Love Notes

-Sunday July 15th, 2012

The weekend was pure bliss for Iris. She made sure to get all her necessary groceries and whatnot on Friday after work and then just locked the door for the weekend. Well, sometimes she went out for a run and sometimes Zayn came barging in if he was in the country, but the idea was bliss none the less.

This was one of those weekends where all she did was write. She spent the entire previous day behind her laptop and had gotten a lot further with the chapter she was working on. She was happy with the way it was turning out and it showed. While she made herself some tea, she hummed a made up melody and couldn’t help but smile.

Friday had been a lot of fun, she hadn’t expected to enjoy female company that much.(In a strictly platonic way of course.) She’d never been one for the ‘best friends forever’ deal and had had mostly superficial friendships during her high school years. One afternoon and evening with Morgan already felt more significant than that.

After the mani/pedi’s they’d parted ways with each other’s number programmed in their cell phones. Iris had felt light as air when she walked home. She certainly hadn’t expected a call so quickly. When she’d just entered her apartment, Morgan had called asking her if she wanted to go for a late dinner.

The spontaneity of the whole thing had lifted Iris’ spirits even more.

[i]Look at me now..[/i]

They’d talked about a lot of stuff. Granted, it was mostly Morgan talking, but they covered a lot of ground. Iris had tried to open up to the best of her abilities but still found it a bit hard. Morgan had understood and was perfectly content with babbling on.

They’d laughed. A lot. And Iris had felt normal.

It was nice.

As the kettle whistled, Iris glanced at the clock. It was four in the afternoon already. She’d been writing since eight that morning.

She decided she’d deserved a nice long bath and took her tea into the bathroom with her.

After setting things up just right, oil in the water, candles lit, radio playing softly and her book on the stand beside her, Iris slowly slid in the tub, groaning as the warm water immediately eased the tension in her muscles. Sitting at a desk all day was hell on your back.

She couldn’t have been in for more than 20 minutes when she heard a door slam. She sat up, startled.

“Bloom!”

Iris’ eyes widened.

The bathroom door was closed, but not locked.

“Stay there!!” She yelled as loud as she could. Yelling felt foreign to her.

“What?”

Zayns voice was getting closer.

Iris was scrambling to get out of the tub, not really thinking about anything else but getting to her big fluffy robe which was hanging just out of reach.

Just as she finally stood, the door handle was pushed down.

“Where in the world- WOAH!” Zayn’s sentence cut short.

The movement of the door had startled Iris and she slipped backwards, landing in the tub again with a loud splash. The water sloshed over the edge of the tub.

“I said ‘stay there’!” Iris wailed, shielding herself from him by clinging to the edge of the tub.

Zayn, who was still standing in the doorframe, stammered: “I thought you said ‘over here’!”

“Mate, are you-“ “Stay there!” Zayn bellowed at the voice.

Iris slowly registered the voice as being Harry’s. Dear lord, there were two of them.

“Zayn!” She wailed again.

“Yeah?” Her best friend carefully turned his head towards her, peaking out of one eye.

“LEAVE!”

[center]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[/center]

Both Zayn and Harry sat in Iris’ living room. Zayn was quiet, Harry was grinning.

“That was not something I needed to see from my best friend..” Zayn mumbled.

Harry chuckled at his friends’ discomfort.

“Well, what did you expect, coming into a bathroom uninvited?” Iris’ voice suddenly spoke.

She entered the room in some sweatpants and something Harry figured was a university hoodie, judging by the crest on the front. Her head was redder than he’d ever seen, which made him grin even wider. He couldn’t resist but poke at the figurative wound a little more.

“So it’s possible to wrangle an invitation for your bathroom then?” He questioned cheekily.

Zayn shot him a murderous glance and Harry was amused to see he’d managed to make Iris turn even more red.

“What are you guys even doing here?” Iris asked, desperate for a topic change.

“Well, we were both bored, so Zayn came over to my place. But then we were both still at a loss so we decided to come bother you!” Harry explained happily.

“Oh my god..” Iris groaned. “There needs to be a class for you guys or something. How do I get a life 101. Why am I your solution for being bored!?”

Harry chuckled. He liked frustrated Iris, she was quite witty.

“Well, what were you doing? Maybe we could join?” He questioned, undisturbed by her frustrated glances. Zayn was still silent, coming to terms with seeing his best friend naked, Harry figured.

“I was writing..” Iris answered.

“’bout what?” He countered again.

Iris narrowed her eyes at him. “For my second book.. It’s part of a series.”

“Romance, right? Can I see it?”

“No.”

Harry frowned. “Why not?”

Iris shrugged. “I never let people read my work when I’m still working on it, and I loaned the first book to Morgan.”

Zayn’s head shot up at this statement, smiling. Iris smiled back at him and nodded.

“You don’t have any more copies?” Harry questioned once more. He’d gotten intrigued by the idea of writing your own book and was curious to see what she’d made of it.

