Neglect

Chapter 5

Patrick

I walked into the building with one thought: I needed to find Claire Biggs or Lizzie Young, preferably Claire. She would be more reliant on telling me what I needed to know.

Bingo. I thought as I spotted blonde curly hair in the hallway.

"Claire, wait up!" I yelled, trying to catch her attention. She turned around and looked at me, confused.

"Patrick? Is everything okay? Why do you need me?" She looked confused about why I was talking to her. Yeah, I guess I only speak to a select few.

"What class do you have right now?" I asked hurriedly, praying it wasn't something too important.

"Uh, PE, why? Thank you, Jesus," I thought, knowing this would be the perfect time to talk to Claire. "So it's not important, right?" I questioned, hoping she'd say no.

"Um, no, I guess not. But hold up Patrick what is going on I am so confused right now?" "I'll explain to you right now if you come outside with me."

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"What's Lizzie's problem with Maeve?" I asked immediately as we sat on the bench Maeve and I had just been occupying.

Claire adjusted her seating uncomfortably. "Um, what I heard from Lizzie is that Maeve kissed Pierce when she found out Liz and he was dating. No one knows if it's true because Pierce swears on it all his life, but Maeve would deny it until she dies."

My heart beat against my chest, wanting to know more about the history behind Pierce and Maeve. "Okay, well, can you just be nice to her, I guess? After the whole Pierce ordeal, she doesn't have many friends." Clair nodded her head enthusiastically.

"I know that's why I invited her to sit with me and Liz. I'm not a mean girl. I didn't just invite her to sit with us so I could watch the drama unfold. I genuinely feel bad for the poor girl." I nodded, trusting that Claire would make an effort to make Maeve feel included.

This sudden thought set my mind on a whirlwind. What am I doing? This is one of your best friend's sisters! You know what Johnny'll do if he catches wind of you fooling around with his baby sister.

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Maeve

I walked towards Johnny's car when I saw that the clock on the wall had shown 5:15. I didn't have training today as it was a Friday, and Johnny's training ended at five instead of 6. I quickly ran towards his car, hoping he wouldn't be waiting for me.

Johnny and I had finally gotten onto good terms—well, good terms for us meant he wasn't ignoring me or yelling at me. I sagged in relief when I didn't see him standing by his car. I slowed down my pace to a walk and kept on walking towards his car.

I walked towards the passenger side, hoping he'd accidentally leave his car unlocked but knowing he wouldn't have. I groaned as the car door didn't open. I looked through the window and groaned again, seeing the state of his passenger seat. Water bottles, towels, socks, food wrappers, and more were there.

I hadn't been riding around in Johnny's car for a few days, so it was no surprise that it had gotten so dirty. He normally kept it clean so that he could bring me to school, but we'd gone in at different times every day this past week and hadn't seen each other.

Confused, I looked into the back seat and saw Johnny's gear bag. Why would Johnny leave his gear bag in the back seat of his car? I double-checked to see if it was his and stood corrected as I saw the familiar stitching of Johnny Kavanagh #13.

I suddenly heard voices behind me and saw Johnny walking towards his car with Shannon Lynch. I knew about the Johnny Bella fiasco but didn't realize they had ended entirely. Johnny would never cheat on any girl he was with. I knew that for sure, so he and Bella had to be over if he walked with Shannon Lynch during after-school hours.

Johnny suddenly stopped walking as he saw me leaning against his car, "Fuckkkk," he said lowly and put his head in his head. He then grumbled something unintelligible and turned towards Shannon.

"Christ, I'm sorry, Shannon. I completely forgot I was bringing Maeve home." He said Maeve so distastefully that I almost thought we were arguing like we had been a week ago. Why does he hate me so much?

I looked down at the ground and kicked at random stones as they continued a hushed conversation. I looked up when I heard my name being called.

"Maeve, I'm going to drop you home, and then I'm going to drop Shan home, okay? I nodded slowly and then turned to get into the back seat.

"Oh no, you can have the front seat; I really don't mind. " I shrugged and got into the back seat. I wasn't trying to be rude; I'd just had a long day and wasn't in the mood to fight while trying to be polite.

As I settled into the back seat, I heard Johnny curse and looked up at him, staring at the carnage that was his passenger seat. I laughed, and he gave me a cold glare. "Push over would ya." I unbuckled my seatbelt and slid over to the other seat.

I groaned internally. This was why I picked the seat behind the passenger seat. Johnny's long legs pushed his seat almost back into my chair, and I had practically no legroom.

As I lay my head against the cold window, Johnny shoved all his stuff into my vacated seat.

I stared out the window until Johnny approached the front door and unlocked the car. I grabbed all my stuff and got out of the vehicle. "Thanks for the ride, Johnny. See you at school tomorrow, Shannon." "Bye," they both said in unison

Also, I know Shannon and Johnny have a long discussion in the car at school in the book, but I just added that it happened when Johnny pulled up outside her house.
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"So Johnny, would you explain why you dropped Shannon Lynch home?" Johnny looked at me, alarmed, sitting on the stairs by the front door. "Keep your voice down, Ma could hear." He whispered while checking if Ma's footsteps would come barreling into the entryway any second.

"She's not home. She went up to Dublin this morning. So you dropped me home at 6.30, and you're just walking through the door at 7.20. Care to explain?" "She lives in Ballylaggin, and we hit the rush hour traffic," he told me, but I knew my brother like the back of my hand. I knew he was lying to me.

"Hmm, okay, if that's what you say," I said with a final smirk, turned around, and climbed up the rest of the stairs.