The Third Year

Chapter 6

What?!? An update?!?! I'm as shocked as y'all. The summer got away from me so fast and then school was here and life and work...it goes on and on but I finally managed to squeeze in some writing time. I have a lot of the story laid out so updating will be easier now, I hope. Sorry it took so long to update, but I am already working on Chapter 7 and 8 as we speak so the next update will not be too long:) *knock on wood* Hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks so much for sticking with my story! Please vote, fan, comment, tell your friends to read and vote! Love you guys

Chapter 6

Ivy’s POV

I got home right at 6:15 which was good, considering my parents would be home at 6:30. I walked into the kitchen, kicking off my toe shoes before grabbing a water and heading upstairs for a shower. Walking up stairs, with the dogs in tow, I kept glancing at my phone, wishing it would vibrate with a text from Michael. Why are you being so desperate, Ivy? You just met the guy, he doesn’t have to text you every hour!

 I walked into my room and sat on the bed, opening up a new message and starting to text Michael that I made it home. Hey. Made it home all in one piece. Had fun cloud watching: ) hope I didn’t bore u…

Looking over the message, I deleted it and started again. Hiya! Made it home. Maybe we can cloud watch again sometime??? I groaned as I deleted the message. Why is this so hard!? Staring at the flashing cursor in the message box, I decided just to call him. Before I could convince myself of all the reasons not to call him, I hit call and headed to my closet with the phone to my ear.

It rang once before he answered, “Hey, dude, I’m grabbing my keys now. You already there?” I was startled with the answer. He obviously didn’t know it was me. “Seriously. Dude? You actually say that?” I said, rolling my eyes as I heard his intake of breathe and what sounded like him stumbling around on the other end. I hid my laughter as I rummaged through my drawers, gathering my pajamas and heading to the bathroom.

“Ivy?” I couldn’t control the laughter that time. Who else would it be, Sherlock?!? “Yeah, it’s me, dude.” I replied, giggling again quietly as I turned on the shower to let it heat up. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else. Did you make it home? I told you to text me,” he responded, obviously trying to hide the shock that I had called him.

“Ya, that’s why I was calling. Thought it would be better than a text,” since I was unable to write a decent message without sounding desperate or childlike. I though, cringing. “So what are you up to?” I asked, wanting to hear his voice some more. He didn’t respond right away. I pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure I hadn’t dropped the call and put it back to my ear, waiting for a response.

After a moment, I heard his voice, “I’m meeting Nick at the field to practice some drills. Big game coming up, so.” He trailed off like he was hiding something. Huh that’s weird. Maybe I interrupted something. “Oh, ok cool. Well have fun then,” I said wishing I could hide the lack of enthusiasm in my voice, but his obvious cover up made me upset. What is he hiding from me? Sure, we just started talking, but he’s already hiding stuff from me?! Jerk.

“Ivy? Is there something wrong? Why did you call me, because it’s obviously not to tell me you got home safe,” he asked. I glared at the floor in annoyance. So now he’s hiding stuff AND accusing me of hiding things?! Well, two can play at this game. “It’s nothing. Go practice with Nick, and I’ll talk to you later,” I responded, trying to my best to sound like I was hiding something.

I could almost feel him roll his eyes as he responded, “Come on, V. What’s up?” I gasped at the use of my nickname. It sounded so good coming from him that I almost forgot I was supposed to be acting here. “It’s nothing really. I’ll see you later.” Michael sighed dramatically. I laughed at his impatience as my heart beat frantically in my chest. “Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow at school, then” I heard him say.

After we hung up, I jumped in the shower still thinking about our conversation. What was he hiding from me? And why was it bothering me so much?

***

Michael’s POV

After running through some drills with Nick for about an hour, I headed home for movie night with mom. Before I turned into the neighborhood, I stopped by the store and picked up her favorite movie candy, Sour Patch Kids. She usually kept a pretty good stash at home, but I knew she would appreciate it.

When I walked in the house, I could smell the popcorn from the kitchen. My mouth started salivating as I entered the kitchen seeing my mom holding a bowl of popcorn as another bag popped in the microwave. I snuck up behind her and grabbed some from the bowl. She jumped in surprise before swatting my hand away. “Hey, this is my bowl! Yours is almost ready,” she said with fake annoyance. A sly smile made its way on my face as I turned around for the bag of Sour Patch Kids. Turning back to my mom, I held the bag up and laughed as her eyes got wide.

She held the popcorn bowl out to me, never taking her eyes off the candy I was holding just out of her reach. “Sorry, here you can have this bowl. I’ll get the next one.” I laughed as I took the bowl, and handed her the bag of candy. My mom was like a four year old sometimes. If you ever wanted something, all you had to do was bribe her with Sour Patch Kids.

“So what are we watching?” I asked as I stuffed a handful of popcorn in my mouth. I waited for her to respond as she cut open the candy, popping a red one in her mouth; those were her favorites. After she swallowed, she turned to me. “We, my dear sweet boy, were going to watch The Notebook. But seeing as you were so sweet to bring me candy,” she said hugging the bag to her chest, “we will watch Iron Man.” I pumped my fist in the air, in fake enthusiasm. Iron Man was my favorite movie and my mom knew it. I had seen it at least two dozen times, but it never got old.

Gathering the two bowls of popcorn and my mom’s candy, we headed into the living room to watch the movie. We sat quietly eating and watching the screen, but my eyes kept wandering to my phone that was on the coffee table. I wonder what Ivy is doing. What was she hiding when I spoke to her? I couldn’t focus on the movie as my head wouldn’t stop wandering back to cloud watching with Ivy.

When the movie finally ended, I gathered up the bowls and headed to the kitchen to place them in the sink, mom trailing behind me. “I’m going to start my homework,” I told my mom, kissing her on the cheek and heading upstairs. “Ok, sweetie. Thanks again for the candy!” I laughed at her enthusiasm as I made it to my room, shutting the door behind me. I lay on my bed staring up at the ceiling wondering if I should text Ivy. Glancing at the clock, it was only 9:30. She’ll still be up. I opened a text box and began typing

Hey. Want a ride to school tom? Connor had college English in the morning so I had the truck to get to school. Hoping up off the bed I grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the shower. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to focus on my homework until I heard from Ivy so I might as well be somewhat productive. Turning on the water, I glanced at my phone for any messages. Nothing. Groaning I pulled my shirt over my head and headed to the shower.

I stood under the hot water for awhile, letting my thoughts wander until my skin had turned red from the heat. Shutting off the water, I grabbed a towel and dried off quickly; changing into shorts and heading back to my phone. Running the towel through my hair one last time, I tossed it on the floor and picked up my phone that was flashing with a new message. My heart thudded in my chest as I opened it.

That would be great:) What time? I smiled as I hit respond. 8 work? I’ll bring coffee.

After a moment my phone flashed with a reply. See you then. Lots of sugar please! I laughed at the last sentence. I hardly knew the girl and yet I probably could have guessed she liked sugar in her coffee. I put my phone on my nightstand and lay back on the pillows, knowing I would be seeing Ivy in a few hours luring me to sleep.

And scene! Hope you enjoyed. I am working on the next chapter so it will be up tomorrow or Wednesday I hope, depending on the number of reads I get:) Thanks guys! God Bless y'all!