favorite liar | xavier thorpe

8. untitled

"Why are you fixated on Iris?" Xavier deflects.

"Because her and her sister think they're better than everyone else! I can't wait to crush Ophelia Hall tomorrow and watch that werewolf crumble. Already took care of Yoko too."

Iris can't bear to think about what Bianca might've done to her roommate, and she simply tucks her head into her arms from how she's resting on her elbows, not wanting to watch the way Bianca reaches for Xavier's hand and talks about what a nightmare Iris is.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

After they managed to escape the room while Xavier was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, Iris went straight to the infirmary where she saw Yoko bedridden with a horrible allergic reaction to some garlic bread.

Yoko then kicked her out of the room because she expressed how Divina was bringing her back some water and they were going to have a moment, so Iris did her due diligence as roommate and wingwoman and aimlessly strolled through the halls, not really wanting to go back to an empty dorm room.

"Should you be out right now?" Of course Xavier's voice causes Iris to spin around.

"I could ask you the same thing," she hopes she doesn't have guilt written all over her face. He can't read minds right? Wait, can he? "I'm here for Yoko," she then gives her rehearsed excuse to pretend her palms aren't sweating.

"And is Yoko in the room with us?" Xavier looks around as if she'll pop up out of nowhere.

"Are you stalking me?" Iris has the audacity to say as the two stand facing each other.

"You put magnets in our pockets didn't you?" He counters playfully.

"You caught me," Iris puts her hands up in mock surrender as they start walking next to each other down the hall.

"You excited for tomorrow?" Xavier starts easily, and Iris is glad he's not suspicious of her. Why would he be, anyway? She's just paranoid.

"More nervous, than anything. I don't have much upper body strength," Iris answers truthfully.

"Well, I heard Enid's been putting you guys through boot camp training," he jokes and Iris laughs softly, Xavier staring at her after she does so.

"What?" Iris's mind immediately assumes the worst as he stops walking and the two are facing each other again.

"I've never seen you laugh before."

"I doubt that," but Iris is lying. Laughing takes more effort than just smiling politely does, so she doesn't do it regularly.

"It's true," Xavier insists with a slight nod. "You should do it more often."

Iris doesn't really know how to respond to that, so she just walks on again, expecting Xavier to bring up a new topic of conversation like he normally does.

"Hey, Ir-" he reaches out a hand to stop her by the shoulder, but Iris feels her head get thrown back as soon as they make contact.

They're in some room. It's dark all around, so Iris can't really identify it. But Xavier's there. His hair is half-up, half-down. It looks nice like that. He's leaning in closer to her. Is she leaning in closer to him?

"-woah, are you okay?" Iris comes to her senses again and sees her and Xavier's hands are gripping each other's arms so she doesn't fall on the ground.

"Sorry," Iris straightens up quickly, shaking herself off slightly. "I'm fine. Sorry," she then keeps walking like she planned.

"You get visions?" Xavier asks, catching up to her easily, kind of excitedly. "Sorry, that was too strong. I just- my dad always talks about this stuff," he then explains. "I think that's really cool."

"Thanks?" Iris doesn't know if he was complimenting her or her great great ancestors that passed this power down to her. "But mine aren't that cool," she tries dismissing.

"I doubt that."

"Do you get any?" She then shifts, but is also genuinely curious. Does he ever see stuff like that about me? About Bianca? "Like, 'cause of your dad, I mean."

"Ah, not really, like that, I mean," he seems awkward talking about it. "I get some dreams, kind of. And then I can only interpret them through my drawings," he then explains.

"Cool," Iris says, genuinely. "Show me a few sometime."

". . . Yeah."