Chapter Text
It was a Saturday night and Barry and Iris were at one of Derrick Fray’s infamous parties. Barry wasn’t really invited, but him and Iris were a package deal. Wherever she was, he was too, mainly to be Iris’s designated driver. Barry was a lightweight, so one sip of beer and he was black out drunk, so he just tried to refrain from drinking in entirety. Iris on the other hand was the opposite. She could drink for days and only get tipsy, which was weird because of her petite and skinny stature.
There were about 50 people at the party and Barry could not find even one person to talk to. He knew everyone of course, knew everything about them, but they didn’t know him. Every single person here were people in the “in” crowd. They were the hottest, confident, richest, funniest, and most arrogant people in all of Central City, and they knew it. Iris has always been one of the popular kids. She was always so outgoing and drop dead gorgeous that there was no way that she could be an outcast. She shares their looks, but she is the opposite of them on the inside.
About an hour into the party, Iris noticed that Barry was sitting on the couch by himself. She didn’t realize that she had ignored him this whole time so she plopped herself down onto the seat right next to him.
“Well hey there Iris. Are you sure you want your popular friends to see you with such a loser like me.” He joked.
“Hey you’re not a loser.” She said nudging him with her shoulder, “You’re just a little wall flower that’s all.”
“If you say so.”
“Anyway, a couple of us are playing truth or drink downstairs, want to join in.”
“I think I'm good over here.”
“Too bad, you’re coming anyways.” She got up from her place on the couch and dragged him by the arms off the couch.
"Why do I even bother with you.” He said with a smirk. Truthfully he would have done anything for her, big or little, but he likes to play with her too.
Downstairs there were 10 other people gathered in a circle with a bottle of vodka in the middle. He spotted Linda and Kristina, Iris’s best friends, sited next to Scott, Iris’ ex boyfriend , but they are still good friends. Then there was Eddie who has this huge crush on Iris and everyone knows it except for Iris of course. Every time Eddie so much as breathed next to Iris, Barry wanted to punch him. Eddie was a bad guy, a really bad guy, and Iris deserves someone genuine and real to treat her like the princess that she is.
“Who invited Allen?” one of the guys asked, even though he knew the answer.
“I did Derrick so fuck off.” Iris said with a laugh. “Can we start the game now?”
“Sure.” Linda stated. “Rules of the game are simple. First person picks another person and asks a very juicy question. If the person doesn’t want to answer the question then they take a shot of vodka, but you can only do it two times. I’ll go first.” She scanned the room for her first victim and finally stopped on one of the guys. “Derrick. If you screw anyone in this room, who would it be?”
Without hesitation Derrick blurted out “Kristina for sure, one hundred percent.” Kristina replied with giving a wink and blowing a kiss and everyone pretty much barfed after that.
“Ok my turn. Scott, my man. What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done in front of a girl?”
A look of fear immediately swooped over Scott’s face when he thought about his incident and rushed to the center of the circle to take a small chug out of the bottle. “Nah man, I aint telling y'all nothing.” He said with a laugh.
“That bad huh?” Derrick asked.
“You don’t even want to know, but anyway my next question is for Allen.”
“Oh, I’m not playing. I'm the designated driver.” He said. Barry really didn’t want to play, he didn’t want these random people learning things about his personal life and making fun of him even more than they actually do.
“Then just tell the truth, cmon I want hit you with anything too hard, I promise.”
“Fine ok, I’ll play.” He did trust Scott though. When he and Iris were dating he was always very nice to him and talked to him when he was over the house. Scott also told all the guys on the football team to stop bullying Barry and his friends too. Even though he did some really shitty stuff to her while they were together, he was a good friend to her now.
“Niiice. So, what was your first kiss like?” Scott asked.
“Really. Scott. That's your question?" Eddie said rolling his eyes.
Iris was actually intrigued to find out the answer. They never really talked about their relationships so Iris never knew about his first kiss. She knew he had one of course because he dated Becky Cooper for a while, but he never officially told her anything.
“It was freshman year. I took this girl to the beach to see the sunset, but then it started to rain so we took shelter in this little cave off to the side and we just started to make out in there.” Barry said with a grin on his face, feeling quite fond of the memory.
“Quite the romantic Allen. I’m impressed.”Scott said. “Ok who do you pick.”
“Umm, I’ll go with Eddie.” Barry only picked him to try and make him look bad in front of Iris. He knew Eddie had a bad reputation around the school so he wanted Eddie to spill some of his secrets. “In total, how many girls have you slept with?”
Eddie laughed and started to count on his fingers while whispering the names of all of them. When he got to his second hand he finally said “Nine girls.” He had with such a smug look on his face and looked at Iris to make sure she was impressed. Barry knew that she wasn’t though. Iris hates people like Eddie. Who go around sleeping with the first girl that gives them the time of the day.
“Okay my question is for Miss. Iris West. This is a two part one so if you don’t answer you have to take two chugs of vodka. Have you ever done drugs and if you haven’t, which ones would you like to try?”
As soon as the word “drugs” was said, Iris immediately froze. Drugs were a concept she didn’t want talk about, especially here and especially with all these people. Everyone was staring at her and the fear quickly turned to anger. “Fuck you Eddie.” She said as she took the bottle and took not one, not two, but four chugs of vodka, finishing the whole bottle. That definitely got her drunk and it definitely will make her forget about the pain she is feeling right now. Iris dropped the bottle of vodka on to the floor and stormed out.
“God you’re such an idiot.” Barry said as he gave Eddie the biggest death glare and raced after Iris to make sure she was ok.
“Dude.” Scott said exasperated. “Do you have to be such a prick all the damn time?”
“What? What did I say?” Eddie yelled, confused as ever.
“Her mother fucking died from an overdose you dumb ass.” Kristina said, angered by how insensitive Eddie was.
“How was I supposed to know?”
“It was literally all over the news when it happened, her father even gave a speech to the whole community about how doing drugs were wrong.” Scott said.
“God, she must hate me now!” Eddie said, slamming his fist into the pillow beside him.
“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.” Said Scott.
Outside, Barry chased after Iris down the long street in the cold air. “Iris slow down, please.” He yelled. After a while his long legs finally caught up with hers and he pushed her shoulder towards him so she could face him. He could see the tears streaming down her face and the reds in her eyes and he wished he had punched Eddie or did something to make him pay for what he did.
“Hey, I’m here.” He said, wiping away the tears from her face. “I’m here.”
Iris immediately gave him a bone crushing hug and sobbed into his chest. “I miss her Barry. I miss her so much.”
“Ssssshhh I know.” He said, rubbing her back with his hands and kissing the top of her head. “I know.”
Barry and Iris have always understood each other. They had both lost a parent and they know just the right ways to console each other when they need it. Without the other, they wouldn’t be able to get through anything.
“Let’s go home ok. You need some rest and you had a lot to drink.”
“Ok, thank you Barry.” She said letting go of him and walking towards his car.
She slept the whole ride home and he snuck her into the house so Joe couldn’t see how drunk she was.He helped her get her pajamas, got her a glass of water, and wrapped up her hair up so she could go to sleep. He tucked her into her bed and made sure to get her some comfy blankets to keep her warm during the cold. He was about to leave when she called out for him.
“Barry?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you stay here tonight?”
“Are you su—“
“Please. I don’t want to be alone tonight.” He looked into her eyes and could see the amount of fear and longing in them. If he left she would feel abandoned and scared to face the complete darkness
“Anything for you.” He said with a smile. He took a blanket and a pillow from his room and made a place for himself on the floor right next to her. “Goodnight Iris.”
“Goodnight Barry.”