*Mikey's POV*
Frank pushed me in the pool when we were near it. I emerged from the water and shook my head. "Asshole!" I got out and pushed him in too. Gerard and Ray jumped involuntarily. I jumped in again and jumped on Gerard's back. Iris came back and sat down at one of the chairs.
"Iris, come on in!" Ray told her.
"Yeah, what are you waiting for?" Frank asked.
"In a little bit," she told them.
"Hurry!" Gerard said. "We wanna play a game." She stood up and turned around. She took her shirt off and placed it to the side. When she turned around, the four of us stared at her quietly. Even Frank didn't make a comment on how she looked nice in the bikini. She walked to my side of the pool and hopped in. She was avoiding eye contact with us.
"I knew this was a bad idea," she mumbled. Her voice sounded strained as if she was ready to cry. Her torso is littered with scars. Thin scars, long scars, thick scars, so many. They look old, but they stand out against her pale skin. She tried to cover them with her arms. I know I shouldn't be staring, but I couldn't help it. The scars ran from her abdomen to her back. Some scars look purple, others a pale brown, but every single one was noticeable. I finally snapped out of it. I motioned for the guys to move to the other side of the pool. They did without hesitation. I moved closer to Iris and lifted her chin up. I tried to say something, but nothing came out.
"Is this what happened in the locker room yesterday?" I finally asked. She nodded. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"I don't want you to get sad about it on your birthday," she said weakly. We sat down on the stairs.
"I want to know. I'm sorry we all stared at you like that, we shouldn't have done that." She took a few deep breaths and nodded.
"I don't want to repeat it to the guys after I tell you."
"I'll tell them if you want me to." She nodded. I held her hand and squeezed it. She took another deep breath.
"My adoptive father...he used to be involved with bad people. Gangs mostly, but he also sold and exchanged drugs. One time he got in this nasty argument with one of his traders, and it ended badly. This was before he adopted me. They told him they were going to get his child. Tony was six when I was adopted, I was four. A few years after the whole fiasco, I got kidnapped. I was six. They told me it would be a miracle if I survived after they were done with me. I was just a kid. They burned me, they cut me with knives, they beat me. It lasted for two weeks. They starved me, they m-m-molested me." She took a shaky breath. I was lost for words. This was terrible. I pulled her closer to me and wrapped my arm around her.
"They dropped me off at a park at night. It was during winter, and I was freezing my ass off. I thought I was going to die. A homeless man found me and took me to a hospital. I was passed out by the time I reached the hospital. I slipped into a coma that lasted five weeks. When I woke up, my stepfather, Chris, was in jail. The guys were caught. My mom was divorcing Chris, and we were moving away from the Bronx. I'm permanently scarred because of that. I have nightmares because of it. I rarely sleep. My mom is always scared about it happening again. Tony hates me because ever since then, he's always been out of the picture. Mom always bought me things before she bought him things. He couldn't get a dog because I had a cat. Everything just fell apart." I was close to crying. I pulled her into a hug. She cried into my shoulder and held me tightly. I blinked my tears away. I kissed her near her here and pulled away. I wiped her tears away.
"I'm so sorry. You should have just told us you didn't want to go to the pool. We would have understood even if you didn't tell us this."
"Don't...just... I don't want to talk about it right now." I nodded and kissed the top of her head.
