By the time school rolled around on Monday, I was so deep in my feels I didn’t think there was any saving me. Happy, wondrous, epic, that first love feeling had consumed me to the point where I honestly felt like I was floating on air.
Sure, Hugh’s party had imploded on Saturday night, and everyone had gotten in a huge fight, but I’d woken up in Gerard’s arms yesterday morning and we had spent the entire day together. I didn’t care that a large portion of that time had been spent cleaning up after the party and receiving lectures from our mothers. He’d been by my side the entire time and that was all I ever wanted.
Across the table, though, something felt very off with my brother. Katie had her hand entwined with his on top of the lunch table, but while she was giggling at something Patrick and Gerard had said, my brother looked like he wanted to faceplant the table.
Seriously, with his elbow resting on the table, Hugh slumped forward and stared down at his untouched lunch.
I knew it couldn’t have anything to do with being told off for fighting with Mark, because he was fine yesterday. This sudden dip in mood was both new and concerning.
“Did you get bad news?” I asked, reaching across the table to tug on his sleeve.
“Huh?” Blinking, he looked up at me, wide-eyed and startled. “What?”
His eyes were bloodshot, with dark circles underneath his otherwise paler than usual face.
Aw crackers.
Something was really wrong.
“Is it Aunty Sarah? Did Mam text you?” Panic gnawed at my gut. Our mother was taking our maternal aunt for her three-month checkup today; she was in remission from breast cancer. I suddenly had the worst feeling niggling at me. “Did she get bad news at the hospital?”
“Sarah’s grand,” he muttered, resuming his post of slumping over the lunch table with his head in his hand. “Mam already texted – she’s still in the clear.”
Relief flooded me. “Then what’s wrong?”
“He’s been like this all day,” Katie explained in a concerned tone, flicking her attention back to my brother.
“I’m grand,” Hugh said quietly. “Just tired.”
“Are you sure?” Reaching over with her free hand, she pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. “God, Hugh, you’re spiking a temperature.”
“Are ya sick, lad?” That was Johnny, who had turned his attention to his friend.
“Jesus, he is, Cap,” Gerard added, straining out of his seat to catch ahold of my brother’s shirt collar, and yank him across the table. “He’s burning the fuck up.”
“You should go to the office,” Patrick added, all eyes on Hugh now. “There’s a bad dose going around the place.”
“He said he’s fine,” Lizzie muttered from her perch beside me. “So drop it.”
“I can drive you home.” Pushing his chair back, Johnny stood up and reached for his keys. “Do you want to come for the spin, Shan?”
“I’m grand, lads,” my brother bit out, breathing hard and fast now, as he pulled at the tie around his neck and settled back down on his seat. “I’m just tired.”
“You’re clearly not,” Katie pushed, fawning at him like he was a little child.
“You’re right.” Clearly unhappy with the attention he was receiving, Hugh reached up and gently removed her hand from his face before rising from the table. “I need to go home.” Turning to Johnny, he added, “I have the car, Cap, I’ll drive myself, but thanks.”
“Yeah, I just need to lie down.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Katie asked, moving to follow after him.
“No, you should probably stay away from me,” Hugh strangled out, offering her a half-hearted smile that didn’t meet his eyes. “I could be contagious.” When he hurried out of the lunch hall, Katie still chose to rush after him.
“What a big baby,” Gerard offered up. “Jesus, talk about milking the situation. Having everyone worrying about him.”
“Why don’t you do the world a favor and lose your voice, Thor,” Lizzie spat, turning to glare at him. “I swear if the world ended tomorrow, you would be the cockroach still skittering around the place.”
“Don’t you start with me, witch,” Gerard warned, holding a hand up to warn her off. “We both agreed to a treaty, remember?” That was true. Johnny had laid down the law in the common room this morning. The rules were made very clear to both of them. “If we can’t be civil, we stay silent. So, stay the fuck silent.”
“Come on, guys,” Shannon sighed. “Let’s not do this today, huh?”
“Do what?” Lizzie clapped back. “Be irritated by his presence, because I’m sorry, Shan, but no can do. The fact that he’s above ground breathing is enough to put me in a bad mood.”
“Fuck you,” Gerard growled, shoving his chair back and standing up.
“What’s wrong, Thor?” Lizzie taunted. “You’re always full of comebacks.”
“Trust me, Liz, you don’t want my comeback,” he bit out, before stalking out of the lunch hall.
“Did you have to?” I demanded, dropping my head in my hands. “You were having a good morning.” That was true. Lizzie had a surprising pep in her step when she showed up at school this morning.
“Yeah,” she wholeheartedly agreed. “Until he showed up.”
“Lizzie,” I growled in warning, “you have to drop this.”
“I will,” she assured me, leaning back to fold her arms across her chest. “When I’m dead.”
“Yeah, I’m not listening to this shite,” Johnny declared, rising to his feet. “I’ll see ya later, Shan,” he added, dropping another epic hair kiss to the top of her head before heading off in the direction of his friend.
“You know why he left, don’t you?” I snapped. “Because if he didn’t, he would have lost it with you.”
“You think I care what Captain Fantastic thinks?”
“I care what Johnny thinks,” Shannon offered calmly. “And you care what I think, so just sit with that for a moment before you snap back, Liz.”
To my surprise, she did just that.
“So, that was one hell of a party, huh?” I tossed out, trying to calm the waters once more. “We’re really lucky the neighbors didn’t actually call the Gardaí.”
“Pity they—” Stopping short, Lizzie calmly set her apple onto the table. “You know what?” She pushed back her chair and rose. “I think I’m going to get some fresh air.”
“Good,” Shannon praised, hurrying after her. “Fresh air works, too.”
