January 8, 2005

Dylan sighed as she walked down the stairs of her relatively empty home. The only people in it were herself and Lee. Their father, as per usual, was no where to be seen. Probably off traipsing through town, drunk off his arse.

He'd been like that for about as long as Dylan and Lee could remember. There was no stopping him from going out and brining some random woman home. She rolled her eyes at the thought.

Thankfully, neither her nor Lee were going to be home that night, courtesy of Lee's childhood best friend and Dylan's new boyfriend, Hughie Biggs. Hughie was throwing a huge house party before school started back up again on Monday, and Dylan was going to be attending with her three closest friends.

Casey Lordan, Aoife Molloy, and Katie Wilmot had all been inseparable since primary school, you'd never find one without another one in tow. Once secondary school came around, Katie and Dylan had opted for Tommen College, a prestigious private school. Meanwhile, Aoife and Casey had been stuck in Ballylaggin Community School.

The difference in schools had little to no impact on their strong friendship, however. Dylan was eternally grateful for that. She didn't know what she'd do if she didn't have those three girls right by her side.

She slid into the kitchen, where her brother was leaning against the counter texting who she could only assume was Patrick Feely.

Patrick Feely was one of her brothers best lads. The two, along with Johnny Kavanagh, Hughie Biggs, and Gerard Gibson, had been practically joined at the hip since primary.

If she had to pick a favorite out of all her brothers friends, it would be Patrick.

Don't get her wrong, she liked Hughie- she was literally dating the guy- but the way she felt around Patrick versus the way she felt around Hughie was... well, different.

"Who ya texting?" She asked, grabbing a glass of water.

"Feely."

Knew it. "So, what time are you lads going to be at the party?"

Lee sighed as he put his phone down on the counter. "Apparently, we're making a pit stop at the GAA pavilion for God knows what, so really I've got no clue."

"Gibs probably wants to do something stupid again."

Lee shuddered at the thought of his large blonde friend.

Gerard Gibson, or Gibsie as most called him, was practically a wild card. You never really knew what you were getting with him. Chaotic boy, but he was one of the most genuinely sweet boy Dylan has ever met.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Dylan says with a snort.

Lee shoots her a look. "It's Gibsie."

Dylan hums while taking a sip of her cold water. Her phone buzzes in her pocket.

"Well," she says, reading a text message from Casey, "Casey and Katie are here. We're stopping by Aoife's before heading over."

Lee nodded. "How is Aoife, by the way? Haven't seen her around as much lately."

"That's because she's barely been able to get out of bed since Lynchy broke up with her," Dylan answered with a small frown. It was a depressing sight to see. Aoife, who was normally so bright and bubbly, seemed to have her light sucked out of her. "Fiadh sent an SOS message. We're staging an intervention."

Lee made an o shape with his mouth. Dylan nodded.

"Well, I've gotta get going before Casey and Katie get impatient and go off without me. See you."

"See you. Text me when you get there, yeah?"

"Mhm."

She turned around to leave, her slicked back ponytail swishing behind her. She'd just reached the door before she heard Lee calling out for her.

"Wait, Dylan!"

She whipped around, confusion evident on her face. "What?"

"Did you take your meds?"

Dylan's heart dropped to her ass. She didn't take her meds. She was hoping he wouldn't notice and that she'd be able to go out without having to take the pills.

"Yup. Just this morning," she said, trying to plaster on a convincing smile.

Lee raised an eyebrow. "You're a shit liar, you know that, right?"

Dylan groaned. "Fuck off."

"'Cmon and take 'em. You know you have to."

She sulked to the kitchen counter very childishly. "But I've been doing good. I haven't been feeling down or anything. I don't need to take them anymore."

"Yeah, well Dr. Callaghan says you've got to take them no matter how you're feeling," he says softly, bringing down the bottle of pills with her name on it.

"I know," she sighs, twisting the bottle cap open and pouring out two pills. "I just hate feeling like I can't be me if I don't take them."

Lee looks at her with pity, another thing Dylan finds that she hates. "I'm sure one day you won't have to take them."

"With the way Dr. Callaghan thinks about me, that'll be the day pigs fly," she retorts before swallowing the capsules.

Lee snorts. "Okay, now leave. Hughie, Feely, and the rest of them are going to be here soon and I don't want to be around when you and Hughie get all lovey dovey."

Dylan gives him the finger as she walks towards the door. She hopes Casey and Katie haven't left yet. "You're just jealous I've got game and you don't."

She heard Lee gasp. "I've got plenty of game, thank you very much."

"Sure you do."

Whatever Lee said next, Dylan didn't hear as the sound of the front door closing drowned it out. She let out a sigh of relief seeing Casey's car still parked out front.

