favorite liar | xavier thorpe

18. :/

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Xavier didn't get to ask his question before Ms. Thornhill busted the two of them, but that's long forgotten in Iris's mind as she sits in the bee shack thing, watching Uncle Fester pack his things up so he can leave before the police find him, trying to get Thing to talk to her.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there last night," she says for the millionth time. "I know, I should've been, but you can't give me the silent treatment forever."

Thing signs weakly through the cut in the middle of his hand, yes, I can.

Iris sighs heavily. "C'mon, don't pretend you really wanted me there anyway," Iris says suddenly. Thing taps his fingers, waiting for her to elaborate. "I just mean - and not to make this about me," she clarifies importantly first, "- I just mean, it's not like we've really been talking much lately," she lets out. "Like, you spend all your time with Wednesday and Enid anyway, I just thought you didn't wanna be around me anymore."

Thing just crawls up a bit into Iris's lap where her hands are crossed, resting his own hand on top of her's.

"I know I'm being silly," she takes his actions for what they are. "But I'm not wrong am I?" Thing moves himself about. "Lola has not replaced you!" Iris is taken aback by this. "She's a spider, Thing." Thing corrects Iris with more movement. "Xavier has replaced you?" Iris repeats back as if she misunderstood. "Definitely not."

He seems like your new best friend.

"Well, if you must know," Iris decides now's a good time to break the news, but she doesn't need Uncle Fester to be a part of it. We kissed, so a little more than best friends, Iris signs and if Thing weren't brutally injured right now, Iris thinks he would've leapt for joy. "It's true," she nods as Thing is practically frozen in shock.

OTP, he signs.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

"You did what?!" Iris storms into Wednesday's dorm room after over-hearing Bianca and Yoko talking about how they saw the police show up outside Xavier's art studio and escorting him out in handcuffs.

"You should've seen the evidence on him," Wednesday turns from whatever Enid was talking about, ready for this conversation.

"You said you were done looking at him as a suspect," Iris sees Enid silently going back to unpacking her things, but is paying no mind as she feels herself get more and more heated by the second.

They can't arrest Xavier. What will they do to him? He hasn't even killed anyone!

"I never explicitly agreed to that," Wednesday states. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go meet with someone."

"I was supposed to meet with someone too!" Iris simply follows right behind Wednesday as she leaves the dorm. "And then I found out he got arrested for murder?!" Iris hopes Wednesday can understand how ridiculous it all sounds.

"You're too blinded by this silly crush that you're ignoring the facts."

"You're too blinded by your desire to make everyone around you as miserable as you are that you're ignoring the facts!"

Wednesday stops in her tracks to stare at Iris, so she does the same in response.

"You said that Kinbott was controlling the Hyde at first-"

"Yes," Wednesday stares.

"Why would your therapist want Rowan dead?"

"That was Xavier coming out in his true form on his own because he knew we- you were in danger and needed to protect you."

"Okay, if he wanted to protect me, why wouldn't he have killed you by now? He obviously knows you're suspicious of him-"

"Please, he couldn't lay a hand on me if he tried," Wednesday starts walking again.

"Oh my God, why couldn't you have just trusted me when I told you it wasn't him?" Iris doesn't follow after her this time. "Why do you always have to be right?!"

Wednesday spins around to stare Iris down, both girls on opposite ends of the hallway.

"I'm doing this to protect you, Iris," Iris almost scoffs at her sister's words before she continues. "I know I don't show it, but I care about you too much to lose you. To lose you because you couldn't see what's right in front of your eyes."

"If you really cared, you wouldn't have done this," and Iris doesn't know if that's fair to say, but she's hurt, and scared, and upset, and angry, and she wouldn't be feeling any of those things if Wednesday had just listened to her. "I wasn't even asking you to trust him," she says. "I just thought you would trust me."

"You wanted me to trust you because you trusted him," Wednesday isn't giving up on this. "It was always the two of you against me."

"I was never 'against' you," Iris hates that she said that. "If anything, I was trying to help you. I knew that if you kept tracing everything back to Xavier, you'd hit a dead end, and I was trying to get you to change directions."

". . . I'm not taking driving metaphors from a girl who failed her test 7 times," is the note that Wednesday turns and practically stomps away on.

Iris stares after her, but her eyes aren't really watching her sister. She doesn't even know what to do with herself. The only guy who she's felt somewhat seriously about who she can't even call her boyfriend has been arrested for murder, and she'll probably never see him again. And she doesn't know how to forgive Wednesday for this, but she knows it's not like she'll apologize anyway, so she guesses she'll just have to get used to telling people that she doesn't associate with her twin anymore.

"7 times?" Yoko opens their door and is staring at Iris who hasn't moved from her spot in the hallway for awhile.

"That pedestrian had it coming."