Tragically Beautiful

Chapter 12: Not Working

Hi everyone! If you didn't read the last chapter, here is a basic summary of what happened to Ally:

On the day she was turning seventeen, her boyfriend of one year raped her when he was drunk. She was taken to the hospital and everything, and once she's there, she is told that her brother Seth has died in a car accident, along with all the other passengers in the car, including Darren (her boyfriend). Her mother has an old past with drinking when Ally's father left, and she starts it up again after Seth's death. That's basically the main points of Chapter 9!

As I open my eyes, I realize that the room has gotten much darker, the sun barely visible below the horizon now. I rub my eyes and force my body out of bed, shuffling my bootless foot into one of my cheetah slippers. My stomach grumbles as I open my phone to look at the clock.

Five twenty one.

"Well now that you're up," Iris says and I nearly jump out of my slippers at the sound of her voice. Laughing, she grabs her purse hanging on her closet.

"Jesus, you scared me," I say, still trying to catch my breath.

"You wanna get something to eat?" she asks as she opens the door.

"Yeah, just give me a sec," I say, pulling off my comfy slipper. My stomach gurgles loudly as I pull on my light cardigan over my dress, and I slip on a matching white sandal. I quickly rake my good hand through my hair and look once in the mirror, and decide I'm ready.

"Let's go."

~

Iris is a terrible driver. She runs almost every stop sign and nearly hits some kids playing street hockey on our journey to find a restaurant.

"I'm surprised you came back tonight," I say quietly, hoping she'll reveal her reason for returning to our dorm before Sunday.

"Yeah me too," she replies flatly, her hands suddenly tensing around the steering wheel. I choose not to ask any more questions but she continues her explanation.

"Liam is seeing someone," she says, her voice cracking at the end, "I went over there last night to apologize for last weekend, and when I went to kiss him, it was different. He wasn't... into it, so I asked him about it and he told me he had met someone."

I am silent, encouraging her to continue.

"It's just so damn hard, ya know? Seeing the one you love, love somebody else. I just... I just wish I knew if he still loved me," she sighs, and I reach my hand out to rub her shoulder reassuringly.

"He does."

"How do you know?"

"It's the way he looks at you that gives it away," I say. I've seen the way the two of them look at each other whenever I see them talk. The way he got mad when Iris kissed Niall at that party last week, the way they always argue with each other.. I knew from the minute I saw the identical bird tattoos that they loved each other, even if they didn't know it themselves.

"You mean like the way you look at Harry?"

I feel my cheeks flush with heat, and I find myself struggling to form words.

"I-I do not love Harry," I say as serious as I can, but I fail terribly at it. The question completely throws me off guard, that's all.

"I never said you did," she says smirking at the road in front of us.

"So, where are we going to eat?" I ask, begging to move on from this conversation.

"This grill I always go to, they make a mean burger," she says, and suddenly guilt washes over me as I remember Zayn's invitation to dinner. This is probably the place he was talking about.