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didn’t like it when I made her mad. It made me feel bad. It made my face grow hot. It made my nails get scratchy.
“She’s a fucking lunatic, Mam.”
“Why not? It’s the truth. Half the time she’s a mute, and the other half, she’s screaming her head off and attacking anyone who gets near her.” My sister threw her hands up and screamed. “She attacked another child in her classroom, for fuck’s sake. My friend’s baby brother! She drew blood. You can’t honestly think that’s normal behavior.”
Breaking down in front of him, my sister covered her face with her hands and screamed, “I wish I was dead!”
I had to make my family love me. If I didn’t, they were going to send me away. “Stop fighting it,” a voice in my head commanded, and I flinched when the watery image of a woman’s face flashed before my eyes. “Just give in. It’ll all be better then.” Oh no. The voice was back. The scary voice. The one that made me wet the bed. The one that made me fight.
“I’m not running away with you again.” This time I caught the basketball he flung at my head. “The last time we tried that, you pissed in my sleeping bag.”
“So when’s your sister getting back from the hairdresser with Sinead?”
“Would it kill you to pretend I’m your favorite for one day?”
“I don’t know, Hugh. I’m not that good of a liar,”
“You’re a scumbag.”
“Yeah,” Joey agreed with a dangerous chuckle, closing the space she put between them. “But I’m a scumbag that’ll tear your fucking world apart if you touch my sister again.”
“I wouldn’t touch him if I were you,” Feely warned, keeping a wide berth of them both, while he readjusted his black sombrero. “He just puked nine jelly snakes.”
“You did?” My sister’s eyes widened to saucers, and she looked up at my oldest friend like he hung the moon. “The most you did last time was seven!”
“I told you I’m going to get in that Guinness World Reco...
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And that’s how we spent the rest of his birthday, knee-deep in cow shit on his father’s farm, singing about shovels and holes in buckets.
“Ahh,” Liz continued to howl laughing. “He looks like Thor with his hammer!”
“Did you hear that, Gibs?” Feely called out with a chuckle. “Lizzie thinks you look like a superhero!”
“Speaking of Christmas…” With a hearty chuckle, Gibsie hooked a playful arm around Liz’s neck and pulled her close. “I have a present for you.”
“Oh my God, Gibs, did you just fart?”
“Breathe it in,” Gibsie encouraged, using his foot to fan the air toward her. “That’s my special recipe.”
“Brmm, brmm, brmm,” he snickered, making engine noises as he slowly lowered his ass onto her face and let out the vilest ripper of a fart. “Merry Christmas!”
“And if you think you’re in pain now, just wait, asshole, because if you even think about calling him names again”—she paused to jab a thumb in my direction, before continuing—“I’ll do a hell of a lot more than kick you in the balls.” Crouching down so he would hear her, she spat, “I will cut them out of your gooch and feed them to your bitch-ass friend.”
I tried so hard to keep my cool, but when they targeted Gibsie, I lost it. He was so sweet and gentle, and he didn’t deserve to be picked on
Right you mean like you pick on him?
None of the lads in our class could understand why someone like Johnny would want to hang out with Gibsie. I could. Gibsie was the greatest friend a person could have. He was loyal, trustworthy, had the best personality in the whole school, and really fucking cared about the people he loved.
Monster. He was a monster. The monster was real. Mark was the monster.
“Gibs?” Confused, I tried to sit up to switch on my lamp, but the way he was clinging to me made that impossible. “What happened, lad?”
“Hughie.” Sobbing uncontrollably, my oldest friend in the world locked his arms and legs around me. “Hughie.”
“I’m here, lad,” I tried to coax, wrapping an arm around him. “Where’s Caoimhe? Does s...
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Heaving out a choked sob, he shook his...
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“Did you snea...
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Nodding his head, Gibs squeezed me tighter. “I...
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“I know you do, Gibs,” I replied, patting his back. “I know, lad. It’s not fair.”
“I j-just want my d-dad to c-come back,” he continued to cry, burying his face in my chest. “I d-don’t want to g-go home.”
“Who the hell do you think you are, baby first year?”
“Your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t let go,”
“You have five seconds to take your hand off me or I’ll cut your fingers off.”
“What I feel for you exceeds anything the realm of love could conjure up,”
“All right, lad,” he replied, giving my shoulder a supportive squeeze. “I’m here when you need me.”
Feely baby
“Besides, I don’t like blonds.”
“What can I say?” Kav replied with another shrug of his shoulders. “I’m more of a brunette man.”
“I don’t like blonds,” Gibsie mimicked before sticking his middle finger up at him. “What do you call me, asshole?”
“Am I fucking you,...
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“I sincerely hope not, ...
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“Well then, there...
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“Say you like blonds.”
“I will not.”
“Say...
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“It’s a preference. I’m allowed to have a prefe...
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“You most certainly are not,” Gibsie huffed. “Not when ...
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“Oh my Jesus, Gibs, it’s nothing personal, lad,” Kav groaned. “It’s...
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