She practically bolted into the backseat, giving Casey a quick hug from behind and Katie a little peck on the cheek as greetings. And with that, they were off to execute plan Get Aoife off her ass and out to a party.

"We're staging an intervention," Casey announced, throwing Aoife's bedroom door open and sauntering in.

Dylan exchanged a concerned look with Katie and Fiadh as they followed her in.

Dressed to the nines in a short denim mini, stilettos, and a white Gypsy top, Casey planted her hand on her hips and glared at the Aoife sized lump on the bed. "That bastard dumps you on Christmas Day and you don't call!"

"Smooth, Casey," Katie cringed.

"Your mam and Fi called us, Aoif," Dylan said softly. "She's really worried about you."

"We all are," Casey said.

She could relate, in a way, to how Aoife was feeling. Everything that she was seeing in front of her: the messy hair, the chocolate smeared all over the place, the unmade bed, the red rimmed eyes from crying 24/7, and sweets wrappers littered all over the bedroom, it looked a lot like what happens to Dylan whenever she has her episodes.

"Ugh." Groaning, Aoife rolled onto her back and star-fished the bed, knocking countless empty wrappers off in the process.

"She's been like this forever," Fiadh said worriedly, running a hand through her pink dyed hair.

Dylan put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, you need to turn the song off," Casey ordered, moving for the stereo. "And climb out of your misery."

"No, this is the best part," the blonde choked out, wailing along to the lyrics of Katie Melua's The Closest Thing To Crazy. "I'm fine," she sobbed. "Really, I am."

"Sure you are," Casey shot back. "That's why you have chocolate smeared all over your chin."

Dylan made a move to wipe off the chocolate but Aoife waved her off, whacking the many bracelets that adorned her wrist. "I'm trying to process here. God, is that so terrible?"

"Then process by getting mad," the dark haired girl instructed, stalking over to swipe the half-eaten packet out of Aoife's hands. "Hell, get even. But don't get fat."

"Casey," Katie spluttered out as Dylan gaped at their friends bluntness. "You don't say things like that."

"Well, sue me, because I said it," she shot back unapologetically. "And I'm not going to sit back and watch my friend self-destruct because her asshole ex dumped her at Christmas. I mean, Christmas?" Her tone was incredulous. "After a year together? Who the hell even does that?"

A part of Dylan desperately wanted to despise Joey Lynch as much as Casey did for putting her friend through hell, but she didn't. She didn't because she knew Joey Lynch was going through unimaginable pain and distress everyday. She could see it in the way he counted on the drugs and she could see it in his eyes. It was kind of hard to hate a guy like that.

"Joey didn't dump me," Aoife huffed. "We're taking time off."

Dylan groaned. She'd heard that one before.

"Decided by who?"

"Him, I would guess," Dylan said, raising an eyebrow at her blonde friend.

Aoife nodded slowly, looking as if her heart had just shattered into a million pieces.

"For how long?"

The blonde hesitated before answering. "I don't know."

"I really hate it when boys pull this stunt," Casey growled. "He doesn't have the balls to knock it on the head, so he leaves the girl hanging in limbo, stringing her along for weeks until she finally comes to her senses and sees that the space he desperately needed wasn't really space at all, but a new girl to stick his dick inside."

"Casey, please," Katie snapped. "You need to tone it down."

"You are worth ten of that dickhead," Casey continued to grumble, as she set the duffle bag that contained all the intervention essentials down on the mattress and unzipped it. "And I plan to remind you of it."

"What are you doing?" Aoife eyed the bag warily

"The question you should be asking is what are we doing," she replied, dragging out a mountain of clothes, make up, CDS, and a bottle of cheap Prosecco that the quartet of girls loved. Dylan perked up at that. "And we, my dearest, oldest, most gorgeous friend in the whole wide world, are going to a house party."

"No, no, no." The blonde shook her head. "You're going to a house party. I'm not going anywhere."

"Yes, you are," she chimed, ignoring her protests. "Dylan's fella has a free house, and our favorite girl has managed to snag us a couple invites to a party he's throwing before school starts back up on Monday. They're having an actual DJ, with a mountain of free booze. It's going to be packed to the rafters with all his buddies from the rugby team, and you are going to come with us."

Dylan and Katie flanked Casey, nodding enthusiastically. "You have to come, Aoif."

Aoife gaped at them before turning to her sister. "Fi, they cannot be serious."

"Oh, trust me. They are," Fiadh said, narrowing her emerald green eyes at her sister. "You're going to that party."

"Well, then you're all just wasting your time, because I am absolutely not going to that party. You'd have to drag me across town."

