Going back

22|| Lockers

AN: here's chapter 22. Enjoy people.

"Hey Iris! Sit over here!"

Nope. Iris wasn't going to deal with this twice in one day. She feigned deafness and grabbed the closest available seat, sitting down before she realised who it was.

"Oh no." She groaned, resisting the urge to slam her head onto the table at the sight of her stepbrother.

"Well, now, is that the way to treat others?" Oscar's lips pursed and his brows furrowed in mock annoyance.

"Yes." Iris pulled out a notebook and wrote down the title of the lesson in neat cursive.

"Doing that will only make you friendless and lonely." Oscar paused then shrugged, his fringe flopping slightly over his eyes. "Actually, being alone isn't that bad."

A smirk twisted Iris's lips into an ugly expression and she locked eyes with him. "If you think that, then you've never truly been alone."

Oscar flinched and opened his mouth to respond but stopped and went back to doodling in the margins of his book. He looked up when the door opened.

"Hey! Will!" Oscar leaned over Iris, which she considered a huge invasion of personal space, and patted the seat next to her. "Over here!"

"Oh no, I'll move—" Iris attempted to dive for the door, but the twins pulled her firmly back into the seat with wicked grins.

"So, Iris, did you get a chance to look at the book I lent you?" Will asked, adjusting his glasses without looking at her.

Iris quickly learned that Will was extremely introverted around those he didn't know well, but would open up at the mention of books. "Yeah, I did. I really like your annotations as well- they offer a whole new perspective which I wanted to talk with you about." Wait what? Since when have I wanted to bond with a West-Brown?

A shy smile bloomed across his expression. "Thank you. You know, I don't mind if you wanted to write your own stuff in the margins?"

"Oh, that's really nice—"

"What?" Oscar poked his head around, jaw dropped. "You get upset at me for a crease in the corner of a page but you don't care about Iris desecrating the book?"

"She knows what she's doing." Will shrugged and retreated back into his shell, refusing to elaborate.

Despite her conflicting feelings for the West-Browns, Iris felt a tiny smile break through her cold facade as her chest warmed by a few degrees.

X

Iris carried that tiny bubble of happiness until she went outside and saw Alex leaning against the lockers, waiting for her. His green eyes were slanted and brewing with rage- what the hell does he have to be upset about?

"Hey." He gripped her sleeve and pulled her towards him. "We need to talk."

Iris slapped his hand away. "I think we did all the talking necessary already."

"Why are you ignoring Jax?"

"Excuse me?"

Alex sighed and leaned closer, dropping his voice lower. "You heard me. He thinks you're ignoring him and I want to know why."

Iris pulled away, lips curled up in disgust as the temperature between them dropped. "You have no right to demand anything from me."

Anger passed over his expression. "I don't understand why you're being like this- if I recall correctly, you're the one who shot me!"

"Because you betrayed me!"

"I had no choice. If you'll just hear me out—"

"I don't want to. I have bigger things going on in my life than you right now."

"Jax is hurt. He doesn't understand what he did wrong, and I don't think he did anything wrong."

Iris stayed silent. She knew it was wrong of her not to communicate, but how the hell was she supposed to react to losing her mother and discovering her dead-now-alive ex-best friend all in span of a month? I think I have the right to be a little unreasonable.

But Alex clearly didn't think so. He gripped her wrists and forced her to face him, desperation etched on his face like a painful tattoo. "Please just tell me how to make things right—"

"Excuse me, but could you take your hands off her? Can't you see she's uncomfortable?"

Never in her life had Iris been so glad to see a West-Brown. Although she could have easily gotten out of the situation, she wasn't sure if she could do so without bashing Alex's head into the metal lockers lining the hallway.

Attempted murder wasn't quite the impression she was hoping to create on the school.

"Hi Julian!" She wrenched her hands free with more force than needed and strode over to him. "Did you have something to talk to me about? Yes? Then let's go over there."

"We'll have to talk sometime!" Alex raised his voice loud enough to turn some curious heads. "You can't run away forever!"

Red-faced, Iris's hands curled into fists and she pulled Julian's collar back as he turned around with a foul, mumbled curse. "Let it go."

"He's being a prat."

"It's nothing new."

"You know this prat?"

"Unfortunately," she mumbled, pulling her hair to cover her darkening expression. "Now, did you have something to tell me?"

"Yeah, the others have clubs after school and Mum is working late so you and I will have to walk home."

Iris pulled a face. "Walking all the way home? I can call Dad and he'll drop us both off."

"Isn't that breaking the contract if DeLano has contact outside of the time?"

Iris couldn't help but appreciate the fact that he knew she was referring to Harry and not David. "That's true. Well, I suppose it'll be fine if it's just the two of us."

"And Elijah."

"What?"

"Yeah, he said that he wanted to walk with us to make sure we're safe or something." Julian shrugged and rolled his eyes.

Iris sighed. "Alright, I'll meet you by the gates after school."

She supposed she could grin and bear being with two members of the family she despised most for the hour- after all, her mother did teach her resilience was an important quality after all.

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I hope you guys liked it!

Stay safe and thanks for reading :)