All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’donoghue

Author:Caroline O’donoghue [O’donoghue, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781406399349
Amazon: B08LKS4TRZ
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2021-05-26T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

LIKE ALL PERFECT MOMENTS, THIS ONE IS RUINED BY OTHER people.

The kids who were eating chips outside Deasy’s start wolf-whistling at us. Roe wraps his arms around me and turns his face to them. I bury my face in his neck, planting kisses on the warm skin there, thrilled that I finally have the permission to do so.

“Piss off!” he shouts.

“C’mon,” I say. “They’re going to start throwing chips at us.”

The shouts get closer.

“Thought you were a bender, Rory!”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

All roads, inevitably, lead to the underpass. Roe holds my hand, periodically bringing the back of my hand to his lips.

“We have a gig on Saturday at the Cypress. You should come.”

“Will I need an ID?”

I once used Niamh’s older sister’s student ID to go to the gig of a boy Niamh liked. He played Ed Sheeran and George Ezra covers in a pub almost entirely frequented by accountants on their Christmas party, and it was the most boring night of my life. I bite my lip. The door to Niamh’s sister’s ID is definitely closed now, and there’s no chance of me getting away with Joanne’s.

“No, it’s an all-ages thing. It’s like a cabaret night. They’re using it to fundraise for an LGBTQ homelessness charity.”

“That’s so cool.”

“Yeah, it was booked in months ago but with Lily and everything I completely forgot. Miel messaged me yesterday asking if I still wanted to do it.”

“And do you?”

“Honestly, I would give my right leg to do it under normal circumstances. But with all this drama at home I would give two legs. I just need something to take my mind off it.”

I nod and he smiles at me. “Although I have someone right here who’s pretty good at that.”

“Oh, do you?”

I kiss him and kiss him, feeling ridiculously brazen about my new access to him. I press his back against the wall outside the underpass, curling my fingers around his hair. We stay like that for minutes, feeling the evening temperature drop to freezing, the cold bracing against our hands and faces but warm where our bodies are fixed, glued together.

“I’ll walk you back,” I say.

“You don’t have to.”

“No, I want to. You’re always walking me back.”

“It’s fine,” he says, kissing me on the forehead again. I look at him squarely, and there’s a flicker of anxiety in his smile. “You should get home.”

“You don’t want your parents to see me, do you?”

“What? No, it’s not that.”

I look at him sceptically, my eyebrows raised.

“OK, it kind of is that.”

“Do they … do they blame me?”

“Of course they don’t blame you, Maeve. But they’re not … not exactly fans of yours.”

“Right. Why should they be? I’m the cow that ruined their daughter’s life.”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Roe. It’s true.”

I untangle myself from him, feeling sick. I am sick: gross or perverted, a parasite who latches on to others, then abandons them once I’m full. I took everything I could from Lily, and now I’m taking it from Roe.

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