IVY // T. CHALAMET

05

"Tim?"

Ivy walked into his apartment, using the spare key he had given her when he first moved into the apartment. She looked around and her breath hitched, noting at all had changed from the last time she had been apartment 48. There were still throw pillows thrown around the floor, classic literature books in piles all over the apartment. Pictures from high school and of family on spare tables and counter space. Some polaroids and photos from high school photography assignments of the two of them taped up on the walls. With a faint smell of takeout hovering in the air.

Timothée stood up from where he was grabbing a bottle of spray cleaner from under the sink, "Hey!"

Ivy did a 180 to face him, "Sorry, I let myself in." She told him flustered and held up her key with a small laugh. "This place hasn't fucking changed at all."

"Yeah, I haven't really been around a whole lot," he explained. "If I knew you were coming over now I would have made food or something, but do you want tea?" Timothée's eyes were scanning over Ivy where she stood a meter or so out of the door.

"Still have any blueberry left?" She asked him and walked over and into the kitchen over to the cabinet where he kept his tea and looked into it, just like she owned the place.

"Always," He turned around to the electric kettle and filled it up. "Get me a green would you?" He walked over next to her to get out a mug for himself and a mason jar for her and filled it with ice. The two worked in unison to get the tea ready to procrastinate talking.

Once the two 22 year olds had been situated with tea (and some hummus and carrots Timothée had fixed up) they sat on his couch to talk. Neither one wanted to start, they sat in silence studying every difference or change they could find in the other.

Ivy took a deep breath, starting to become annoyed with the avoidance that both of them were contributing. "What happened falls on both of us but neither one of us had anything to do with it."

"Agreed," he responded. "But I am sorry." He said with a sigh and some of his brown hair flopping into his eyes and looking down at his cup of tea. "I've been a complete asshole."

Ivy scoffed, "Understatement." She sat up from where she was slouching in the couch. "You go to Italy to start finally filming Call Me By Your Name and I was so proud but two weeks after you get there you stop talking to me altogether. I just through 'oh Tim got busy it's okay' but then the next time I even heard anything from you was just a text saying you were done filming and would be in LA for auditions. Then I saw Pauline and your Mom when I was Christmas shopping last year and they had told me you were filming for all sorts of other movies and thought I knew. So you were a complete ignorant asshole, yes." Her face was red from anger talking about it and her hands were only slightly shaking.

Timothée looked embarrassed and kept looking at his mug. "Exactly what I meant. There's nothing that excuses how much of a cowardly fuck I was. I remember Kaia and Ingrid texting and DMing me telling me how shitty I was being and how I was hurting you."

"Then why did you!" Ivy yelled, "If you knew you were hurting me then why did you keep doing it?" She set her mason jar of iced tea on the coffee table next to the hummus, got off the couch and started hopping up and down to calm down. "Suddenly became a sadist or something?"

"I was under so much stress an-," He cut himself off after Ivy started to scowl at him, "and I know that isn't an excuse but I just started shutting myself away from my family and everyone and focusing on work and that involved you and I'm so so sorry."

Ivy stopped jumping and sat back down on the couch, "So you didn't like, cheat or anything?"

"God no," He said with a look of horror washing over his face at Ivy's thought. "I was still so in love with you and Armie and Elizabeth kept on telling me to get my head out of my ass and talk to you all the fucking time." He explained to her and looked up to meet her eyes. "I'm not expecting to get back together or anything just there's an explanation."

"Yeah yeah I forgive you it makes sense, I shut myself out when I started getting recognized but whatever." She told him and dipped a carrot into the hummus and waved it around while talking. "Okay but what are we going to do about the other thing?" Ivy picked up a pillow and held it in her lap and played with the corner.

"I don't know?" Timothée breathed out, "Fake date?" He suggested with a sarcastic laugh.

Ivy hit him with a pillow and laughed. "No, that shit is really fucking dumb and so will not."

They both laughed and Timothée took the pillow she threw at him and hit her on the head with it. "Well it seems like we're friendly now?" He asked while Ivy responded with a huge smile and eager nod, "So just act like nothing's wrong because we're getting through it and we can both freak out about it together and air our concerns with one another."

"Sounds great, now that we're friendly again I found a bug of photos of you as a kid and in high school I'm totally posting!" Ivy eagerly told him. She grabbed her phone but before she could do anything Timothée yelled a loud "No!" and threw a pillow at her.

"You just poked the bear!" Ivy yelled back and grabbed a backing couch cushion and hit him in the head, prompting her to do the same, starting an all out war.