It's you I'm thinking of > Patrick Feely

Patrick 

December 25th 2004

     Christmas Day, one of the worst days of the year to be a Feely. I counted thirty-three people in the house today, including uncles, aunts, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts and a few babies who had been passed around from person to person all day. Like trophies or something. 

Erin had managed to sneak off at half three with Alex, the two of them had seemingly worked it out since I'd last heard. I, however, was not so fortunate, I'd been a victim to a lengthy conversation with our great Uncle Declan who was, god forgive me because the man was about seventy years old, the most boring fucker in the entire world. A man of many words, as the say. Jesus, the fella never stops talking, and about the most pointless topics you could think of. 

I shit you not, he spent forty minutes talking about a poem he read in secondary school that he couldn't remember the name of.

God bless Mam because there's one thing Declan loves more than to to talk and that's food, so when Mam announced that dinner was ready, he was gone in seconds. 

We'd finished food at about half six when Erin arrived home absolutely locked. 

"What did she even have?" I asked, taking a giggling Erin from Alex's hold and placing her down on the steps behind me. 

"I don't know, man. I took her to Biddies and she saw some girl she knew. I couldn't get her away from the bar." Alex huffed, running a hand through his hair. "Look, I've gotta go." 

"Right, yeah." I narrowed my eyes as my sisters stupid boyfriend walked back to his car parked just down the driveway, "Thanks for the help." I called out. 

"No bother." He yelled back to me, giving me a thumbs up as he reversed up. 

"Prick." 

"Hey, don't call my boyfriend a prick." Erin scolded, suddenly comprehending something that was going on around her as I pulled her up from the steps like a deadweight. 

"He is a prick." I told her, shaking my head, as I brought her through the front door which wasn't very common for us but a safer route for to not get caught. 

"I know." She shrugged, "but don't call him one, it's not nice."

"I don't really care, Erin. He's not very nice either." I gritted, dragging her up the stairs where I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding as we were in our own territory now. No wandering cousins, or nosy Aunts. 

"Hm, you're right." Erin sighed, as she flopped down onto her bed, "But I don't care either." She was asleep within seconds so I left her to it. And after hovering at the top of the stairs for five minutes, I decided my bed was a much better spot than downstairs. 

But there was still something nagging in the pit of my stomach, like I'd forgotten to do something important. 

Ruby.

Her name flashed in my head as well as her smile. So, I shot her a text just to be sure. 

P: Everything ok over there? It's just a bunch of my relatives here but I can  come pick you up if you want me to.