IRIS

chapter twenty-four

"No, mom. She's not awake yet." Iris' eyes opened slowly, she pushed herself up to look around the room. She recognized Hawk's room almost immediately, his Star Wars posters still hanging on his walls. "Iris?" The girl turned her head to see Hawk, crouching down in front of her a loot of worry on his face. "How are you feeling?"

"What-what happened?" Iris brought her hand up to her head as a wave of dizziness came over her. She laid back in Hawk's bed, pulling his covers up to her chest. 

"Some guy at the club drugged you. You called me and I found you in the bathroom." Iris' eyes widened and her breath quickened, wondering in what state Hawk had found her. "Hey, hey. Nobody touched you, I swear. You were in the bathroom alone, nothing happened." 

Iris felt relief wash over her, tears prickling in her eyes as she stared up at his ceiling. Hawk looked down at his hands unsure if the girl wanted to talk to him. 

"I wasn't sure if you would've wanted me to take you home, so I-I just brought you here." Iris looked over to the boy, not lifting her head off of the pillow. "My mom also wants you to eat something, she's really worried about you." Iris smiled at the mention of Mrs. Moskowitz, the woman was nothing but kind to her. "I'll uh-I'll go get you some food." 

Hawk stood up quickly, not wanting to force the girl to talk if she didn't want to. Iris slowly sat up in the bed, pulling up the pillow so she could sit back against it. Iris looked over at Hawk's nightstand, seeing a picture frame with four pictures of the two inside. Iris felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked at each one. 

"Um-so we have just some buttered pasta. My mom thought that would be..." Hawk trailed off once he looked up, seeing the girl holding the picture frame in her hands. He watched as a tear rolled down her cheek, not tearing her eyes away from the pictures. 

Hawk slowly sat down on the bed, putting the bowl of noodles onto the nightstand. He sighed, looking over to the girl who looked just as broken as anyone could be. 

"I'm here." He whispered over to the girl, his eyes staying on her. "You can talk to me...or not talk to me, but I'm here." 

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Iris still not taking her eyes off the pictures. When she did finally put the frame back on the nightstand, Hawk watched her in curiosity. 

"Moon's having a party tomorrow, right?" Hawk stiffened at the sound of the girl's name. 

"Uh, yeah I think so." The boy looked down at his hands. "We haven't really talked lately. Turns out she was nothing compared to you." Iris snorted, quickly trying to cover it with a cough but failing miserably. 

"Yeah, well-

"You could've told me that, yeah I know." Hawk smiled over to the girl, happy that they were at least talking. It wasn't the same, but he saw it as a step in the right direction. 

"Um, I have to tell you something." Hawk looked up at Iris, waiting for the girl to speak up. She stared down at her hands as she tried to muster up the courage to speak up. "Um, Miguel...Miguel and I-um, we kissed." Iris kept her gaze to her hands as the room went silent. Iris hoped that he couldn't hear her heart that was beating out of her chest, afraid of what he would say next. 

Except, he didn't say anything. He just stood up from the bed, straightened out his sweatpants before smiling sadly at the girl. 

"I'm uh, gonna go to the guest room. You can stay the night." 

"Hawk, wait. Can we talk please." Iris moved the covers to get out of his bed, stopping when Hawk began to shake his head. 

"I don't, uh, I can't talk right now. I might say something I regret." Iris nodded, feeling tears flood her vision as Hawk took a deep breath, walking out of the room.