(A/N) For the date prompt "group date" from panaili on Tumblr
When they got in the car, Caitlin turned to her and said, "Okay, why did your dad seem to think this was just a girl's night out?"
Iris's eyes widened innocently. "I may have slightly misled him a little tiny bit."
"By telling him you were just hanging out with girls?"
"Yep, that's pretty much it. Come on! My dad has this stupid no dating until I'm sixteen rule. How else am I supposed to, you know - "
"Bat your lashes at Barry Allen?"
"Okay, fine, yes."
"You're a devious, underhanded, sneaky woman," Caitlin muttered, starting up the car. "I'm going to get arrested because of you."
Iris hugged her arm. "Thank youuuuuuu."
She was sixteen in a week, anyway. What difference did it make?
Caitlin's phone beeped, and Iris grabbed it out of the cupholder before her friend could pick it up and start texting back. Caitlin's driving was Indy-500 enough without factoring in texting. "It's Linda," she reported. "Awwww."
"What?"
"She's sick."
"Sick? What do you mean sick?"
Iris texted back, and read the reply. "Sounds a little like the Black Death."
"She was okay at school."
"She was queasy at school and I swear she looked like she wanted to yak during sixth period." She texted back Feel better.
"Tell her I hope feels better soon, but why did she have to bail tonight? Felicity bailed too. Now it's going to look like a double date!"
"That's bad?"
"Yes! Yes. Six people is a fun group thing! You know. Totally natural. Four people is completely a double date. This was not supposed to be a double date. I don't even know if Cisco likes me yet."
Iris rolled her eyes. Was Caitlin actually blind? "You're such a weirdo. Why don't you take this chance and jump his bones?"
"For a girl who's not allowed to date, you're very forward."
"For a girl with her own car, you're completely stuck in the Victorian era."
"Am not."
"Are too."
They squabbled about it all the way to the mall and inside. Cisco and Barry were clowning around at the fountain, flicking water at each other. But when they spotted the girls, they jumped up and smiled awkwardly.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hi."
They all stood around, shuffling their feet. Iris snuck a look at Barry and found him sneaking a look at her. She felt her face go up in flames and pretended she had an extremely important piece of lint that needed to be attended to right away.
"No Linda?" Cisco said to Caitlin, whose face fell ever so slightly.
"Sick," she said. "Felicity bailed too. So it's just us."
"Aw, too bad. But at least you're here."
Caitlin went pink and didn't say anything.
Cisco cleared his throat and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Soooo … arcade?"
Some hours later, Iris tumbled out the backseat of Barry's car and gave him one last quick kiss before dashing off across the empty parking lot. Several spaces away, Cisco hopped out of Caitlin's little blue car and came running toward her.
"My dad," she panted as their paths crossed, holding up her phone with the angry text blaring from the screen.
He nodded knowingly, holding up his own phone. "My mama."
They rolled their eyes at each other, sharing the pain of a ten o'clock curfew, before continuing on their separate ways.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" she squealed, jumping in the passenger seat.
Caitlin was still pulling her sweater down, her face pink as cotton candy under the dome light. "It's only ten after," she said.
"I know. I'm so dead. Drive!"
Caitlin and her nutty driving got Iris on her own front porch by ten-eighteen pm. After she waved at her friend and Caitlin zoomed off into the night, Iris took a moment to smooth her hair, check her buttons, and think of her cover story. By the time she opened the door, she was strolling, smiling, casual.
Her dad was watching the news. He muted it when she came in, and just sat, his arms crossed and brows raised. This was probably how he interrogated suspects.
"Hi, Daddy," she said brightly. "Sorry! Caitlin and I went to get ice cream after the movie and I guess we lost track of the time."
"Caitlin and you?"
"Mhmmm."
"Anybody else?"
"Mmmmmmno." She resisted the temptation to pull her collar up. Barry had sworn to her that nothing showed on her neck.
"All right. You tell that Barry Allen that when he takes you out on your first official date in a month, he'd better have you back by ten."
Her mouth fell open. "But my birthday's next week!" she cried before realizing she'd just confirmed her dad's intel (how had he obtained it? how?)
"Yeah." He unmuted the TV. "But you're grounded."
FINIS