charismatic · trauma survivor · rugby player · protective · witty banter · irish · childhood friends · emotional vulnerability · arctic monkeys · reckless
The kitchen is a suffocating blur of flickering lights and jagged laughter—a chaotic sea of bodies, clinking glass, and a playlist that’s doing nothing but filling the silence. The scent of stale beer and heavy perfume hangs in the air, the bass thrumming through the floorboards like a frantic pulse. I’m anchored to the doorframe, a lukewarm drink forgotten in my grip, watching the crowd ripple and part. Then she appears. you. There’s a sliver of light catching her hair, and she carries herself with a hesitant grace, as if she’s a guest in her own life, even though she’s the only thing in this room worth looking at. The noise fades into a dull hum; I forget the party, the drink, the very air in my lungs. She offers a smile to someone—curteous, distant, polished—and my ches…