Iris

Chapter Fourteen

Nobody would tell me what happened. For two days, they let me sit and brew, think myself to have gone mad. I knew what I saw, or at least I thought I did, but whenever I asked the conversation was swiftly turned to something else. Sam's friends avoided me. Sam avoided me. Everyone avoided me.

Then two days later came the hearing: the same group of boys who had been present in the yard when the situation took place were crammed into the living room, surrounding me as I sat on the couch. I felt like I was being interrogated.

"I pissed off Sam."

It was my response to the first question I was asked: "What happened?" The corner of Sam's lip twitched with a faint trace of amusement at my reply. It hid in the corner of his mouth, a tiny tilt of humour. Otherwise, he managed to maintain his blank face rather well, standing opposite me with his arms folded over his chest. His eyes were difficult to read. Still, Black was far better at looking detached.

Jared pressed on with his questioning. "Anything else?"

"And then…" I frowned, glancing down at my fingers. I was tempted to pick at the thread that had come loose from the couch, but forced myself to sit still.

And then what?

I could hardly confess to seeing my cousin turn into a huge wolf. Surely I'd imagined that - dreamt that part up. Things like that didn't happen in real life… right?

"And then?" Embry prodded gently.

"Wolves," I muttered. "Big wolves. Five of them."

"Where did they come from?"

"It was you," I said, meeting Embry's gaze. "And Sam. Paul, Jacob, Jared. You… changed."

I shook my head and returned my gaze to my hands. I fiddled nervously with my fingers, making complicated shapes as I avoided eye contact. "But that couldn't have happened," I whispered. "It's…"

"Impossible?" Seth offered.

I nodded. Yes. Very much impossible. So why was I so convinced that it was true?

Sam nodded sympathetically, before crouching down in front of me. He took my hands into his. His brown eyes were warm. It was the first time I'd seen them look so warm in so long. I thought I might cry. "Are you scared of us, Iris?" he asked quietly.

It was a stupid question. I gave him a look that told him it was a stupid question.

"Do you trust us?"

"When you're not a massive wolf trying to rip me apart, sure I do."

He snorted a laugh. "And you remember the legends, don't you? That the elders used to tell."

I nodded, yes. I had the feeling that he was trying to oversimplify everything, as if talking to a child who didn't quite understand what was happening, trying not to set the kid off and into a fit of tears. Normally, I would have been upset, but I felt like this was something I didn't really want to understand.

"Well, they're true," Sam said. "At least, the legends about us, the legends about the protectors."

I wasn't sure what the correct way to respond to that was. I was surprised I had managed to navigate up to this point, in all honesty.

"Iris?"

"Huh."

"You're not going to go into shock, are you?" Quil was only half-joking.

I shook my head. "I'm fine."

Sam didn't buy it. I didn't blame him. I could tell from the way he looked at me, the tightening of his hands around mine.

I flashed him a bright smile. It only just reached my eyes, but it was better than nothing. "Really, Sam, I'm okay," I assured. "Can I go now though? I need a shower."

It was a lame excuse, and it was obvious to everyone that I was trying to find a reason to leave. Sam looked at me uncertainly, and reluctantly released my hands before standing up and stepping back to give me room to stand. Paul floated nearby as I stood on shaky legs, but I managed on my own, and was out of the room quickly.

I wasted a lot of time before I actually got around to the whole showering thing. I spent a long time in my room, picking out the clothes I would wear when I got out. It wasn't something I needed to think about, but thinking about something mundane distracted me from the whole my-cousins-are-wolves-what-the-hell situation. Walking the short distance between my room and the bathroom was an ordeal that I somehow dragged out to a three minute process. And then I was in the bathroom, shutting the door and locking it, catching myself in the mirror. I somehow managed to waste another fifteen minutes surveying my appearance. It was no wonder Sam had looked so worried: I looked like I'd been hit by a car. My skin was dull, pale. My hair was tangled and dry-looking, a mess atop my head that I had tried to make look cute. My eyes were tired, the space around them dark from sleepless nights. I kept having nightmares about what happened at the beach.

I sighed, before turning towards the shower. I let the water warm up while I peeled off my clothes and pulled the tie from my hair. I stood in the shower for a while before I realised I was wasting water, and reached for my shampoo. I lathered mindlessly, pausing only to turn up the hot water, and watched as the shower glass fogged up. I rinsed, before moving on to scrub at my tired skin. Normally I was too lazy to bother with conditioner, but my hair was damaged and I savoured the distraction of the hot water on my back. I twisted the tap further, steam surrounding me, before I reached for my bottle of peach-scented conditioner, combing it through my wet hair. I let the hot water fall on my back once I'd rinsed all the suds from my skin and washed the conditioner out of my hair. I stood in the water for some time before I was jolted by the sudden realisation that I had spent over an hour under the water and wrenched the taps off.

I squeezed the water from my hair and patted my skin dry with my towel, stepping out of the shower and reaching for the clothes I had set out earlier. I dressed quickly, not paying much notice to the angry red skin on my legs or the foggy mirror I could no longer clearly see my reflection in. I figured I wouldn't want to: I doubted the shower had performed a miracle, and I was sure I looked just as worn out as I had before.

I sighed, reaching up to wipe the mirror down, before a wave of dizziness overcame me and I stumbled momentarily, slipping on a puddle of water and crashing to the ground spectacularly.

A/N: Posting two chapters to make up for not updating last week! Also because I don't really like this chapter ahaha