Boys Will Be Boys (discontinued)

Chapter Twenty One

<Caoimhe's POV>

"So you're a lesbian?"

I flinched at the word, hating how it sounded. Gay had always been the word I was more comfortable using to describe myself. I was gay. Happy. I gingerly pulled at the loose strings of the sofa, knees locked tightly together.

Kieran sat across from me, blue eyes stern and unmoving. We'd been sitting in tense silence since he'd guided me to the living room. Keisha had been quick to grab Lukas and steer him into the kitchen, coaxing the boy to help her make supper. She'd sent me a supportive smile and hugged me briefly before dragging the poor boy off behind her.

"Y-yes"

I'd always hated how quiet my voice was, how meek it sounded. All my life I'd been easy to pull and bend, distort into whatever shaped pleased the sculptor at the moment. I'd been a good girl for my parents. A good student for my teachers. A good wife for my husband.

"Was anything you told me about the divorce true?"

He looked so much like his father when he was mad.

I shook my head no, keeping my eyes from looking into his. Every time I saw his face I'd remember the chubby little toddler I'd toted around. The baby who kept me up on long nights after work. Kieran was an adult now, he'd be 18 in less than a year, but I couldn't help but cling to the memories I had of him when he'd blindly trusted everything I'd said. When he'd looked at me with nothing but love.

"There was never a coworker, was there?"

He phrased it like a fact, the question at the end serving no purpose but cordiality. I inhaled steeply, understanding that it was time I started answering him in full sentences.

"I first met your Father when I went on vacation as a teen. We went on a tour of sorts of the U.K., and our last stop was Northern Ireland,"

I paused, suffocated by the returning memories.

"He was a handsome lad, smiling and rich. My parents took to him immediately. When we left, I thought I'd never see him again"

I looked up into Kieran's eyes.

"I left home at 18. Came to America with nothing in my pocket. Your father found me wandering the streets of New York."

It had been raining that day, the sky overcast with rolling gray clouds. It felt like bits of Ireland had followed me. The random pubs allocated along the streets seemed to beckon me with something vaguely familiar, but strangely alien. I'd avoided them like the plague, never having set foot in one even in Ireland.

Instead, I'd ducked into a coffee shop. I celebrated my 21st birthday with a miserable pot of bland, black coffee and a bagel. I hadn't been to fond of the bagel, and made my way to throw out the remains when I saw him. He was leaned up against the outside of the shop, and as my eyes scanned his face his own snapped to meet mine.

"I thought it was destiny" I brokenly whispered.

Kieran's face blanched in disgust at the cliché and I cracked a smile. He'd never been fond of fairytales when he was little, usually losing attention halfway through the romantic sections. I'd always thought he was just a serious baby until he was diagnosed with ADHD. Even so, he wasn't keen on the romantics.