1 - AJ LYNCH

Everyone knows Dahlia Holland is a gobshite. Why wouldn’t she be? Her da, Shane Holland, certainly is. I know firsthand from my da. My ma and da warned me not to get anywhere near Dahlia, because God knows Lynchs’ and Hollands’ don’t mix. But I couldn’t keep myself away from her. Seriously. She’s like a magnet. She’s also a total bitch. A force. Look wrong in her direction and she’ll have you crying and begging for mercy. Teachers avoid her gaze. Parents lock their doors. You don’t talk to her unless you want to either get made out with or emotionally demolished. 
Girls hate her. Boys fantasize about her. I just *see* her. No one else sees her the way I do. They don’t see her scaling the wall of my house to sneak into my bedroom through the window that I always leave unlocked. For her. They don’t see her crawling into my bed, tucking her head under my arm, tears silently streaming down her face and her cheek stinging from a slap from her da. I don’t tease her. Or try to kiss her. Or try to put my hand in her knickers. I don’t even try to talk to her at school. I’m just there for her whenever she needs me. Like I’m a toy she can pick up and put down whenever she pleases. I’m not going to piss on your back and tell you it’s raining. It hurts. It hurts seeing her flirt or kiss other guys when she was just crying into my chest last night. But I don’t say anything.
 To be loved is to be seen, right? Well, I see her. I see what no one else does. It doesn’t matter if my parents hate her. Or if her da hates my parents and I. I don’t hate her. I see her. 
 I see Dahlia. _________________________ “JOEY!” My mother, Aoife, shrieks for my da, Joey. I groan and sit up in bed, until I realize that Dahlia is still asleep beside me, nestled deep into my duvet. *She didn’t go home?* Oh shite. “JOEY!” Aoife shrieks again. “YOUR SON HAS THE HOLLAND GIRL IN HIS BED!” “Jesus, Mam! You’ll wake her!” I exclaim, putting a protective arm around Dahlia’s sleeping form. Her cheek is still red from last night when her father hit her. *My sweet girl.*