✗ | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 ; rafe cameron

THREE

The next morning, Iris couldn't get her mind off the horrifying events of the past night. She made her way down to the kitchen, just to face her brother eating breakfast alone.

"I made pancakes if you want any." he said, as he munched on his meal.

"Um, I think I might have pass on the breakfast today." Iris stated. She couldn't bare to eat at the moment. She just kept replaying the past events in her head, and it made it sick to her stomach.

There was an awkward silence between the two siblings until Riley broke it. "Oh, that reminds me. Did you hear what happened last night?"

Iris knew what he was going to bring up, but she had to lie since she didn't want her brother to know she was present at the party. She stared at her brother in confusion. "So, what happened last night? Are you just gonna sit there or are you going to tell me?"

"Oh, right. Well, those dirty Pogues had a party at the Boneyard last night, and JJ held a gun to Topper's head." Iris subtly flinched at his words.

"Is Topper dead?" she tried to show the least amount of interest in their conversation.

"Well, no-" Riley was cut off by his sister.

"Then I simply do not care." Iris said as she attempted to walk away in order to make this conversation shorter than it needed to be.

"You know, I thought you would. 'Cause those Pogues are now carrying guns with them." her brother said. "So just stay away from them as far as possible, okay?"

Iris turned around to face her brother one last time. "You say that as if you cared." Then she made her way to the front door.

"I'm going out again. Don't do anything stupid, stupid." she said, before leaving the house.

On her stroll across town, she came across three familiar faces as .he turned around a corner that belonged to the other side of the island.

"Jesus, I hope we didn't send you back to therapy again." Kiara referenced to the past night, as she, JJ and Pope encountered their close friend.

"God, no. I'd rather die than go back to that living hell." Iris took a deep breath. "Um, anyways, I just wanted to apologize for last night."

"Woah, woah, wait." JJ chimed in. "I pulled a gun on Kook who was about to drown our friend, and you're the one apologizing?"

Iris let out a soft laugh. "Uh, well. It just seemed like I did not but cry last night. I was basically useless."

"Hey. That's not entirely your fault." Kiara looked at the girl. "Everyone goes through that stuff. Plus, we couldn't anything about it either."

"Yeah, but right when JJ stupidly pulled out his gun that wasn't supposed to be pulled out!" Pope sputtered out in the direction of his best friend.

There was a long pause between the four until Kie broke it. "Well, anyways. Um, can we get you anything to eat?" she suggested. "The Wreck is right around the corner if you want..."

Iris smiled at her friend. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm already full from breakfast." she lied. She didn't want her friends to think that she was starving herself, since she had all of her appetite from the previous events. "I guess I'll see you guys around." she smiled as she started to walk back home.

"Um, okay. I don't know about you guys, but that seemed totally off to me." said Kiara, as she watched her friend walk in the opposite direction.

"Just leave her be. She'll be fine. It's just PTSD." JJ said, as he started to walk away.

"You say that like it not a big deal." Pope looked at him in confusion, before he and Kiara followed behind to get back to John B's place.

Back at the Stratford household, she walked into her brother and her friends all having a drink together in her huge backyard.

She leaned against the door with her arms crossed and cleared her throat very obviously, in order to get their attention. The boys whipped their heads towards her in unison.

"What do you want now?" Riley rolled his eyes when he saw her.

"So y'all are just hanging out 24/7 now, huh? Can't you guys spend at least one hour away from each other?"

"Nope, and that should be none of your business." her brother replied with a sly, playful smirk on his face.

"C'mon, Ris. You know you love us." Rafe chimed in their conversation with a flirtatious smile.

She looked at him like he was speaking complete nonsense. "Yeah, I love you guys. But no." she said in disgust as she rolled her eyes, and walked away to her room.

Her room was a complete mess. Her clothes were everywhere, her bed wasn't even fixed properly and she had empty water bottles around almost every corner. Iris sighed, clearly showing no motivation to clean up. Instead, she just flopped onto her bed and took in the fresh air that came into her room. And from that, she just broke down.

She thought that taking a shower would help benefit her situation right now. But it really didn't. All she could literally think about was her dead mom and her absent father. Her brother was completely fine on his own but she felt like it was still her responsibility to take care of him. Which it was.

She wanted to be there for him. She doesn't know how to do it yet.

A MESSAGE FROM ELORA!
i literally rushed the
ending of this chapter.
anyways, it's kinda
hard, trying to write
and develop a dysfunctional
character. i'm not sure what's
okay to write or not.