𝐈𝐕𝐘 ( 𝘥𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘬 )

𝐱𝐱𝐱. "𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞"

CHAPTER THIRTY
❝ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 ❞

✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ

🌄🌅🌉🏙🌃🌌
( 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 ! )

𝙸𝚅𝚈 → ivy league
𝚂𝙰𝙳𝙸𝙴 → ucla film student

ivy league
i need to talk

ucla film student
what's wrong?
did something happen
with you and david??

ivy league
ugh you know me so well
can we meet up somewhere??
my brain is a fucking mess and
what i wanna say is too much
to type over text

ucla film student
yes sure
we can meet at the usual
ice cream place?

ivy league
that would be great

ucla film student
okay see you in a bit

🌄🌅🌉🏙🌃🌌
( 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 ! )

     THE VANILLA SUNDAE in front of Ivy was definitely not the best thing to eat at eleven in the morning, and she knew that, but she also couldn't care less. Since it was so early, only her and Sadie were in the small ice cream shop known as Sweet Treats, which Ivy was happy about. If she was about to divulge all of her problems to Sadie, she was glad that they were only accompanied by the employee at the counter, who was scrolling on their phone, instead of a bunch of random people.

Sadie took a long sip from the strawberry milkshake she bought before saying, "Okay, the curiosity has been fucking killing me since you texted. What do you wanna talk about; you said something happened between you and David?"

Ivy was quiet as she silently scooped a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, swallowing the cool substance before launching into her story. "Okay, so two nights ago, I went to David's house. Which, now that I've thought about it, was the dumbest thing ever because I didn't even call or text him that I was coming; which we always do. But, for some reason, my dumbass thought differently this time." Ivy sighed a bit. "But anyway, when I rang the doorbell, Liza was the one that answered it."

"Holy shit," Sadie said, her eyes widening a bit. "It was awkward as hell, wasn't it?"

Ivy covered her face with her hands as she said, "So fucking awkward. But don't worry because that wasn't even the worst part."

"It gets worse than that?"

"Yes, it does," Ivy nodded. "So, when she opened the door I told her some random lie about how I was at the wrong house, and right as I was about to walk away David walked up to the door too. And then shit just got even more awkward." Ivy tried her hardest not to cringe as she thought back to the look David had on his face when he saw her at his front door. She heard Sadie mutter out the word, "yikes."

"Once I actually left, I went to my car and sulked for like a good ten minutes because I felt so dumb, confused, and kind of hurt too; and I honestly still feel all of those things," Ivy continued on. "And I know it could've been something completely innocent happening with them, but I don't know, the more that I think about it, the more I feel like it wasn't something innocent going on."

Sadie nodded her head, understanding what her friend was saying. "Did you talk to David?"

"Nope," Ivy responded with a quick shake of her head as she looked down at her sundae.

"Ivy," Sadie said, dragging out all two syllables.

"Sadie," Ivy said back, dragging out the syllables just as her friend had done. "Talking to him is too much of the logical thing to do and you know my brain doesn't think that way."

"You have to do it," Sadie told her. "You can't just assume the worst possible scenario and run with it. That doesn't make any sense."

"I know, but I can't bring myself to do that. I'm too..." She trailed off, deciding not to finish her statement and just simply shrugged instead.

"Scared of what'll happen?" Sadie was able to finish for her.

Ivy sighed. "Yeah." There was a beat of silence between them.

"Do you like him?" Sadie asked. The question had come so out of left field that Ivy almost dropped the spoon she was holding. "And I don't mean in a friendly way. I mean in an actual 'I wanna date this guy' kind of way."

Ivy didn't need to think twice about her answer. "No, I don't."

"Are you sure you haven't developed some type of feelings for him?" Sadie decided to ask again, just to make sure the response was a hundred percent true.

"Yes, I'm positive that I haven't," Ivy told her. "The possibility that they got back together is not why I'm scared. Honestly, if they were back together I'd be happy because I know this is what David wants." She paused for a moment, briefly thinking of how to word what she wanted to say. "I just really like what me and David have; that's why I'm scared. Over these past months with our arrangement thing, he's become such a close friend to me; almost as close as you, me, and Corinna are. And I really don't want to lose that friendship between me and him."

"Even if he has gotten back together with Liza that doesn't mean you guys have to stop being friends," Sadie told her.

"Yeah," Ivy agreed, even though she didn't really believe that. But she decided not to say what she actually thought because she did not want to talk about that subject any further. "Anyway, I just wanna know the truth and what the fuck is going on."

"Well, if you want to know that you can't talk to me, you gotta talk to David," Sadie explained and then took another sip from her milkshake. Ivy knew that her friend was right, but that didn't change the fact that she was still apprehensive about doing what needed to be done.

How Ivy was feeling right then reminded her of how conflicted she had felt when she was trying to muster up the courage to ask David what exactly they were doing back in beginning of their arrangement before they even had rules or a certain definition of what they were; which was something that felt so long ago, even though it was only about four  months.

At first, having that discussion with David was so hard, but in the long run it turned out to be the best thing Ivy could've ever done. So, she truly hoped that talking to him now would reap the same outcome.

author's note!
i can't believe act two
is about to be done oop🤭