Chapter 12- Highschool Sweethearts

Leon's face instantly fell and he stared at Iris. She broke eye contact with him and started walking towards his house. Leon suddenly felt as if he had never truly known Iris. It was disheartening.

When they reached Leon's house he got a pair of clean clothes, a towel, and some shower utilities for her. When Iris entered the bathroom and he heard the water start to run, Leon instantly fell onto his bed. He sat on the edge with his head in hands. He felt like the appearance of Iris completely made his life trajectory change. He tried to imagine where he would be if she hadn't shown up. It was surprisingly difficult to imagine. Unknowingly Iris has taken his life by storm. Acknowledging this made him slump in defeat. 

When Iris left the bathroom she saw Leon's sorry figure and walked over to him.

"Are you okay?" 

Her quiet voice abruptly brought him back to reality. He looked up at her, about to say something but his voice caught in his throat when he saw her. She had a few injuries, some cuts and bruises littered her limbs. But what stood out most was an injury on her leg, it was still dripping blood. 

"I should be asking you that!" He stood up quickly and disappeared into the hallway before returning with first aid.

"Sit down." Iris frowned at the first aid kit in his hands, but she still sat down.

"This is unnecessary." She said but didn't resist as he cleaned and wrapped her wound. While he was tending to her, he also treated her minor cuts. 

"You'd rather bleed all over my carpet?" 

"It wasn't that much blood."But Iris's voice was more of a mumble now. 

When Leon had finished, he was packing up the first aid kit when he saw Iris checking the time on her phone. He considered for a moment before deciding her health and safety were more important than anything else.

"Would you like to stay the night?"He offered, his face pure.

Iris only glanced at him a moment before falling into contemplation. Syra's parents likely wouldn't notice if she didn't come back one night. It wasn't rare for her to come home so late and leave so early she never met them. And it wouldn't be good if she stressed her wound on the walk back. 

"When will your parents return?"

"Not for a few days. They're in Hawaii." He answered.

"Alright. I'll have to trouble you."

"Nah, it's no problem. I'll get the couch ready for you." Leon's house didn't have any extra rooms with beds in them, but Iris didn't mind sleeping on the couch.

-

Iris was woken up by a doorbell the next morning. She sat up on the couch and watched as Leon hurried over to the front door. He chatted to someone for a minute before bringing in a bag of food. 

"Sorry for waking you, I thought you might want some breakfast." It was the weekend and neither had anywhere to be so it was a very leisurely morning.

"It's fine." Iris got up and sat at the table while she watched Leon set out the breakfast he ordered. 

They ate in a silence that only got more uncomfortable as time went on. The clash of silverware on plates was the only sound in the air. Finally, Leon was unable to take it.

"Do you know those people from yesterday?" He asked because it was very obvious they had stopped them for a reason. They weren't after Leon or Iris's money so it had to be something else. Something personal.

"I have a guess." She didn't have a chance to make very many enemies yet, so it was very obvious who had planned this event. The only question she had was, how did a high schooler manage to do it?

"So…Are you going to tell me?" Leon asked. He had gotten a little used to Iris not telling him anything about her, but it was still a little frustrating.

"The first person I'm going to look into is a girl named Lily." She suddenly said,

Leon looked at her, a bit surprised that she had actually told him. He tried to remember a person with that name but it wasn't familiar.

"Lily? Is she special? Why does she have a grudge with us?" 

"No, she's not special. And she has a grudge with me, not you. You just happened to be there."

Leon frowned.

"What's her grudge?"

Iris stared at him, questioning whether or not to tell him. It might raise his ego too much.

"What?" Iris's strange gaze bore into him.

Iris let out a small sigh.

"She's in love with you and she hates me because I tutor you."

Contrary to Iris's expectations, Leon seemed very creeped out by this. He clutched his arms as if his chastity was threatened.

"I don't even know her!"

Leon couldn't see her expression very well, as she was looking down at her plate while she ate, but he could've sworn she showed some amusement.

"Thanks for the meal," Iris said as she cleaned up her plate.

"It's fine. We've already gone through such a big life and death matter together, we're far beyond thanks." Leon joked.

-

Iris entered the school grounds and saw two people watching the students that entered. As she strode towards them, their faces slackened and they became panicked. They both started to retreat, searching for a way to avoid her. But when Iris had come face to face with them, they knew it was hopeless.

Lily stared at her with a mixture of fear and resentment. Iris had expected Lily to have something to do with this, her animosity had become way too obvious. She wasn't surprised that her strange obsession with Leon had motivated her to do something extreme.

What she hadn't expected however, was Finn to take part. He was trembling next to Lily, pure fear was on his face. He had known what Iris was capable of. He couldn't help but regret what he had done. He didn't expect her to come out unscathed in a 1 vs 10 fight! Iris stared at him. She had thought he was too cowardly to do anything like this. But he had done something similar in the original novel, so she wasn't very shocked.

Iris' eyes narrowed and an intimidating air radiated off of her.

"You made a mistake."