SKYFALL, Johnny Kavanagh

The calm before the storm

Maeve's Point of View

All the siblings in the Lynch family – plus me, the Connor cousin – had what you could call a sixth sense.
Not that Spiderman bullshit, though that too would be useful, but the kind that told you if you were about to get beaten up for good.
I'm not talking about a couple of slaps here and there or even a few punches, I'm referring to the occurrence where you get beaten to a pulp and are physically unable to leave for bed for at least a couple of days.

For me that sensation is a feeling of unease in my gut, for Shannon is stress felt in her stomach, for Joey it's a shiver in his back.

For that same reason, when Saturday night I felt that sensation, I barricaded myself in my room and came out only to go to the bathroom, even opting to have my meals brought upstairs by Shannon.

I was on the third period of Monday morning and the feeling still hadn't gone away, just as I knew it wouldn't, not until I finally got home and got what was coming for me.

I could only avoid Teddy for a short while, and the more I waited, the worse the beating was going to be.

"Here." Niamh said from beside me while holding a pen in her hand. "You've been staring at your empty notebook like it's your worst enemy for the past ten minutes, I figured you might want to start taking notes."

"Thanks." I spoke in a dull voice while taking the pen from her hand, I didn't even have the energy to tell her that I was paying so little attention I had no idea what subject we were even supposed to be listening to.

This was the first time I saw Niamh after Saturday, even though I called Sunday afternoon to tell her I was fine since she had texted about my whereabouts the day before.
She still didn't buy my I just had a fight with Johnny Kavanagh excuse, but thankfully she didn't press me any further.

Once the bell for the break rang, I bolted out of the classroom and went into the girl's bathroom where I knew Shannon would be waiting.

"You've felt it too, right?" She asked as soon as she saw me. "But it's Monday, Monday is a safe day."

"It is." I tried calming her down. "But he's still angry with me for going out on Saturday."
"When we get to the house, I want you to go straight to our room and not come out for the rest of the night." I continued.

"Who is going to make dinner then? He'll get even angrier if he thinks I'm not doing my job." She pointed out.

"I'm going to cook, I'll get out of school now and prepare dinner for tonight." I spoke calmly. "He's coming back later in the evening anyway, he won't know I skipped school and this way you get to hide."

"And what, leave you alone with him?" she cried. "I may be a coward but I'm not letting you take the brunt of it alone."

"I won't be alone, I'll text Joey right now to let him know to be here tonight." I lied, I wasn't texting Joey shit, he still thought his father didn't know about me going to the game.
No way I was putting him in the middle of another fight, not when he was finally starting to be sober again.
Aoife and Casey's words kept going through my head, and while it was true that I couldn't properly defend myself against a man three times my size, I wasn't completely defenceless either.
Sure, I wouldn't come out on top from the fight, but he wouldn't get out of it unscathed either.
I could scratch, bite and had a mean left punch and, while that may not be much, it was better than just taking it without complaint, like I knew Shannon would.

I was going to fight back and fight back hard.

Once Shannon looked comforted enough by my lies, I gave her a fiver Joey had previously given me for the game and told her to go grab something to eat at the bar, since I knew she didn't have breakfast and, after she left, I stayed a couple more minutes just to calm myself and then got ready to head out when a feminine hand grabbed me and pulled me out of the bathroom

"Excuse you." I rolled my eyes and took her hand off me. "Is it normal for you to drag people out of the bathroom?" I continued.

"You." She glared me.
Now that I thought about it, she looked kind of familiar.
Wait. She's the fangirl I met at the game.
What does she want now?

"Me." I responded, because what else was I supposed to say?
Was I meant to give her a warm welcome and a cup of tea?

"Stay away from him." She ordered me.

At this point I was sure the vein on my forehead was ready to pop at any moment.

"Stay away from who?" I taunted.
This girl was the psycho obsessed with Johnny Kavanagh and even though I had already decided to stay away from him, there was no way in hell I was letting this black-haired barbie tell me what to do.
I already had one controlling uncle limiting what I could do with my life, I wasn't going making this gal the boss of me too.

"You know who." She seethed. "Or actually you might not, I know whores like you like to get around."

Yep, I was going to kill this girl.
I didn't even know this girl's name and she was already top of my shit-list.
At her response I just started laughing, she was so insecure that it was truly ridiculous.
It wasn't the first time someone insulted me, hell it wasn't even the hundredth, especially considering all that had gone down at BCS, so why this girl thought she could tear me down was beyond me – no, it was just laughable.

At one point I laughed so hard I doubled over and earned a few stares from people passing by in the corridor, while she still looked at me like I had committed the worst of crimes.

"I'm sorry are you actually serious?" I wiped tears from my eyes. "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm Bella Wilkinson, the person that will make your life a nightmare if you don't back away." She spoke.

"Oh, you're that Bella." I noticed. "You're the slut that slept with my friend's boyfriend. And to think you came after me because of rumours that stated that I was allegedly a whore. You should look in the mirror."

"And by the way, I think you have watched one too many films." I commented. "There is literally nothing you could do to me or my reputation – which as you already know, has hit rock bottom – that I would even remotely care about."
"So, by all means." I continued. "Come at me, bitch."

"You little." She screamed so loud that people began to stare.

Suddenly I saw Bella change her expression, from evil bitch to cry-baby and turned to around to see what made her do so.

"Leave her alone, Bella." Johnny spoke with a cold voice.

"Johnny, but she-" She was cut off abruptly.

"Well, looks like you two have things to talk about." I looked at Johnny and at Bella.

"Get a leash for your dog, Johnny." I told him clearly. "Next time she barks, I'll bite."

After that I walked away before I could give Bella Wilkinson a well-deserved slap in the face.