Chapter 25: A Fresh Start

Chapter 25: Chapter 25: A Fresh Start

Iris nodded. "Yes. I saw him put it on."

Zoey sighed again. "It still doesn’t seem right to just disappear without a word."

"I left him a note."

"A note? Telling him what?"

"Telling him to forget about last night."

Zoey’s jaw slowly dropped, surprised at Iris’s boldness.

"And..." Iris spoke even more quietly. "...to forget about me."

For several long seconds, Zoey simply looked at her. Then she sighed again and finally she asked softly, "Why?"

Iris lowered her eyes to her hands, and the room became quiet. Outside the apartment, a car horn echoed faintly from the street below. But Inside the bedroom, Iris spoke almost to herself.

"Yesterday morning..." She swallowed. "I still believed Jason loved me and would never betray me." She gave a small, bitter smile. "I still believed Vanessa would always be my best friend."

Her fingers tightened together. "But by evening..." She looked up at Zoey. "Everything I’d believed about the people closest to me had fallen apart."

Zoey remained silent, listening to Iris lay her fears and doubts out in the open.

"So yes..." Iris continued quietly. "Meeting Alexander felt..." She searched for the right word. "...wonderful."

A soft laugh escaped her. "He was kind. He listened to me talk about myself, about the people that hurt me. And he didn’t judge me one bit. I felt safe with him." Iris admitted, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. It was a sad, fragile thing.

She shook her head slightly. "And somehow..." Her voice became almost embarrassed. "It felt as though I’d known him much longer than one night."

Zoey smiled sadly."Then why? Why did you run?"

Iris sighed. "It’s just that one perfect night doesn’t erase what happened before it." She looked toward the window. "I don’t think my heart is ready to trust anyone again so soon."

Zoey reached over and gently squeezed her hand. "I understand." She squeezed her hand again, her optimism undimmed but her eyes betraying a hint of worry.

She waited a moment before continuing. "But don’t punish someone else for Jason’s mistakes."

"I’m not."

"You might be without realizing that you are."

Iris remained quiet, thinking about it, and realized that Zoey might not be wrong about that. Iris felt the familiar weight of insecurity knotting in her stomach. It was the same ache she’d felt at Jason’s apartment last night, watching him fucking Vanessa. She didn’t know Alexander well enough to trust him not to hurt her as well.

"You told me his name was Alexander, right?"

Iris nodded.

"And you’re worried he might turn out exactly like Jason."

"I don’t know what I’m worried about anymore."

Zoey smiled sympathetically. "That’s fair." She leaned back. "But not every man is Jason Iris. Some people deserve the chance to prove they’re different."

Iris smiled faintly. "I know." Deep down, in the cold, quiet part of her brain that Zoey had been poking at for a few seconds now, she knew the truth. She was trying to give herself an excuse, that she did the right thing by leaving.

After a pause, she admitted, "The truth is..." She laughed softly at herself. "Last night at obsidian, I only agreed to leave with Alexander and sleep with him, to get back at Jason for cheating on me with Vanessa."

Zoey rubbed her forehead. "That explains a lot."

"But..." Iris’s smile returned. "...once I was with him..." She looked genuinely puzzled. "Everything felt... easy. There wasn’t any pressure at all and I didn’t need to pretend to be someone am not. I didn’t even feel afraid that I was hooking up with a stranger."

She met Zoey’s eyes. "Have you ever met someone and felt as though being beside them was the most natural thing in the world?"

Zoey smiled knowingly. "I haven’t." She nudged Iris’s shoulder. "But it certainly sounds promising."

A thoughtful and comfortable silence followed between them and then Zoey suddenly frowned.

"Hold on. You don’t actually know anything about him, do you?"

Iris blinked. "...Not really."

"You don’t know his surname? His job? Where he comes from?"

Iris laughed helplessly. "I know his first name, and that he lives in an incredible penthouse."

Zoey’s eyebrows shot upward. "A penthouse?"

Iris nodded. "You should have seen the view Zoey..." She smiled as the memory returned. "...I’ve never seen anything like it. It felt like the whole city was beneath us."

Zoey whistled. "Which means he’s definitely rich."

"He certainly looked the part." Another silence settled between them, and Iris sighed. "But maybe that’s all it was...just a single night."

Zoey wasn’t convinced. "Maybe." She shrugged. "Or maybe life has a strange way of introducing people when we least expect it."

Before Iris could answer, Zoey added with a grin, "At least you’re finally free of the campus golden boy."

Iris snorted. "He doesn’t seem to think so."

"Yeah I know. He practically declared your breakup invalid. Something tells me he’s gonna be a bug headache."

Iris scoffed. "He can declare whatever he likes." Iris stood and walked toward her wardrobe. "It doesn’t change reality."

She pulled a medium-sized travel bag onto the bed and unzipped it.

"Ahh, what are you doing?" Zoey asked her.

"The new semester starts soon." She folded several shirts neatly into the bag. "And I haven’t visited my parents since the holidays."

Zoey watched quietly.

Iris smiled sadly. "I stayed here because I was working extra shifts at my part time jobs. I wanted to save enough money to buy Jason the anniversary gift I’d been planning for months."

She folded another blouse. "Now I suppose that money and the gift can finally be spent on someone who actually deserves it."

Zoey stood and walked over beside her. "Your parents are going to be happy to see you."

"I hope so. My mom has been complaining about it every week since the school break. I think going home for a few days is exactly what I need."

She zipped the travel bag halfway and looked out the bedroom window.

"A fresh start."