When Paths Cross, Unbreakable Bonds Form, 4/?
Title: When Paths Cross, Unbreakable Bonds Form
Author: Hollie_1201
Pairing: Sinead & Aisling
Rating: M
Summary: This is a story about how Sinead and Aisling met and what they have gone through to still be together.
Word Count: 3,640
Disclaimer: This is an original fiction using my own characters and ideas. Please do not use these characters without permission.
Authors Note: Please comment. Your comments are welcome and needed. If you would like to suggest something you would like to see in the fic, feel free to. Also this story has been made public again, due to request.
( Part 1) ( Part 2) ( Part 3) ( Part 5) ( Part 6) ( Part 7) ( Part 8) ( Part 9) ( Part 10) ( Part 11) ( Part 12) ( Part 13) ( Part 14) ( Part 15)
( Part 16) ( Part 17)
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Arms linked, Sinead and Aisling made their way over to the silver seats near the canteen area, waiting for their sport teacher to arrive. The air was cold as it blew against their legs. Winter was approaching once more.
They stood up the back of the group, away from Brooke who had taken her bullying up a level. At every chance she got, she would pick on Sinead; they watched her out of the corner of their eyes, seeing Mr. O’Connor walk to the front of the class. The students quieted down immediately, giving him their attention.
In the change rooms, everyone was getting dressed into their sports uniform. Brooke walked the length of the main change area while putting her shirt on, gloating about how she had to go bra shopping with her mother.
“Shopping with Mum for bras was great. She let me pick out really expensive and pretty bras with bows on them, like this one. Chloe in the other class and Sinead will probably never go bra shopping, they’re freaks.”
Sinead hung her head low as she heard Brooke’s words echo through the thin walls between the change room and toilet cubicles. Warm arms wrapped around her, hugging her close.
“You’re not a freak, she is,” Aisling whispered, causing Sinead’s stomach to flutter.
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” Aisling stated, releasing her hold on the shorter girl.
“I also think I’ve seen Sinead on display at the zoo as well, in the midget cage,” Brooke said, walking past them.
“Hey, Brooke, shut up will you? I hear there is a dog show competition on right now; if you run fast enough you may be able to make it,” Aisling said, glaring at the tall blonde.
Brooke turned her attention to Aisling and stalked over to her, “What did you say?”
“You heard me,” Aisling replied, standing up straighter than before, raising an eyebrow.
“Girls, hurry up,” they heard being called from outside.
Brooke joined Kelsey and went outside. Sinead turned to Aisling with a look of utter shock on her face.
“You just stood up to Brooke. Aisling, she could have like done something to you!” Sinead said, worried that Brooke may come back to hurt her friend.
“Sinead, stop worrying, we need to go,” Aisling said, taking her hand in her own, dragging her out the door.
The class was out on the back sports oval, setting up for a game of soccer and basketball. The two brunettes walked around to where their fellow students were and listened to Mr. O’Connor.
He went over the instructions of the games with them and made sure they knew what to do before splitting them into two teams. Sinead and Aisling were placed on the same team and stayed at the very back of the game, near the sidelines while the soccer match was on.
They watched Brooke and Kelsey knock over the other students just to get to the ball; they grimaced at the sound of their classmates hitting the ground, hard, as they were winded. The ball and Brooke started to move close to them, Sinead was thankful she was on the other team, but she ran in the opposite direction to which the blonde was going. Sinead did not like sport at all and she was not going to participate in the game, especially with the only person in her class she was afraid of, coming towards her with the ball. She had been the victim of Brooke and the ball once before and knew it would most likely end with her in pain or crying.
“Sinead, there is no reason to run from the ball, get in there and play,” she heard the teacher call out to her.
Sinead moved closer to the other students as Aisling joined her once more. The boys on her team had the ball and were near the goals. She watched as they kicked the ball and it went through the posts, scoring their team a point.
The brunette felt a sharp pain through her shoulder as Brooke walked into her, smirking. “Hey midget, you suck, you’re such a loser.”
“Brooke, get a life will you?” Aisling asked, stepping slightly in front of Sinead.
“Me, how about you get one?”
“I have one. One which doesn’t involve hurting others for a laugh, you dumb cow,” Aisling responded, back to Brooke.
“Aisling, Sinead, Brooke, come over here,” Mr. O’Connor called out to them.
The three girls walked over to him as he continued to watch the game.
“Girls, what are you three doing?” he said, when they all stood in front of him.
“Nothing,” Brooke replied.
“Brooke keeps on hurting and saying mean things to Sinead,” Aisling said, crossing her arms.
“I do not,” Brooke yelled at her.
