Then we were at his door.
Usually I'd just burst right in, but I don't know. Iris in her red dress made me want to be a gentlemen. She looked like a lady and I wanted to be whatever she needed to complete her look.
I knocked.
She squeezed my hand, tightly.
Too tightly.
He opened the door, and looked us over.
- Greyson! You're here, I thought you wouldn't have shown up.
"Yea, sorry I'm a bit late. I wanted Iris to come with me this time."
- Ahh, so this is the Iris I've been hearing so much about.
Iris shook his hand firmly and gave me a smile.
- Hi
She said this quietly.
"Okay let's start the session."
I told them quickly and pushed myself into the room.
Iris promptly sat on the couch in the corner of the room, next to the dusty picture frames and dim lighting.
I sat down in the chair, I usually sat in.
- So, Greyson. Will Iris be joining us? Or just to sit in?
He asked us looking from me to Iris. I didn't like the way he looked at her. He looked at her like, like...
A pervert.
It was my self conscious that whispered it, but my brain agreed.
Iris replied quickly.
- No, no. I'm just here at Greyson's request. We agreed that I'm not going to talk.
If I saw him looking at her legs once more. I'd lean over and really use his handkerchief.
I gripped the seat tightly, I wanted to be over and done with this session.
I gritted my teeth.
- What are your plans, this summer?
I scratched the back of my head.
"Well, I don't really know..."
I looked over at Iris,
"Hopefully spend some time with friends. Go down to the train tracks. I might head to the swimming hole."
- Sounds fun.
I nodded and looked at the clock.
46 minutes left.
46.
Tick
Tock
Tick
Tock.
- Greyson?
"Hmm?"
- You just finished senior year, correct?
"Yes."
- Which college will you be attending?
"I'm taking some time off of school, for now.."
- Do you even know which profession you'd like to pursue?
I narrowed my eyes at him.
Was he trying to make me look dumb in front of Iris? Make me look like I had no future? That I was unprepared?
I swear.
"I'm not really sure, as of now."
- You don't have a plan?
Then I head a small voice.
- Can I just interrupt, real quick?
He nodded.
- Why does he need to have a plan? I personally think that it would be helpful for him to take some time off and try and discover what would make him happy and benefit him his entire life, instead of being pressured into a career that he won't like.
I smiled.
Iris was everything.
She had everything.
How could something so perfect be so oblivious to its actual value?
She was smart, and beautiful, and funny and compassionate and selfless.
- That's a good point.
He commented bursting my bubbly thoughts of a certain someone.
I looked at the clock, again.
35 minutes.
- So, if you don't mind me asking, where do you go to school?
He asked her this, tilting his head.
She gulped nervously before answering,
- Umm. I also graduated senior year, and I'm enrolling in NYU in the fall.
Everything seemed to pause when she said that.
I opened my mouth but no sound came out, I was simply sucking in air.
Iris was leaving?
She couldn't leave.
I stared at her, and she looked into my eyes almost apologetically.
"You never told me that."
- Well, you never asked.
"You didn't think it was important to let me know that you'd be leaving across the country by the end of the summer, before I..."
- Before you what?
I stared at her.
For fourty-seven seconds.
Then I couldn't look at her anymore, because I started to feel pain.
Right in my chest.
Then I turned to him.
"I think my session is up."
- But you still have a good twenty minutes, Greyson.
I rolled my eyes.
"Lucky you. Go take a lunch break."
Then I walked out the door.
Without her.
But I remembered how he stared at her legs.
I remembered how she softly kissed my cheek.
I remembered how I was the best thing that happened to her.
And I felt bad.
So bad.
So I took the elevator back up to his office from the lobby and ran to his door.
And when I'd burst in.
She was no longer there.
