Joey and Aoife have been friends for years and always harboured feelings for one another. When they finally get together, they face an incredible uphill battle. 

This one was rough. Joey and Aoife's story is absolutely gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. I loved Shannon and Johnny, but Joey and Aoife have a piece of my heart. 

Joey is so broken and Aoife yerns to help him heal. But she doesn't understand the level of horror that goes on within his home, she doesn't understand how deep his pain goes. Call is teenage naivety or happy home privilege, but she has the best intentions of wanting to heal him with her love.  Unfortunately, Joey is way past that. His trauma runs in his blood and it will take extreme interventions to help him. 

Joey's life is filled with so much pain and trauma that makes him turn to addiction. He uses drugs to help him survive his life of abandonment, neglect, abuse, and responsibilites. Sometimes, dugs are the only thing that helps him get through days without ending his own life. He was suffered abuse at the hands of his father from a young age and has taken on the role of protector and caregiver for his siblings, and at times his mother. He has to endure seeing/hearing his father beat and r@pe him mother and beat his siblings. 

Aoife is the one way of light in his life. She is the only person that he loves unconditionally. In a twisted way

he believes that he has no future and that by staying with Aoife he will only lead her off the same cliff. He wants to be better for her, but until the trauma is dealt with and he is truly safe he will never be able to heal and feel "good" enough for her. 

Tropes: friends to lovers, opposites attract