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The first time Barry asked her, “How’s the weather down there?” Iris nearly screamed. She was in the kitchen making her usual bowl of cereal at noon when he waltzed in, hair a mess, and grinned down at her. Grinned down at her. She had to tilt her head back to look into his eyes, and he was far, far too pleased for her liking.
It had only been two weeks since she had seen him last. Two weeks since her grandparents came to pick her up for their yearly vacation with her and Wally. Barry, as always, was invited, but he turned down the chance to stay at their small cabin that was within a two mile radius of a lake in favor of a science symposium for high school students. She had been bummed that he wasn’t coming, but she was looking forward to hanging out with Wally and spending quality time with her granddaddy and grandma.
There was no way that he had grown that much in two weeks that she had gone from looking directly into his eyes to looking up at him.
Stupid boy genes and stupid boy puberty and boy height.
Barry saw her barely contained shock and made a point of stretching, lengthening out in front of her. She watched the shirt he slept in pull up over his hip bones and noticed the beginnings of an Adonis belt, and she instantly wondered why was staring at Barry’s hip bones. She instead turned her head up to glare at him, and he was still grinning down at her. And then, just to really rub it in her face, he went to the cupboard and grabbed a mug from her father’s special shelf, the one that, even when she was standing on her tip toes, she could barely reach.
“The weather down here is perfect, thank you,” she said stiffly, grabbed her bowl of cereal, and stalked out of the room. She was planning on eating at the table and babbling to Barry about her trip and the fish Wally had caught and promptly threw at her, but she was too… too… the word that came to mind was flustered, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t. Or, at least, that’s what she kept telling herself.
She was just angry. Upset, even, at the change. At the fact that Barry had changed so visibly in just two short weeks away from her, and she was just the same old Iris. She was so used to being the bigger one, being the one that was taller than him, that protected him when he needed her. She was the first one that was able to reach the shelf in the pantry that her dad put the sweets. It was the year she turned 12, and she shot up to five feet five inches, and Barry was still a good three inches shorter than her, and she liked that. But now he was finally hitting puberty at fourteen and growing and gaining some sort of muscle definition and she was not pleased.
She didn’t know if it was possible to devour a bowl of Reese’s Puffs angrily, but if it was, she definitely did it that day.
Later that day, when her friend Kendra came over for a few hours to watch movies and eat popcorn, Barry strolled in, shirtless, after a run outside in the hot, sticky summer air and made a point of running a hand through his hair and glancing their way. Iris rolled her eyes but Kendra watched him walk out of the living room toward the rest of the house, probably back to the bathroom. Like most 14 year old girls, Kendra was a little bit boy crazy, even if she didn’t have the confidence to talk to them in person.
“God, your brother is hot,” Kendra said, wiggling her eyebrows at Iris. It was the first time someone had ever expressed to her that they found Barry (of all people!) attractive in any way. And though she usually agreed with Kendra’s taste in boys, this had to be the exception. Barry was not hot. Barry was Barry. Barry was obviously showing off (some part of her wondered if he liked Kendra, but she didn’t want to think about it), walking in shirtless like that.
She huffed. “He’s not my brother,” Iris said defensively.
“Fine, adopted brother, whatever,” Kendra said, waving her hand dismissively. Iris wanted to argue that they weren’t any kind of siblings, but she stopped herself; she usually didn’t correct people when they made that assumption, because she just assumed that having a best friend who was male was the same thing as having a brother. “You know what I mean, Iris. He’s cute.”
Iris didn’t respond and the topic, thankfully, died away.
At least it died until Barry walked back in, his hair wet from his recent shower. This time he was wearing a shirt, which Iris appreciated simply because it would keep Kendra from drooling over him like… like… like a teenage girl or something. He looked over at the TV where the first opening shots of the movie Clueless were showing on the screen. “Do you guys mind if I join?” he asked. “This movie is hilarious.”
She was about to say that they were having a girls night and as a boy he was not at all qualified to join them, but Kendra had already said yes and patted the couch seat next to her. Barry sat down, and Kendra turned to Iris with a look of oh my god on her face. Great. Just great. Now she would have to put up with Kendra’s crush on Barry for who knew how long.
Barry leaned over Kendra to grab a handful of popcorn from Iris’ bowl, and Iris fought the urge to dramatically roll her eyes. He was doing this on purpose. He was totally doing this on purpose. He looked up at Iris, his face lit up in a devilish grin, and she glared back at him. He frowned and pulled back, apologizing quietly to Kendra for invading her personal space. Oh yeah, Iris thought. You’re sosorry.
The movie kept going, and Iris did her best to concentrate on Cher’s problems. Emma was pretty much her favorite book of the moment, and Clueless was one of her favorite movies, but it was hard to focus on the story when Barry kept cracking jokes to make Kendra laugh. She wanted to hit him upside the head and tell him to stop being so obvious, but if she did that he would think it was funny and keep it up just to annoy her. God help her if they started dating- no. She wasn’t going to even think about Barry dating.