“What’s happening to this gang?” I exclaimed when I was left alone at the lunch table with only Patrick for company. “I swear everybody is getting weirder by the day.”
“Honestly, who even knows anymore.” Shrugging his shoulders, Patrick unwrapped the tinfoil containing his sandwich and then proceeded to dump the entire filling out before taking a tiny bite of the crust.
“You don’t like your sandwich?” I asked, interest piqued.
“I don’t eat meat,” came his quiet reply.
“You don’t?” My eyes widened. “Since when?”
“Since I was five and had to help my father make black pudding,” he replied with a grimace. “Trust me, it’s a process you don’t want to know the inner details of.”
“Ew.”
“Hm,” he agreed, using a plastic fork to slide everything off his bread, including the butter. “Not the normal reaction of a farmer’s son, I can assure you.” He grimaced again before gesturing to the leftover filling on the tinfoil. “Hence my mother’s persistent efforts to get me to align with normal regulations.”
“Oh well, who wants to be normal anyway?” I offered, giving him my warmest smile. “Besides, I have it on good authority that weird is a side effect of epic.”
He arched a dark brow. “I thought the phrase was awesome.”
“Meh,” I dismissed, cracking open my can of Fanta and pushing it towards him. “Sip?”
“Nah, I’m good, Baby Biggs,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “So, how’s the great romance coming along?”
My face flamed with heat. “Gerard told you?”
“Didn’t have to,” Patrick replied. “Contrary to his actions, and lack of impulse control, there’s only ever been you for him.”
My heart warmed at his words. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Hey, thanks, Patrick.”
“For what?”
“The clarity.”
“Anytime.”
“Speaking about great romances.” Waggling my brows, I leaned in close. “I heard a juicy rumor around school about you.”
His brows shot up. “You did, huh?”
“Uh-huh.” I grinned. “Apparently you’ve been getting down and dirty with one of Aoife’s friends.”
“Is that so?”
“Yup.”
“Hm.” Neither confirming or denying, he tore another piece of bread from his sandwich and popped it into his mouth.
Whoa, he would make a fabulous card player.
“Of course, that’s if you don’t have another girl from your long list of admirers lined up.”
Now he did raise a brow.
“Patrick, come on,” I laughed. “Don’t looked surprised. You’re a total babe.”
Another cynical brow raise.
“Most of the girls in sixth year have the hots for you.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t you care that girls are practically brawling in bathrooms over you?”
“I’m entirely uninterested in participating in drama, Claire. If that means I’m a loner or frigid, then I’ll happily shoulder the label. They can think what they want about me. I’m not pushed.”
“Wow,” I mused. “How does it feel to be so secure in yourself?”
“Why don’t you look in the mirror and ask the girl staring back at you?” he shot back with a smirk. “Because from where I’m sitting she’s got a tight fist hold of her worth.”
“Hm.” I smiled back at him, thoroughly enjoying this conversation and listening to his input on the world. “You’re good with words,” I offered. “When you use them.”
“I use them,” he replied. “Not everyone listens.”
“Ooh, deep … Okay, pee break!” Pushing my chair back, I sprang up and moved for the door. “I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time,” he laughed after me. “And too much information.”
Smiling to myself, I skipped down the corridor in the direction of the girls’ bathroom, stopping to call out, “Get a room,” to the ridiculously attractive couple eating the faces off each other in the stairwell on my way.
“Mind your business,” Aoife called back, not bothering to release her hold on Joey. “As you were, Stud.”
Aw … I hope they had condoms in the annex.
Pushing the bathroom door inwards, I stepped inside and then, because I was a sucker for a good echo, I tap danced across the floor, enjoying the clickety noise the heels of my shoes made against the tiles.
“Hey girls,” I acknowledged, offering my classmates Helen and Shelley a wave before disappearing inside one of the cubicles to take care of business.
When I reappeared a few minutes later, they were both still there, leaning against the sinks with one of their camera phones in hand.
“What’s up?” I asked, joining them at the sinks to wash my hands.
“Do you want to ask her?”
“Oh my God, Hells, no! I’m not asking her.”
“Well, one of us has to.”
“What’s up, girls?” I smiled. “Ask me what?”
Stepping behind Helen, Shelley pushed her forward and said, “Helen wants to know if it’s true about you and Gibsie.”
“What about us?”
“Are you with him?”
Excitement bubbled inside of me because I had waited sixteen long years to finally answer this question. “Yes.” Beaming, I clutched my chest and feigned a swoon. “I am absolutely with him.”
Instead of being thrilled like I had expected my classmates since first year to be for their fellow peer, they looked at each other with wide eyes.
“Why?” Instantly suspicious, I folded my arms across my chest. “What did you guys hear?”
“It’s not what we heard,” Shelley replied nervously. “It’s what we saw.”
“Saw?” I stared blankly. “I’m not following you.”
“Show her, Helen.”
“Show me what?” I demanded just as a camera phone was thrust in my face. “What is this?” I snapped, attention flicking between them. “What am I looking … ” My words broke off and my breath hitched in my throat when I glanced at the screen of the phone.
The image was a grainy one, but it was clear enough to show Gerard sitting in the corner of Biddies Bar, in a compromising position, with a girl dressed as Catwoman.
My heart stopped dead in my chest for a solid three second before slamming back to life with a vengeance. “Where did you get this?”
“We took it,” Shelley admitted.
“When?”
“Halloween night.”
Oh God.
Pain.
It was taking me over.
“It could be totally innocent,” Helen hurried to say. “I mean, it was almost closing time, and we only stopped into Biddies for a couple of drinks, but he came in and sat in the corner by himself.”
“That’s when she showed up.”
“She was clearly more into him than he was her.”
“But they were still together when we left.”
