Chapter 9- Highschool Sweethearts

Iris had an ominous premonition when she saw Syra's parents waiting for her in the living room. She had purposely come home later, to avoid this exact situation. But doing this wasn't going to last forever.

Iris took her shoes off and prepared to head upstairs but was stopped.

"Syra." Syra's father called out to her from behind. Iris paused, considering her options. She really didn't want to deal with this as she realized she was incapable of not making Syra's parent's suspicious. She wasn't Syra, that wasn't something she could change. But if she continued to avoid this it would only build up continuously. She walked back to the couple and sat down next to them. She waited for them to speak. Finally, Syra's mother decided to take the lead with a sigh.

"We're worried for you. We know you don't want to talk about it, but we barely even see you anymore. We can't just pretend like nothing's going on. So please, Syra, tell us- Are you okay? Has something happened?" She leaned forward earnestly.

Iris wondered if it would have been easier to come home on time but attempt to avoid them by staying in the room. But doing so would have been very inconvenient, she wouldn't have time to work on her tasks. She had to continue being able to do what she's doing without making them even more concerned.

"... I realized that I wanted to start working on my future. I had a really impactful conversation with one of my teachers and it kind of woke me up." Iris started spouting nonsense. 

"I don't want to just rely on you guys anymore. That's why I've started tutoring, so I can save some money and study. And I've been spending a lot of time outside of school on it because it's easier to focus. Check my grades if you don't believe me, they've gotten better." It was true.

The parents exchanged glances for a minute, but finally let out a relieved sigh. At this point they just wanted to believe their daughter was okay, they didn't have much mind to inspect her excuse. She gave them a reason and they wanted to believe it, so they did.

" I'm glad to hear that. I was worried that… Well, I was worried you had gotten into the wrong crowd, y'know?" Syra's father said. 

"Yeah, I know. I'll try to come home earlier, but some days it might be difficult."

"That's okay, I'm just happy to know you're putting more effort in. We've always known you have amazing potential, and it's incredible to see you use it."

Iris was silent for a second.

"Yeah." She stood up and grabbed her bag.

"I'm going to bed, see you tomorrow." She started walking upstairs.

"Okay, good night. See you tomorrow."

-

Iris was walking towards Leon's house for tutoring the next day while she was thinking about Syria's parents. She wasn't going to stop avoiding them, even if they seemed less concerned. She didn't want to be restricted by them and more than anything else, they made her uncomfortable. Receiving care meant for someone else was not pleasant. It felt smothering and annoying, or at least to Iris it did.

She walked up the steps to Leon's room, knocking and taking her textbooks out once she had been let in. Unknowingly they had developed a comfortable routine, everything was effortless. Iris dodged, sometimes answered, Leon's questions before finally getting him to focus on studying. Time flies and before they know it, the study session is over. 

Iris was packing up, following her routine, when Leon leaned beside her.

"Would you like to hangout a bit? A couple of my friends were gonna come over and play games if you wanted to join us." Iris found herself pausing and frowned. She didn't like the way She was getting used to Leon. They were becoming friends and it wasn't good. He was a made up character and she was supposed to leave once she finished her task. It was best for her to distance herself from him, refuse his offer. And yet…

Iris met Leon's eyes, his seemingly casual expression revealing expectation.

"Okay."

-

When Leon mentioned his friends, Iris had expected the loud group she met earlier, but the three that came over were relatively tame. They introduced themselves good-naturedly and chatted a bit before playing games. They were originally going to play video games, but Leon quickly realized Iris seemed to have never played them before. After seeing her impatience start to build, he decided board games might be better. Leon's friends were fun and they didn't exclude Iris, despite not knowing her very well. There were a few times they were left speechless by her extremely straightforward way of playing, but everyone still had fun.

Before any of them realized, afternoon had turned into evening, and everybody was saying their farewells. 

"Wait." Leon held Iris' hand as she was about to leave. His friends looked at each other before leaving, closing the front door behind them.

"I'm glad you stayed, it was fun." Leon blushed a bit, bashful.

Iris looked at him for a moment, eyes straying to his red cheeks. She removed her hand from his grasp.

"Right. See you tomorrow." She tried to leave, but Leon stopped her.

"Wait! I just… I didn't expect you to stay and hangout so-" He ruffled his hair, frustrated. He seemed like he didn't know what to say.

"Thanks, I guess." He met her eyes.

"Would you like to hangout more?" Nervousness made his fingers tremble.

Iris stared into his eyes, searching. She found a heavy, pressing emotion on his face that made her frown. 

"Maybe. Probably not." Before Leon could answer, Iris left, the loud slam of the door reverbing in the air. He felt his shoulders shrink and a helpless emotion entered his heart.

"Rejected." He sighed to himself. 

-

About a week had passed since Iris had played games at Leon's house. Since then she noticed that the way of getting along with each other had become more stiff, not as habitual. It was probably a good thing. She shouldn't have accepted his offer to stay in the first place, they need more distance between them. 

Besides Leon, there was another person who was acting differently. Lily, who followed Iris whenever she saw her, had all but disappeared. She didn't appear in the lunch room anymore, and on the rare occasion Iris saw Lily in the hallways she did everything in her power to avoid looking at Iris. It was suspicious. 

Lily could simply be avoiding her because she was embarrassed, but according to Annaleigh, Lily had been obsessed with Iris. Annaleigh had been so concerned she had stupidly confronted Iris in front of everyone, exposing Lily.

Iris felt uncomfortable thinking there might be a scheme against her she didn't know about. She would have to ask Lily about it.