Dinner with Astrid and Oliver was a lively affair. Astrid led the way to a jaunty little bistro a few train stops from Ivy's apartment. It was one of those places with modern light fixtures, tiny portions, and drinks touted as being "infused" and "muddled". Typical buzzwords, but Ivy found her elderberry-infused gin and tonic (with muddle raspberries and lemongrass) pleasantly strong.
"I love this place!" Astrid exclaimed over the persistently thumping electronic music. She had ordered a ludicrously blue martini, which she was sipping in a decidedly fancy manner.
Oliver looked skeptical as he lifted his beer in the air. "To Ivy, I suppose."
"TO IVY!" Astrid cried. A few droplets of blue liquid sprayed from her glass as she clinked it against Oliver's. Ivy joined them, laughing self-consciously.
"I'm... glad I met you guys," she said tentatively. "Really."
"You had no choice," scoffed Astrid.
"I didn't have to let you in my window," Ivy retorted.
"Yeah, why did you? I mean, haven't you ever heard of 'stranger danger'?" Oliver grinned across the table.
"Astrid doesn't really look dangerous," Ivy said with a shrug.
"I can be," said Astrid with a haughty little glance at Ivy.
Ivy burst out laughing. "It's nice to be out with people," she said with a sigh.
"You didn't get out much back in Maine?" asked Oliver as their appetizers arrived. Astrid dug into her double-order of sliders, which she had promised to share with Oliver.
Ivy examined her spring rolls. "Not much," she said, as she dipped a roll in peanut sauce. "Really, not much at all. There was only one local bar in my town, plus an Applebee's, so I pretty much stayed in. Sometimes we'd trek to Portland, but that was over an hour away."
"Mmmmm! Are you sure you don't want a slider, Ivy?" Astrid pushed the plate across the table.
"I'm positive. No dead cow for me, please," Ivy said slyly. "So anyways, how'd you guys all meet? Your 'club'? How did it all start?"
"It started with my parents' generation," explained Astrid, chomping down her third slider as Oliver nibbled at his first. "My mom and dad met because their parents were friends. They both came from old, gifted families, and they hit it off because they both were kind of outspoken. They teamed up with the kids of some of the other old families – we're the Mattsons, then there's Maera's family, the Caveys, and a handful of others. All the families are long-time Bostonians, and got along well, but once dark shit started happening, my parents got in touch with everyone else, and they started their little club. It's never had an official name."
"It's kind of a running joke, actually," Oliver added as he moved on to his second slider, the last on the plate as Astrid had seemingly inhaled all the others. "They can't decide on a name. Astrid's parents' generation never could, and now that their kids are starting to get involved actively, they're not any better."
"We're cooler without a name," insisted Astrid. "Plus, all our ideas just sound lame."
"How did you meet everyone, Oliver?" Ivy asked, as she finished her plate of spring rolls.
"Kind of by accident. I answered a Craigslist ad, actually," he said sheepishly.
"A Craigslist ad? You're kidding!" Ivy couldn't help but laugh. "You've got to be kidding!"
YOU ARE READING
Untitled Project
Fantasy"It's not as mystical as it sounds." Ivy Larken is twenty-four, and so far, her life has been normal, sometimes verging on mundane. She considers herself to be fairly normal as well, and decided a long time ago that the strange occurrences in her li...
