Needing 13 - Johnny Kavanagh

NEW BEGINNINGS

JOHNNY

"Fuck!" I roared, slamming my fist onto the hood of the car, the metal beneath my hand rattling with the force. The sting in my knuckles was satisfying, almost grounding, but not enough to stop the raging frustration boiling over inside me.

"Oi, easy there!" Gibsie barked, jumping out of the car, and gave me a hard shove away from it. "Don't be taking it out on my baby just because your baby decided to give you the cold shoulder."

I shot him a withering glare, biting back a retort as I slumped onto the hood, my eyes narrowing as I watched Tara across the street, laughing with that eejit who was openly flirting with her. She wasn't doing a damn thing to stop him, either.

But she was still my girlfriend.

She was still my girl.

My woman.

She could say we were over, swear up and down that it was finished, that we weren't together anymore, but we both knew better. We were far from done, and I was just giving her some space—letting her breathe before we talked things through. She needed to realize that no matter what, we weren't finished. Not by a long shot.

"What does she even see in him?" I muttered, cocking my head as I studied the way they talked, the easy way she laughed at something he'd said. It cut deep. "He doesn't even look that funny."

Gibsie plopped down beside me, watching the two of them with an expression of lazy amusement. "Cap, Tara's a ride. Lads are gonna look at her, especially when she's wearing a skirt like that. I mean, have you seen her legs lately? Has she gotten taller or what? Her legs are bleeding unreal."

I smacked him on the back of the head, hard. "Stop fucking ogling my girlfriend's arse and legs," I snapped. "Just don't. I don't need you giving me a fucking play-by-play."

"Cap, last I checked, you and Tara weren't a thing anymore. The lads and I can appreciate the view in peace, yeah? D'you reckon if I got little Shannon to kick off enough craic, Tara might swing by Tommen in a rage? She's hot when she's pissed off."

"Stop talking, or I'll staple your gob shut."

I turned my attention back to Tara, a slow-burning jealousy twisting inside me as I watched that fucker put his arm around her shoulder, guiding her out of the café. Every instinct screamed at me to storm over there and make him back off. I fought the urge to bite my knuckles, to stop myself from yelling with frustration. We hadn't talked properly in days, and it was driving me mad. She wasn't answering my calls, ignoring my texts, and I'd sent more than a few—enough to drive anyone up the fucking walls. At least she hadn't changed her number; if she had, tracking down her new one would be a whole new challenge.

"I think you went a bit too far with that Bella comment," Gibsie said, his tone laced with a faint hint of sympathy. He shivered theatrically. "Hope she doesn't find out you even suggested it, or she'll be out for blood come Monday."

I clenched my jaw, scanning the street to make sure there weren't any Tommen students—or anyone from the rugby team, for that matter—watching. The last thing I needed was for this to become gossip fodder. They were all a bunch of bleeding gossips, and I didn't fancy being the talk of the school.

"Maybe they're just friends, Cap. I dunno, but Tara doesn't strike me as the kind who'd just hop from fella to fella. You know you went a bit overboard there."

I knew it, too. Deep down, I knew that every word that had come out of my mouth since I'd seen her talking to that lad was pure shite. But the jealousy had wrapped itself around my heart, squeezing the life out of me, and I felt insecure—fucking terrified she really meant it when she'd said it was over.