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Joey had somehow managed to survive his childhood and early teens by replacing the lack of his mother’s affection with the warm, enveloping embrace of ecstasy, and his father’s constant stream of mental gaslighting and physical abuse with the mind-numbing dexterity of opioids.
Horrible.
“You’re really sticking around, aren’t ya?” “Afraid so.” I smiled in the darkness. “For the ring. The white dress. The white picket fence. The whole nine yards.”
“When we get engaged—” “We’re not getting engaged.” “I want a ring the size of my fist.” He snorted. “Good luck with that.” “And when we get married—” “We’re not getting married.”
“And when we have babies—” “We’re not having babies.” “They’ll be blond and green-eyed and just like their dad.” “You’re insane.” “I’m in love.”
“Don’t know,” he admitted. “I never think about that kind of stuff.” “The future?” He nodded. “Yeah.” “Well, you better start thinking about it,” I teased. “Because you’re in mine, and I always get what I want.” “Yeah.” He squeezed my hand. “I know.”
“Hey, stud.” “Hey, queen.” “Queen?” My eyes danced with delight as I reached for the waistband of his sweats. “Now you’re talking my language.”
“Mmm…good.” Blowing out a breath, I bit back a moan and buried my face in his neck. “Because I’ve got serious wifey feelings for you.”
“I like you so much better when you’re bad.” “I’m always bad, Molloy.”
“What were ya doing in John Kavanagh’s old doll’s pride and joy, boyo?”
OMGEE
“You’ll always have me, Joe.” “I’m going to hold you to that,”
Deep down inside, I knew that it all came down to what I could and couldn’t live with. So, could I live with marriage and babies if that was what her future consisted of? All I knew was that I couldn’t live without her. It wasn’t an option.
“Do you want the sticks or the pads?” “Sticks?”
BYE
Because I knew that once I told Joey, the moment I conveyed to him his biggest fear, then everything we had worked so hard to build would go clean out the window. His trust. His communication. His sobriety. No. Clenching my eyes shut tighter, I repressed the urge to sob. I couldn’t let this happen.
NO
Mood Swings and Mister Rugby
JOHNNY KAVANAUGH
“Hey, this is Johnny,” came a male voice with a thick Dublin accent down the line a moment later. “That’s no boy,” Tony mouthed accusingly, gaping at the phone. “That’s a fucking man’s voice.”
If this hotshot fucker had taken time out of his rigid schedule to drive her home, then my baby sister had made more than just waves at Tommen. She’d summoned a goddamn tsunami.
“How old are you again?” “Seventeen.” “So, you’re a lot older than her.” “I know that,” he replied before adding, “I get it.”
Oh he knows
The two glaring pink lines in the display box hadn’t faded one bit since their original appearance in the bathroom at work tonight. And there it was. Staring me right in the face. My life was over.
“According to Mack, that Johnny Kavanagh lad from Tommen kicked seven kinds of shit out of Ciara Maloney’s fella in Biddies this evening.”
Yupp
“You’re not pregnant, are ya?” I joked, wrapping her up in my arms. “Could you imagine?” she joked back, still crying. “Fuck no.” I chuckled. “I think I’d rather open the door and lie down in the traffic.”
Oh god
Maybe his buddy was right about this lad sticking around. His words certainly displayed a level of permanence.
Johnny mf Kavanaugh
“Listen, Kavanagh, if you want to know what goes on in that head of hers, then be worth it.” “Be worth it?” He glared at me. “Be worth what?” He knew exactly what I meant.
After spending a few minutes flicking through tracks, he settled on Bowling for Soup’s “Girl All the Bad Guys Want.” He gave me a cheeky wink and said, “This one’s for you, blondie.” Well, shit. I choked out a laugh. Little Alpha had moves.
“It’s just that I can hear you banging around up here from the sitting room, and I can’t hear my film with all of the stomping.” “What do you want me to do?” I demanded, throwing my hands up. “Cut my legs off and crawl instead?”
Her fingers traced the tattoo on my chest, and she leaned in close to trail her tongue over the ink.
“Joe,” she croaked out, nuzzling my neck with her damp cheek. “You’re still hard. I can feel you pulsing inside me.” “Yeah,” I muttered, somehow managing to keep my hips in check and not flex. “My heart’s in bits, but my dick’s delighted.”
“I had my back to him when he grabbed me,” she cried out hoarsely. “I thought it was you… I thought he was you, Joey! But it wasn’t you. Those weren’t your hands on my body, or your tongue on my skin, or your fingers in my hair, and now I don’t know what to feel.” I flinched. “Jesus Christ.”
God
“Because I was there tonight for you. Looking after your brothers for you. And because every horrible situation that I’ve found myself in this past year and a half has been for you. I keep getting hurt because I love you!”
“Lynchy,” Shane acknowledged, cigarette balancing from his lips as he waited for me to explain my sudden reappearance.