“You do!” Aisling yelled back.
“Brooke, Aisling, quiet please,” he said, turning to Sinead. “Sinead, what has Brooke done to you?”
Sinead looked at the ground and fidgeted with her hands before she spoke, “She keeps on saying mean things to me and pushing me around.”
“Brooke, is this true?”
“What, no, they are lying,” Brooke said, in fake shock.
“I’ll be watching closely from now on, Brooke. Girls, go to the basketball courts and wait on the seats,” he said, ending the game of soccer by blowing his whistle.
Sinead and Aisling walked over to the basketball courts and waited near the small brick wall which separated the two courts.
“Aisling,” Brooke said angrily, coming up behind them.
“What do you want now?” Aisling responded, rolling her eyes.
“How dare you tell him what I do,” Brooke said, getting up in Aisling’s face.
“Well, once you stop hurting my best friend and being a cow, then I won’t have anything to tell him,” Aisling said, standing up taller, not afraid.
Brooke shoved Aisling back, causing her to stumble slightly, “I will do as I want,” she spat, pushing Aisling back once more.
“Leave her alone,” Sinead said, her voice shaking.
“Excuse me midget? What did you just say?” Brooke said, walking over to Sinead, using her height to intimidate her.
“Um nothing,” she said, quietly.
“You better not have,” Brooke said, pushing Sinead into the wall, hard, the side of her head thumping against it.
Sinead slid down the wall, holding her head as the tears ran down her cheeks. The class was packing away the soccer match when Sinead felt a strong hand on her shoulder.
“Sinead, did Brooke do this?” she heard the teacher ask her.
Sinead just sat there crying, not wanting to move. Mr. O’Connor moved her hand from her head and inspected it, making sure she was not too badly hurt.
“Only a bump, you’ll be okay soon, but I need to know, did Brooke do this to you?” he asked, once more. Getting no response he turned to Aisling, who stood there in shock.
“Aisling, did Brooke do this?”
“Yes,” she responded nodding her head.
“Can you go to the front office and ask for an ice pack, please. I will be talking to the principal about this later.”
Five minutes later, Aisling came back with an icepack and handed it Sinead, sitting next to her, she wrapped her arm around Sinead’s shoulders.
“Are you okay?” she asked, worried.
“My head hurts a little bit, but I’m good,” Sinead responded, smiling at Aisling, wiping away the remaining tears from her face.
For the remaining forty five minutes of class, Sinead and Aisling sat on the seats, watching their classmates play basketball with Brooke nowhere to be seen. The pain in Sinead’s head started to lessen; she rested it on Aisling’s shoulder, the ice pack sitting on the small bump there.
Aisling had her arm wrapped around Sinead’s waist as she felt her friend’s soft breath tickle against her neck. She could feel something in her stomach which she hadn’t felt before and it excited her.
“How would you feel about skipping school for the rest of the day?”
“I don’t know, but I really don’t want to be here at school, so I’m good with it,” Sinead replied, taking the ice pack off her head and sitting up.
“Awesome, we can get our bags after class, then during recess we can slip past the librarian, go into the hall next to the library and exit the block through the emergency exit. The gate at the back has a broken lock on it, so we just need to open it enough to squeeze through,” Aisling said, with a big smile on her face.
“It sounds so sneaky,” Sinead replied, giggling softly with Aisling.
Mr. O’Connor blew his whistle, signalling the end of the game. He started to give out instructions for the students to pack away the equipment that was used and how to place it back in the sports storeroom.
“Wait here, and put the ice pack back on your head, I want to try something,” Aisling told Sinead, before running off over to the teacher.
“Mr. O’Connor,” Aisling said, running over to him, “Can I please go up and get Sinead’s bag for her. Her head still really hurts and she doesn’t want to go up there when the rest of the class does,” Aisling asked, looking innocently at the man.
Mr. O’Connor looked at Sinead before sighing and handing Aisling the key to the change rooms. “Be quick,” he said, turning his attention back to the class.
Aisling ran up the stairs and into the girl’s bathroom. She slid the key into the lock and turned it, the door opening. She collected both hers and Sinead’s school bags, locking the door behind her.
Aisling handed the key back to the teacher and went over and sat with Sinead, handing her, her school bag.
“So, when the bell rings, we act normal and just go to the library, right?” Sinead asked Aisling, for conformation.
“Yes,” Aisling replied, nodding her head.
After waiting for the bell to ring, the two brunettes made their way down to the library. They waited by the bubblers, pretending they were getting a drink. The librarian turned her back on them to talk to another student. Aisling and Sinead made a run for it down the darkened corridor and to the door.
