They Called Me Cold, They Called Him a Liar

Moving Ivy

As you saw from the last chapter there will be a few parts about the two "mysterious" men, and I'll definetly be introducing more characters.

-Dakoda

Moving Ivy

Another bang, and I hear a window break.

Peeking through the curtains, I see our crazy neighbor throwing a nice dining set out onto the street. Wonderful, I think, the first one set the place on fire, and now this guy hates varnished wood.I hope our next neighbor is slightly less insane.

He's still throwing furniture out onto the streets, which I'm pretty sure isn't allowed.There's a knock at the door, so I leave the curtains to answer it.

A kind, young face greets me.

"Hello?" I ask, feeling the scowl settling in.

The young female smiles though, holding out a hand. "Hey," she says,"I'm trying to help my uncle move out, and I was wondering...Would you be able to help?" she asks nervously.

The scowl lifts, and I take her hand, shaking it like Martha showed me.

"Sure" I say. "I'm Sydney, and you are?" I ask. She smiles wider now, and let's go of my hand to show me to her apartment.

"I'm Ivy. Ivy Harris."

I nod, and we head down the hall.

"Your uncle doesn't seem to want to move out." I notice. He locked the door to stall us, but Ivy pulls out a set of keys, and unlocks the door

"Just be warned," she says, before opening the door. "He has...memory issues and an, well, active imagination. He's moving into a nursing home."

Guilt settles in my stomach. I judged him before knowing his story, and just like Martha says, a fool complains without knowing.

She opens the door, and for the first time I get to see our neighbour.

Her uncle sits on a couch, staring at my face.

"Do you realize," He starts, blinking rapidly. "Do you realize your true heritage? Have you seen the other eyes? People will be looking for you, Ivy, you must help her..." he rambles off.

With a sudden intensity, he grabs his niece's arms. "Ivy, don't let them find the apples!"

I think he's going to say more, but he just toddles off into the kitchen, the craziness forgotten.

"Sorry," she apologizes. "He lost his marbles a while ago."

Her uncle hobbles back, smiling at the wall. "You know Rosalie, to have lost a nice set of horses, you had to have one in the first place!" He laughs, and sits back down.

Ivy looks around nervously. "Could you help me bring these outside?" she asks, gesturing at a pile of boxes.

The hour passes quickly, and I find I'll miss Ivy's company when I leave.

After the boxes are outside, we stand there waiting for her friend to show up with the moving van.

The temperature must have dropped since this morning, as people were now wearing heavy coats and long pants. I hate this weather, hot, cold, hot, cold, the temperature never stays the same with the transition from autumn to winter, or at least that's what I've heard.

"Aren't you freezing?" Ivy asks, crossing her arms to jeep warm, even though her jacket and jeans looked blisteringly hot to me.

I look down at the shorts and tee shirt I'm wearing, and smile. This is actually quite comfortable at the moment.

"I'm actually fine, but thanks." I say.

A van pulls up to the curb, and a tall dark haired guy jumps out, smirking. "Well, hello Ivy and Ivy's friend" he says, bowing deeply. "Riley Adams at your service.

We both giggle, and Ivy drags me forward.

"Syd, this is Riley, Riley, Sydney." She introduces us.We shake hands, and I gasp. His hands are extremely warm.

He shakes his head, trying to hand me his jacket. "You're practically an icicle. You need to warm up."

But I shrink away from his jacket. "I'm quite alright Mr Adams, I'm usually this cold."

There's no way he'd be freezing his butt off for me when I was perfectly warm.

He just shrugs, motioning to the boxes. "Are these them?" he asks. They start stalking about addresses and stuff, I assume my time helping was over, so I start walking away.

"-Hey Sydney!" Ivy calls. "Riley and I are having a movie night, you're welcome to come if you like!"

"I'll think about it!" I call back.

"Then meet me at my place at seven!"

See? I could make friends.

I open the doors to the building, and make my way up the stairs. In the hall, I see Ivy's uncle looking at me.

"They...They're red as blood" he whispers, before disappearing. Okay, weird.

I just walk inside my apartment, when I realize it's burning hot in here. The heat makes it so stuffy, and I'm having a hard time seeing straight.

Sweat drips down my forehead, and I stumble to the thermostat.

I don't look at it, just slam my fist onto the button panel to drastically lower the temperature, and half lurch half crawl to the air conditioner and turn it on high, and stand in front of it letting the cool air wash over my hot face.

I must have stayed like this for hours, because I've finally cooled off when Martha opens the door.

"Darling, are you alright?" she asks. When she breathes, I can see the white clouds of condensation forming in the air, and I realize the temperature in here had to be below 2 degrees.

"Honey," she says, coming closer, and places a hand on my forehead still beaded with sweat. "Sydney, dear, you're so pale, are you okay?" she asks.

I shrug, turning the air conditioning unit off, brushing my sweaty hair out of my eyes. "Define okay."