I KNEW IT WAS COMING BUT I CANT TAKE IT
I still had enough length to tie it back in a small ponytail, but not long enough to put me in the vulnerable position of having a man restrain me with it.
Crushing sentence
Minus his school jumper, the gray shirt he was wearing was untucked and hanging untidily over his belt buckle, while his school tie had been haphazardly thrown on. He had his sleeves rolled up to the elbow, revealing the impressive scrawl of black ink that he had been steadily adding to since fourth year, which now covered both of his forearms.
A sight to see for sure
“Joey Lynch, you better look at me.”
“So, what are we talking about here? A joint, a line, or a fucking needle?” It felt like I had been transported back in time to a place I never wanted to revisit. “Oh my god.” My breath hitched in my throat. “Why, Joe, why?” “Why do you think?” he whispered brokenly, still obediently keeping eye contact with me as I held his chin in my hand. “I broke you.”
Nooo
“Get fucked, miss,” he called over his shoulder, and then he was gone, storming away. “Oh god.” Dropping my head in my hands, I resisted the urge to chase after him. I managed to last a whole three minutes until I caved, bolting out of my chair and moving for the door like my life depended on it. “Where do you think you’re going, Aoife?” “I think she’s going to get fucked, miss,” Alec offered up with a chuckle. “In the literal sense, this time.”
Okay thats funny
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For loving my son. I know that it’s not easy at times.” “Loving your son is effortless,” I cut her off by saying, pushing my damp hair out of my eyes. “It’s getting him to love himself that’s the hard part.”
I knew it was. I knew she had shit to say to me, to get off her chest. Nothing had been cleared up between us; we had just fallen into the same fucked-up pattern of physical affection, but I didn’t have the energy to go another round with her.
U have no idea Joey
God Loves a Trier, But Aoife Loves Joey
Amazing chapter title
“Because my friend thinks you are hands-down the best-looking girl at school.” “Does your friend have a death wish?” Casey quipped. “Because my friend’s boyfriend will kill you dead, Cha. Dead, I tell you.” “So he’s still your—” “You can tell your friend that I’m flattered, but I’m still very much taken.”
“And you can also tell your friend that his friend has an impressive set of balls on him to attempt a steal on Joey Lynch’s girlfriend,” Casey snickered. “I mean, seriously.” Charlie shrugged sheepishly. “It was worth a shot.” “God loves a trier,” Casey agreed, eyes dancing with mischief. “But Aoife loves Joey.”
With one knee resting on the closed toilet lid, Joey leaned in close to the windowsill and, with the rolled-up fiver in his hands, snorted a line of white powder up his nose.
Poor Aoife
“No, no, no, I would never hurt you.” “You hurt yourself and that’s the same thing,” I choked out. “Because when you hurt, I hurt. When you burn, I go down in flames with you. We’re entwined, Joe. We’re mirrors. Don’t you get that by now?”
“You make me feel safe.” “Oh, Joe.” “I love you so fucking much it hurts.” “I know, baby. I love you, too.”
“Jesus, I always knew you weren’t the brightest crayon in the box, but this?” my brother accused, eyes narrowed in challenge. “Getting pregnant while you’re still in school? Off a fucking scumbag like Joey Lynch? Wow, talk about scraping the barrel by mixing your genes with his. That poor fucking kid’s going to come out with a cocaine habit and the IQ of a gummy bear!”
Oh fffff u kevin
“You care about her,” Podge stated, watching me carefully. “More than anything or anyone you have ever allowed yourself to care about. I’ve seen it—the shift in you, and so has Alec. The change. The hopefulness she brings out in you. Hell, the whole fucking world can see how good that girl is for you, man. But you’re so determined to self-destruct that you’re not looking at what you’re doing to her.”
“If you don’t care about yourself, and it’s pretty clear that you don’t, then you need to think about what your actions are doing to her. Because guess what, fucker? Aoife Molloy loves you. Do you hear me, you lucky son of a bitch? Hands down the best-looking girl in our school—possibly in the whole town—with the best, top-quality banter loves you.”
“Sound more surprised, why don’t ya?” “I’m not surprised,” he shot back without hesitation. “I’ve seen plenty of the dolls you’ve pulled over the years. I’m not insecure enough to deny that you’re a good-looking son of a bitch.” He shrugged....
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“You are a better man than this, Joey Lynch.” “Maybe I thought I was.”
“Please tell me you didn’t cheat on her? Because that girl is amazing and you need to marry her.”
“Sorry.” She shrugged sheepishly. “It’s just… Well, when I was at BCS, I used to hear a lot of the girls in the bathroom talking about you and your, uh, well, your bedroom skills.”
Thats effed
“Like touching?” “Yeah, like touching and tasting and…ugh, you know what?” Slapping my hands on my knees, I stood up and paced the floor. “You should stick to the hugging. Hugging is perfect. Hugging is plenty close enough until you’re twenty.”
