*ok here is an update! thanks for your lovely comments so far!*
My mother, myself, and Mrs.Mc Ginty sat down at a table together. The food had already been ordered, so it came quickly. Heaping plates of noodles, veggies, and meat soon filled the table. My mom and Janet chattered on about their fundraiser, and ate heartily. I, on the other hand, picked at my food and kept thinking about Janet's son. Just as soon as I had begun to question for what must have been the millionth time why he had left, Mrs. Mc Ginty yelled at someone across the room.
"Damian Joseph! Come here right now young man, before you leave again!'
Damian walked over to his mom, looking down at his feet. I noticed he was wearing green Converse, my favourite colour.
'Damian, care to offer me an explanation why you left before Mrs. Hanrahan could introduce you to her daughter?' she asked impatiently.
'Well, mum, you see, it's Conor. He wanted to come and stay at our place for the weekend. His mum says she needs a break. Could he please stay with us?' pleaded Damian.
'Well, alright, but you two better behave! No shenanigans."
Damian's face lit up. Whoever this Conor person is, I guessed he and Damian must be pretty close.
My mother added her two cents to the conversation.
'Damian, sit down and I will introduce you to Kathleen, my daughter.'
Since there was nowhere else to sit, Damian had to squish in beside me. Not that I was complaining, I thought him very good looking!
'My daughter Kathleen has just flown from America to be here for a visit with me. I think she is around your age, how old are you again, Damian?'
I blushed at that, hoping nobody would see. I had just met the guy a minute ago, and already it sounded like my mom was trying to set us up together?
Then, he turned those blue, blue eyes on me and spoke.
'So, Kathleen, ye are Irish then right? What were ye doin' in America, then?'
Before I could answer his question, his mother spoke quickly.
'Er, Damian, I don't know if those questions are ones you should be asking her right now...'
I piped up then, desperately trying to save what was turning out to be one of the most awkward conversations ever.
'Damian, to answer your first question, yes I am 100% Irish. As to the second, I might tell you that later.. Um, so, are those shoes Converse? I have a few of my own...'
I mentally kicked myself, great Kathy, just a wonderful way to make a first impression.
'Yea, Kathleen--'
'Please, call me Kathy.'
'Alright, Kathy it is then. Yes these are Converse. Um, so do you like football?' Damian asked a tad nervously.
'Football?? Um, not really. The only part I understand is what a touchdown is, that's about it, really." I said, a bit confused.
'I mean soccer.. That's what we call football in Ireland." Damian explained.
'Oh, I see. Yes, I do like soccer. My favourite team is Manchester United. Bit odd, me liking an English team when I'm Irish, though."
By this point, my mom and Damian's mom were inching away from us, and even though they pretended like they weren't, I knew they were listening to our conversation.
'You like Man U??? They're my favourite as well! Say, you wouldn't happen to like music, would ya? Buble maybe?' He was eager for answers now.
I pushed my plate of cold Chinese food aside, I wasn't really hungry anyway. I'd much rather talk to Damian than eat cold food.
'Michael Buble is awesome! I saw him on tour a couple months ago, in fact.'
'Wow, lucky! Was it great craic, then?' asked Damian.
'Craic??? What's that???' I was getting more than a tad confused at this point. At the rate he was using Irish phrases, I'd need to go and buy a translation book!
'Craic is an Irish slang word for fun. Slagging is making fun of someone, and a mate is a friend." he said all this with a hint of laughter in his voice,as if these words should be obvious to me.
'Ah, ok. So now I have a translator to help me!' I laughed. To my delight, Damian laughed along with me. A grin spread across his face, and made his blue eyes twinkle with laughter.
'Ah, sure, I will translate for ya. Wouldn't want ya going round accidentally offending people, now would we? you never told me how old you are, Kathy.'
'I am eighteen. My birthday is September 9th, 1992.' I admitted.
'Woah, we have the same birthday! That's an interesting coincidence.' Damian said.
He turned to his mom then.
'Uh, mom, don't be mad but Conor's on his way over here right now...'
'Damian, why would he be walking the streets at 11pm alone??' questioned his mom.
'Um, because he was here for the footy match today and he's staying the weekend, remember?' reminded Damian.
'Well, you go get him and walk him the rest of the way. You never know who is around at this hour. Maybe you could take Kathy with you? I'm sure she would appreciate some fresh air.' hinted his mom.
'Alright mom, we'll both go, but when the slagging from Conor and Emmett start, I'm blaming it on you.'
He got up then, and motioned me to do the same. We walked toward the door, but I heard a snippet of what Damian's mom was saying to mine.
'Quite well, don't you think, Amy? Good for Damian, to be sure.'
I was puzzled over what that last bit meant. Before I could catch more, Damian snatched my wrist and pulled me outside. I inhaled the cool summer night air, glad to be free of the stuffy resaturant, and of our inquisitive mothers. We started walking toward what looked like a soccer stadium that was at least 10 blocks away. Good, that would keep our moms at a distance for awhile. I could hear my sneakers crunch as they hit the pavement. There a was a silence between me and Damian, not an awkward one, but he looked as if he was trying to find the right words to say. Finally, he broke the stillness.
'Kathy, I know we hit it off back there, but please let me introduce you to Conor, or he'll never let me hear the end of it.'
'That's fine with me, seeing as I don't actually know this Conor person. Who is he, if you don't mind me asking?' I queried.
