The Return

Chapter Twenty Seven

Holly jerked her head in the direction of the stairway. Her butt was numb and her legs had long dosed off.

"How long are you in town?" Miranda leaned against the wall, a basket of laundry in her hands. The single mother worked too hard. Balancing two jobs, tending to the house, and cooking for two hungry mouths, it was a marvel she was still standing.

Holly yanked out the wires in her ear and rubbed her stiff neck and stumbled to her feet. She made it to episode twenty-three and Heaven was interviewing one of the women for closure she couldn't get from Vaughn himself. "Three days." Less if Georgia's separation anxiety kicked in.

"You have to understand she didn't take your disappearance very well."

Holly did understand. She wished... she didn't know what she wished for. Iris had given her more than enough time to call her. To reach out, to text, to resuscitate their friendship and Holly had taken her for granted.

"The thing is..." She stretched an arm over her head and let out a yawn. "When I heard about my parents, I wanted to be completely alone and handle it myself." Holly looked uncomfortable. An absurd swirl of tired and disgruntled.

She gave Miranda a steady look. "I texted her everything I had to say." She exhaled, hard. "I'll be back tomorrow."

She waddled down to the living room, her shirt clinging to her back from where she leaned against the wall for hours.

"Stay for dinner. I'm making fish and chips." Miranda called from the top of the stairs as an afterthought.

"Thank you for the offer, but I should be on my way." Holly offered her a tight smile.

Spencer didn't glance back at her from his cartoon. He was in his own world.

Sitting outside Iris's door wasn't going to yield much. Reluctantly, Holly pulled open the front door and without as much as a glance, she walked into the night.

The cold breeze caressed her cheek like a distant lover as she made her way down the clustered street.

Her phone was nearly dead fifteen percent and there was limited cell service.

Darkness closed around her.

A cold emptiness settled in the pit of her stomach. A hollow sadness pulsed through her. It wasn't over. She still had two days to make things right.

She deserved the cold shoulder. There was nothing Iris didn't do to beckon Holly out of hiding. 

She walked by a closed coffee shop and a photo studio.

Those were new to the neighborhood.

She checked her phone again. No new messages from Iris. She hadn't bothered to read anything Holly had written.

For a few minutes, she listened to cars rumbling to and from the street and replayed the first time she spoke to Iris.

When Holly met Iris, it was at Red Stone Café on 5th Avenue the one-stop place for Gen z's and millennials convinced they hadn't aged in the last decade. It was also the guaranteed joint to spot at least five Bard Roosevelt High kids. It was the anniversary of Gerald Burton's death and Holly only knew that because Iris had subjected the entire café to a PowerPoint slideshow of her father's greatest feats. From pictures of their first bike ride together to the time he was hit in the face with a baseball while trying to play catch.

Sure, the café had lost customers after the stunt Iris pulled, but, it gained two regulars who made it a tradition to spend every evening after school at Red Stone, the cornerstone coffee shop that no one would ever take a second look at.

That was until Red Stone became the talk of the town after Manhattan's own YouTube Food Jesus had referred to the place as a # diamond-in-the-rough. Sales had since skyrocketed and customers had to book their tables days or weeks in advance.

The rules didn't apply to Holly and Iris who were close enough to the waitstaff to be recognized from the door and friendly enough to the baristas that they didn't need to leave a hefty tip.

The first thing Holly learned about Iris that day was that they went to the same school and shared a loathing for the same math teacher, Mrs. Frankfort. The second thing Holly learned was that Iris had a reputation at Bard Roosevelt. She was the clingy kid. Still reeling from the after-effects of her parent's divorce, Holly needed a dose of loyalty even if Iris was known to be overbearing.

It took months of sitting together at lunch and walking to Red Stone after school for Holly to open up about her parents and the sister she fell out of touch with. And rather than glaring a judgmental eye, Iris was the breath of fresh air Holly didn't know she needed.

It wasn't at that point that Holly knew they were going to be fast friends. No. It was much later on the night Iris had tugged Holly sixteen blocks down from Red Stone and snuck her into St. Patrick's Memorial Cemetery to meet the legendary Gerald Burton on the second anniversary of his death.

The introductions were... one-sided, but Holly felt a connection to the broken girl who longed for more than a friend at lunch, to the grieving girl who only wanted to fill a hole in her heart.

A hole Holly had ripped open the day she up and vanished.

Two days. Holly had two days to close the chapter she never should have opened in the first place.