Irish You Were Here

I tasked the boys with cleanup, and started to make my way upstairs. I pushed open the door to my studio to see Clover nudging a toy along the floor. I smiled, making my way to my instruments in the corner with the intention of tuning my guitar. I took it in my hands as I sat on the floor. I strummed it lightly and began what would be a short process of tuning it. It stayed indoors and I hadn’t been gone that long, so it wasn’t terrible. It was off, just a little, and that annoyed me.

“What’re you doing?”

I jumped, and looked at Bren, who had thrown on a pair of grey sweatpants. I guess I was here longer than I thought. Or they were ridiculously good at folding sheets.

“Where’s Chucky?” I asked, avoiding the question.

“He’s putting the sheets away. I was coming up here to tell you that we were gonna head out in a bit.” He answered. I stayed silent, aware that I had been caught. I felt like a little kid with their hand in a cookie jar. I returned my attention to the strings after a slight pause.

“Are you gonna answer my question?” he asked with a little smile. Dammit.

“I’m…tuning my guitar.” I said hesitantly. His smile fell a little, and I knew he knew.

“I can see that…why?” You know damn well why, you little shit.

“I-I can’t perform when it’s out of tune.” I replied. I grinned up at him sheepishly. He rolled his eyes and squatted in front of me. He groaned good-naturedly.

“You just got back from what, a week and a half of ‘vacation’?” he said, using air quotes.

He knew visiting my parents wasn’t the most fun thing in the world for me. They were constantly on my ass about “finding someone nice and settling down.” They didn’t believe bartending and street performing was a career. The amount of convincing it took for me to convince my parents to leave college and move was insane, and in total it took a few months. All of that gave them almost unlimited ammo to pepper and jab me with when I visited. It was incredibly annoying and tiring. My extended family didn’t help either, never forgetting to ask me, “How’s the hobo life treatin ye, darlin?” followed by laughs, of course. Because living in an apartment and performing on the streets made your niece a hobo. Right. It’s not like I relied on performing; I had real job as well.

“And you only slept for a few hours last night, didn’t you?” he pressed. I didn’t reply.

“That’s what I thought.” He said quietly. “C’mon Ry, just take a day off. Play with these guys or something.” He tugged on Clover’s ear gently, and she stamped her foot, showing her annoyance before hopping off. He didn’t have food anyhow.

I sighed. “Bren you know I hate doing that.” I started. “Sitting at home is boring. There are so many things that I could be doing. At least let me tag along with you guys today.” I begged.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before giving me a curious look. “How do you know we have plans today?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It’s you and Chuck; you guys always have plans.” He smiled.

“Fine, you can come with us. We were going to lunch with a couple of the guys. One condition though; you have to take a nap first.” I groaned with child-like frustration.

“Oh don’t even start with me Riley. I know you only got like five hours of sleep last night. You were up before me and the Russian.”

“Alright, fine, whatever.” I eventually gave in. He smiled again and pulled out his phone. I continued to tune my guitar, set on finishing it for when I did perform again. Which would be sometime soon, no matter what Bren decreed. He typed something on his phone for a little before slipping it back in his pocket with another grin.

“Look what a good friend I am, Prusty should be here soon.” He spoke up. I mentally cringed a little at the word friend, but shook it off in light of what he had said.

“Seriously?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“Of course, why would I lie to you?” he feigned innocence. I rolled my eyes and stood up.

“Many reasons Gallagher, many reasons.” I made my way out of the room with him at my heels. I started to clean up the small mess we had made. Alex was sitting on one of the barstools on his phone. I stood on my tiptoes to see into the living room, and true enough, he had cleaned up the couch and put the pillows back in their place.

“Thanks Chuck.” I said gratefully. He looked up and gave me a small smile.

Alex was absorbed in his phone as Brendan hopped up on the counter, swinging his feet. I could feel his eyes on me, but tried to pay attention to making the kitchen as presentable as possible, and the relative quiet of the house. It was more than a little distracting. He had yet to put on a fucking shirt.

“Wow, you guys left me zero food.” I commented as I put the eggs away. I shut the fridge and glanced at the two hockey players, who looked suspiciously sheepish. I rolled my eyes.

“I kinda need to food, to, you know, sustain life in my body.” I replied cheekily to their guilty silence. “Yea, you’re buying me more food soon. Like, yesterday.” They both made little noises of protest, but it wasn’t like they were short on cash or didn’t like shopping with me. One part of that sentence may be false.

Our conversation (or lack thereof) was cut off by the sound of my front door opening. I smiled before I even saw who it was. I missed my caveman. It had been too long.

Notes

sorry for the long wait, i will try my best to update more often.
feedback is much appreciated

<3