••••••Iris' POV••••••

"I don't wanna go..." I whine, pouting. "Iris, stop whining, and go put on your shoes." Oliver demands, frustrated with me. "But I don't want to go!" I rub my slightly red eyes, showing how 'tired' I was. "I don't care if you're hungover or tired, we have to go to school." Oliver glares at me, grabbing his car keys from the coffee table in the living room.

"My head hurts though.." I mutter, reluctantly putting on my sneakers. Oliver sighs, walking over to me. "Just drink a lot of water and be cautious today," He bends down, tying my sneakers for me, "I know how clumsy you are." He adds. I stare at him as he ties my laces, he's never done this before.

Before he could stand up straight, "Piggy back?" I ask, making my body go somewhat limp as if to convince him to carry me. "Iris, no. I have to carry my book bag." He declines, shaking his head. "You can carry me and I'll carry out book bags." I offer, smiling wide. Oliver stares at me before sighing in defeat, "Fine." He hands me his book bag which I easily pick up, throwing over one shoulder.

"Heavy?" He asks. "Nope." I reply, throwing my book bag over my other shoulder. He nods and I jump up on his back unexpectedly causing him to stumble slightly but he regains himself.

"Maybe give me a heads up next time?" He glances at me out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry.." I apologize, smiling sheepishly. "It's alright," He mutters, beginning to walk to the car.

He opens the car door and sets me down in it, careful to not hit my head on the roof of the car. "Did you actually want my help or did you use your 'hangover' as an advantage?" He asks, doing air quotes around the word hangover. "Ehh..both." I reply, grinning at him. He rolls his eyes and closes the door for me.

I chuckle, watching him walk over and get into the driver's seat. "Why are you forcing me to school anyway?" I ask as he starts the engine. "Because my mom doesn't know about what happened to you and if you don't go to school, she'll be suspicious." Oliver explains. "Fair enough." I shrug as we begin to drive to school.

**************

I walk out of English with Lucas by my side. "I hate English, it's so boring." Lucas complains, groaning. "How would you know? You're always asleep." I tease, laughing a bit.

"Not always. I was awake when you spoke back to her." He points out. "Yea, cause you later said you could feel the tension in the air while you were sleeping." I add, chuckling. "Actually, my exact words were 'there's a disturbance in the force', but you have a point there." He grins, chuckling.

"Iris! Lucas!" We hear a familiar voice call. Lucas and I turn around to see Terrence running over to us.

"What happened to you guys last night?" Terrence asks us, but it seemed more directed to me. "Uh..we forgot we were busy?" I try to lie. "All of you? Even Kayla, Adam, Ross and Oliver?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, we're all in a..uh club..." Lucas tries to lie as well.

Out of all of us, Lucas and I are the worst at lying, we can't lie if our lives depended on it.

"What kind of club?" Terrence asks, not deciding to just leave us alone.

"Chess club."

"Book club."

Lucas and I glance at each other nervously, realizing we said two completely different things at the same time.

"Book club."

"Chess club."

We glance at each other again, eyes wide.

"Uh...we're in a chess and book club." I say, smiling nervously. "Oliver is in these clubs too?" He interrogates, not believing us. I mean, who would? It's Oliver we're talking about. "We forced him to join them." Lucas explains.

"Okay...um I'm sorry if you didn't like the party, I heard Chad was being obnoxious." Terrence apologizes. "No, it's alright. The party was awesome." I tell him, smiling. He smiles back, "I wish we could've hung out more then." He winks at me, "Well anyway, I'm gonna head to the field now. Have a great lunch!" He adds, waving as he walks away.

Lucas and I let out a deep breath we didn't know we were holding. "We suck at lying..." I admit. "I know." Lucas replies.

We make our way to lunch, remembering to tell everyone that we're now "in clubs".

***************

"Everyone hurry! Oliver and Chad are fighting again!" Some sophomore shouts to everyone in the halls. Everyone runs from their lockers or the bathroom, or wherever they are, to where they were fighting in the parking lot.

I meet up with Kayla, Adam, Lucas, and Ross on my way there. "What's going on?" I ask them. "We don't know. We just heard about this." Adam answers.

We hurry over to the fight. Chad's friends are holding Oliver back from the severely bruised Chad.

"Whoa...what did Chad even do? He's never been this mad at him." Kayla asks the question on everyone's mind.

Oliver elbows one of Chad's friends in the face, knocking him to the ground. He then punches Chad's other friend in his ribs and throws him onto the floor.

Whatever Chad did to piss Oliver off must've been really bad. He doesn't even need our help this time.

Chad backs into the outside wall of the school. Chad has never done that before, he always fight back. Everyone sees Chad say something to Oliver and what seems like beg for Oliver to spare him. Oliver doesn't even hesitate before knocking Chad unconscious.

