Facing 11 | Tadgh Lynch <3 Leah daly

YOU'VE NEVER ATE A PENGUIN?!!?

LEAH

"You're saying that you've never eaten a penguin before!" I was shocked to say the least. It had never crossed my mind that some people might've just walked past penguin bars at tescos and had never eaten them before.
"Nanny always told us not to eat penguins because they're not edible," Seany spoke while playing with his legos. He might only be 6 but he was darn good at building legos. Unlike me I was absolute shite at building stuff but it's okay we move on with life.
"She's not talking about the animals. She's talking about the biscuit." Shannon spoke up ,she was sitting on the floor opposite Ollie and Sean. She didn't need to sit with them but she wanted to so who am I to stop her.
"I want to try one!" Seany looked up at Shan.

"I have a bunch in my room Seany and if your good today i'll ask your mam if you can come over." I replied I couldn't make out what he said after that but he was smiling so I suppose it was something good.

I'd been here for a couple of hours and I'd found out that Edel had adopted all of the kids except for Johnny but he was at a game so I hadn't met him yet. AJ was sleeping in my arms and he was Joey's son. Joey was their brother. I didn't ask why Edel and John had adopted all of the lynch kids, I didn't want Shannon to feel pressured into telling me so I left it there.

Shannon was turning 18 this year but I could tell that she wasn't planning on moving out any time soon. She had a connection with her siblings that couldn't be torn apart. I knew there was a deeper story behind it all, I just couldn't pinpoint what it was.
But I wasn't blind Shannon had a scar on her temple and it didn't look like it had formed from a little scratch. It blended into her hairline so it wasn't very visible unless you were looking closely. When I asked her where it came from, her body stiffened, then she changed the topic. I did stare at it for a good 5 minutes but in my defence I had nothing better to do because AJ looked so peaceful sleeping in my arms that I felt bad putting him down. So I didn't.

Tadhg had a similar scar to Shannon except his was on his collarbone. It was significantly noticeable. The scar was definitely bigger than Shannons but I still didn't know where they'd come from. I had a scar as well and honestly I had no clue why it was there. It showed up when I was 11, about 2 years ago. I'd assumed that it was from a hairband because I always wore them on my wrist but I never thought it would scar.

I wasn't sure how I ended up babysitting but I was pretty much useless helping out with the heavy boxes. And you know Edel had to go to hospital with Tadhg after he passed out while walking down the stairs then crashed into me after he passed out. Then John had gotten an emergency call from work so he left as well. But even though Tadhg landed on top of me I'd only ended up with a bloody arm and he had to go to the hospital.

"I'm going to go grab a drink. Do you want anything?" Shannon asked me.
"No thanks." I replied as she walked to the kitchen.

Their house was just as nice as ours, if not better but I could tell that Edel was a fancy lady. She wouldn't settle for any less than she deserved, which was admirable.
Edel was absolutely gorgeous. Inside and out, you could tell that she had a bit of bite to her but she never showed it unless necessary. Her whole presence felt refreshing. Unlike Tadhg.

I hadn't met Joey before but I had a feeling he'd be more or less similar to Tadgh. All of the Lynch's, that I've met, except for Shannon had blonde hair so Joey probably does as well. AJ didn't have a lot of hair but the small amount he had was blonde. It was a sandy colour similar to Tadhgs.

I hadn't slept since getting off the plane this morning and I was absolutely exhausted. I hadn't looked at the time until now and it was well late. AJ was still in my arms as I slowly drifted off to sleep.
"Shhh be quiet Sean, she's sleeping..."

~

TADHG

I'd been discharged a couple hours ago. Dellie took me to Costa in the hospital to get some hot chocolate. I wasn't a big fan of hot chocolate but I didn't have the heart to tell her, it was just a bit too sweet for my liking. She'd gotten herself a latte even though it was 11pm, but I guess she wasn't too worried about caffeine right now.

We were sitting on a table in the corner of the cafe, next to the window. The stars were visible tonight which was a rare occasion in ballylagan. I stared out the window while Edel finished drinking her coffee.

I was pulled out my thoughts when Edel spoke, "Are you feeling okay, love?"
"I'm fine, my head just hurts a bit." I still hadn't met her eyes, I couldn't bring myself to after making her cry earlier. The image of tears streaming down her face was stuck in my head. I made her cry. Me.

"Come on Tadhg, let's go home."

A/N
~11/05/24-26/05/24