Littleton Colorado, May 29th 2005

Friday, 3:15 p.m.

Riker's P.O.V

I watched in slow motion as Iris stormed out of the building. I couldn't see straight I was so mad. I didn't have time to do any of that though, because as soon as the doors closed behind her, everyone that was watching jumped on Mckenzie and her friends, yelling at them for hurting her feelings like that.

In a way, Iris called her and her friends out for what they've done this past year. She showed everyone that Mckenzie is just a fake and a jerk, and that nobody should ever be scared of her. I ran out the building and off of the school grounds and up the sidewalk faster than I've ever run before. She had called Iris the unspeakable, and she's probably sobbing her eyes out right now. I didn't even give it a second thought when I reached her door and threw it open. April and Martin saw me and jumped up from their spot at the couch and ran over to me bombarding me with question's like "What's wrong?" and "What the heck happened today?"

"I'll explain later, where is she?"

They pointed upstairs to her room and I ran up the steps and threw her door open. I walked inside and saw she wasn't there. The window was open so I knew that's where she was. I carefully walked out onto the roof and turned the corner. That's where I saw her. She was leaning up against the wall, her knees cuddled to her chest with her head down and her arms wrapped around her knees. I saw her body shuddering with sobs. I quickly walked over to where she sat and sat down next to her, pulling her crying form onto my lap. She immediately wrapped her legs around my chest and threw her arms around my shoulders with her head buried in the crook of my neck.

"Sshh." I whispered stroking her slightly tangled hair and rubbing soothing circles on her back. It took about ten minutes for her body to stop shaking from sobs. Now tears were just tracing down her face and she was sniffling. She pulled her head away from my neck and looked me in the eyes. Her eyes were red and glossy, the tip of her nose was red and there were tear tracks all the way down her red cheeks. Her usually pink lips were now a red color and her hair was slightly rumpled. I started wiping away at her wet cheeks and kissed both of them. She stopped crying and just hugged me. Tighter then she's ever hugged me before. She looked vulnerable and weak and desperate, compared to her usual happy, confident, sarcastic self.

She pulled away again kissed my cheek. "Thank you." She whispered, even her voice sounded quiet and weak.

"Anytime." I replied with a small smile on my face. She slightly smiled, or at least tried to, before she looked back down to the ground. I cupped my fingers around her chin, bringing it back up so she'd have to look at me. I rubbed circles into her chin. "Mckenzie couldn't make you cry that hard for that long. What's up?"

Iris's P.O.V

I would be ashamed of someone seeing me cry like this. Everyone thinks I'm so tough and happy all the time. But, I'm still human, I have feelings. Everything Mckenzie has done to me over the year still hurt. I was glad Riker was here. I hugged him hard and pulled back to kiss his cheek. "Thank you." I whispered. Gosh, why does my voice sound so weak?

"Anytime." He said back, with a small smile on his lips. I tried to smile back, but it just wouldn't come. I looked back down for a moment, before I felt his fingers gently cup my chin and bring it back up to look at him. He was gently rubbing my chin with his fingers before he spoke,

"Mckenzie couldn't make you cry that hard for that long. Whats up?"

I knew this was going to come up sooner or later. I took a deep breath, trying to figure it out for myself. I leaned my head back on his shoulder, and he immediately wrapped his arms back around my back. "Remember that day we met? When we were talking in the library? And I started to say how I did have a friend once?" I felt him nod his head yes, so I continued. "Her, name was Amanda. She was my best friend when we still lived in our first house in Georgia. She had bright red hair, and green eyes. She reminded me a lot of you with her personality." She was sweet, polite, and caring. A perfect mix to my hyper, sarcastic self. We were attached at the hip. We basically lived in each other's house. Once day, two months before I was moving, her and her parents were coming back from a vacation they took to Disney World in Florida. It was pouring rain, and they were on the highway. The car hydroplained and started sliding all over the place. Before it fishtailed into an SUV and flipped over a couple of times. They all died instantly." I didn't notice I was silently crying again until I stopped talking. Riker was still holding me tight and rubbing my back. He rubbed past a big bruise I had and it made me flinch a little. I have five years worth of bruising all over my torso, so I'm still a little sore. He seemed to notice this and started rubbing a different spot.

"Then what happened?" He whispered in my ear.

I took another deep breath. "The funeral was next week and I refused to cry in front of anyone. I knew that Amanda wouldn't want me to cry over her. Almost every night I cried myself to sleep. My parents never heard me because I didn't want them too. The last thing I wanted was sympathy. That's when I started building all these walls around me. At school everyone would give me a sad smile or a hug. Even the bullies that tortured me everyday would stop me in the hallway and give their condolences. When we moved, the new school was terrible. Every single one of those kids was mean and hateful. They would literally slam me into the wall every chance they got. I never told anyone, not even my parents. I didn't want them to worry for me. They would just go tell the principal and he would yell at the students doing it. Making the students label me as a "Tattletale." And only beat me up worse."

I noticed how Riker tensed up during that part of my story. I pulled away for a moment to look at him. His eyebrows were knitted together and there was a slight frown on his lips. His eyes turned a darker color, filled with anger. I rubbed out the worry lines on his forehead and smoothed out his frown to form a smile. I leaned my forehead against his and finished the rest of my story. "The point is, I haven't really cried in five years. After her funeral I thought nothing could hurt worse than that, not even the bullying that I would come to face for the next years, or any bruises or cuts I got from it. So it wasn't worth crying over." I finished my story and felt great for clearing that up. I looked at Riker; he seemed lost in thought for a moment.

