she probably should have gone inside long ago. she had homework due next week and her mum would get worried if she stayed out for too long. iris had got home from college, dumped her stuff in her bedroom and then immediately taken the the one mile trek to the local playground. the sun had set long ago, and she was still laying on a bench near the swings. her phone was on do not disturb and she had soft music playing through her headphones.

she wasn't dressed for the weather, dressed only in a black shirt with jeans. she ignored the shivers though, and continued writing. her notebook was nearing its end, and one of the staples had come out of the spine months ago. iris shook her pen, trying desperately to get the last bit of ink out before she lost her idea.

she knew she could have realistically used her notes app, but she liked the handwritten feel of a notebook. there were mini rants, polaroids she'd stuck in there, small drawings and of course her ever growing collection of songs.

the park was quiet, especially now with the sun well and truly set, and it gave her time to think. she almost had too much time to think nowadays. with her mum working long shifts at night and her brother working long shifts during the day, iris had spent most of the last few months alone.

though of course, she was never fully alone. not even there on the park bench. she was so focused on what she was writing, that she didn't notice the blond boy until he'd sat right on her stomach. she groaned, flipping him off when she saw who it was, initially angry before she realised it was tommy.

"what do you want?" she yanked one side of her headphones out, kicking tommy off the bench as she sat up so he could join her.

tommy looked awfully proud of himself, pulling his legs up to sit cross-legged on the bench. "you weren't replying to my texts. got worried you were sad."

"i'm not sad." she rolled her eyes fondly, knowing she would have done the same thing. "just wanted to be outside, i guess."

"well, now that i have touched some grass i am above all my haters," tommy said smugly, leaning back. iris giggled and the two of them sat there in silence for a few moments before she stood up, pulling tommy with her.

"wanna watch a film? mum finally got disney plus, and i wanna watch the lion king."

"you just make yourself sad though," tommy argued, letting her hand stay around his wrist. "then i have to listen to you cry."

"takes less than lion king to make me cry," iris reasoned. tommy considered it for a few moments, before nodding. she gave a little cheer and the two of them walked home in a comfortable silence, tommy eventually snagging one of her earbuds. the two of them were around each other so often they practically lived together. of course, they both still tested and wore masks, but when it was just the two of them in an empty street it felt like maybe the world wasn't completely lonely like it had been for the past year.

once they reached iris's house, tommy immediately flopped onto her bed. their houses had very similar floorplans being on the same street. iris's room was about the same size, but the vibe was completely different to tommy's. his room was also his work space, and the walls were quite bare. iris lived for clutter. every available surface was covered in little knick-knacks, with colourful art and a wall entirely full of polaroids. a lot of them were of tommy, there were picture of them together, some just with iris, some with just him. there were photos of her family; iris, her mum and her older brother lachlan. there were photos of tommy's family as well, his heart filling with warmth whenever he saw the photo of him and iris with his mum on the day they graduated high school.

there was also the odd polaroid that contained an ex boyfriend of hers. if you looked at tommy and iris in high school, you wouldn't assume they were friends. tommy was the slightly awkward class clown who got picked on for playing video games, whereas iris was the quiet girl who sat in the back of the room. it made sense if you thought about it, neither of them had many friends outside of their little groups.

however, iris had dated a few people before, and tommy had hated every single one of them. he'd asked her why she never took any of them down after they broke up, not even her most recent boyfriend jack, who'd cheated on her. iris simply shrugged and said they made up who she was, and tommy had let it drop.

iris's room was tommy's safe space, one of the few aspects of tommy's life that was completely private. his viewers knew of iris of course. they'd met her, heard her voice. they didn't know how they met or what iris looked like though.

she pulled out her laptop and crawled onto her bed beside tommy "you okay?"

tommy nodded, squeezing her hand gently. "let's get ready to cry."

iris beamed up at him. "i have been ready."