Neglect

Chapter 8

I tried to hold back the tears as I swung my legs on a random bridge in Ballylagin. My heart ached, and my stomach grumbled. I've never felt so worn out.

I'm just so tired all the time.

I looked up to a boy and a girl holding hands and walking towards me. The girl was a stunning blonde with styled hair and a full face of makeup. The boy was among the most good-looking guys I'd ever met. He had blonde curly hair and sharp green eyes.

I looked away before they caught me staring at them like a weirdo.

I continued swinging my feet over the ledge but tensed when I heard them stop behind me.

And here I was, complimenting them when they would probably jump me.

I heard them both arguing under their breaths before a finger tapped on my shoulder. I turned my head uneasily but was slightly shocked to see an embarrassed look on the boy's face and a concerned look on the girl's.

"Uh... my girlfriend wants to know if you're okay and that you're not planning on doing anything stupid." He finished, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at his girlfriend, silently asking her if what he said was okay.

"Joseph Lynch, that is not what I told you to say!" His girlfriend slapped his shoulder and glared at him. I looked between the two of them, a little uncertain, preparing to get off this ledge and run away from them.

Looking around for an escape, I only registered how late it was. It was completely dark out, and a shiver racked me at how cold it was.

".....um, are you listening?" The girl looked at me expectantly, and I realized I hadn't been listening to anything she had been saying. I slowly shook my head and cowered, preparing to be yelled at for being so careless.

When all I heard was silence, I looked up and saw the boy gazing at me with a questionable look in his eyes and the girl staring at me worriedly.

"Look, I said it's late, and we can give you a spin home. We were going to the chipper when we saw you and thought we should see if you were okay."

"Umm," I looked at them unnasurringly, not knowing either of their names. From what I caught of the girl yelling at him, the boy's name was Joseph.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry we look like total creeps trying to kidnap you. Well, I'm Aoife Malloy, and this is Joey Lynch. We're both completely normal teenagers just trying to help someone out."

Lynch?

"This is kind of a weird question, but are you Shannon's older brother?" I asked, hoping that Shannon's last name was Lynch. I wasn't about to make a fool out of myself.

Joey's eyes snapped towards me, and he glared angrily at me. I cowered, now realizing I had said the wrong thing.

"You know Shannon? Hm? Are you one of those girls from BCS?" He looked at me distastefully, judging me with his sharp green eyes.

I immediately backtracked, not wanting to cause an incident in a situation I didn't want to be in.

"No, no, I uh, I go to tommen. I should probably get going, though. It was nice meeting you." I quickly rushed out, not wanting to get in trouble. Only god knows how mad Johnny would get at me.

I heard Aofie calling after me before she turned towards Joey and started yelling at him. I immediately picked up my pace as I heard loud footsteps from behind me. I looked behind my shoulder, hoping some thug wasn't running after me. I screamed and came to a halt as a boy with a black hoodie over his head ran up to me. My sudden change of speed caused him to run into me and tackle me to the ground.

"Joey, that's not what I meant by stop her!! " the blonde yelled as she half-shuffled, half-jogged towards us.

I couldn't focus, though, as my brain fully registered that there was a male body pressing me into the concrete and making me immobile.

I felt tears trickle down my cheeks as I tried and failed to get up from underneath this boy.

"Jesus, will you wait a minute." He held my arms above my head. My brain instantly went into panic mode. I squirmed uncontrollably and sobbed, begging anyone to help me.

My squirming stopped as two strong arms picked me up from underneath the random boy. I turned around to see blonde hair and a muscular build.

Gibsie

I gripped my hands onto his shirt and sobbed into him, begging him to take me home.

"What the fuck are you doing. Can't you see she's only small? Why're tackling her to the ground like yer playing rugby?"

The boy pulled himself off the ground. His hood fell off in doing so, and my mind now registered that this was Joey.  I had gone so far into panic mode that I hadn't even seen what his face looked like as he was on top of me.

"Look, I was trying to help you. I didn't mean to hurt you." He looked at me, slightly out of breath

When neither Gibsie nor I responded, he turned to his girlfriend. "C'mon Malloy, let's walk to the chipper." He grabbed Aoife's hand, and they walked in the opposite direction.

A few minutes after they left, my sobs had subsided, and I took my head off Gibsies shirt, only now realizing how tired I was.

"You okay? You want me to take you home? I think I'm staying the night at yours anyway." Gibsie shrugged and turned around. I only now realized that his car was illegally parked with his headlights still on and his engine running.

I climbed into his car and leaned my head against the window. I slowly closed my eyes as sleep overtook me.