《The Girl Next Door》Part 27 - Iris

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The alarm shatters my eardrums as I reach over to turn it off. I can't even tell myself today will be different, just bad and depressing.

I realized yesterday that I like Pierce... a lot. And it was mainly a scary realization because I hadn't known him for long but yet I felt like I'd known him almost my entire life.

Okay, sure. Maybe that's a stretch. But my point stands.

It especially showed me how truly caring he was. And that... that scared me too. I let myself be so vulnerable with him.

After coming across the decision to skip school, I sigh and check my phone. I can't believe how little I now care about school. Is that the evil "senioritis" I've heard so much about? Either way, I don't care. And unfortunately, I mean it with all of my heart.

I check my messages, seeing that I even have some from Amelia. Wonderful.

I start to type out a response, but I go to look it over and realize it isn't exactly what you'd call readable. I end up deleting the message and I easily fall back asleep.

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Once I wake up, I have quite a few messages from Sophie too, asking where I'm at. It should be about lunch time right now for them, so I message Sophie and let her know I've been sleeping because I don't feel too good.

Almost immediately after I send the message someone is knocking on my bedroom door. Startled, I answer with, "Who is it?" and pull my blanket over my chest.

"It's Sophie, can I come in?"

"Yeah," I laugh, waiting for her to come in. When she does, she sits on my bed and hands me a box of tea.

"This is my favorite kind of tea and I swear to the mother of all things holy it's the best. It's great normally, of course, but it works wonders when you're sick or you just feel bad. Now, Iris, what's really wrong?"

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"I'm just sick is all," I assure her.

"You don't sound sick and hun, you don't look sick either. Mentally is a different story of course. So mentally, what's up? You must have to feel pretty terrible to miss school. The last time you missed school was when you puked on—"

"Alright, Sophie, I get it," I laugh, stopping her so she won't continue. She's referring to the time I puked on Logan's shoes in the middle of ninth grade after pretending I wasn't sick. That was the first time he broke up with me.

"It's all the stuff with Mom again," I tell her. "Except something bad is going to happen, I can just feel it. And Sophie..."

"What?" her eyes widen in anticipation for what I'm about to say.

"I like Pierce a lot more than I thought I did."

"Oh darling, we all saw it coming." She clicks her tongue, shaking her head. "But before you fall for boys, you have to get yourself feeling good, okay? So tell me what's up. Details."

"Something bad is going to happen. I don't know exactly what, before you ask, just something. And I don't know why, either. And it's been getting to me a lot lately and my anxiety has been getting a lot worse."

After talking about my feelings for a bit, Sophie checks the time before groaning. "I have to go back to school, okay? But Iris, if you don't keep me updated god knows what I'll do. Good luck with your new boyfriend and don't get into any trouble! Love you, bestie!"

After a few moments go by, I continue to go back to sleep. It's me drifting away into my sweet reality-escape.

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"Rise n' shine, Princess," someone speaks from right by me. I recognize his voice instantaneously and shoot up in bed, accidentally hitting my head on the wall somehow and muttering, "Ow..."

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Am I good at flirting or what?

"How did you get in my house?" I immediately start. "And why are you here?"

"You weren't at school and I thought it would be good to check up on you," Pierce tries to reason with me. "I knocked a few times and waited a while but never got an answer, so I tried to open the door and it wasn't even locked."

"Okay, well I'm here," I briefly update him, "and I'm feeling crappy so I decided not to go to school."

"Iris, I have some things I need to tell you," he says as if he's in a hurry. "You told me everything yesterday, and I proceeded to tell you nothing. But what I know... I should've told you sooner."

His brown hair reminds me of chocolate, and the way he keeps it swept to the side perfectly adorns his features. Even now I can't help but to admire his face — it was like getting to know him somehow made him ten times more attractive.

Focus, I tell myself.

"I — uh... What?" I gracefully use my words. "What is there to tell me?"

"Iris," he says, making my heart melt. When he says my name it rolls off of his tongue so easily, and when he says it so sincerely, I can't help but to raise my eyebrows with concern.

"You're going to get mad at me," he goes on. "F*ck, I don't even know if you'll talk to me again. I know we've only known each other for a couple weeks, but I feel like so much has already happened and it would really suck to lose you because of what I'm about to say. I should've told you this sooner, when you told me everything, and I'm sorry I didn't, I just... I just didn't know how to tell you."

"Okay, you're starting to really scare me," I say with a forced laugh. "W-what is it?"

"The man who killed your mom... He's my dad."

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