Iris's POV

I sit on the school basketball court with a book in my hand and a bottle of apple juice by my side. Maybe it is yesterday's events but I can't bring myself to focus on the book I am reading and instead, my eyes keep drifting to Kevin who is right now dribbling the basketball.

He keeps flashing me his beautiful smiles as he practices with his teammates and we communicate through such periodic glances. After a while, their coach whistles and announces a break for them, and Kevin comes jogging to where I am sitting.

"You look nervous!" he observes.

"I am nervous!" I admit.

A chuckle escapes his mouth. "Don't be! I am with you! Why would you be nervous?" he asks.

"It's not about you Kevin. It's about Karen. I am nervous about her." I sigh.

He sighs and looks around at the dispersing people around us before speaking again. "Hey..." his hand takes mine in his, "Nothing is gonna happen to her! We're gonna find her and we're gonna bring her back! Okay?" he assures.

"Okay!" I sigh.

"Okay!" he chirps.

"OKAY!" I scoff.

"Maybe okay is our always!" he smirks.

"Shut up!" I smack his arm lightly.

"I'll see you after school okay?" he asks and I nod. He goes back to the locker room to freshen up for our next class.

I'm called the school's classic nerd with her popular best friend, Karen Hill, because I mostly don't engage in idle talk but keep to myself reading books, doing homework, or, of course hanging out with Karen.

But what I don't understand is, what made Karen send the same letter to Kevin. I rarely talked to him but Karen was always pretty friendly with him.

The rest of the day passes quite fast with me paying attention to none of the classes, just doodling away in my books, or trying not to fall asleep with my brain soaked in thoughts about Karen.

When the bell rings for the dispersal, I hurriedly shove my stuff inside my bag and rush downstairs when, to my sheer bad luck, I find myself blocked midway by Hannah Grey and her gang, the great feminine bullies of our school. And today, for some reason, they decided to target me. What a great day?

"Ah, ah, ah, why in such a hurry, nerd?" she asks in a high-pitched mocking voice.

"Move, Hannah!" I command.

"You got some guts girl! Why so serious today, huh?" one of her friends tease.

"Because your mom fell into a pit!" I yell at her face and try to push them and make my way through but Hannah steps in front of me and shoves me by my left shoulder. Anger rushes through me along with the blood in my veins and I clench my fists tight.

"Say that again bitch! Try that one more time and I will kick that fat ass of yours!" she screams as she grips my forearm tight.

"Hey, what's going on in here?"

I hear the voice from behind. Kevin. I thank the heavens above for sending him here at the right time.

"There's your boyfriend! Maybe that's why you were in a hurry, weren't you? You wanted him to-" she starts to say but Kevin interrupts her before she can say something outrageous.

"Stop it, Hannah! And let go of her!" he orders. Then, when he sees that she doesn't, he angrily pulls them apart himself. He throws a dirty look at Hannah and the girls and then, grabs my wrist, pushes away the girls and he pulls me away from them.

I take a moment to process what just happened. He drags me out of the building and we walk, hand in hand, in front of all the students, confirming whatever Hannah just said. I come to my senses and roughly pull away my hand.

"Kevin!" I yell.

"What?" he asks.

"What do you think you're doing?" I fume.

"I thought you would thank me for helping you, not scream at me like this," he says.

"Well thank you for that...but you didn't have to take my hand like that and pull me out of the school! Who do you think you are, a movie star?" I argue. I knew I didn't like this guy from the start.

"What's wrong?" he asks folding his hands.

"Didn't you hear what Hannah just said?" I ask.

"That I am your boyfriend? Why...you don't like it?" he smirks. 

There, now he is flirting with me. I don't understand why Karen used to hang out with this guy. "Don't flirt with me, Kevin! I am not your type!" I warn.

"Well how do you know my type?" he asks stepping closer.

"Kevin...this is seriously not the time for this. We have to focus on Karen. Stop flirting with me!" I admonish.

"Fine!" he raises his hands in surrender. "But Iris, listen to me. You have to stop giving so much importance to what others think of you. Because if you want to be safe and comfortable, that thought will only contribute to the contrary. Besides, we know ourselves and what's going on between us, then why on earth should you feel bad?" he asks.

"How do you know that I care about what people think of me?" I counter.

"Firstly, you just proved it and secondly, Karen told me!" he replies.

"Why did Karen say all this to you? How much do you even know about me?" I ask.

