Layers

‘GET yourself a haircut, love.’ His mother’s words echoed in Tadhg’s ears as he studied himself in the bathroom mirror. ‘It’s time.’ She had taken another day off work and stopped by for a cup of tea. As she spoke she had given him a sympathetic smile and a nod. As if she were attempting to usher him past a questionable period of his life. A tone she might have used when telling him to turn off the tv and study or to start applying for jobs. It was the tone that suggested she had waited silently, not passing judgment, until finally, she couldn’t wait any longer if they continued to be seen in public together. ‘It covers your eyes. You have such beautiful blue eyes.’

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Cash is Dead

‘CHANGE please,’ Cuan called out from under his hood as he watched a pair of heavy doc’s step by. A single drop of rain hit him on the nose and ran downwards, nesting on his lip. He was cold. The kind of cold that sat in bones causing a consistent dull ache and it had rained so much lately his clothes never fully dried. The smell of him alone would keep people away, but that wasn’t a problem these past few days it seemed.

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Hey Babe

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NEXT stop, Milltown. An chéad stad eile, Baile Muileann. The intercom called as the train eased its pace towards Dublin City. Declan sat leaning against the window of the luas with his arms folded tight as if to restrain himself. A couple of rows ahead of him two lads sat about the same age as Declan. Only they were leaning against each other cozily, one nuzzling the others cheek with his nose. Declan watched them closely. He watched to see if other people were watching them too; but nobody appeared to notice.

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Stains

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RAIN bashed the battered exterior of the little blue fiat as if marbles were being dropped from the coal black sky above; playing the car like a snare drum as it limped up the Dublin Mountains. Shifting in the drivers’ seat, adjusting gear, Gael thought to himself how the word “mountain” never did these rolling rocky hills justice. It was a strong, formidable description which he associated with things along the scale of Kilimanjaro or Everest, geological giants of the globe keeping watch over us all and not the forest and granite dappled mounds that separated the green fields of Wicklow from the Irish capital.

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Firsts

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THE sex was different, Ferdiad thought as he shoved his legs into his jeans one at a time. We move around more, toss each other and laugh.

She lay asleep with the covers dripping off the mattress. Her tanned body prodded by spears of orange light that pushed through moth bitten curtains, the cheeks of her bum like two large apple seeds gleamed, and chocolate coloured hair thick with wet. The room was saturated with the hot smell of bodies.

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