She shakes her head. “Dad’s pulled me into day-to-day tasks since Lily—” She stops.
“It was years ago. I’m fine. Your sister’s engaged. Continue.”
Iris looks at Kris, who comes up alongside me and hooks a gingerbread ornament onto a branch. “I see Coal’s still master of beingsuper fine, nothing is wrong.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Kris says. “Nothing is wrong. Coal said so.”
“Anyway.” Iris taps an ornament, a sleigh filled with gifts. “My father’s been keeping me busy getting more into the coordinating of tasks with Easter since Lily will be split between us and Valentine’s Day, and I’ll be taking over some of her duties after I graduate.”
I gape at her. Gape at Kris, who shrugs, but they’re in the same course, taking mostly the same classes, so he had to have known, right?
“You haven’t told me any of this,” I hiss at her. “Since when do you keep things from me?”
Iris gives a rather fake yet bright smile, more for the cameras than my benefit. “I don’t tell you everything.”
“I tellyoueverything.”
“To which I again have to remind you that youdo not need to tell meeverything.I don’t give a shit about the gross things your roommates do. Stop texting me pictures of them.”
“I mean everythingimportant,Iris. You should tell me these things.” My face falls, but when I open my mouth to push her more, she sighs.
“I don’t need rescuing, Prince in Shining Armor.”
I squint when her eyes don’t meet mine, but then she remembers the cameras and crowd and pulls up an empty smile.
“Liar,” I hiss at her.
“It isn’t so bad, you know. Our jobs. Our—gasp—duties.We help make the worldhappy.”
No, we create a single day of one-off smiles that does nothing to stop bad shit from happening.
“Sure,” I say. “But we don’t get to be happy too?”
“I’m happy to see you and Kris,” she says. She grabs another ornament, a stuffed teddy bear, and tosses it to me. “I’m happy to spend this month with the two of you.”
Kris leans around me. “And I’llhappilybeat you at sleigh racing this year.”
Iris blanches. “Ohno.Nope. Not doing that. I’ll be a spectator.”
My grin goes demonic. “Aw, why?” I look at Kris, all innocent wide eyes. “Did something happen?”
He puts his finger on his chin in exaggerated thinking. “Huh. I recall something… about sap, maybe?”
She’d gotten tossed from her sleigh and landed quite safely. In a pine tree.
Iris bats his arm. His cheeks go scarlet but he’s grinning like mad.
“You have no idea how long it takes to wash off sap,” she says.
“No, we know.” I pop a pine needle off the Christmas tree. “You told us. Repeatedly. ‘Oh, Coal, Christmas sucks—’”
“You’re a jerk.” Iris hangs another ornament, her smile sickly sweet for the cameras.
“I wasn’t even in the sleigh with you!”
“But you’re mocking me, ergo,jerk.” She flips her braids over her shoulder with an overembellished flair, and I bark a laugh, and Kris smiles.
The cameras snap, getting photos of us legitimately happy. I want to ask for copies, but though I swore off reading any of the paparazzi crap that comes out since the New Koah incident, I could find them online easily enough. Maybe it’s not always so bad to have reporters everywhere.
