Dear Iris [h.s]

chapter twenty four.

Harry Styles

Last night, out on that walk with iris, I didn't feel like a burden for once in my life.

Now I'm sitting here on my bench, the one we walk by all the time on those late night walks of hers, and I'm reading through Romeo and Juliet to try and write a whole piece on it, however now all I can think about when I read that play is Iris.

I'd be lying if I said I came down here hoping for some alone time. I know Iris often comes here to sit and draw, or sit down on that field in the midst of the other families having picnics beneath the sun. I thought I might have seen her, I hoped that I might have seen her, but it was her brother who was first to sit down next to me instead.

"I apologise, on both my behalf and Georges, for putting your sister through that at the town hall." Thomas admitted, sitting next to me and lighting a cigarette like we're friends, as if he wasn't throwing punches my way less than 48 hours ago.

"George can't say sorry himself can he?" I muttered, ignoring his presence.

"George is out of town." Thomas explained, sitting back and taking a deep breath. Those words set relief flying over me, things are always better when George isn't around. "No excuse to go and crack on with my sister though, he's gonna take her out when he's back so don't go getting involved with her. Please just let her become somebody else's problem."

The way they talk about Iris is absolutely awful. All she is to them is a convenience and whilst I have my mum and Harper, Iris doesn't have one member of her family that doesn't see her as this problem they have to carry around. I can't even begin to imagine how shit that must be, at least I have Harper. Iris has nobody.

"What could Iris Grace have possibly done that have you and your dad spending every second of your life hating her?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. "With all due respect, how do you guys spend so much time hating somebody just because they wanted to paint?"

"You wanna know?" Thomas asked, to which I nodded. "It's not about the painting shit, it's the fact she won't do anything to fucking help herself."

They actually get so full of rage when talking about Iris that it fills me with so much sorrow. I used to be quite rude to her, and now I feel so damn guilty for it. I know I shouldn't be a friend of hers, but I want to be. I just want her to know not every single person on this planet is against her.

"She had this guy right, his name was Andrew. Proper nice lad and all that, he worked in the tailoring industry, his dad was like the CEO of some shit so he was pretty well off and somehow, fell in love with Iris." Thomas chuckled, "This was about two three years ago, Iris is like 20 right? I remember they went out for her 18th birthday so must have been two."

It feels wrong that Thomas is telling me this, it feels really like an invasion of privacy, but my curiosity is getting the better of me and although I should probably walk away, I can't.

"But fucking Iris Grace is too in love with herself to ever give somebody a second thought," Thomas shook his head. "He asked to marry her you know, he was gonna move to sweden for work so proposed to Iris to take her with him, bought a house in Sweden too."

Now this does feel like an invasion of privacy.

"Well, I'm sure whatever happened-"

"She said no." Thomas interrupted me despite my attempt to end the conversation and head back home, not wanting to dig my nose into someone else's business. "Iris said no."

So Iris had someone she loved, who loved her too by the sounds of it and he asked to marry her but she said no. That was it? The end of their relationship? Then again, if this was two years ago, Iris was 18 and how are you supposed to make decisions like that when you've only just become an adult?