257 Old Wounds (6)

"What do you mean?" Elise asked, watching Iris with a hawk-like stare. "You know something."

It was a statement, and Iris nodded. She did know a portion of the story that Elise seemed to be ignorant about. But how could she say it nicely... Based on how guilty the woman already felt for saying those things to Gale, how worse would she feel if she knew it wasn't the first time she had done something like that?

"Just tell me. I'm not a delicate flower that will wilt from a single word."

Iris looked at her. Elise's expression was strained, but she didn't seem on the verge of anything, neither tears nor emotional breakdown. She really seemed to have gotten accustomed to the reality that in a way, she had brought all the ridicule upon herself.

"I know why he didn't like you much when you met in college," she said slowly. Even if Elise was okay, Iris didn't want to be too insensitive. "You've met before, as children."

"We did?" Elise looked up at her in surprise, and the hand reaching for the cup of tea stopped midway. She thought for a good moment, then shook her head. "I don't remember… You sure?" Her eyes went wide all of a sudden. "You don't mean, no, that's… He was that sunny kid, wasn't he?"

"Sunny? He said you met at a resort and he gifted you—"

"A pen, one that got broken." Elise picked the teacup and drank a good mouthful. Her face twisted from the bitterness, since she hadn't added any sugar, but she didn't seem to mind.

At first, she didn't say anything, just went back to patting the purring cat on her knees. When Iris thought she wasn't going to talk more, she spoke up again. "I don't remember much of that time, only a golden-haired faceless boy gifting me a pen like it was a treasure and then finding it broken by the river. Furious, I cried like it was the end of the world and blamed Mark."

A smile touched her lips at those words. "I was four and he was six, so I blamed him for everything at that time. I don't recall what happened next, but Mark told me when I asked later that he found his friend who'd been jealous of the sunny boy, that's what he'd gotten to call him when I couldn't remember his name, for getting to play with me and beat him up for that. They also stopped being friends."

Iris was a bit speechless. Did that brother of hers knew only one way to solve problems? Why did he have to beat up every person that looked at his sister the wrong way...

"He saw that broken pen at some point, didn't he?" Elise asked after a moment. It was the only logical reason why that story might be related to Gale disliking her.

All Iris could do was nod. "And when he asked you, you said that you liked it very much and had put it with your other treasures."

"I didn't..." Elise muttered like she couldn't believe the world could have conspired to have been so cruel. At that time, she had really thought that the pen was safe, so she couldn't be faulted, but the way everything transpired... And they had never met again till college, so the misunderstanding had never been resolved.

Elise looked down at the cat and lifted it up to look into its eyes. "Blackstar, would you believe if I told you that my worst troubles in life had happened because of a broken pen?" The cat meowed in annoyance and broke away, marching off to another cafe customer with a flick of its tail. "You're right, I wouldn't either," Elise agreed, following the cat's path with her eyes.

On the side, Iris couldn't resist smiling to herself into the cup. A pen was bad? Then what should be said about turning into a fox and being treated as a house pet?

"Thank you for telling me all that. I really appreciate it," Elise said in the end, finishing her tea. Her lips curled into a wry smile. "Now I know that the world hates me." It dissipated quickly though. "But really, thanks. I'm glad to know it."

There was genuine sentiment in those words, and Iris decided that she liked Elise. If there was a chance to meet again, she would love to become friends with her.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked instead.

"Do?" Elise looked surprise. "Do I need to do something? Oh wait, my brother's demand. I've already forgotten about it. That idiot..." She called him names again and again, but it was clear that she didn't really mean it.

"Would you want to talk to Gale yourself?"

"Could you actually arrange that?"

Arranging it wasn't that hard of a problem, but after asking the question, Iris realized that it might not be the best course of action. Gale was pissed already, so there was no way he'd react peacefully upon being tricked into meeting Elise or seeing her show up at his place.

"Yeah, but that probably wouldn't end well. He's not one for surprises..." Iris murmured, a bit embarrassed. It was she who had mentioned it in the first place.

Elise smiled at her. "That's fine. I don't even know if I wouldn't chicken out. Throughout the two years after what Mark did, Gale hadn't really avoided me. He never came to suggest helping me out again, but I could have asked him if I'd dared. There were a few occasions when I went to look for Mark and saw Gale alone in the classroom. But every time, I would remember how I had acted before and would be too embarrassed to approach him. Heaven knows what he must think about me."

She laughed with self-deprecation, and Iris' lips curled into pained smile. It wasn't hard to understand that kind of feeling.

"What about a letter then?"

"Letter?"

"Yeah. Wouldn't you want to solve everything once and for all? Even if you don't become best friends with Gale, I think it'd be better for both of you if you talked at least once. Everything might have happened years ago, but you still refer to it as skeletons in your closet." She grinned. "Wouldn't you want to bury them now that you've already taken them out?"

"Bury them you say?"

Elise's gaze went past Iris, to a painting on the far wall, but Iris had doubt she saw it. College was years behind for both Gale and Elise, but they seemed to be still carrying what had happened at that time on their backs. It wasn't a heavy weight, but something that would remind of itself at worst times and spoil one's mood.

Yet it was hard to get rid of as well. Who wouldn't feel weird and embarrassed to suddenly bring up stuff from years past? Apologizing for something days old was bad, so how would it have to feel after three or four years?

Because of that, Iris didn't dare to make a push. She didn't know Elise that well, and Gale was a character too. It was hard to say how important it was to him. All she knew was that it was something he wasn't fond of talking about. Like really not fond of it.

"I don't think he would even open it." Elise shook her head. "It'd be wasted effort. I think we're fine with how we've been so far, pretending that the other doesn't even exist."

"Are you really?" Iris had her doubts about it, but she didn't voice them. "Let's exchange numbers then. If you ever change your mind, contact me, and I'll make sure he reads it." Noticing the disbelief on Elise's face, she grinned again. "He's an older brother. If I promised to talk to Lilly about forgiving him, he'd do anything."

"They're at odds?"

That was a sensitive subject, and something Iris didn't want to share. "They're family, so of course they keep butting heads. And the fact that there's a twenty year age gap between them doesn't help." She shrugged like it was something obvious and normal, and Elise didn't ask more.

They shared a few more words, then exchanged numbers, and Iris hightailed home. No one seemed to be following her, but she didn't feel too comfortable being outside. A few streets away from home, her paranoia rose to its highest and she stopped the taxi and paid the driver.

Stepping out, she quickly took out the sim card from her phone and her credit card. Swiftly, she found an isolated corner and changed shape. First, she pushed the clothes into a corner and out of sight, then grabbed her sim card along with credit card and made her way home on four feet.

It took awhile, but she felt more comfortable like that. In the morning, she had been too excited with her idea to think of other things, but now she wondered if anyone was watching Kyro's parents' house.

Unlikely, based on that no one had come after her while she was sitting in the cafe, but she didn't want to take the chance again. She needed to be more careful and not create trouble for herself or Kyro.