"And since you never had any other friends, you didn't have anyone to tell this too. You just kept it bottled up all these years?" He asked.

I nodded and said, "Why would I tell my feelings and troubles to someone who doesn't even care?" He nodded and I hugged him again saying," I'm really grateful that I met you and your family. You knocked down all these walls I've been building up. When I say you're my best friend, I mean it." I released from the hug. He immediately took my face in his hands and rubbed our noses together. I started giggling, which turned onto full out laughter. We decided to go inside before we fell off the roof from laughing so hard. After we climbed back in we just laid on the bed in comfortable silence.

Riker sat up "We just got our pool set up and we are gonna go swimming and having a BBQ later on. Do you guys want to come?"

Riker's POV

After we climbed back in and sat on the bed for a little while, I remembered that my parents wanted me to ask her if her and April and Martin wanted to come over for our BBQ and swimming. She looked a little hesitant and a frown was starting to form on her features. I grabbed her hand and said, "Whats wrong?"

She looked over at me and said," I'd have to wear a bathing suit. I still have bruises and scars on my back. Everyone would see it."

I looked over at her."Oh. Well, how bad are they?"

She looked at me. "Pretty bad."

I pulled her into a slight hug and said, "Show me."

She nodded and got up to go into her closet. She came back out with a bikini top in her hands, and then went to the bathroom to change. She came back out and I gasped. There were scars all over her stomach, and some yellowish bruises still sitting on her skin. She turned around and her back had giant patches of purple, green and blue bruises on it. One right under her shoulder blades in particular, looked fresh.

I stood up and walked over to her, turning her around to face me, "Iris, some bruises on your back look new, was it Mckenzie and the others?" She nodded and I started tugging at her hand, leading her to the door.

"No stop! Riker my parents are gonna see it!" She whisper screamed as I pulled her down the stairs.

"You can't keep this a secret, this is really bad!" We stopped underneath the archway, leading into the kitchen where her parents stood making some brownies or something. I saw April look up and her eyes widened. She ran over and looked at her daughter closely.

"Honey, where did all these bruises come from?"

Martin then came over and asked, "Baby, who did this to you?"

Iris looked over to me and I nodded, motioning for her to tell them. She nodded back and said, "From school. Some on my back are new. All the others are, from all the other schools."

April looked on the verge of tears, but bravely held them back, just like her daughter. Martin took Iris into his arms and said, "You mean to tell me, and you've been bullied all these years, and never bothered to tell us about it?" It didn't come out as harsh, just a soft-spoken question.

Iris nodded and buried her head into his shirt, "You would have told the principal on them. It would make it worse.

April looked confused. "Why, honey?"

Iris turned her head away from her father and looked at her mom, "They would've beaten me up harder." This time tears started to prick at my eyes too. April noticed and pulled me into a small hug.

After she pulled back and wiped some stray tears that fell onto my cheeks she said, "Riker honey, go into our bathroom and get the blue jar of cream that's under the sink." I nodded and went over to their bedroom door, opening it and walking through the room and into the bathroom. I turned the lights on and opened up the cabinet. After retrieving the jar, I flipped the lights off. I went back into the kitchen to see Iris sitting up on the counter, with her back turned towards me. I gave the jar to April.

She put some on her fingers and said, " This is going to make them go away, but it's going to sting like crap."

I chuckled at her language. Blunt and to the point, no sugar coating, just like Iris. I walked around to the front of her and grabbed her hand. "Just squeeze my hand if it starts hurting too much." She nodded.

When April started rubbing the cream onto her back, I thought I was going to lose my hand. But Iris never screamed, she sat there without so much as a peep. After she was done and let go of my hand, I started rubbing it frantically, trying to get feeling back into it.

Martin chuckled and patted me on the back, saying, "Yep, she's a strong one. King Kong ain't got nothin' on her." Everyone burst out laughing, it was true. I grabbed Iris around the waist and helped her off the counter. She quickly pulled me into a hug.

April then came over and said, "We're going over to Stormie and Mark's in a minute so get changed. You can still go swimming, just wear a tank top or something and some shorts over your bikini in the pool."

Iris nodded and ran upstairs to change while I helped April put the icing on the brownies. I licked the spoon when she was done.

Martin sat down on the stool in front of us. "Thank you, I have a feeling she'd never tell us if it weren't for you."

I nodded. "It happens at our school too. I wanted to tell someone but she wouldn't let me. Its amazing that she can just brush it off like that."

"What happened today?"

I went on to tell her and Martin of what Mckenzie said, and what Iris said back. "I don't know where she gets her strength from. But I am proud of her for sticking up for herself without the need of violence."

April nodded and said, "If there is anything you don't call Iris, it's untalented."

She walked down stairs. "Ready?" She asked everyone. We all nodded and headed out the door.

I grabbed her hand and starting swinging it back and forth while we walked down the sidewalk.

"So, what happened after I left school?" She asked.

I started laughing recalling the memory, "After the doors closed nearly everyone that was watching pounced on Mckenzie, Brittany, and Ashley. Yelling at them for doing that to you and stuff."

She chuckled and said,"I wished I could've seen their faces. What did they look like?"

I shrugged "I have no idea. I was so mad I couldn't see straight. I ran out of the school and went looking for you right after you left. But I'm pretty sure I heard a smack when I walked out the door."

Iris looked disappointed. "Man, I miss all the fun..."

I laughed and slung my arm around her shoulders as we walked up my driveway and into the back yard. This is going to be awesome!

Yes this chapter is a bit short too, but I promised Friday and I'm going on vacation but I'll be back soon. Thanks guys!

Lots of love!

-Lora & Lizzie