“I don’t keep have countless copies of my own book laying around, no.” Iris answered.

Feeling bold, she added: “ ‘sides, I supported you guys through buying your album and books. The least you could do is return the favour..”

Harry’s eyebrows shot up, pleasantly surprised by her answer.

He laughed.

“Sounds fair, can I get it at a general bookstore? Or should I look online..”

Iris blinked a few times, surprised he actually seemed intent on buying it. “Online, I think..”

Harry nodded, getting out his phone to look online.

“You do know it’s romance right? I mean, rather girly, at lack of a better word?”

Harry nodded with a smile. “I know.”

Iris made eye contact with Zayn, raising her eyebrows in question. Her best friend just shrugged. “He also watches the Notebook, it’s probably better you don’t ask..”

“What’s the title?” Harry asked, apparently having found the right website.

“Tryst..” Iris answered softly. “Don’t you even want to know what it’s about before you buy it? You might not even like it..”

“Alright..” His hands paused and he looked her in the eye. “What’s it about?”

Iris blinked a few times. “Eh, well.. It centres around two lovers in the middle ages who agree to elope. They settle on meeting in a clearing in the forest between the castle and the nearest town. He is a knight, but she is just a lowly servant. When his king discovers the knight intends to elope with someone below his class and leaving the other knights, his ‘brothers’, the knight is captured and beheaded. The books in the series depict how their souls meet again in different times but are separated every time.”

Harry was silent for a while, then he smiled. “That’s wicked..”

Iris smiled, a little surprised by his genuine appreciation.

He was still fiddling with his phone, when suddenly he let out a victorious ‘hah!’.

Both Zayn and Iris raised their eyebrows at him.

“I’m able to get a preview, see the first three pages of the book!”

Iris rolled her eyes and stood up to get them something to drink, since it appeared they weren’t going anywhere. Zayn followed her into the kitchen.

“Are you sure it’s ok we’re here Bloom? We can leave if you want to keep on writing..” He mumbled, still a bit embarrassed by their earlier mishap.

“It’s fine Zayn, really.” Iris assured him. “I’ve been writing all day, I thought the bath would be my well deserved break but apparently it’s going to be social interaction instead..” She quipped with a small smirk.

When they both realised she’d brought up a very awkward ordeal again, a simultaneous blush spread over their cheeks.

Iris figured he couldn’t even have seen that much since she almost immediately fell down in the tub again, but the idea of it was the worst.

“Let’s head back in..” She mumbled, carrying three glasses of coca cola.

Zayn followed silently.

Though, of course, with Harry around, that silence was never meant to last long.

“This is so cool!” he let out once the two entered the living room again. “I want to read the rest now!”

Iris smiled and felt her cheeks turn red again. She wasn’t good about getting praise, especially about her work.

“Won’t you read it to us?” Harry suddenly questioned, eagerly holding out his phone.

Iris frowned. “What? No! Why? You both read it yourselves!”

The words came out hurried and strung together. His question had genuinely thrown her.

“Why not? The way you spoke about their story.. the way you watch it unfold.. I’m sure you could do it more justice than the voice I’ve got in my head.” Harry explained, still holding his phone towards her. “I’m curious to see how you’ll bring them to life.. literally.”

Silence hung in the air for a moment.

Zayn thought his eyes would genuinely pop out of his head when he saw his best friend slowly reach for Harry’s phone. She didn’t say anything else, she just started reading softly.

[i]“ ‘Asher, you should be certain of this. He’ll never let-’ His calloused finger touched my lip and I stopped as if stunned. The same hand that I’d seen wielding a sword so swiftly this morning as the knights trained in the courtyard felt heavy as it rested on my hip.

‘Lady Adelaide..’ Oh god, the tremor of his voice..

‘My heart is yours and yours alone, fighting for the kingdom means nothing to me if that very kingdom forbids me from wedding the woman I’ve longed to be with for so long.’

His face was inching closer and I could feel his hot breath on my jaw.

‘We will start anew, together. We will be in a place where these restrictions don’t matter, I give you my word.’

As his lips ghosted over my neck, half of me was frightened someone would see and half of me was trying to stop my knees from failing me. All I could muster was.

‘I am no lady..’ ”[/i]

Iris bit her lip and stopped. “I write every other chapter from her perspective, the others in his..”

She handed Harry his phone back. At that moment, the curly haired boy was not afraid to admit he’d been hooked by her voice.

“That was [b]not[/b] three pages!” He protested. “Keep going!”

Iris shook her head and busied herself with a cushion on the couch.

“It’s silly, you get the gist of it. Why don’t we watch a movie instead?”

Harry, ready to protest once more, caught the look in Zayn’s eye and slumped back into his chair, stuffing his phone back in his pocket. He would get her to read more, one way or another. He had a feeling no one could tell that story like she could..

Notes