Hazel Irises

Chapter Six

Now that I knew Iris's life story, I couldn't help but feel our bond becoming stronger every day. We were closer than I'd ever been with anybody in my life. She was missing a lot of school since her dad was admitted, so I used homework as an excuse to walk to her house every day and visit her father.

The hospital had moved Luke from the emergency room just two days after he was admitted. He had to be under round-the-clock care, so our visits were never long, despite our efforts to stretch them as much as the nurses would allow. I had only known the Summerses for so long, yet they felt like family.

Which is really messed up considering I had a crush on my sister, but nobody ever said I was the best at analogies.

And, oh my God. Iris.

At this point, seeing her face gave me butterflies and a warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach. We hadn't spoken about the night I slept over. In fact, the morning after, it felt like it had never happened--we both knew better than to mention our little hug session in the middle of the night. Neither of us were awkward, per se, but we knew both of us had remembered. We were just comfortable ignoring the status of our relationship.

But I was going crazy for the girl. Any opportunity I had to check her social media profiles or run into her was one I took. I chose routes to my classes so that I'd run into her during passing period on the occasion that she did come to school. I loved days she came to school. Not seeing her in English made me anxious about her dad.

"Hey, loser," teased the voice that I'd become so infatuated with. It wasn't her voice that I liked, really. To be honest, her voice wasn't like the girl's voice is always described in cheesy romance novels. It wasn't like honey being poured on silk, or anything of the sort. Her voice was just a voice. It was the way she spoke that I admired. Her words weren't pretentious, but she always sounded smart. There was a certain element of comfort and happiness that was conveyed whenever she spoke; it made me feel at ease.

"I said hey," she pressed. I looked up, reeling back into the present. Iris slouched in her desk beside me, pressing her pencil into her cheek and looking all gangling and gaunt sandwiched between two football players.

"Hey," was all I said.

"What did you get for number four?" she asked, leaning over the aisle to see my paper.

"Oh--I said Achilles was upset because Agamemnon stole Briseis." I eyed her orange curls, hanging loose and brushing up against my desk. I so wanted to touch them, but would that be a step too far?

Before I could make a decision, Iris was already back to leaning over her desk and scribbling an answer without comment.

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The chilly weather outside left Iris and me no choice but to eat in the cafeteria. The only problem was that everyone already had a table claimed for their "squad," so to speak, and we had no idea where to sit.

"You know, it's not that bad out..." I said, glancing out the glass doors to the patio.

"So you say, but you haven't lived in California your whole life," Iris retorted. "Besides, this place is really grossing me out. How about we go across the street instead?"

I nodded in agreement. Across the road was a Potbelly that was swarmed by Mann High kids every day from ten to one o' clock, hungry for food and gossip. I was initially surprised that the school had free lunch, meaning students could eat out during their lunch hour. It seemed like such a privilege--at my old school, leaving during school hours was strictly prohibited. My principal ran a tight ship, and basically no fun was allowed. For students like me, that was no big deal. I liked to stay out of trouble, because authority scared the piss out of me.