Iris could hear Barry and Kendra whispering conspiratorially from their side of the couch, but she ignored it. If they weren’t going to watch the movie, then they could at least have the decency to leave her alone while she enjoyed it.
A kernel of popcorn hit her face.
That’s it.
Iris whipped her head to the side to see both Kendra and Barry, finally, concentrating on the movie, trying to look as innocent as possible. Barry, the idiot, was even whistling, as if normal people whistled during movies and that was completely acceptable. She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned before turning back to the TV.
Another kernel hit her face.
“Bartholomew Allen, I swear to god,” Iris hissed through gritted teeth. Kendra started giggling and then Barry joined in, and soon the two of them were in a fit of laughter from the other side of the couch. She glanced over at them and saw Barry looking back at her, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, and she rolled her eyes again. Dramatically. With a big sigh. Which, as it happened, just made him and Kendra laugh even harder, and soon Kendra was hobbling off to the bathroom, laughing at Barry and saying that he made her have to pee.
Barry scooted over next to Iris, his body just far enough away from her own that she was aware of his presence without him actually touching her. She didn’t look at him, though, choosing instead to keep watching the movie. Cher was about to go on her disastrous date with Christian, and Iris loved the part when Josh watches her walk down the stairs. Barry nudged her knee with his own. “You’re in a bad mood tonight,” he said, not unkindly. “What’s wrong? Anything you need to talk about?”
Iris chewed the inside of her cheek for a second. She had been in a perfectly fine mood until he started flirting with her friend during their movie. Until her girls night had been interrupted and she had turned into the awkward third wheel for her best friend’s date. “If you liked her, you could have just told me,” she said crossly. “I would have made an excuse or something so you guys could watch the movie together.”
She saw Barry cock his head the side out of the corner of her eye, but she still didn’t look at him. “I don’t like Kendra,” Barry said quickly.
“You could have fooled me,” Iris shot back. She shoved a handful of admittedly cold popcorn into her mouth and started at the TV without actually taking in what was happening on the screen. How could he say that he didn’t like Kendra? He had been flirting with her, at Iris’ expense, the entire night. They had been bonding over making fun of her and hitting her with popcorn. Even a blind person would have been able to see him flirting with her, that was how obvious it was.
Barry opened his mouth right as Kendra walked back into the room. She sat on the other side of Barry, still smiling, but he was looking at Iris. Not that Iris was watching him out of the corner of her eye.
Kendra started saying something to Barry that grabbed his attention, and they started right back up, but Iris could tell that something was different. She wondered if her comment had struck a chord with him and he was trying to be more considerate of the fact that he was making her uncomfortable. Barry wasn’t laughing as hard or nearly as often; it was as if he was laughing politely at a joke instead of actually enjoying it. And he kept glancing back over at Iris, which she only noticed because every time he did it, she happened to be looking at the kitchen, thinking about getting more popcorn. He was obviously gauging her reaction to make sure that he wasn’t going too far any annoying her too much. Soon, the chatter between him and Kendra died out, and they all three went back to watching the movie.
Clueless ended and before the next movie got past the title screen, Kendra said her goodbyes to both of them (her mom was outside waiting to take her back), making sure to give both Iris and Barry a hug before she left. She pulled Iris aside right after she gave Barry a hug, and confessed that she might have a crush on Barry and could Iris find out whether or not he was interested? Iris thought about what he had said earlier, about not liking Kendra, and then promised her friend she would look into it. With any luck, Kendra would find a new boy to be crazy over within a week, and Iris wouldn’t have to worry about upsetting her friend with the bad news. At least, Iris hoped it would be bad news. Not that she didn’t think Kendra and Barry would be great together, she reasoned, but Barry had already told her he didn’t like Kendra and he wouldn’t lie to her, right? And then Kendra stepped out of the door and disappeared into the night, and Iris walked back to the couch and slumped down.
Barry sat down next to her and pressed ’play’, and they started watching Star Wars together. Kendra usually didn’t like this movie, but Barry had made a joke about it and then, suddenly, she wanted to watch it. Iris was secretly glad she had left before they could actually sit back and watch it; Star Warswas her and Barry’s special series, the one that they marathoned on their days off.
She relaxed against the couch (when had she gotten so tense?) and was suddenly very aware of his body right next to hers. She glanced over at the gap between them, and it wasn’t more than a few inches, and suddenly she found herself leaning up against him, her head fitting almost perfectly on his shoulder. If only he were just a few inches taller it would be a perfect fit, Iris thought, and then she banished that thought from her mind. Barry’s height was what started this bad day, she reminded herself. Though, when his shoulder was at such a better height for relaxing onto for comfort, she figured maybe it wasn’t really so bad.
That night, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Iris and Barry fell asleep together on the couch. But when she woke up with his arm curled around her, for the first time, she felt her heart beat a little faster than usual.