Opening the door as softly as they could, they both slipped outside before closing it. They made their way over to the back fence and looked at the gate, inspecting it, trying to find a way to remove the padlock with the least amount of noise.
“If you take one side of the chain and I take the other, we can slip the lock off then lower it to the ground, hopefully without a sound,” Sinead said, looking at Aisling who nodded her head.
Once the girls had removed the lock and chain, they tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. They pulled at it, using all their strength. It started to open, inch by inch. They slipped through when it was wide for them, closing it, not to get caught.
“Where should we go now,” Aisling asked Sinead, once they had gotten a fair distance away from the school.
“I’ve always wanted to go explore the woods that are about a ten minute walk from here. Mum said I’m not allowed to though as a lot of bad things go on in there but I don’t believe it.”
“But, if it’s dangerous I don’t think we should,” Aisling said, apprehensively.
Sinead took hold of Aisling’s hands, feeling the familiar jolt of butterflies in her stomach, before speaking to her, “Where’s the fun in doing what we’re always told. Please, please, please, Aisling, can we go explore the woods, it doesn’t even have to be for long.”
Aisling looked at Sinead; Sinead had a look on her face that would want to make you do anything for her. She sighed before nodding her head, agreeing to go to the woods to explore.
When Aisling and Sinead reached the woods, they sat down and ate their lunches. Before the two brunettes started to explore they hid their school bags between some overgrown shrubs, so they wouldn’t have to carry them around.
“Let’s go find a tree to climb,” Sinead said, grabbing hold of Aisling’s hand, dragging her along.
They found a big old tree, with thick branches on it after five minutes of running around in the woods. Sinead let go of Aisling’s hand and started to climb up it. Half way up the tree, Sinead looked down to the ground to where Aisling was standing.
“Come on Aisling, you can see lots up here,” she yelled.
“In a minute,” Aisling replied, looking up at the tree, fear engulfed as she took in its size.
“Hurry up then.”
Aisling took a step towards the tree, hesitating as she reached out a shaky hand to touch it.
“Come on, Aisling,” Sinead yelled, now almost at the top of the tree.
Not wanting to appear cowardly in front of her best friend, Aisling started to climb the tree. She was thankful that it had a rather large flat surface about a metre up. She stood, grabbing hold of the branch nearest to her, looking down below. Fear filled her as she took in deep and fast breaths. Aisling was petrified of heights; she stood, shaking in fear trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill.
High up in the old tree, Sinead looked down. Aisling was standing there, gripping onto the branch, shaking. Sinead started to make her way down, keeping a close eye on the younger girl. Sliding down the last branch, she walked over to Aisling. Tears were spilling down face as she shaked, her body wracked with silent sobs.
“Aisling,” Sinead said, worried, wrapping her arms around her friend holding her close as she cried into her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“I... I don’t li... like heights,” she stammered, between sobs.
“It’s okay Aisling, please don’t cry. How about we get down from here now?” Sinead asked, softly.
She felt Aisling nod against her shoulder. After a few moments, her sobs had subsided. Sinead helped Aisling down the tree and back onto solid ground, before she wrapped the girl in another hug.
“I didn’t know you were scared of heights, next time if you’re scared of something, tell me,” Sinead said, wiping the remaining tears from Aisling’s face.
“Okay,” Aisling whispered.
“How about we go do something else?” Sinead asked, looking at her friend.
“We can always wander around here some more, see if we can find anything people dropped. If bad things do happen in here, we’re bound to find something interesting.”
“We are,” Sinead agreed.
The girls spent the next few hours running around the woods looking for what they called ‘lost treasure’ among the many shrubs and bushes. They had come up empty handed so far. Walking together, holding hands, Sinead pulled Aisling behind a thick tree, covering the girl’s mouth with her hand, signalling for her to be quiet.
Sinead pointed to two figures ahead of them, they were talking in hushed whispers while exchanging a massive zip lock bag full of something for a thick wad of money. Blue eyes met brown as they both realised what they were witnessing.
The two men started to walk in opposite directions; the bulky man was coming towards them. Sinead and Aisling tried to hide in the bushes but it was too late. The man had seen them.
“Hey, what do you kids think you’re doing?” He yelled.
Frantically trying to grip each other’s hand, they ran away from the man as fast as they could. The sounds of heavy footsteps breaking fallen branches in half followed close behind.
Aisling looked around, trying to find a place small enough for them to fit through which he wouldn’t. She felt Sinead tug on her hand as she started to run in a sideward direction.
They ran through overgrown grass, around tall, spiky hedges and squeezed through some densely packed trees. The two brunettes kept running until they felt stitches tearing at their sides and they were panting for breath.
