‘His mind is on higher things!’ Dilly was shrill. ‘That boy is a genius. Saoirse came too.’ They’d arrived at Jessie’s suite. ‘Then she saw the bougie ho on her balcony.’
Saoirse greeted them at the door. ‘She’s still out there!’
Nell hurried in after the three kids and Liam.
‘So this is some girl from last year?’ Liam lunged for Jessie and Johnny’s balcony.
‘Hold on!’ Ferdia grabbed him. ‘Be cool about this. You and me,’ Ferdia took Liam by the shoulders, ‘we step onto the balcony, real casual, like. Then look over at the rooms at right-angles to ours. One floor below. Act, like, relaxed.’
‘But Nell’s the one we went to get!’
Ferdia turned, in annoyance. ‘Why don’t we all go out for a gawk?’
Three young women, in bathrobes and sunglasses, were lounging on a balcony. One was painting her toenails and the other two were on their screens. Short comments were being exchanged.
‘Which one?’ Liam asked.
‘The middle one.’
Even from a distance, Phoebe was the obvious alpha. Nell focused on her some more and, as if suddenly aware of the scrutiny, the girl looked up.
She lowered her sunglasses, saw Ferdia, stared long and hard, then abruptly flicked her sunglasses back into place and turned away.
Blushing furiously, Ferdia retreated into the room. ‘Thanks a million, Nell. That was fucking embarrassing. You couldn’t have been more obvious if you’d tried.’
‘Hey!’ Liam said.
Ferdia glared at Liam, then at Nell, then at Jessie. ‘Fuck this shit,’ he declared, and stalked from the suite, banging the door behind him.
Nell was mortified. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘No, no, you did nothing wrong,’ said Jessie.
‘We should just …’ Liam said, leading Nell to the door. ‘We’ll see you at dinner.’
‘Thirty minutes.’ Jessie’s voice was shaky.
Out in the corridor, Nell said, ‘Liam, baby, I’m really sorry.’
‘Not your fault that Ferdia’s a spoilt prick.’
Johnny fumed quietly. Fecking Ferdia. At the hotel for less than an hour and already he’d upset Jessie and Dilly. And Nell. He’d better turn up to dinner.
And what was he up to with this balcony girl? He already had a girlfriend! Everyone liked Sammie. She looked unapproachable, with her heavy boots and shorn hair, but she was very pleasant.
Herself and Ferdia were probably on another of their breaks. The pair of them carried on like Burton and Taylor: big emotional shouting matches down in Ferdia’s flat that could be heard clearly up in the house, followed a few days later by a loved-up reunion. It had been entertaining for several months, but now even Johnny was worn out by it.
Several subdued minutes later, Jessie said, ‘Okay, gang, we’ll go down now.’
‘There’s something I need to do,’ Johnny said. ‘I’ll be with you in a minute.’
Jessie was too downcast to ask what the ‘something’ was. Which was just as well, because he wanted a quick look at the comments beneath the profile on Jessie. Simply keeping an eye on how bad they were.
Red Blooded Male
‘JESSIE PARNELLS A BALLBREAKING MANH8R’
Bring Back Hanging
‘Over-priced shite for the sheeple in Dublin 4.’
Justice For Men
‘Whippet thin? Shes bleeden huge.’
Fat Attack
‘All the same, I would.’
Justice for Men
‘Youd get up on a cracked plate shes a MINGER a right auld DOG’
Dublin Massive
‘how she getting them chefs to Dublin? servicing them?’
Fat Attack
‘I’d take a servicing from her.’
Justice for Men
‘Cracked plate my friend. For his sake I hope that husband of hers is getting it somewhere else.’
Red Blooded Male
‘COURSE HE IS ONLY HAVE 2 LOOK AT THE FLASH FUCK 2 NO HES GOT A FEW BIRDS STASHED AWAY PROBABLY WORKING FOR HIM BE A FUCKING FOOL NOT 2’
Death to Feminazis
‘Rumours he’s a bit of a shagger. Don’t fucking blame him. She’d have your balls on a plate, that one.’
Mighty White
‘She promotes Islam’
Fat Attack
‘Didn’t no that’
Mighty White
‘Selling halal food. And there filthy spices. If they couldnt bye there filthy food in Ireland, they’d hafta fuck off back home to towel-headStan.’
Paddy Flys Away
‘I met her once. She was over-nice. Fake.’
Johnny exhaled. Just the usual bile. He’d told Jessie never to read these and she said she didn’t, but who knew?
Ferdia had stomped back to his room and raged at Barty for several minutes about Nell making a show of him.
‘But you know your family,’ Barty had said. ‘They’d have kept going out and staring like mentallers until Phoebe noticed.’
‘I just feel morto that she saw me standing there, with tons of other people, like a stalker weirdo.’
‘Did plenty of staring of her own last year. And, hey, least now she knows you’re here. Has she a phone this time?’