Iris Giorgianni is no ordinary girl. She's living a double life: a neglected daughter at home, but a fighter on the streets. As the leader of The Sangue - one of the most wanted and well-known gangs in London - Iris has a reputation to uphold. Only...
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"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."
- C.S. Lewis
IRIS WATCHED as her brother waved goodbye, stepping onto the bus with a sad smile on his face. He looked awkward and out of place, standing amongst the crying mothers that were kissing their children goodbye. This was hardly unusual; Matteo was always someone that stuck out like a sore thumb. At least, when he wasn't around his father or at work. As soon as he was taken out of their family's company, he morphed into an individual. Someone resembling the boy he used to be.
And then the door was shut, and the bus began to drive away, back to normality for everyone on it.
Back to Matteo being his father's son.
For a moment the campmates continued to stand there as if expecting their loved ones to come back around the corner, but after a few minutes they dispersed, some with tears in their eyes, others chatting animatedly with their friends.
Iris felt Levi stand next to her. He was frozen and still, making no movements to reach out or touch her.
"You were hoping Hunter would turn up, weren't you?" Iris asked him softly. She watched as he clenched his jaw, turning his head away. He seemed to be deflecting his pain, attempting to diminish it completely. They both knew that wouldn't work.
Levi cleared his throat. "I wasn't counting on it."
Iris reached out slowly, touching his arm in a gesture of reassurance. Recoiling, Levi stepped back instantaneously and began to move towards a small crowd to their left, ignoring Iris' attempt at comfort.
"...some of you didn't have guests showing up, those of you without your electrical devices may have them back." Lisa was saying as they joined the group, settling amongst the excited murmur of the campmates around them. "Which, as I can see on the list, is most of you. The few that actually have phones..." She scratched her head, "The entire eight of you...well done for not having them taken away as punishment."
The crowd laughed sheepishly, but instead of reprimanding them, Lisa sighed with a smile. "Okay, so I'll call your name out and you can collect it. We will be taking them back later today, so if any of the devices mysteriously 'get lost', we know you're just hiding them."
Levi and Iris waited in silence as she began calling names out.
"Maybe you can call Hunter, then." She said to him, attempting to lighten the mood.
Levi, whose face remained as hard and as rigid as it had been for a while, hardly blinked. "I don't want mine."
"What?" Iris frowned. "Why not? What about your parents?"
"Just – leave it out, okay?"
And then he pushed past her, walking away with his shoulders slumped and his feet scuffing the ground. Although he was being rude to her when she was only being nice, Iris got the feeling that he wanted to be alone. She sometimes had tendencies to delve into other people's businesses, when that curiosity wasn't necessarily wanted. If Levi wanted to tell her what was on his mind then he would. For now, she had to accept that.
