All I Ever Asked (N.N.)

9. bad habit

POV: CONNOR EVANS

"Connor, wait up!" A very recognizable voice yells running up to me. Charlie Spring.

"Hey, Charlie." I smile secretly as he catches up with me. "What's up?" I stop and turn around.

"How's Iris doing? She barley talks to me." Charlie starts to fix his uniform.

"I'm not sure. She sort of locked herself in her room for a week and only let Nick in but now she is doing better I think. I am sure she'll come around." I reassure him.

"Alright. I'm having a birthday thing at the bowling alley next weekend, it's so stupid. You are welcome to join, without Ben." He looks down at his feet like he is embarrassed. 'Without Ben' Wow no one really likes him. I've been told by many people about his shitty ways but he is the only person I've got.

"I'll think about it. Talk to you later." I walk off to my next class.

POV: IRIS EVANS

"Good morning Ms. Evans." Nick wraps his arm around my shoulder as we walk up to our schools. He's done this everyday this week, so much for making people think I didn't cheat on Chris. I nudge his arm off me.

"Morning, Nicholas Nelson." I tease him.

"So, I am thinking you could come to my rugby game tomorrow. Charlie is playing too. This is a great chance to apologize to all your friends for completely ignoring them for forever. Who do you even eat with?" Nick and I continue to walk to a bench where we sit down.

"First of all I will think about going to your game and second of all I eat alone." I give him a side eye.

"C'mon Iris, you should apologize to Bea, she is probably the most understanding person in the world." Nick reaches for my hand.

"I know, I know." I roll my eyes. "I will go right now, actually." I quickly get up and start to walk away.

"Please think about coming tomorrow, I could really use a cheerleader." I can feel Nicks smirk.

"Hmmm, maybe." I turn around to smile at him and continue to walk away. I go to class early knowing Bea is there. I am such a shitty person, I don't deserve the people that are in my life. I always find a way to fuck up. I am the problem in every relationship I have. I am pretty sure everyone hates me and they just feel bad for me. I think everyone is secretly glad that I have been distant.

"Hey." I sit next to Bea as she is finishing up homework. This is already a bad idea. She looks up at me silently like she is waiting for me to say something else. "I-I'm sorry. I just got so distracted with Christian and then we broke up everything just went to shit." I start to ramble.

"Iris, calm down." She cuts me off. "I understand, everyone understands. We were just trying to give you time to come back to us, we obviously still care about you."

"We?" I give her a confused look.

"Charlie, Aled, Elle, Tao, Tara, Darcey." She wraps her arms around me. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Charlie has a rugby game tomorrow, you should come." Bea gives me a hopeful look. "Gives you a chance to see everyone."

"I'll be there."

I did as I said and showed up. I walk to where my friends were standing and Aled immediately hugs me without saying a word. Elle, Tara, Darcey, and Bea join and after a little Tao reluctantly joins. We all stand in this huge group hug for a while until I see Charlie running up to us off the field.

"I missed you!." He practically jumps on top of me.

"I missed you too." I laugh as he strangles me to death. Once he lets go Elle introduces Charlie to Tara and Darc but I cant help but notice a certain tall rugby lad staring at me on the field. Nick is giving me the 'I told you so" look. I flip him off and he chuckles. I look over at the entrance to see Ben, Imogen, Connor, and a bunch of other popular people walking in. Christian runs off the field over to them to take shitty photos for their shitty instagrams.

"I think I have to go." Charlie waves as he runs back on the field as the other team is about to come out. The team that comes out looks like they are old enough to have a boring office job and a whole ass family. We all stare and sort of laugh knowing what's about to happen. Truham is about to get crushed. As the game starts I can't help but notice that Imogen is cheering for only Nick. I mean Chris preferred Imogen over me so why wouldn't Nick.

"So does anyone remember the rules of rugby, because I don't." Tao looks around at all of us. I play rugby but Higgs is just not inclusive enough to have a rugby team because we are all girls. Once I am in year 12 and I am able to go to Truham I will demolish the rugby team, end of story.

"Iris plays rugby." Elle mentions. Of course Elle would remember.

"I am not explaining the rules, its too complicated." I role my eyes.

"Can you at least explain what they are doing right now because it looks like an orgy." He points to all the boys doing a scrum on the field.

"That is a scrum. Five people for each team go in, three up and two behind them on their knees. Once in positions a player from the team that the scrum was given to throws the ball in the middle and the players have to try to kick it out." I explained simply to not confuse anyone but they all seemed confused.

"I shouldn't have asked." Tao looked away from me and back at the game. All of a sudden it starts pouring out of nowhere. Everyone had an umbrella other than me. Tara and Darcey, Tao and Elle, Bea and Aled. Bea offered to make room for me but I'd rather get wet than get stuffed with two people under a small umbrella. St. John's in winning 14-0.

"Is Harry Greene picking on Charlie?" Aled points at Harry with his arm around Charlie.

"Maybe they're friends." Bea shrugs.

'That's even worse." I reply. I can't handle Charlie getting picked on. Suddenly my confidence goes up and my social anxiety disappears. "Oi! Harry! Stop flirting with Charlie and get back to the game that you obviously don't know how to play." I yell and the whole St. John's team and some of the boys from the Truham team start laughing, as well my friends of course. They start playing again and the score is now 39-0. It starts raining a little harder and I start to get colder and colder. Charlie runs at some big dude with the ball and that obviously did not end well. He is on the ground in pain.

"Oh my god, Charlie." I cover my mouth. Their couch called off the rest of the game because of the rain. I look up to see Nick staring at me but I quickly look away to see my brother running in after Charlie. Weird. Tao and Elle wander off to somewhere, as well as Tara and Darc. Bea had to leave to make it to work on time so it is just Aled and I left. We walk over to wait for Nick and we sort of here a glimpse of Harry teasing Imogen. Nick comes out and smiles me, starting to walk over before Ben and his minions stop him.

"Oh, hey." Nick walks up to them.

"Hey!" Imogen cheerfully replies. She obviously spent a lot more time on the way she looks today than I did. Her hair is still perfect after the rain and she is just overall stunning today. I look like I crawled out of bed and came straight here, which is not incorrect.

"Whats up?" Nick awkwardly asks."

"You did so good." She smiles. They literally lost?

"Uh, I mean, the match was cancelled and we were losing anyway, but... thanks?" He smiles back at her. I can tell he would choose her over me. "So what's going on?"

"I... I... wanted to ask you if... like, this is really random. But maybe we could like... go out somewhere, together." My heart sunk as those words came out of her mouth. Everyone, including me watch and wait for his reply. "Like, I guess sort of a... date, or something." The word 'date' makes me sick. I turn to Aled to see him already looking at me. Aled doesn't know about Nick and I but its pretty easy to tell I am off.

"Oh, uhm..." Nick starts. Everyone is cheering for him to say yes, other than me. He doesn't even look at me. It's like he forgot I exist. "Yeah, I guess so, sure." Tears starting forming in my eyes. I am always second choice, always. Nick turns around as everyone else starts to leave and remembers I am here and I am a living person with emotions.

"President of the world is not gonna be too happy about that one." I force a smile and turn around to walk away. How could I be so stupid. I shouldn't have ran after him that night. I shouldn't have let him back into my house. I shouldn't have let him back into my life.