missing piece ✓

ELEVEN

TRIGGER WARNING: use of homophobic slur

I could see tears forming at the brim of Iris' eyes and I immediately felt guilty for letting her inside the room. They pulled away as we watched silently from the doorway.

"Phoebe, I've- uh- liked you, for like a really long time now." He stuttered, obviously really nervous as he was struggling to look at her in the eyes. "And, I think you might come to like me if we get to know each other, you know?"

She was hesitant in her response, fiddling with her silver bracelet behind her back. "Brett, I-"

I could hear her breath hitch in her voice as she spotted Iris in the corner of her eye along with me following behind her. When I looked to my side, Iris was gone and I watched as Phoebe tried to run after her. "Iris! Wait-"

"Phoebe!" Brett grabbed her wrist. "I haven't heard your reply."

She yanked her arm out of his grip and ran down the hallway, Hayden and Ash running towards me at the commotion.

"Blake?" Hayden was watching as Phoebe chased Iris out of the building in a panic. "What's going on?"

I grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, chasing after the girls that were up ahead. We reached outside and the warm, fall air calmed me down a little bit but I was still stressing. I kept pulling him until we hid behind a big tree and spied on the two of them. Iris was busy wiping her tears as Phoebe stood a couple of metres apart to give her some space. "Iris, I-"

"Why are you running after me?" Iris interrupted as she forced herself to not cry in front of Phoebe.

The other girl's eyes widened in shock. "What? W-"

"Go back. I don't want to get in your way."  Iris faced away from her so she couldn't see the newly formed tears that were threatening to spill over.

Phoebe inched a tiny bit further towards her and I could tell she was struggling to retain herself. "Iris."

"Just leave already!" Iris exclaimed, her voice cracking.

"I don't like that boy Iris, I like you."

Iris turned to Phoebe and silence overtook them as they stared at each other from afar whilst Hayden and Ash looked like they had seen a ghost and I really couldn't blame them. "What?"

Phoebe sighed. "I-I like you, Iris and I have for, like, a really long time now."

I told you so loser.

"Seriously?" Iris asked as she fiddled with the ends of her denim shorts. I could pretty much feel the nerves radiating off of her.

She nodded as she spoke. "I just feel like I make you uncomfortable nowadays, and, I'm probably making you uncomfortable now-"

My brain had to take a moment to process what had just happened. Iris ran up and cut her off by pressing their lips together. From afar it really felt like I was watching a movie.

"Woah. Did not see that coming." Hayden chuckled and I immediately covered his mouth with my hand whilst watching them pull apart in fear that they heard. Instead, they said some inaudible stuff and then took each other's hands and walked down the rocky footpath. Thank god that's all sorted out now.

Ash immediately turned to us. "Is it my turn yet?"

***

School was really starting to bore me at the moment. Sofie was back and she explained that she just had a fever and that all she needed was a little bit of rest.