One Last Shot

[28] 1v1

     Liam

Visiting the girls' house, I have a mission. Iris. I still think we have things to smooth over from yesterday.

"Hey Lilly! Is Iris here?"

"No, she's at the indoor gym. Needed to shoot some hoops I guess." Okay, redirection, off to the gym. Entering, I hear the one lone basketball bouncing, and the heavy breathing of one person. I see Iris, dripping in sweat, with earbuds in. She's fast, shooting shot after shot and making shot after shot. She sees me and pulls her earbuds out.

"What?"

"1v1?"

"If you want to." Throwing my hoodie off, I jog onto the court in my sweatpants and t-shirt. We check the ball, and the game starts. She flies by me, layup here she comes. Sike. With my large hand, all you can hear is the contact of the ball and my hand. Blocked. "Oh, fuck you," she groans.

"Gladly," I smirk. With the ball in my possession, I try to cross her up. Her eyes are trained, she follows only the ball, not my movement. So, I decide a push is the best way. I drive, trying to get through her, when her arm reaches in to grab the ball, and accidentally tugs on the hem of my shirt. I stumble, and the ball starts to get too far ahead of me.

"Oh, sorry," she apologizes. 

Her ball, she tries to roll off me, but I try to stop her. My hand grazes her back, I can feel her sports bra through her shirt. Oh my god. She stumbles, the ball rolling out of bounds.

"Sorry," I apologize. My ball, she trips me, and as I'm starting to slide, I decide she's going with me. I grab her by the arm, and she rolls her eyes.

"Not a fucking chance you clutz." She pulls back, and my hand slides off her arm, and grazes her boob. Oh no. Her face grows bright red.

"I am so sorry," I apologize, regaining my balance. We're both breathing pretty heavily, she knows how to work me in a one-on-one game. We decide to take a minute break, and I drop the ball to check my phone. It rolls, and we both head after it. Whoever gets the ball gets possession of it once we start up again. We're both running to grab it, and reach for it at the same time.

My hand grazes hers. I feel a chill go up my spine. Why is she driving me this crazy? We grab it at the same time, and rise, holding it in between us. We're a basketball's distance apart. I can feel her hot breath. We don't break eye contact, both breathing heavily. She looks almost doe eyed, but her eyes are also saying to come closer, come to her. This is it. Something is taking over me I swear. I let go of the basketball, and she does the same.

The only noise I can hear is the basketball bouncing away from us. Slowly she inches closer to me, our hot breath combining in front of us. Our eyes have not broken from each other's. There's no sound except for our breathing, the world has frozen, it's just us. Her eyes are so beautiful. The closer she gets, the more I want to kiss her. Fuck that, I will kiss her. I wrap my arm around her back, and pull her closer. Here it is, this is really happening. Her chest rises and falls quickly, she wants this just as bad as I do. Fuck whatever complications come from it, fuck the fact that it's Iris, I want to kiss her.

Ring Ring.

Almost like being snapped out of a trance, I quickly retract my arm and she pushes past me to grab her phone.

"Hello? Slow down Thomas, speak calmly. What?! I'm with Liam, want us both to come? Okay, we're on the way."

"What?"

"Violet and Lilly got into a car accident. We need to go to the hospital right now."

"I'll drive, I know the way pretty well." We gather our stuff as quickly as possible, any chance to kiss is gone, and we're on the way to the hospital. Showing up, Sarah, Archer, Grayson, Thomas, Jasper, Marcus, and Felix all sit in the waiting room.

"Thomas," Iris says as we walk in, and he gets up and pulls her into a hug. "How is she?"

"Better than Violet, the nurses said you and Marcus can go in since you live with them." Iris and Marcus head as quickly as they can into Violet's room, and then Lilly's.

"Hey man," I shake hands with Thomas. "How are you feeling?"

"My stomach is in knots, I hope nothing is seriously bad." We hear a yelp from Lilly's room, and then crying. Thomas looks like he's ready to spring into the room and see what's wrong, but Marcus and Iris emerge. Their faces are red, and there are tear streaks down them. "Is everything okay?" Thomas sounds panicked.

"Um..." Iris sniffles, wiping her nose.

"I don't think that's for us to answer, you can go in," Marcus gestures to the room, and Thomas flies past him in. Marcus goes over, into the welcoming arms of Felix, where he silently cries. Iris looks in dire need of support, but she's talking to a nurse in a hushed voice. After about a minute, she walks over, sighing.

"Everything okay?" She simply rolls into me. Her entire body just seems to melt into mine, and I place my hands on her back. We hear a loud sob from Lilly's room, not the voice of a female, and I feel Iris stiffen. I slowly rub circles on her back and run my hands through her hair in hopes to calm her down.

"I feel so bad for Lilly," she mumbles. Hours later, Iris insists on staying at the hospital. Marcus goes home, he claims he needs rest, and the rest of the guys head back too, asking Iris to report with any news. Thomas and Sarah run to go pick food up, both still shaken up.

"I'm staying. No way in hell you're staying here alone for who knows how long."

"No, go home pretty boy. You don't know them like I do, go get some rest."

"Nope, suck it up sweetheart, I'm staying." Plopping the chair next to her, I still have no idea what's happening with Lilly, but it's not my place to ask, for now I just have to be here to support Iris.

"I'm sorry about the blow up the other day," she says, resting her head on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry for trying to protect you, you're right, you didn't ask for that."

"Are we good now?" I chuckle lightly and stare down at her, using my finger to bring her chin up so her eyes meet mine.

"I think no matter how much we fight, how much we hate each other, we'll always be good." I can see relief wash over her face, but in less than a minute she's back to her usual playful smirk.

"Keep telling yourself that, buddy."