Sign Your Name Across My Heart

Chapter nine

It's not long after Ash leaves that my phone begins to ring. Is it him already? Is he thinking about me? I'm certainly thinking about him.

I search for my phone, quickly answering, not even looking at who's calling. I answer excitedly, "Hi!"

"Hey, you." I hear Ivy's voice from the other end. I'm not as excited now that I know it's not Ash calling, but I'm still happy to hear from her. "I called you last night, you never answered. What were you doing?" She asks curiously.

"Sorry..." I mumble, walking into my bathroom. "I was um, busy Ash last night." I admit, looking at myself in the mirror.

"What?" She shouts, frantically. "Did you finally sleep with him?" She laughs.

"Ivy!" I yell. "No, we didn't... sleep together." I say almost in a whisper, embarrassed to say it louder even though I'm all alone.

"Well, that's boring. I was hoping for something juicier to happen." She fakes a yawn. "So, what have you guys done?"

I sigh, not being the most comfortable talking about this. Ivy tells me about her sex life any chance that she gets, but I've never had a story to tell until now. Besides, it's not like we did anything more than just kiss. Although, it was my first real kiss. Before I'm able to speak, Ivy keeps talking. "Bram was telling me Ash is kind of a dick when it comes to girls. He always sees him with a new girl, but never the same one again. Something like that. But whatever, right?" Her words sting.

The way she said it makes me cringe. I don't like that she said that. She knows I like him, why did she need to tell me that? "Who knows when it's coming from Bram." I mumble very quietly. I don't trust him. He could've told Ivy anything he wanted to, true or not.

"What? I didn't hear you. Talk louder!" Ivy complains.

"Nothing," I reply, quickly. "Um, we kissed... but that's it. He also slept over last night."

Ivy giggles. "Wow, Libby really doesn't put out."

I roll my eyes, preparing my toothbrush and toothpaste for when our phone call is over, which is hopefully very soon. "Anyways, I think he's hot. You should sleep with him." She says.

I hate the way Ivy talks about sex. It's so casual for her, she's so comfortable talking about it. A part of me wishes I were more like her in that sense, but at the same time, sex has always felt like something more to me. Maybe I have to blame that on stupid movies that I've watched growing up, or things my mom told me and warned me about.

"Okay, Ivy." I say jokingly. "I'll make sure to do that." I add on, sarcastically. "I'll talk to you later, I have to go do some errands." I say, trying to get off the phone.

"Errands as in fuck Ash?" She laughs. It makes me smile a little bit, but I also huff. "Wait!" She chirps.

"What?" I ask, putting her on speaker, as I had taken the phone away from my ear to hang up, thinking our conversation was over.

"Can I come over tonight?" She asks me. "Sleepover? We haven't had one in a while."

That's because she's been sneaking off with this mystery guy for a while now and I never knew who it was until I met Bram which is also where I met Ash. Which now is where my mind happens to be running to and I can't stop picturing him in my head, the image of his shirtless body circling around in my brain. "Hello? Libby? Did you hang up?" She talks loudly into the phone, as I still haven't answered.

"Um, yeah. Sorry, yeah you can come over tonight." I tell her.

"Awesome!" I can almost see the smile on her face by how happy she sounds. "I'll be over at 7:00."

"Okay, see you then." I hang up the phone, finally starting to brush my teeth.

After finishing brushing my teeth, I look at my phone and see I have an unread message from four minutes ago. It's from an unknown number. I quickly open the message and smile once I see it.

I can't stop thinking about you.

I assume it's from Ash, so I excitedly added his number as a contact, writing his name into my phone.

What are you thinking about exactly? I send the text to him.

It takes a couple seconds before I get another message, standing in the middle of my bathroom, waiting for a reply. How gorgeous you look.

I grin to myself while reading the message.

You're sweet.

Send me a picture. He texts back immediately.

I read his message over and over again, growing weak in the knees that he wants a picture of me. I lift my phone in front of my face, opening my camera. I take a picture of myself with a smile, before I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I had an idea. I had a sneaky idea.

I smile to myself and set my phone down, taking my shirt off. I pick my phone back up, and face it to me, snapping the picture. I've taken pictures like this of myself before, but I've never sent them to anybody. I've never had anybody to send them to.

I quickly sent him the picture of me in my bra, nervously biting on my lip. I see him typing and I grow excited. I put my phone down, unable to stare any longer, waiting in anticipation.

I wait a while, or what feels like a while, before finally seeing him reply. I look at my phone, my cheeks bursting with a bright red.

You're so fucking naughty. The message read.

I giggle, deciding not to answer, as I turn the shower on and get inside.

I end up taking a nap before Ivy gets here, knowing she's going to want to stay up late and I won't make it without sleeping a bit beforehand. I usually go to sleep quite early.

I wake up to the sound of loud banging on my door, two missed calls and four texts. I jolt up and hurry to the door, hoping Ivy hasn't been waiting outside for too long. I unlock and yank it open, revealing an annoyed Ivy, with a big stuffed purse, knowing she must have at least three different outfits in there for some reason, despite only staying here for one night.

"Libby! I've been knocking on your door for like five fucking minutes. What were you doing there?" She frowns. "Is Ash in there?" Her facial expression turns from annoyed to mischievous and she walks past me. I quickly move out of the way so she doesn't bump into me, letting out a sigh. She's very forward.

"No, Ash isn't here. Sorry, I fell asleep." I close the door, locking it before turning around, seeing Ivy place her purse on my couch, sitting beside it.

We spent the first couple hours of the night watching scary movies and eating snacks that she bought from the depanneur before getting here - like we do at every sleepover we have.

Eventually, Ivy grabs her phone and starts tapping away. I also go on my phone since we aren't speaking at the moment. I open Ash and I's chat again, rereading his message a couple times. You're naughty. My stomach does a flip.

I start to hear a sound come from Ivy's phone and I look over, catching a glance at her screen, seeing that she's on facetime with somebody. Bram. I roll my eyes and go back on my phone, irritated that she can't even go a couple hours without speaking to him. I don't know what she sees in him. I don't want to hear their conversation.

While looking at my phone, pretending to be busy, I start to think about Ash again. I smile to myself.

I know why Ivy's calling Bram right now. She wants to rub it in my face, for some reason. She's always been weird when it comes to guys. Everytime she would bring one around me, she would be overly affectionate, joke about me, make me feel shy or embarrassed. She's doing it again with Bram, this time.

"Hey hun, what are you up to?" I hear Bram say, but I refuse to look.

"Hey..." She says, in a flirty way. "I'm over at Libby's." She turns her phone to me. "Look!" She shouts.

I sigh and look over, flashing a small smile, before looking back to my phone.