Page 103 of The Fake Out

I put my arms around her, and she allowed it. (I swore I heard angels singing.) “I’m sorry, Iris. I’ll call again. I’ll do whatever I can to get him here, okay?”

While she didn’t hug me back, she also didn’t move away. “Yeah.”

“I mean it.”

She nodded against my shoulder, and I swore I heard a sniffle. A tiny piece of my heart broke off at that sound. I rubbed her back. We were having a moment. An actual sister moment.

After a beat, Iris pulled away and discreetly swiped at her cheeks. “I have to go pee before I meet with Aidan.”

Without waiting for me to respond, she jumped off the desk and trudged to the bathroom, shoulders bent in despair. And while the situation made me ache for Iris, it made me angry, too.

I was going to kill my father for making my sister cry.

I called four times in the next two hours. The first two times went to voicemail immediately. The second two rang and rang. I didn’t leave a message until the last call.

“I’m looking for Dale Sampson. This is Mae. Look, Iris wants you to come to her graduation. I don’t know why. You’ve been a crap dad. But Iris wants you there anyway. You owe her that much. Think about your kid for once in your damn life.”

I spent the entire afternoon alternately staring at my phone and fuming at myself for staring at my phone. If he didn’t call back, it was on him. Not me, not my mother, not Iris. He was missing out on knowing us.

After I kicked everyone out at closing time, Aidan lingered and helped shut down the computers.

I wanted to go home and eat my feelings. No, take a hot bath. No, no. Eat my feelings while taking a hot bath.

Aidan slouched by the door, his expression troubled.

“You okay there?”

His head jerked. “Oh, yeah, sorry. Actually. I had a question.”

I waited.

Cheeks pink, he opened and closed his hands at his sides. He said nothing.

I waited some more until I couldn’t take it anymore. “What did you want to ask?”

He cleared his throat. “Do you know if Iris has a date to the prom?”

Now I was speechless.

Aidan and Iris?

The two did spend a lot of time together. Aside from their two tutoring sessions a week, she’d met up with him a couple of times on the weekends “to study,” which was a huge lie. I’d found the movie ticket stubs.

But I’d seen them together, Iris doing her worst while Aidan was surprisingly unaffected and uber patient. Which only annoyed Iris more.

“You don’t have to look that surprised.” His cheeks flared red. “I like her. She’s cool.”

“You two are so different.”

His smile was small. “I like that.”

“So, ah, prom?”

“I thought I’d ask her to go. You know, as a friend, or whatever. Nothing serious but, well…” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “She’s Iris and, I don’t know…”

“She is pretty terrifying.”

He huffed a laugh. “Yes, exactly.”