Promises, Promises

three. the universe despised her

After almost four hours, her bedroom items, bathroom necessities, and other things, were packed away and put into the moving van. The food they had in their fridge and pantry was also stored away in a box or two to be moved into Sasha's house. Everything else that belonged to them, including her father's things, would be put into storage.

Now Iris was in Jason's car and being driven to her new...

Home.

She would have to get used to that word. But now, she could barely even focus on anything going on. Iris' mind was elsewhere, thinking back to her dad and the last time she had seen him.

After she had finished her homework in the evening before, her and her father cooked a small dinner together. He took on cooking after her mom passed away and was recently starting to teach her. Last night they were making meatloaf.

It... wasn't completely terrible.

Iris closed her eyes, feeling the tears still running down her cheeks. She had been crying on and off for the last few hours.

She always feared the future. The day she would lose the people close to her. She never expected it to start happening so soon.

Iris bit her lip, suppressing a whimper and swallowing another lump in the back of her throat. She hadn't spoke more than a few words since they started packing her belongings.

Minutes later, the car stopped in front of a two-story brick house. It was cute from the outside with a small driveway, a stone path going up to the doorway, and two large flowery bushes on either side of the small stairs leading up to the door.

But Iris was in no mood to compliment the look of someone's house. She barely even looked at it. Instead her eyes were on the floor, wishing this were all just a dream.

Jason and Iris made their way up to the front door where he rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, a middle aged woman stepped out with a sad smile. She had the same dark brown hair that Iris recognized from years ago, as well as her reddened brown eyes.

"Evening ma'am, I'm Christopher's lawyer, Jason. Thank you for taking Iris in. I'm sorry for your loss, I'm sure this is hard for you as well." Jason said, offering Sasha a sympathetic smile.

Sasha nodded simply, "Thank you for bringing Iris over safely."

Jason nodded back, "Of course. I'll help her get settled in and I'll be on my way." He said, walking over to the moving truck to see what he could help with.

Sasha stepped forward in front of Iris who avoided eye contact. "Iris...I'm so sorry," She sniffled, feeling her own eyes begin to water again. "Please, come inside. Get comfortable. I'm going to speak with Jason and then we can talk if you'd like." Sasha said, wiping her eyes as she stepped aside to let Iris in her home.

Iris only nodded slowly, stepping through the doorway and into the house. She didn't get a good look around the room before something – or someone – tapped her arm.

She jumped slightly, glancing around before spotting a young girl in front of her. Iris could only assume this was Sasha's daughter. The girl had a lighter brown hair than her mother and green eyes instead.

"Hello.." The girl greeted cautiously, looking up at Iris with curious eyes.

Iris didn't want to be rude. Besides, the girl seemed really young, she most likely didn't understand what was going on. So Iris responded, "Um hi, I'm Iris." She decided to introduce herself just in case.

"Oh, my mom was just talking about you. She said you're staying with us for a while." The young girl offered her a welcoming smile.

Iris bit her lip, faking a small smile for the girl. "Yeah, for a while.."