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“Stay, Joey,” Darren whispered. “I can’t do this without you.”

Tipping his head back up, he looked at Darren. “You’re going to have to.” Brushing him out of the way, he pulled the door open. “Don’t let them down.”

The minute the door slammed shut behind Joey, our little brothers began to scream and wail so loudly that I couldn’t hear what Darren was saying as he tried to console and coax them back upstairs.

Stricken with panic, I ran for the door, refusing to let this happen—refusing to watch him leave. Yanking the door open, I ran outside only to stumble over my own legs when my eyes landed on Aoife. Her car was parked across the drive of our house and she was in her pajamas, leaning against the driver’s door of her car, blocking Joey’s way.

“You were going to leave without telling me?” she demanded hoarsely as her long blond hair blew around her face. “I’m not even worth a fucking goodbye?”

Joey looked broken as he stood in front of her, his gear bag shouldered on his back and his head down.

“Look at me!” she screamed. “Goddammit, Joey Lynch, you better look at me!”

“Aoife, please,” he whispered, shaking his head. “Just let mego.”

“I can’t,” she cried, sniffling. “Iwon’t!”

“I havenothingto give you!” he roared brokenly. “I’m not good for you. Why can’t you get that into your head?”

“I don’t care about stuff, Joey,” she choked out as she wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him. “I only want you.”

“I’m done, Aoife.” Shaking his head, he held his hands up. “I’m done dragging you down with me.”

“Please…”

“I can’t.” Sniffling, he moved her hands away from his body. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, stepping around her.

“Don’t go,” she screamed after him. “Please.Please don’t go. Joey!Joey!I love you!”

“I know,” he choked out, not looking back as he walked away. “And it’s notgoodfor you to love me.”

“Joey, I need you—”

“No, you don’t. You need to let me go, Aoife,” he roared. “That’s what you need to do.”

“What about the—”

“Just go home and don’t come back here. Do yourself a favor and forget about me!”

I watched in horror as Aoife’s legs gave out beneath her. Collapsing onto the ground with a thud, she shoved her hands in her hair and screamed. “Come back!”

Numb to the bone, I hurried over to kneel beside her. “I’m sorry.” Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry.”

She turned her face into my neck and cried hard and ugly, shaking so badly that I was afraid she was going to have a seizure. “Make him come back,” she begged, wrapping her arms around her stomach. “Please! I need him.”

Me too…“Shh.” Pushing her hair back off her face, I held her tightly, whispering, “It’s okay,” over and over in her ear.

But I was a liar. Because as my brother disappeared from sight, I knew nothing would ever beokayagain.

“I’m going to go look for him,” Darren said quietly, and I hadn’t even realized he had come outside. With his car keys in hand, he rounded the garden wall and walked over to his Volvo. “You should go inside, Shan.” He pulled open the driver’s door before adding, “And you should go home, Aoife.”

“Please find him, Darren,” I choked out.

“I will,” he replied, before climbing into his car and closing the door.

Sniffling, Aoife slowly pulled herself to her feet. I watched as she dusted down the back of her fluffy yellow pajama bottoms in rigid, robotic movements. “I’m going to go now,” she said in a hollow tone of voice. “Goodbye, Shannon.”

“Bye, Aoife.”

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