“I think we lost him,” Sinead said, gripping at her side.
“I think we did too.”
Both girls sat on the ground next to one another, catching their breath as the pain from their stitches subsided.
“It looks like it may rain,” Sinead said, looking up at the sky.
“I think we should start heading back then, we don’t want to get caught in it,” Aisling said, worrying slightly.
“Do you remember what way we came because I don’t?” Sinead asked.
“I don’t know either, I just remember running.”
“What if he is still out there waiting for us though?”
“Maybe we should wait a bit longer before we leave then, I don’t want to face up to him,” Aisling said, worried once more.
“Let’s go find somewhere to hide if he is still looking for us,” Sinead suggested, getting to her feet.
She held a hand out to Aisling and helped her up. The two brunettes started to walk deeper into the forest, listening for sounds of someone following them. Sinead spotted a small alcove behind some leaves in a small cliff face, roots from the tree growing above it hung down, providing the perfect hiding place.
They squeezed inside their hiding spot, huddling together to keep warm as it was getting chilly. Sinead was listening intently to the sounds coming from outside. Branches breaking and echoing booms like someone shouting could be heard, scaring both girls.
“I’m scared,” Aisling said, hugging her knees.
“I am too, but we’ll be fine,” Sinead said, wrapping her arm around Aisling.
“How’s your head feeling now,” Aisling asked, remembering the events of early that morning.
“It feels fine, I think I have a bump though.”
“I think I hear rain.”
“So do I. I guess we are waiting here for a while then,” Sinead said, sighing.
“Tell me something,” Aisling asked, hoping to get her mind off being scared.
“Like what?” Sinead asked.
“Anything will do.”
“I think you know everything about me already,” Sinead replied giggling. “How about you tell me something? How’s your mum and dad, I haven’t seen them since your birthday and that was in August, it’s now November.”
“Mum and Dad have been fighting a lot recently,” Aisling stated, hugging her legs closer to her.
“Do you want to talk about?” Sinead asked her.
“They keep yelling at each other and Dad keeps on getting drunk. Mum doesn’t like it so I always get sent to my room when they start fighting. Ever since Dad met his new co worker Jodie, things have been different. Dad is scary now and Mum won’t be home for a few days. She said she needed a break, so she is staying with Nan.”
Sinead pulled Aisling closer to her, resting her head against her friends, her hair slightly lighter in colour. “I don’t really remember my dad much, but I do remember being scared of him. Every time I ask Mum about him, she closes off and always changes the topic.”
The two girls fell into a comfortable silence as they listened to the rain. Their little space was starting to get dark as they waited for the weather to clear up.
A few hours later they emerged from their hiding spot. The sky was dark and cloudy as the moon peeked through, giving them enough light to find their way back out. They walked for what felt like fifty minutes as twigs broke, leaves crunched and animals howled.
The ground was wet and they held onto each other, not wanting to slip and fall in the mud. They finally made it back to the shrubs where they hid their bags, which were mostly dry. Gathering them up, they walked to Aisling’s house. The smell of dinner cooking was coming from most people’s houses and it made both their stomaches rumble.
Entering Aisling’s house, they heard music playing from upstairs. She turned the light on in the living room, shrugging off her jumper, bag and shoes. Sinead left her bag by the door as she followed Aisling into the kitchen to where the phone was.
Ringing her mother, Sinead had to hold the phone away from her ear as her mother yelled at her, telling her to wait on the porch, she would be there in five minutes. Waiting outside, they saw the car pull up.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at school,” Sinead said, quickly hugging Aisling before running to the car and getting in.
Aisling walked back inside the house and made herself a sandwich for dinner before going up stairs to see her father. ‘Please don’t let him be drunk,’ she thought to herself, cleaning up.
Ascending the stairs slowly, Aisling made her way to her parent’s bedroom, knocking on the door three times waiting for a response. Aisling tried to knock again, only hearing a muffled sound which appeared to be saying, “Go away.”
Pushing the door open slowly, Aisling saw her father and Jodie break apart from their kiss.
“Get out, Aisling!” her father yelled at her, scaring her.
She stood frozen on the spot, a big hand clamped around her upper arm, dragging her along the hallway.
“Let go, you’re hurting me,” Aisling managed to say, still in shock.
The grip around her arm tightened as his fingers dug into her skin, tears started to fall from her eyes as her father shoved her into her room, telling her not to come out, threatening her if she decided to tell anyone what she had seen.
Aisling lay on her bed as the tears fell. She curled up into a ball and cried herself to sleep, wishing for the day to be over.
To be continued...