AOIFE

HYSTERICAL, I sat on the cold concrete path, watching as Joey Lynch disappeared from sight, leaving me alone, with only his sister to comfort me.

Come back.

I wasn’t sure if I was thinking the words or screaming them. But I knew.

I knew this was different. Something had changed in Joey. I saw it in his eyes.

He was resigned.

He was finished.

For him, the fight was over.

The fire inside of him, the one that had kept his heart beating through all the hardship and pain, had been snuffed out.

His brother came bolting out of the house, shouting something about going to find Joe, but I couldn’t take a word of it in.

The sound of my heart shattering in my chest was so loud and violent, it drowned everything else out.

We were having a baby. And Joey was leaving.

Worse than leaving, he had left.

How could he leave me? He promised.

I trusted him.

I still trusted him.

No, no, no, this was all wrong.

Something’s wrong. Don’t give up on him. He’s not well.

Find him before it’s too late.

With a horrible sense of dread settling in the pit of my stomach, and an even bigger urge to find my boyfriend before it was too late. I climbed to my feet and moved for my car, unable to form the words I needed to hold a coherent conversation with poor Shannon who looked almost as devastated as I felt.

Almost.

Mumbling something about needing to go home, I climbed into the driver’s seat of and cranked the engine before quickly tearing away.

It wasn’t a lie.

I was going home.

I just needed to find him first.

Because that boy was my home.