My mother wasn't happy.
"Hello, Ivy. Are you bringing your boyfriends here now?"
"No ma'am, I'm not into incest. This is my cousin, Niko."
He waved shyly. She nodded in approval, wiped her hands on her khakis, and went upstairs.
"She's never gonna like me, is she?" Ivy stared off at the stairs.
"Not a chance."
Ivy shrugged and opened the fridge, taking out leftover chicken pot pie.
"Hey! That was my chicken pot pie. "
"Well, I'll be eating for you and me. Eating for two." She laughed at her joke, and Niko sat on a stool.
"Your house is big."
I nodded. "My dad built it. He was really good at that stuff."
"Yeah," agreed Ivy, "He made Scalawag this treehouse where he took Delaney Michaels and felt her up. Your daddy was a wingman."
I blushed. I had completely forgotten about Delaney. She was my first girlfriend. We were both 12 and naive and a hormonal imbalance in our brain was shifted into overdrive of sexual desires.
My train of thought was put back into reality in Niko's voice.
"Was?"
"Umm, yea. He died when I was 10. Brain aneurysm."
"Scalawag, this is good pot pie."
I knew what she was doing. She hated talking about my dad more than I did.
"Yea, my mom had some book club thingy over last night."
I could see that longing look back in Ivy's eyes again, and I was worried.
"We better get going Scalawag. It might rain soon." She wouldn't look at me. It was perfectly sunny outside, not a drop of water in sight.
I simply nodded.
