How I Feel - An Olivarry Story

Run, Barry, Run

Barry had been sitting in the cortex of S.T.A.R Labs for the past two days. For the entirety of those two days, he had been alone. His friends Cisco Ramon, Ralph Dibny, Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost had all left for Gotham City last week for vacation after defeating Mirror Master and Top. Barry had stayed behind, too caught up in the mess with Oliver, Iris, and well, now Kara... and kept to himself as both Central City Citizen CSI Barry Allen and Central City's finest hero, The Flash.

Crime had been slow, and Oliver had remained radio silent, so it gave him the time to sit around and brood.

"What's there to do, Allen?" Barry said, speaking aloud his thoughts. "You can either go find Oliver and apologize... or you can sit here and sulk." He took a second to weigh his options. "Yeah. Sit here and sulk seems the way to go."

Barry had raided the cortex's technology, connecting his music to it. He searched for a song to play, and while All by Myself  by Celine Dion was rather tempting, something else caught his eye. It was a song that allowed Barry to escape and just... dance, and brooding can be boring. He played Poker Face by Lady Gaga instead. "Ah," Barry exclaimed. "Old times."

Barry began to dance to the song, letting his entire body sync to the music, and slowly lost himself as a memory came flooding back...

"Where have you been?" Iris shouted, barging into Barry's loft. She had just got off her shift from work. "You were supposed to pick me up!"

Barry was laying on his couch with one of his arms hanging off to the side.  He felt cold, hurt, and most of all, alone. "Sorry," he apologizes with little to no sincerity. "Just... rough day at work." He lied.

"God, Barry!" Iris screamed. "I called Joe. You called in sick even after you already walked in! Why are you lying to me?" She walked over to the couch, waiting for Barry to get up.

"Damn it, Iris! I'm sorry!" Barry screamed back. He shot himself up off from the couch. A wave of adrenaline had suddenly pumped through his body. After hours of sadness, there was only anger left to be dealt with. "I forgot, okay? I forgot! Damn me for not being perfect."

Iris sat on the couch as Barry stood. "I don't need you to be perfect! I just need to count on you! To hold up your end of the bargain and not lie to me for God's sake." She looked at her friend with disbelief. The eyes that she knew were different now. Nothing but a void had been trapped in them. "Why, Barry?"

"I told Oliver about us. He got really mad and,"

Iris scoffed, stopping Barry from finishing his sentence. "Of course!" She raised herself off from the couch. She walked towards the door. Holding the doorknob, she looks back at Barry. "That's why it was only for that night, wasn't it? To piss Oliver off."

"What?" Barry cried. He chased after Iris and denied her claims. "Of course not!"

"God!" Iris shouted, clenching her fists tightly. Anger had channeled through her. She had never been this angry at Barry ever since they were kids. "We agreed not to do this! And somehow we're in this mess anyway! I told you we were better off. You even asked to keep this charade going! I mean... What? Did Oliver piss you off? Is that why?"

"He slept with someone." Barry confessed.

"So you decided to sleep with me?!"

"No, Iris! I just... I didn't want to wait."

"And you knew that I wouldn't make you do that. You knew that I would give in because I have before." Tears came rushing down Iris' face. "Unbelievable." She shook her head repeatedly. She wrapped her arms around her neck to remove the locket Barry had given her last Christmas, opened it to collect the picture of her mother, and shoved the locket into Barry's hands.