Still the One (Book 2 in the Four of Us Trilogy)

37 | Iris

And life's like an hourglass glued to the table

No one can find the rewind button, girl

So cradle your head in your hands.

-Anna Nalick, "Breathe (2 AM)"

Rachel

I looked from my mom to my dad, and Miles tightened his grip on my hand.

"What do you mean, she's after you?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

Dad sighed and stood up to pace around, something he often did when speaking – I always attributed it to his being a lawyer. Oddly, I remembered the scene in To Kill a Mockingbird where Scout described the way her father moved around the courtroom – with purpose, methodically. Dad was walking around the stage that way now, and I could tell he was about to launch into quite a story.

"Just so you all know, everything I am about to tell you was heard in open court." He took a deep breath and began. "Back in 2016, which would've been during your sophomore year in high school, I believe, I was retained by a family from the edge of Panama City Beach, closer in to Seaside. We'll call them the Martins. The Martins have a daughter that's your age, and we'll call her Sara. Sara was being bullied – relentlessly."

He looked around at us as we all listened with rapt attention. "I'm sure you can guess who was bullying her – Iris Tate. At first, I thought the Martins were overreacting by retaining a lawyer, but as the days passed, and more and more started to happen, I came to see that Iris Tate was truly making Sara's life a living hell.

"South Walton High technically did everything they could, because only two things actually happened at school – Sara's locker was vandalized and nasty messages were written about her on a bathroom stall. It was proven that Iris did both of those things, and she was disciplined accordingly. They refused to call it bullying because the definition of true bullying is very specific: the behavior has to be repeated over time and there must be an imbalance of power. The behavior was repeated twice, but the imbalance of power simply wasn't there. Sara was extremely popular: co-captain of the girls' soccer team, class president, dated the quarterback of the football team. Her parents have money, and she was in honors classes.

"However, Iris was what you guys like to call a 'loser.' She had hardly any friends, made average grades, was from a lower-middle class household, and wasn't involved in any extra-curricular activities. Anyone on the outside looking in would've expected Sara to be the bully, not Iris. But that simply wasn't the case.

"Anyway, Iris got wise to the system and stopped messing with Sara at school. It all started happening after school hours. And none of it ever disrupted what South Walton called 'the learning environment.' Therefore, they could not punish Iris for things happening outside of school."

Dad paused for a second and Miles spoke up. "What sort of things were happening outside of school?"

Dad stopped behind my chair and I turned to look at him. "It started small – text messages calling Sara a 'slut' or a 'whore.' Then Iris started lurking around their house, never doing any damage, and never caught by the police. But they all knew it was her. Eventually, Iris came onto Sara's boyfriend, Sawyer. She told all sorts of lies about Sara in order to try to get him to break up with her."

I stiffened. This was sounding more and more like what Miles and I had been going through with her.

Dad continued. "It got to the point where Sawyer actually broke up with Sara. Not because he believed Iris' lies, and not because he wanted Iris, but because the drama of it all was too much for him to handle. That broke Sara's heart, and pushed her to the brink. She confronted Iris, and she ended up attacking Sara..." He drew a shaky breath. "Iris took a pocket knife and sliced Sara's face from her eyebrow to her chin."