Everyone gasps. "It's the first time one of them has ever won..." Someone says aloud. "Oliver's the champion!" Someone else shouts. Soon enough, everyone is cheering for him.

Oliver pushes past the crowd of students and walks away, not wanting to hear their praise. Kayla, Adam, Ross, Lucas, and I run after him.

"Oliver, what happened back there?" I ask. He keeps walking, staying silent.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asks. He keeps walking, staying silent.

"What did Chad do this time?" Ross asks.

This time, Oliver stops walking for a moment, debating whether to say or not. Then he sighs and continues to walk forward to his car.

"Lets go Iris, we're leaving." He says aloud. "O...okay.." I mumble, slightly scared.

Adam stops me from walking forward by grabbing my arm. "Find out what's wrong, okay?" He asks, looking me straight in the eye. I nod and follow Oliver into the car.

He waits for me to get settled and then begins driving. Now that I think about it, someone could've followed us and saw me get in his car...but I'm not worried about that now.

"Oliver, are you okay?" I ask him after a few moments of silence. "No, no I'm not." Oliver replies, clenching his teeth.

"And why not?" I ask, my voice low. He sighs softly, "Iris...just don't worry about it.." Too late. "Oliver, please, I just want to know what's wrong. Just tell me. What did Chad do? It must've been really bad if you were able to knock him and his friends unconscious." I ask, almost begging for him to tell me.

"Dammit Iris! Please stop asking!" He shouts, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. I bite my lip and sink back into the seat, "Sorry..." I mumble, looking out the window of the car. It's silent the rest of the car ride, feeling the lump in my throat and trying to hold back tears that I knew were forming.

*************

I peek my head out from under the blanket a bit when I hear my bedroom door open and close.

"Iris?" He calls my name, his voice soft and low.

"Iris isn't here right now..leave a message after the beep...beep.." I say, my voice shaky.

I'm not gonna lie, I cried a bit when Oliver got mad at me. I've always been a crybaby, it's probably the worst thing about me. I stayed in my bedroom and didn't come out at all, not even for dinner. Ruby and Ms. Sullivan came to check on me a few times so I just pretended I was asleep.

The only person who hasn't checked on me(and I didn't expect him to)...was standing right by my bed at the moment.

"Iris, please let me explain." He pleads, sighing softly. "I thought you didn't want to..." I reply, retreating under the blanket. "Please just listen to me.." He begs, sitting down on the side of my bed. I sigh softly, "Fine..." I say but stay under the blankets.

"C-can I at least see you?" He asks, slightly pulling on the blanket. "No." I state simply. I feel him retract his hand as he sighs.

"Iris, I.." He pauses to find the right words, "About Chad...the reason I started a fight with him..it's obvious really," He chuckles softly, "Its because he was the one that spiked your drink." He explains. "He spiked it?..." I repeat.

I'm kinda shocked but at the same time, it was expected. I've had bad blood with him for a while. Well...his girlfriend really. Ugh, I hate her.

"Mhmm," He hums yes, "I threw Kayla's drink at him before I left the party with you, but I guess I wanted more revenge." He adds. I can practically hear his smirk forming.

"Oliver?" I call. "Yeah?" He replies. "Why did you get mad when I asked you?" I can feel him stiffen beside me, "I know I deserved it, I was being annoying and-"

"Iris, you're not annoying, okay? I guess I was just pissed about Chad and I took it out on you. I'm really sorry." He apologizes...and he meant it. Oliver sounded genuinely sorry. "Oliver, there's no need to be, it's okay-"

"No, it's not." He sounds guilty, "I shouldn't have yelled at you, you did nothing wrong. I really have to control myself-" I cut him off by grabbing his hand from under the blanket, "Oliver, I forgive you."

With those words, his fingers intertwine with mine and he squeezes my hand tightly. But I don't mind.

A while later, I yawn and feel my eyelids grow heavy.

•••••Oliver's POV•••••

Her light snores fill the silence of the room. Her hand is still intertwined with mine. I lift the blanket that's covering her and pull it out of her face, staring at her for a while. Perfect as always..

As I stare at her, replaying all of my memories with her. From the bad ones to the goods ones. From the ones when we barely knew each other and I was just a bully to now. I finally admit something to myself.

I like Iris Mitchell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MWAHAHAHAHAHAH

Don't you just love this chapter? CAUSE I DO!

I'm happy this dimwit finally figured it out. Now we're just waiting for Iris...if she ever does.. mwhahah

Oh! Right! You know the drill. If you enjoyed please like, comment, and leave feedback! Thanks! Bye bye!

~FT💖