'Conor is my younger cousin who I am very close with. Although he can be annoying, when he finds an oppurtunity to slag on me.' He made a face then.
'I know how you feel, the slagging part at least. My friends would do that to each other all the time, back, um, home..' I felt tears forming at the thought of America, but I wasn't going to let Damian see me cry.
'Derry is pretty at night, but you've got to watch for the suspicious folk.' he said.
Just as he finished his sentence, I felt someone from behind me grab me, and I was pulled to the ground, my half-scream stifled by a hand over my mouth. Damian noticed I was no longer walking beside him, and he turned around and came running. He screamed at my assailant,
'LET HER GO YOU! OR ELSE I'LL POUND YOU!!" Damian jumped on the person, and just as he was about to let his fists fly, my attacker let me go and spoke.
'Hey, Damo is that any way to greet your favourite cousin???' The stranger asked.
'CONOR??? That was you??? Why would you do that??? I've a right mind to----' Conor cut Damian off before he could finish.
'Well, ya see, I wasn't at the stadium, I'd already left and was headed to the restaurant your mom told me you were going to later. As for the attack thing, you weren't answering my texts, and now I can see why, you're too busy talking to your new girl. I didn't mean to hurt her, honest. Just a bit of craic, Damian.' Conor pleaded with his cousin.
This day was turning out to be an interesting one! First, meeting my real mom, then meeting Damian, now being attacked by and introduced to his cousin???
Damian seemed to accept Conor's apology of sorts. He gave me a hand up, and made sure I was ok. Luckily, I was.
'Conor, let's make something clear. Kathy is just my friend, and you seriously need to know what's craic and what's not. This, is a perfect example of craic.'
Damian then proceeded to give his cousin a noogie, until Conor surrendered.
'Alright Damian! Fair play to you. Now let's go, it's getting chilly. Ye don't want your girlie to freeze to death, do ye?'
This remark earned Conor a sharp nudge in the ribs from Damian's elbow. Conor just shrugged him off. Damian turned to face me then.
'As you can tell, Kathy, Conor has an interesting sense of humour. And he is right about one thing, it is getting a bit cold. Here, take my jacket.' I noticed then that I had left my sweater in the restaurant, so I let Damian slip his leather jacket onto my shoulders. I giggled at how ridiculous I looked in his coat. It was much too big, as Damian was at least 6'0, and me a mere 5'5. I coughed then, for no reason that I knew. That set Conor off again.
'Come on Damian, can't you see the lassie is catching something? If I were you--'
'Conor, you know what? If I were you I'd shut up real fast.' Damian said, clearly annpyed with Conor at this point. We three started to walk back toward the Chinese place, and as we walked, Damian picked up his pace and pulled me near him. I wondered why he was acting this way.. Giving me his coat, defending me from his cousin, and holding me close? I wondered why he was doing these things if he said we were 'just friends'. Maybe he was just trying to throw Conor off.. Whatever the reason, it didn't seem to be working, as I could still hear Conor slagging Damian about his 'new girl'. We arrived back at the restaurant before I knew it. We walked in and sat back down where we had been before. Conor pulled up a chair for himself, as me and Damian were still squished in with everyone else. I inhaled Damian's scent from his coat. He smelled like rain, and a light cologne that I couldn't identify, but it smelled homey, and warm, like being wrapped in an embrace. While I was so discretely doing this, his mom whispered something to him.
'So, you managed to find both your cousin, and Kathy's heart tonight?' She had a tone of happiness to her voice, though I was too tired at that point to ask why. Then of course, Conor piped up.
"Yeah, Aunt, Damo is quite the gentleman, giving Kathy his coat and all.'
'It was cold, and she forgot hers here.." he offered as an explanation.
I was half asleep now, my face buried in Damian's chest, needing to feel close to someone after all that had happened to me in the last few days when my world had been turned upside down. For some reason, he didn't object to me wanting him close. It might just have been my overly exhausted imagination, but I thought I felt him pull me closer. I was almost in dreamland when Conor woke me up.
'Hey, sleepy. Wake up, its time for you to go home with your mom now.'
I opened my eyes, and rubbed them. I hadn't realized just how worn out I really was until I'd pretty much fallen asleep on Damian. I shrugged Damian's jacket off, handed it back to him, and stood up. I started to walk towards the door and my mom in the waiting Renault, when he grabbed my hand and stopped me.
'Kathy, tonight was fun, well except for us getting ambushed my Conor... Anyway, um.. maybe see you tomorrow??'
'Sure, I'd love that.' I half spoke-half yawned.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. 4AM??? Was it that late already?? I looked around and noticed we three were the only people still there. Conor made a dash for Damian's mom's car. Damian and I walked to the exit. He gave me a quick hug, then disappeared out the door, with the promise of seeing him again later. I walked out to my mom's Renault, and hopped in. I felt very guilty for keeping her here so late. We drove quickly back to the house, the streets a blur. We pulled into the drive. I headed upstairs to my room. I pulled the covers back and would have fallen asleep instantly, if my mom hadn't appeared at my door to ask me one last question.
'Kathy, are you falling for Damian?' she asked.
I responded to her question with a sleepy, unintelligible grunt.
'Well goodnight Kathy, sweet dreams my daughter.'
She closed the door, leaving me in the blissful darkness to dream of everything that had happened that day....
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So what did you all think of this update? Like? Dislike? Any predictions on what will happen next???
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