Always

12 : pottery.

"Ivy, what do you think you are doing?" Lucas says in a very offended tone, as if I stole his clothes while he was in the river. "Taking my car out," I say, but it comes out more like a question. "Exactly, just come with me. We're going to the same place," he says, shrugging. "You scared me, Lucas," I say, rolling my eyes, and he laughs. He fucking laughs. "Come on," he says, waving at me. I roll my eyes and get into his car.

We both leave for the pottery. We reach the place and immediately notice Celeste and Felix. Celeste skips the formalities and goes straight for a hug, while Felix just nods to me. Lucas and they both do a bro handshake kind of thing. "Where's Phoenix?" Lucas asks. "Um, he's busy planning a date night with Lucy." "Who's Lucy? Last I checked, he was hell-bent on a girl who he was obsessed over." "Yeah, um, she's Lucy. He just wasn't telling me her name or quite literally anything about her, so I named her Lucy," Celeste says, shrugging. I sit opposite Celeste while Lucas sits next to me. They explain to us about the workshop and we start creating shapes from our clay. "I'm bored," Lucas says. "We're literally at a pottery workshop, Lucas." "Yes, and?" I roll my eyes at his sassiness.

"Oh, let's play 21 questions." Oh fuck no. "I'd rather not." "Oh, okay," he says silently. Although I love silence, this one somehow bothers me. It's not your job to make someone happy, Ivy, and since when do you care about silences and feelings? Ughhhh. I take a deep breath. "Let's play," I say, and he gets hyped up. "Um, would you like to have something?" the waiter asks. "I want to have nothing, but I'm not supposed to skip any meal. But I also can't manage to get the food inside me." "Um, I'll have a cup of cold coffee." "Anything for you, ma'am." "I'll have a cup of black coffee." Felix and Celeste also give their orders, and we resume our pottery. "Okay, I'll start."

"Summers or winters?" "Summers." "Oh, I somehow assumed you were a winter person. You ask." "Okay, um, beach or mountains?" "Beach. Always." "Who is someone really hard to deal with?" "Me. I'm that person," I say, staring into his soul. He looks at me weirdly. "No, you're not Ivy." "Yes, I am. But I don't want to argue, so I just shrug." "Um, guys, we will be back in 10 minutes. We have a very important call to attend," they both say and immediately leave. "You do realize that they went to the bathroom to make out, right?" Lucas says, looking at me. "Nah, I just thought the bathroom had secret towers for signal for them," I say, rolling my eyes, and he laughs, throwing his head backwards. "Books or movies?" I ask. "Movies, or rather series." I nod.

"Favorite food?" "Um -" "Mushrooms. She loves mushrooms." Before I could reply, another voice beats me to it. I look to my side to see Kaiden, making my blood boil. Through gritted teeth, I speak, "What the fuck are you doing here?" I fist my hand tightly, forgetting that I had clay that was in the process of being shaped. The clay crumbles and falls all over. Completely ignoring me, he repeats his words, looking at Lucas, "She loves mushrooms. Especially in pizza." I roll my eyes. "I'm allergic to mushrooms," I say, glaring at him. "You would know that if you ever fucking listened. Now tell me, are you stalking me or something?" He laughs, and if that isn't the most disgusting sound I've ever heard. "Don't flatter yourself, Kennedy. I was here for pottery as well," he says. "Then please do me a favor and get the fuck away."