An Unexpected Girl

chapter ten

Somehow, Iris still retained her job working at the campus gym. Iris did not know how she had done this, as, after the events of last time, she was certain that she would get fired.

Despite this, Iris still had to stop for a brief "talk" with her manager when she arrived at work.

"Hey, Paul," Iris said to her manager the moment that she stepped into his office, "I want to apologize for the other day. It wasn't my intention to hurt anyone, really. I was trying to just help‌, I-"

Paul raised his hands up, closing his eyes, signaling for Iris to stop talking, which she did immediately.

"Look Iris, I don't care what happened, okay?" Paul said, sounding exhausted. "Just don't let it happen again. Don't touch the gym equipment, and just leave it to those that know how to use it, okay?"

Iris nodded her head quickly. The ends of her braids, which were tied up in a bun at the top of her head, were falling into her eyes. Iris didn't know how Paul was aware of how clueless she was about the gym equipment, but she was just grateful to still have her job.

"No touching equipment. None of that. Noted!" Iris gave a mock salute, which only resulted in a long sigh from Paul. Apart from the fact that he always seemed so tired all the time, Paul was actually a pretty good manager. He was nice and respectful of the student employees that worked at the gym. A lot of other job managers on campus tried to exploit and take advantage of student employees, which was another reason ‌Iris was not eager to lose her gym job.

"Good. Just stay out of trouble, okay? The girl from already informed me that the whole weight incident wasn't your fault, but it's not a good look on you, regardless."

Iris nodded, but her mind was still caught up on what Paul had said. Adi had defended her? She had told Paul that it wasn't her fault?

For a moment Iris was a bit confused about how to feel about this, but soon decided that she shouldn't feel anyway about it. It truly wasn't her fault, but ‌Adi's fault, as she was the one that kept ordering her about.

If anything, Iris was merely pleased to find out that Adi did indeed have a conscious, and wasn't as huge of an asshole as she had previously expected her to be.

Once Paul dismissed Iris, she avoided the weight room completely. From the manner by which she had been seeing Adi everywhere lately, she knew there was a high chance she'll bump into her in the weight room if she went there.

Instead, Iris plugged in her earbuds and began walking around the other areas of the gym, keeping her eyes alert and staying as physically far away from the equipment as possible.

The gym was a little less crowded than it had been during her last shift, and Iris was grateful for this. Her shift went by pretty smoothly, devoid of any mishap compared to last time. Iris was pleased by this and was just getting ready to clock out when she caught sight of a familiar fiery afro.

Immediately turning on her heels, Iris disappeared into a women's bathroom close by. She entered one of the stalls, sitting on the closed toilet seat cover for a while, hoping that Adi had not seen her.

A few moments later, she heard the bathroom door open, and someone walked in. Iris stayed extremely still, holding her breath, realizing how ridiculous she was being right then. She was literally hiding from Adi like a fucking scaredy-cat.

A while later, Iris heard retreating footsteps and the bathroom door opening and closing again. Releasing a breath she had been holding, Iris stepped out of the stall.

"I had a feeling you were hiding in here."

Iris almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Adi standing by the door, arms folded across her chest.