"A lot babe, a lot!" he chuckles.

"She was that friends with you?"

He sighs. "We'll talk about mine and Karen's friendship later. Now, let's head to her house. Don't we have the stuff to do?" he asks and I nod.

He drives his car to Karen's house, the entire drive consisting of him trying his best to flirt with me and me ignoring him. All he is does is annoy me and the dude doesn't even notice that.

Once we reach her door, I exchange an assuring glance with Kevin before ringing the doorbell. After about ten seconds, Alice opens the door and greets us.

"Kevin! Iris! Hello!" she greets us sounding a bit surprised at our arrival.

"Hi, Alice! How are you?" asks Kevin.

"I am fine dear, how about you guys? Come inside!" she invites and we step inside, Kevin after me.

"How was school today?" Alice asks as we walk inside.

"Same as always, boring!" shrugs Kevin as we sit on the couch.

We look around for a second. "So, what brings you here?" she asks.

"Well, we just want to..." I trail off, not know how to drop the subject. Luckily, Kevin helps.

"See Karen's room. We want to search for any clues or something that would lead us to her." completes Kevin.

"But why her room?" asks Alice.

"Where did you get the letter from, Alice?" asks Kevin.

"It was kept on her bed!" replies Alice.

"We want to search her room, just to be sure! You know, because it's Karen, what if we find something?" Kevin asks, as a matter of factly.

"Okay, then! Come on!" she sighs. "You want something to drink?" she offers.

"I'll have a glass of water, Alice," Kevin tells politely and she nods, leaving for the kitchen and we jog upstairs to Karen's room. It looks the same as I saw it about two months ago but a lot more cleaner.

'So, any clue where to start?' asks Kevin. I shake my head.

I sigh and sit on the bed and it squeaks. It smells like her...a mixture of lavender and lily. I've never been here without her. My fingertips slowly caress the white covers and reminisce the time we fought with pillows on the very same bed.

"Iris?"

"Hmm....".

"What happened?" he asks sitting on the bed.

"Just... thoughts..." I shrug and he smiles.

Alice brings in the water and Kevin thanks her before she leaves.

"You have the letter right?" he asks and I nod, fishing out the letter from my bag and handing it over to him.

He goes through it and then clicks his tongue. "Same as in my letter, broken piece of mirror and another letter beside it!" he announces.

"Hmm..." I hum again, feeling lethargic. For some reason I can't explain, I don't want to do anything. I feel weak and tired.

"Iris? What's wrong?" asks Kevin, sounding concerned.

"I don't know, Kevin! I feel weak, I feel tired. I don't feel good. I don't know what's happening to me!" I admit.

"Hey..." he takes my hand in his and crouches in front of me, "Come on! We'll just search the room, find whatever we need and we'll go home and you can rest, okay?" 

"It's not physical, Kevin! It's my mind! I am always like this when I am scared or nervous!" I say looking into his beautiful green eyes. Despite his flirty behavior, Kevin knows when to be serious. And I have to admit, he looks gorgeous! 

"I get it. But we can't just sit here! Don't you wanna find our friend?" he asks softly and I nod. "So, let's start searching!" he chirps. I am glad he's also with me in this. Although, he a little spoiled, he isn't as bad as I thought he is barely thirty minutes ago. So far, he proves to be an absolute gentleman with a little flirtiness. 

We begin with her dresser. Of course, it's messy. Papers scattered everywhere, some books in a holder, some left open but strangely all the pens, pencils, etc, are neatly displayed. We open the drawers and search but, in vain. I frantically flip the papers and turn the books.

In the haste, I hiss, feeling a sharp sting on my finger. Instinctively, I yank my hand away to find my forefinger covered in blood.

"Shit!" Kevin curses and quickly grabs my finger to examine it.

I giggle at his concern for such a small thing. "Kevin, I am okay! It's just a small cut!" I tell but he quickly grabs a tissue and wraps it around my finger.

"Are you hurt?" he asks but I shake my head.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it!"

He then returns to flipping the pages of the book and pulls out a broken piece of mirror that cut my finger and a piece of paper.

"This is what cut your hand!" he declares holding up a piece of broken mirror.

It clicks inside me right then and there. "The letter!" I exclaim, snatching the folded piece of paper from his hand. It's a letter as promised...from Karen. And this letter opens up a new gateway to Karen.     

*******

A/N: So what do you think is in the letter??? Don't stop here!! 😋