Danielle glowered. “How’s life on the outskirts treating you, Aoife?”
I grinned in return. “Why it’s fantastic, Danielle, thanks for asking.”
“Outskirts?” Casey snorted. “Get a handle on yourself, girl. We both know that you’d still be happily skulking around the outskirts if Joe hadn’t sacked you off for my best friend here.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” she huffed. “And do you want to know why?”
“No, but I’m sure that you’re going to tell us,” I drawled.
“Because Joey Lynch might be beautiful, and charismatic, and have a million other qualities that draw girls to him, but he’s broken in the head. Sure, he might be riding the high life right now, with his bad-boy status at school, and his ability to master a hurley and sliotar, but that’s as good as it’s going to get for him,” she told us. “He’s already peaked.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know that you made a huge mistake when you threw away a boy with a bright future ahead of him for a boy with no future.”
“Fuck you, Danielle.”
“I would say fuck you right back, but you already did that to yourself,” she snapped, releasing a frustrated breath. “Listen, Aoife, I’m not nearly thick-headed or spiteful enough to deny that you’re a ten around here,” she said. “You’re clever, and funny, and beautiful and had your pick of the bunch in first year. You could have picked any one of the lads at school, but you made the smart decision when you chose Paul. He is going to be a solicitor, Aoife. He is going places, and if you had only managed to keep your head, he would have taken you right along with him. He adored you, Aoife, and he would have given you a good life, with a nice house, and a stable bank account. We both know that kind of a future doesn’t come along often for girls who come from where we come from.” She shook her head and added, “But you couldn’t resist the temptation of the school’s bad boy, and now you’re screwed.” Folding her arms across her chest, she arched a brow and said, “Because boys like Joey Lynch never go anywhere in life, and girls like you go nowhere right along with them. You only need to look at his parents for proof of that.”
“Oh, get a handle on yourself, Danielle,” Casey was quick to interject. “It’s not that deep.”
“Isn’t it?” Danielle looked me right in the eye when she said, “Enjoy becoming his mam, Aoife. I doubt you’ll make it to sixth year graduation without a baby Joey in your belly.”
“Listen, bitch, Aoife is nothing like you,” Casey hissed, jumping to my defense, which I was grateful for, because I had been rendered speechless. “She doesn’t drop her knickers the second a fella beckons. And she doesn’t need Paul Rice or any other fella to give her a leg up in life. She’ll do that just fine by herself.”
“While she’s claiming loan-parent allowance off the government. While her junkie baby-daddy sits it out in a prison cell for finally pushing the law too far,” Danielle tossed back dryly.
“Oh, you mean the same junkie you’ve been chasing after since first year?” Casey shot back. “Give it a rest, Danielle. You reek of jealously, girl.”
“Yeah, I was jealous,” she offered. “It hurt me when I saw them together that day.” She spoke directly to me now. “But instead of being mad at you, I should have been thanking you.”
“For?”
“For swapping futures with me. You’re with my ex and I’m with yours.” Smiling, she flashed a shiny gold bracelet on her wrist. “And unlike you, I’ll be sure to appreciate the upgrade.”
“Oh yeah? Well make sure you appreciate the feeling of being treated like a glorified mannequin while you’re at it.” Twisting in my chair, I leaned over her desk and said, “All of those expensive dinners and flashy gifts might seem tempting now, Danielle, but the shine will quickly fade. When it does, you’ll be left with the knowledge that all you are to him is a pretty face and nice pair of breasts.” I hardened my stare when I added, “Because that’s all you’ll ever be to him. Paul will never care about what’s inside your head or put your feelings before his. He’ll come first in every way and everything, and if that’s enough for you, then I’m happy for you, I sincerely am, but it was never enough for me.”
The bell sounded then, and I didn’t wait around to hear Danielle’s smart response.
Instead, I quickly packed up my books and hurried out of the classroom, with only one destination in mind, the front of the line at the tuck shop for my daily fix of a packet of Rolos, and a Roy of the Rover bar.
Yeah, I was in no mood to be beaten by the hordes of lads in our school and get left with only a damn Wham bar to choose from instead.
Besides, I needed the sugar rush to steady the tremor in my hands.
Danielle was wrong about Joey.
Yeah, she was so wrong.
SPECIAL_IMAGE-images/svgimg0003.svg-REPLACE_ME
“I hope you’re not letting that pinhead, with only boobs for a brain, get inside of your head,” Casey warned, a little while later, when we were sitting in the canteen. “Danielle is full of crap, Aoif. She was only venting because she’s still salty over Joey dropping her ass like a bag of coal for you.”
“They were never in a relationship to begin with,” I argued. “They slept together a few times. That’s it.”
“My case in point,” my best friend agreed. “It’s drives Danielle crazy that you can hold his attention effortlessly, when she spent the last five years trying and failing to do just that.”
“He lost his virginity to her, you know.”
“Pssh.” She waved a hand around. “That doesn’t mean anything. Losing their virginity doesn’t mean the same thing to a fella as it does to a girl.”
“That’s a fairly sexist statement, Case,” I chuckled. “How would you know that?”
“Because, my dear, sweet, summer child,” she crooned, pausing to pat my hand. “By the time boys grow hair on their balls, they’re desperate to give it away to the first girl willing to take it.”
“You’re terrible,” I laughed.
“Terribly accurate,” she pointed out. “It’s the truth, Aoif. I’m dead right. It’s a matter of getting it out of the way for boys, not holding onto it for dear life like us girls.”
“You haven’t been a virgin since third year,” I reminded her.
“Okay…” she drawled, rolling her eyes. “Holding onto it for dear life like you then.” She waved a hand around aimlessly. “Just like Paul was stupid enough to hand his over to that girl from Tommen, Joey just so happened to be equally stupid when he inserted his virginal pecker in our classmate.”
“Girls,” Mack interrupted with a friendly smile, as he slid into the seat beside Casey. “How are ye getting on?”
“Speak of the devil,” I snickered, offering Casey a knowing wink, you know, just in case she had forgotten who she gave her virginity away to. “Hiya, Mack.”
“Yeah, hi, Mack,” Casey bit out, giving me her infamous bring-it-up-and-you’re-dead look. “What’s new?"
“No one nearly as lovely as your good self, Case,” he replied, nudging my friend’s shoulder with his big one. “I was out having a smoke with Podge and the lads, but yer man from Elk’s Terrace is sniffing around, so I got the hell out of dodge.”
“Elk’s Terrace?” My ears pricked up. “Who?”
“That Holland creep,” Mack replied, and my heart sank into my ass.
Shane Holland.
“He’s one bad egg, girls,” Mack continued, unwrapping the paper covering his chicken fillet roll. “Skulking around the school carpark when he finished going here years ago.”
“Is he with him?”
Mack looked at me in confusion. “Who?”
“Joey?”
“Who?”
“Joey!”
“Ah, you mean Lynchy?” He chuckled to himself. “I was like who’s Joey? I’m so used to calling him—
“Focus, Mack. Jesus!” I practically shouted, as I leaned across the table and tapped his forehead with my empty plastic bottle. “Did you see Joey out there with Shane Holland?”
“Yeah, Jesus,” Mack grumbled, rubbing his head. “He’s outside with him now.”
Shoving my chair back, I jerked to my feet, leaving my bag, lunch, and friends behind me, and stormed out of the canteen.
“Aoife, wait up, I’ll come with you.“
“No! Don’t follow me,” I warned Casey, as I stormed through the hallway and out the front entrance of the school.
I was going to blow a head gasket.