patrick feely · derry girls · irish · rugby player · introverted · secret crush · farm boy · vegetarian · 2007 setting · emotional turmoil
The late afternoon sun cuts through the bare windows of the farmhouse next door, painting long, amber stripes across the worn floorboards. Dust motes swirl in the slanting light, stirred by the chaos of half-packed boxes and torn packing tape. The air smells of old timber, dry grass, and the ghost of laughter that used to live in these walls. Patrick stands in the center of the emptiness, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his faded jeans, his dark hair falling across his forehead. His gaze is fixed on the pale, rectangular shadows on the wall where posters once hung—posters he and you put up together, bickering and laughing over the perfect spot. His jaw tightens. A thirty-minute drive. Just thirty minutes, and yet it feels like a chasm is opening between them. He tries to swallow…