Dare To Kiss (GxG)

Chapter 16

A/N: Hi, everyone!  Here's the next chapter as promised, but I apologise in advance if I can't write the next one in time.  I will try to update on the 5th (4 days from now) because I want to be consistent, but we'll see.  Fingers crossed!  Anyways, thanks for sticking with this story so far :)

When it's time to leave the next morning, we spend at least 10 minutes just saying goodbye and promising to text and call and meet up again.

Although I am a bit upset that our sleepover has to come to an end, I admit that I also feel a slight feeling of relief. For one, it's difficult to be around Ruby when she's being this intimate with me just because I'm her best friend and she wants to close the metaphorical distance between us, while I'm over here trying not to blush and doing my best to calm my racing heartbeat.

I feel guilty, even though I know I shouldn't.

Despite telling Ruby that I also feel us being distant lately and want to improve things, I think the distance is actually good for me. I know that I need the time away to clear my head and set boundaries in my mind.

"How was the sleepover? Did you girls have fun?" Mum asks me when she and Dad picks me up from Elizabeth's house.

After I say my last goodbyes with my friends, I climb into the backseat of the car and buckle my seat belt as I answer, "Yeah, it was great."

I start to plug in my AirPods to listen to some music during the ride, but Mum interrupts with, "That's good to hear. You know, Iris will be arriving from Oxford today. Probably at just about the same time as when we return."

"Okay," I reply, not knowing what else to say to that.

It's not that I'm not glad to see my sister after so many months, but I'm just maybe a tiny bit afraid that I won't know how to act around her. It doesn't help that the age gap between us is 4 years. Plus, we haven't kept in contact a lot over the past year, only the occasional phone call with my parents as well. Maybe a few texts here and there. And of course when Iris returns for holidays and festivals like Christmas.

When our car pulls into the driveway at our house, I head in to dump my bags in my room, unpacking carelessly as I do so.

Less than 10 minutes later, another car swerves into the driveway, and I know without a doubt that Iris has arrived from Oxford. She got her driver's license when she turned 18, and since she lives away from home, our parents bought her a car so that she can drive by herself to come visit often.

Descending down the stairs, I rush to go meet my sister for the first time in what seems like ages to me. My parents are already downstairs and my mum is holding her eldest daughter in a loving embrace while my dad is helping Iris with her suitcase.

"Iris!" I exclaim from the bottom of the stairs.

"Isla, hi!" my sister returns with just as much enthusiasm, letting go of my mum to venture towards me. I am pleasantly surprised when Iris embraces me as well.

"Long time no see, how have you been?" she asks.

"Tell me about it," I say as I roll my eyes affectingly at her, "The last time I saw you in person was in the summer holidays. How's school and Oxford?"

"It's going alright," Iris shrugs. "A lot of work, but you probably won't want to hear all about the boring structures of the law."

Iris is a second year law student at Oxford, following in our parents' footsteps. She's also done plenty of work experience at law firms that they have worked at before, since they still have past colleagues and connections there. She will undoubtedly make a great lawyer once she graduates and make our parents proud.