Going back

21|| Equation

AN: here's chapter 21. Enjoy, people.

"I need a favour."

"Well hello to you too."

"Cut the crap, DeLesco. Can you help me?"

James closed his book with an over-exaggerated sigh and glanced at his friends, who were staring at Iris curiously. "I'll be back in a minute guys."

"Great." Iris gripped James' arm and pulled him away. She shoved him against a bookshelf and crossed her arms. "First of all, why are you avoiding me?"

James gave a crooked grin that did nothing to hide the unease spreading in his green eyes. "Can I assume answering the question is part of the favour?"

"I will shoot you."

"I guess not." James sighed and pried a book from its shelf, flicking through it even though it was upside-down. "I'm a busy man so make it quick, Ellison." He raised his gaze with an impish grin. "Or should I say West-Brown?– ow! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Bad joke. Please don't flick my forehead again."

Iris scowled. "I stopped being West anything ten years ago. Now, I'm assuming you're meeting that person this weekend, right?"

James pursed his lips together and scuffed the carpet with his heel. "Unfortunately. Our families are making us meet up."

"Why are you sounding so disappointed?" Iris arched a brow and a teasing note entered her tone. "Both families gave the option of backing out, but neither of you took it. Also I know how you feel–"

"Keep it down!" James hissed, pressing his hands over her mouth with a furtive glance at the almost empty library. He backed away at her glower. "Oh no, don't tell me you want me to ask him for a favour?"

Iris pressed her palms together as if she was in deep prayer. "Please, please, please? I will owe you one!"

"You already owe me many!"

"So what's one more?" Iris took a deep breath and lowered her voice. "Alex is back."

"Alex? As in– oh." James sucked in a sharp breath, gaze softening into sympathy. "How are you doing?"

How are you doing?

When was the last time someone asked me that and cared about my answer? Iris thought with a briefly glazed look. She snapped out of her reverie and answered with the usual joke and well-timed laugh that caused James to roll his eyes.

"Fine," he huffed. "I'll do it. What do you want?"

Iris had a wicked gleam in her eye as she leaned closer to him and whispered the answer in his ear. He pushed her away, a blatant refusal jumped to the tip of his tongue, but died at her deadly look.

He sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll do it."

Her expression brightened and she patted his cheek like she was petting an obedient dog. "Excellent!"

As she walked away, James tilted his head back and banged it thrice against the shelf with a pained groan and a small chuckle. I can never piss that girl off. She could make a man's balls wither with a single glare.

**

"Hey Iris!" Jay waved her over to where he and the others were huddled under a tree.

She grinned. "Hey guys! How were your lessons?"

"Ugh, exhausting as usual." Mia pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. "I literally cannot wait until GCSEs are over."

"Only a few more months to go." Charlotte threw Iris a playful glare. "Of course, not for some of us here."

Iris slung her back on the ground and flopped back with a smirk. "Ah, but this stress you're feeling now, I've already felt with no one else to commiserate with. At least you guys have each other."

Mia rolled on her stomach and glanced at Jay. They gave each other a small nod and he cleared his throat. "Hey, Aiden, didn't you say you were struggling with this one concept?"

"What?" Aiden tore his gaze from his textbook with a slightly lost look. "Yeah, I did, and I even have a test on it next. I swear my teacher hasn't taught it properly–"

"Oh, maybe Iris can teach you now?" Mia tilted her head with an innocent grin as if she had thought of the idea on the spot.

"Yeah, I can." Iris shrugged and scooted closer to Aiden, glancing over his shoulders. "What is it?"

"Um, it's a little embarrassing, but I'm struggling to solve quadratic equations." Aiden gave a nervous laugh, the tips of his ears turning red. "Like, I don't understand what my teacher wrote and it's all a bit confusing."

"Nothing to be embarrassed about." Iris grabbed his notebook and frowned at the scrawl of black ink under the topic. "You say these are the notes your teacher made you write? Yeah, these make no sense at all. Can I teach you a different method?"

"Please do."

"Alright, so." Iris scribbled out ax + bx + c on a piece of paper. "Every quadratic equation can be written in this form- whenever you get a question like it, try to make it in this way."

"Okay."

"Now, what you want to do is multiply the value of a with whatever c is. Are you following so far?"

Aiden nodded. As Iris shifted, he caught a whiff of her jasmine perfume and smiled at the soothing scent. He patiently listened to her explaining how to split then factorise the equation and tried to ignore Mia's knowing look. With only a slight hesitation, he solved an example.

"Yes, you've got it now!" Iris smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Maybe try to solve a few harder ones before the test."

"I'll do that, thanks so much!" Aiden beamed.

Iris nodded and leaned against her bag, throwing her arm across her head as a shield against the watery sun. Her mind battled against a thousand thoughts and she struggled to make sense of her situation.

The buzz of her phone snapped her out of the reverie. Glancing at the screen, Iris frowned at the name. She clambered to her feet and walked a short way from the group before answering.

"Hey Dad, what's going on? Everything okay?"

"Everything's fine." There was a slight creak as Harry leaned back in his seat. "I just wanted to check in on how you were doing. These last few weeks have been quite hectic after all."

Iris' bottom lip trembled and she bit back a sob. "Um, everything is a mess right now. I really want to talk to you face-to-face."

"Of course. I'll send a message to West-Brown and pick you up after school- shall I invite Jax as well?"

"No." Her voice was harsher than she'd intended it to be and she coughed. "I mean, no. I don't want to bother him right now. I have to- I have to go now so I'll see you later?"

"Okay. I love you."

"Love you too." Although Iris had said the words more than a thousand times, they felt different today- like someone had attached weights on the end and was dragging them down.

***************

I hope you guys liked it!

Stay safe and thanks for reading :)