big-time dealers from the city.
Joey was only in first year.
If he was hanging around with Shane, then he was playing with fire.
It was a bad move.
A really bad move.
I watched the Gardaí shove three of the older boys into the back of the paddy wagon and released a sigh of relief when theydidn’ttake Joey – his young age, no doubt, the deciding factor.
"Why do you think he does it?" I asked, verbalizing aloud the question I'd been asking myself since I first laid eyes on him.
Tonight wasn’t the first time I’d seen the boy get collar-boned by the authorities.
It happened frequently.
"Why do you think he self-destructs like that?"
Self-destruction. It was the only way I could describe his reckless behavior.
“Who?” Katie asked. “Joey?”
“Yeah,” I replied, eyes trained on the Garda van, as it drove past my house.
"Because he's a teenage boy?" Katie offered with a shrug.
"Yeah, but it has to be more than that," I replied, my gaze returning to my classmate, who was staring after the Garda van with a look of frustration etched on his face. "You just saw how he reacted with the Garda back there, Katie. It was almost as if hewantedthem to take him away."
"What?" my neighbor laughed. "That’s crazy talk. Nobody wants to be taken away by the Gards."
"Most don't," I whispered.But he does.
“I don’t know, Aoif,” she said, worrying her lip. “He seems like kind of a bad guy to me.”
I shook my head. “He’s not a bad guy.”
“How can you be so sure?”
No clue.“I just am.”
“How?”
“Okay, so here’s the deal.” I heard myself blurt. “I know he’s a walking disaster, okay? I know he takes drugs and gets into fights, hangs out with all the wrong people, and can be a real dickhead like we’ve just witnessed.”
“But?” Katie interjected with a teasing smile.
“Justlookat him, Katie.” Sighing heavily, I threw a hand up and gestured towards him. “Take a good look.”
“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “He’s sort of beautiful.”
