Struggling to Breathe

Velvet

I was sitting at my desk, drawing a dark picture, when I heard a loud thump out the window. I looked out it and saw a woman talking to my da. She was wearing a paramedic uniform just like his, so she obviously worked with him.

She handed him a small device (I think it was a defibrillator), and suddenly the door of her car was opened. A young boy, about 8, stepped out. He had blonde hair, and smiled largely as he skipped up to his mother. He stood behind her and chatted to Da.

"Hi there, what's your name?" Da asked as the young boy poked his head out from behind his mam.

"Oisin," the boy answered answered, smiling slightly. Dad straightened up and fluffed his hair.

"Good lad, you're just like your mam," my dad said and he laughed.

The front door opened and a figure stepped out from the car. I ignored them at first and tried to listen to what my dad was saying... but then I glanced up again...

I looked at her and tilted my head to the side. Who was she?

"Iris!" Dad exclaimed. The girl ran up to him and hugged him tightly.

"Garry!" She replied, and they both chuckled. She stood back and crossed her arms over her black hoodie. She had ripped black tights, high waisted denim shorts and a white crop top with some icon on it I couldn't see, as the zipper of her hoodie covered it. She wore a grey beanie and heavy doc marten boots...

She was about as 'bad ass' I was. And she was probably the same age too...

"Iris, how's school?" Da asked, trying to make conversation. I sat back and wrinkled my brows, gazing at the row of books on the shelf above my desk, trying to make sense of this.

How does da know her? Should I go down and say hi?

I was making a big deal out of nothing, so I just stood up and pulled on my shoes, stomping down the stairs heavily. I stopped at the door and thought of an excuse to look for da.

Once my plan formed, I swung open the door and walked up to my father with my hands shoved deep into the pockets or my jeans. "Hey," I asked him, and he turned around. "Where's my sketch pad? Ma said you knew where it was."

He shrugged and was about to make up some foolish answer when the woman spoke from behind him. "Is this Sebastian?" She asked, and grinned at me.

I answered for dad. "I prefer to be called Sebby, or Sebs. Sebastian is a bit stressful on the mouth," I joked, and she laughed slightly. She stuck out her hand to shake mine and I accepted it politely.

"My name's Bernie, lovely name I know," She introduced, shaking my hand gently. "This is Iris and Oisin, my kids, Oisin is nine and Iris has just turned sixteen."

Oisin smiled up at me and Iris blushed and pulled her sleeves up her hands, looking at her boots nervously.

Da started talking to Bernie, so I turned towards Iris and smiled. "Hey," I said, smiling slightly, careful not to scare her.

"Heya," she replied, clearly nervous.

"I'm guessing... you're Iris?" I asked tentatively.

She batted her eyelashes and nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm Iris," She smiled.

"Wanna go in for a few minutes?" Bernie asked, suddenly turning to us. Iris shrugged.

"Sure," Iris mumbled, and walked behind her mam. I walked beside Iris and smiled slightly.

Once we went inside, Oisin found Fern and they went off, finding it easy to have things in common, as they were both children - that's the only excuse they needed to play.

Iris sat down on the couch and got out her PSP, playing it silently. I sat down beside her and turned on the TV, careful to keep some space between us. I grabbed the remote to the game console and started it up, not even hesitating to going into the most violent game I had.

"Is that Kills of Death, the return?" She asked, watching the screen excitedly. I turned towards her, slightly shocked she had said anything, and smiled.

"It is... Want to help me out here?" I asked, handing her a remote. She smirked and took the remote gratefully, not even thinking about it. The screen split and she started killing everything in her sight.

Damn. She was good.

Her mam walked in an hour later and laughed. "I get her off the video games for an hour and she still manages to disobey me."

Iris grinned cheekily back at her mam and put down the controller. She took off her hat and ran a heavily jewelled hand though her dark, scarlet red hair, sighing contentedly.

"You're ntb," she complimented, and I tilted my head.

"Ntb?" I questioned.

"Not too bad," she explained.

Her ma walked out with my mam to admire the house, so we were left alone with the TV off. I looked down at my hands, suddenly awkward and speechless.

"So, why Sebastian?" She suddenly asked.

I looked up at her. "Pardon?"

"Why were you called Sebastian?" She repeated.

"Oh, my ma loves Shakespeare and thought it'd be funny to name me after one of the characters from her favourite Shakespeare play."

"Well, that means her favourite play is either 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', 'The Tempest' or the 'The Twelfth Night'?" She raised her eyebrows.

"The last one," I replied and raised my brow at her knowledge. "You like Shakespeare?"

She shrugged. "Nothing better to be doing."

I smiled. "Why Iris?" I asked. She gave me a smug look.

"My mam was a nurse when she had me, and the first thing she noticed when I was born was my eyes, and she couldn't name me "eyes", or "Grey", so she called me Iris," She explained.

I nodded. "Ah... Iris is a really lovely name," I complimented. She blushed and sighed.

"Iris is easy to bully," she recalled, gazing off sadly, and I looked at her oddly.

She looked back at me and opened her mouth to say something, but then her mother called her name. Suddenly she was in her car going home.

Before I knew it, I liked Iris more than I liked anyone else, and I didn't even know her.