It's Like Thunder ⚡︎ Barry Allen

14

"Oh my god, ew!" yelled the familiar voice. I pushed myself off of Barry and spun around to see Iris followed by Eddie. I avoided Eddie's glance more than Iris', feeling slightly awkward. I've felt a little weird talking to him ever since the other night when I found out he had a sister that looked just like me who died the same night I got my weird water powers.

"Uhm- this isn't what it looks like," I defended myself weakly.

"Well it looked like you two were making out," Iris said with a childish smile. Something told me she had been waiting for something like this to happen. Ever since we were younger, she was completely oblivious to Barry being in love with her and actually thought him and I would be cute together. For years she's dropped little hints to me and him, and all it ever did was keep Barry and I from being closer.

"It wasn't making out," Barry awkwardly scoffed.

"Yeah, Barry kissed me," I added, accidentallypushing blame onto him but rolling with it. Without thinking I said, "I don't even like Barry. He just kissed me randomly. Didn't mean anything." I felt a pang in my chest, and something told me I was feeling what Barry was feeling. I could only feel bad for hurting his feelings, but I'm not sure if he knew that.

"Oh- uh, yeah. I did. Kiss her. My bad," he scratched the back of his head absentmindedly and avoided eye contact with me.

"I am gonna go. See you guys later," I waved and walked downstairs, ignoring the urge to cry. And I don't cry often. It had to have been Barry's emotions mixed with mine, amplifying anything and everything I feel. I sat down at my desk and put down my head, trying to calm myself down for a moment.

"I didn't think I would get rejected so hard," I heard Barry's voice, and my head shot up. I looked around and saw him nowhere in sight. I realized this must have been that connection of ours at work. "I don't know, I guess I do kind of like her." What?! Ugh, if only I could hear what Iris and Eddie were saying!

"Hey, Arielle. You alright? You ran out pretty quick," Eddie walked up to me and asked. So I wish I could hear what Iris was saying.

"Yeah, I'm fine. He just threw it on me unexpectedly, you know? I don't know, he could've asked first." I sounded so childish. "I don't know when it started. Maybe it's always been there? Or maybe it's because she saved my life... Maybe we are just getting closer," I heard Barry say in my head. Eddie waved a hand in front of my face.

"Huh?"

"Anybody there? You alright?" I stared at Eddie blankly for a second, waiting to see if Barry would say something else. When he didn't, I snapped back to reality and replied to Eddie,

"Yeah. Sorry, yeah, I was just really caught off guard. I hadn't actually thought about him like that, so the kiss threw me off. I don't wanna talk about that though," I waved it off and he nodded in agreement.

"Then can we talk about the other night?" I froze and he noticed. "I'm sorry I never told you, but surely you can tell why."

"Yes, Ed. I get why. But does that mean that our whole friendship is... a lie? If I didn't look like your sister, would you even be my friend?" I asked a little more harshly than I meant to.

"I- Ari, look. Yes. I would still be your friend because you're a wonderful person, and I love being your best friend and co-worker. It just happens to be a little different because yeah, you look like my dead sister. So I'm sorry." Eddie stood up and shrugged, walking over to his desk. I felt really bad about snapping but I just couldn't focus on that. I couldn't focus on him, or Barry, or that statement about my 'kidnapping' so I left.

I stood up and left the station. I walked out the front door and just kept walking. I was spaced out because I could hear Barry talking in my mind, talking to Iris about how he was going to shrug off his sort of feelings for me as some hype from knowing I saved his life. Multiple times, I heard him think.