"Did you even hear a word I said?" Casey gaped. "I said it's going to be filled with rugby players, Aoif. Big, hot, sweaty, sexy, rugby players."

"I don't care."

"Best of all, it's a Tommen party, so you won't have to worry about bumping into anyone from BCS," she quickly continued. "And by anyone, I mean that good for nothing asshole."

"Casey, if you told me that the entire Irish rugby team was going to be in attendance, I still wouldn't come." Reaching for a pillow, Aoife hugged it to her chest and sighed heavily. "Do you remember the Cadbury's advert that used to be on the television when we were small; the one with the woman devouring a square of dairy milk while Show Me Heaven played in the background?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah, well, I'm the woman on the ad and Joey's the chocolate bar."

Dylan shuddered at the mental image of her childhood friend absolutely devouring Joey Lynch.

"So you're saying that he's the only flavor you want to taste?" Casey shook her head. "That's so stupid when he's the only flavor you've ever tried. He dumped you, Aoif. He cut off your chocolate source. So get off your ass and come sample something from the luxury menu with me instead."

"I'm not interested."

"Get up."

"I'm too sad."

"Which is exactly why I'm not leaving this room without you. Now, Katie, go and turn on the shower for our girl here," she ordered, "And put this on," she added, tossing Christina Aguilera's Stripped album into Katie's hands.

"Is it really that kind of intervention?" Katie asked, hurrying over to the stereo. "You're bringing out the big guns?"

"I think I need a new haircut," Aoife mumbled, pulling on her long braid. "I need a change."

Dylan gasped, putting a hand to her chest. "Jesus, Mary, and the donkey! Are you mad?"

"Oh my god, it is!" Katie yelped, quickly switching disks.

"You can bet your ass it is," Casey replied. Christina's Can't Hold Us Down blasted from the speakers a moment later, and Casey nodded her approval before turning her attention back to the blonde girl. "If you chop off off those long locks, I will use the strands to strangle you with. Now, get up."

Dylan nodded solemnly, clutching her stack of necklaces.

Aoife shook her head. "No."

Casey narrowed her eyes. "Get your ass up, Molloy."

"Never."

"Don't make me and Dylan climb on there and get you."

"You two wouldn't dare."

Dylan started to take off her brown leather sandal wedges as Casey said, "Try me."

After a 10 second stare down Casey and Aoife both flew for the duvet at the same time, arms flailing and legs kicking. Dylan and Katie watched, mouths agape, while Fiadh was snickering.

"Dylan! Help me out here," Casey screamed, still wrestling for the blanket.

"Right!"

She practically threw herself onto Aoife, trying to drag her away from the duvet. She could hear Katie muttering under her breath.

While trying to pin Aoife down, Dylan had accidentally sacked her in the face with one of her bracelets. "Ow! Jaysus, your wrist should be considered a weapon with all those bracelets!"

"Sorry!"

"If you're not ready to get over your ex by getting under one of those fine-ass rugby boys, then I will take one for the team and do it for you," Casey growled, wrestling the blanketed out of Aoife's grasp and successfully straddling her. Dylan let out a cheer of victory as she panted. "But you're still coming with me to be my wing woman."

"Never," she protested, trying and failing to knock Casey off her by bucking her hips. "How are your thighs so freakishly strong?"

"It's called using my mam's thigh-master, bitch," she shot back, pinning Aoife's arms to the mattress. "Now, do you relent, or do Dylan and I need to kick your ass some more?"

Dylan sure hoped Aoife would relent. She was already exhausted and they still had a party to get to!

"Case..."

"Do you relent?"

"Fine." Releasing a pained groan of defeat, Aoife stopped fighting her. "I relent."

Dylan let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in. Thank fuck.

LANI SPEAKS

haiii uhm this sucks balls butttt it's been forever since I updated so...!!! Dylanfeely interaction soon promise. Fiadh and Aoife best sister duo Btw i don't make the rules.

Uhm next chapter might be from Lee's pov and if it is we get a glimpse of how much he loves his sister and him and the rest of the gang!! (Also how he views Patrick's pathetic yearning as well as his view on Hughie and Dylan) (and also how he's lowkey in love with SOMEONE.)

Was listening to landslide while writing the leedylan sibling moment and I nearly cried...

Anyways full disclaimer: I am NOT an expert at mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety which will be represented throughout this story through Dylan, so I'm doing as much research as I can to make it as accurate as possible! Pls lmk if i get anything wrong because I don't wanna look like uneducated af 💗

pissed af writing this chapter because my contacts didn't wanna go in this morning so it took me so long and then once they went in they felt weird 😒😒

Love yall!!