❝even scared myself by talking❞

AS MUCH AS IRIS LOVED THE BONFIRE, SHE HATED THE DAY AFTER. She had told at least two dozen guys that they were not, in fact, dying and that they were just hungover, and she had to do that while being extremely hungover herself.

This day was particularly awful because she was now sober and remembering the most embarrassing moment of her life that happened the night before. She could not believe that she asked Jem to dance with her. They had had a weirdly nice moment, but she took it way too far. Now, she looked obsessed.

She really needed to talk it out, so she brought Winston over to her Hut and kicked Jeff and Clint out. She was sitting on the Med-jack table and tossing peanuts into her mouth and talking to Winston. "Where did you even get those?"

"Frypan gave them to me for bandaging his burn earlier," she answered. It was crazy what people did for you once you made their pain stop, even if it was your job to do so.

"So, you got rewarded for doing your job?" Winston scoffed, rolling his eyes. A lot of people had a soft spot for Iris. It was not an odd occurrence for people to give her things or do things for her. Well, except for Jem. "I don't get peanuts every time I kill a pig."

She tilted her head at him in confusion, wondering if he just heard the words that came out of his mouth. She got rewarded for saving things, not slaughtering them. "I want you to say that sentence again, very slowly, and tell me what you think is wrong with it.

"Whatever. What were we talking about again?" he questioned because they had kind of gotten off topic for a second there.

She did not have to think very long to remember because it had been on her mind all freaking day. Every time that she thought about it, she looked over at the tray of medical equipment and contemplated shoving a scalpel in her brain. "Oh, how much of a shucking jackass I was last night."

"It wasn't that bad," he insisted, rolling his eyes at her dramatics. It really was not that bad, and Jem knew that she was drunk and not thinking straight. So, he probably did not think that much about it. "You asked him to dance, and he wasn't feeling it. This is bothering you a lot for someone that you supposedly hate."

"Oh, shut up," she responded with a scoff. She was just mad that she made an idiot of herself in front of the only person that would actually judge her for it.

"I'm just saying," he said, raising his arms in defense, letting her know that he meant no harm even though he knew exactly what he had suggesting. He had suggested it for, saying that 'hate is the closest emotion to love.' "You claim to not care what he thinks about you."

She shook her head and leaned back against the table that she was sitting on, placing the empty bowl beside her. "I don't, but what if other people heard me?"

"You guys were, like, a mile away from the party, and no one was even paying attention," he responded. She really did not have to be worried about it because no one else heard her ask, and Jem probably did not even notice it that much.

She glared at him because he was exaggerating, and she needed him to tell her the truth at that moment. "It was not a mile."

"The point is that no one cared."

《 ✢ 》

"SHE ASKED YOU TO DANCE?" GALLY EXCLAIMED. He was sitting down as Jem paced back and forth nervously in front of him. They were on their lunch break, and Jem pulled him away from actually eating lunch so that he could rant to him about what happened the night before.

Jem nodded, and it was obvious that he was trying to convince himself that it really was not that significant of a moment. He waved off his best friend. "Yeah, but it was, like, in passing, so it's no big deal."

"Of course, it's a big deal," Gally responded. He had seen the interactions between Jem and Iris and they were anything but pleasant. Some were heated arguments while others were just glaring contests. They had never exchanged a kind word until last night, apparently.

Jem pointed out, "She's danced with everyone."

"Yeah, but she can barely stand to look at you, and then out of nowhere, she asked you to dance," Gally countered. Iris had really only danced with her friends, like Minho and Winston, so it was honestly shocking that she asked Jem to dance with her, especially that night when she had not been partying very hard at all.

Jem rolled his eyes, hating that Gally was making it a big deal because he was making it a big deal in his head, and he needed someone to tell him that it was really nothing and that it did not mean anything. "Well, it doesn't matter now because I said no."

"Why would you say no?" Gally questioned, still baffled by that fact.

"It's Iris," he sighed, which was not a very valid reason. He was going to need more than that to support his claim and reasoning. Gally never understood the problem that Jem had with her because she was a nice girl that did her work and never really caused any problems or sought out that much attention, if any at all. "She's annoying, and she has the good room just because she's a girl."

The Builder shrugged. They had all agreed once she got there that she should probably have her own room so that she could change without a bunch of guys staring at her. They also built her her own bathroom, which was a lot of work, but she did not ask them to do that. "It's a pretty valid reason."

"You're supposed to be on my side here," jem argued, glaring at his friend for agreeing with his enemy that really was not much of an enemy.

Gally shot him an apologetic look, even though he was being completely and utterly ridiculous. "Oh, sorry. She's such a slinthead."

"Thank you," Jem told him before continuing his complaints that really were not that good. "She's Iris. She's all smiley and way too happy all the time. We're trapped in a Maze, for shuck's sake. You should not be that enthusiastic about helping Winston lift a box."

"Maybe you're just jealous," Gally told him. Jem was negative all of the time, so maybe he should take a page out of Iris's book and be a bit more 'glass half full' about their situation that was not going away any time soon.

Jem scoffed loudly. It was a bit too loud, if you asked Gally. "Oh, absolutely not. I do not like Iris."

"That wasn't what I was saying," the other boy responded with a small smirk because he had never said anything about liking Iris. Jem brought that up. "I meant that you were jealous of her being happy, but let's talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about," the Silcer insisted, shaking his head. He did not like Iris. She was annoying, and he had hated her forever. She hated him, too. He did not like Iris. He could not like Iris. That would be absolutely insane, right?

Gally chuckled smugly as he watched his friend stop pacing and glaring back at him. He started, "Well, you got pretty worked up—"

"I'm leaving," Jem announced, cutting him off and rolling his eyes when he heard Gally laughing behind him. Liking Iris would be crazy. She was an attention-seeker and she was best friends with, like, every guy. She was annoying. She was annoying. She was annoying. But was she?