Chapter Text
It was exactly 36 hours and 12 minutes by train from Massachusetts to Central City, Missouri.
Iris was prepared for the ride though, because in addition to her stellar studying at her school of choice, the prestigious Ivy Leage Harvard University, she also worked at the campus coffee shop and saved up for a more elevated experience on the train back home in a sleeper car with a shower.
Granted it was still a shower on a train, and she wasn’t expecting anything impressive, given how small bathrooms were in general on moving vehicles, but she was still looking forward to it.
It was the only thing keeping her mind off the fact that her best friend since they were babies hadn’t shown to her graduation. Her graduation at the school they’d both attended until six months ago. And the last time she’d heard from him had been two months ago, when he’d informed her he was ‘really busy’ and probably wouldn’t be able to talk much for a while.
This was also after he ditched Harvard’s stellar science and math programs (he’d been double-majoring) to go to New York on a whim and pursue modeling.
Her lanky, skinny boyfriend (did she forget to mention that?) of nearly six years had abandoned what he was truly great at and had gotten a full scholarship for because an ‘agent’ showed up at a job fair they’d been attending one night, taken one look at him in his plaid shirt and dark blue jeans – oh, and the scuffed up brown shoes, can’t forget those – and decided he was model worthy.
Barry of course had laughed it off initially, and Iris thought that would be the end of it. But the ‘agent’ kept finding him on campus and eventually persuaded Barry to indulge him in a ‘Harvard Kids of Tomorrow’ shoot taking place that very night. Iris had a night of studying planned for the both of them, but he’d reminded her that usually they got sidetracked when they studied together and what could one shoot hurt? It would get this guy off his back at any rate, and then he could focus on what really mattered. Math, Science, and Iris.
Only…that wasn’t what happened.
He returned from the shoot beaming and with photos of his handiwork. Turned out he was quite photogenic when the right words were being dropped in his ear. And even though Iris didn’t want to admit it, the make-up, lighting, and wardrobe they’d put him in had turned him into an Abercrombie model overnight. Nothing more than that surely though…right?
“You do look hot with all that gel in your hair,” she’d admitted, playfully, proceeding to mess it up as best as she could until she could see her Barry again.
Her study session had come to an end abruptly as sexy times ensued, and she pushed the thought out of her mind that she hated the most. That this interest as a model had only begun.
Of course, in the morning she could no longer do that, since Barry had talked with enthusiasm about doing another shoot and another, and maybe even hitting the gym to develop some tone to his nonexistent muscles should it prove profitable in future photo shoots.
Iris’ heart sank, and over the next two weeks she watched their relationship deteriorate into almost nothing as he took job after job, reveling in the cash and compliments it got him, and neglecting his studies too. He skipped classes, bought a new wardrobe, and then, after one more meeting with his agent, who she could no longer put in quotes in her head, since he’d been legit all along and on the search for rare talent, Barry announced he was dropping out of school and moving to New York.
And he wanted her to come with him.
She’d exploded.
What was she going to do in New York? She was double-majoring in Journalism and Business, and planning to sink her teeth into her hometown’s newspaper as soon as she got back. With one semester to go, she was what? Going to abandon all that to watch him pursue a dream that left her alone in the cold, hardly talking to him, let alone seeing him?
He apologized for that, said it would be different in New York once he had a regular schedule figured out, but she couldn’t see any of it changing, and she wasn’t about to change schools for one semester when she was going to the Harvard University.
“You’re throwing your life away and trying to drag me down with you!” She finally burst, practically hissing at him as she reminded him of his life-long dreams to be a CSI or maybe work in some sort of scientific research at the facilities back home.
She insulted his modeling stint, saying he’d just ‘gotten lucky’, and that it wouldn’t last. Meanwhile, she’d be moving on without him doing what she’d always dreamed with someone who appreciated her and didn’t let low-grade salesmen get in the way of their relationship.
He’d been stunned but managed to pull the words from the depths of his being, “Are you breaking up with me?”
“Well, I’m not moving to New York,” she’d huffed.
“We could try a long-distance relationship,” he’d tried weakly, already knowing how that would be received.
“We’re already living it,” she’d barked, and he’d known that was the end.
Unless he begged and pleaded for her to stay with him and he’d give up modeling entirely if it meant he could have her. Maybe then things would be different. But they weren’t, because he didn’t.
She boxed up his stuff in her dorm room and sent him packing. Within a week he’d dropped out of school and left for New York. It was a month before they spoke again, and all their messages were short and choppy. There was no heart, nothing reminiscent of their decades’ long relationship.
They’d lost their friendship and their dating relationship in a heartbeat, and neither had the energy or the endurance to fight for it again if it meant letting go of the rest of what they held so dear.
In a way, Iris supposed she should be grateful to be going home. Barry wouldn’t be there, and she could reconnect with her girlfriends she’d left behind in high school, as well as find new friends at CCPN, where she’d already secured a job before graduating. There would be her parents and Wally to keep her distracted too.
Soon it would be like Barry hadn’t even existed.
Three days later, after a mostly comfortable experience on the train, Iris grabbed her carry-on luggage and made her way to the exit door when the train finally came to a stop.
There was a sea of people in front and behind her, but when she finally made it down the steps and the other people dispersed, going every which way in the direction they needed to go, she saw a massive ad plastered on the side of the train station.
JUST IN FROM NEW YORK…
BARRY ALLEN: CENTRAL CITY’S NEWEST STAR!
He was in a suit and tie, crouched and looking devilishly handsome with his hair brushed back, and his tie loosely dangling around his neck.
“Oh, hell no.”