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𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝚖𝚎?
𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐏𝐀𝐔𝐋 stood nervously on the front doorstep of the peterson's house, with his father and brother, mike, conversing indifferently behind him.
"try again," paul's father, jim, advised him when it seemed like no one would be coming to answer the doorbell's ringing.
but paul was terrified. and he had every reason to be- ivy herself was terrifying, and this was going to be his first time inside her house, and his first time meeting her family, excluding gwen. and when she said she planned on breaking him out, this was nowhere near what he'd been expecting.
paul turned to face them and held his hands out, proposing, "or.. maybe.. we could walk back home.. tell them we got sick or even -"
paul was immediately cut off by an excited giggle from somewhere beyond the front door, inside the house, and then an exclamation: "oh, that must be them!" he could tell simply from the sound of her voice, and from her familiar, aching laugh that the girl was ivy, and from the extraordinary loudness of her stomping feet that she was approaching the door. it was too late.
as expected, the wooden door flew open and rather unexpectedly, paul's heart leapt into his throat; she was wearing the brown and tan dress.
her golden arms were sleeveless and spread grandly while she pointed an overwhelmingly radiant, red-lipped smile in his direction. the dress hugged her in all of the right places and she was obviously quite proud of it from the smug yet mischievous grin she'd plastered over her shining face. and her eyes were dark and sparkling and for some reason he couldn't stop staring at her and of course, she noticed.
"oh hi, thanks for coming!" ivy greeted the family, shifting from her place in the doorway so they could enter the house. "my mother is in the kitchen and dinner's nearly ready- which is down this way- wow, this is going to be so much fun! come in, come in!"
upon her invitation jim entered the house, a bottle of wine clutched in each hand to compliment the main course catherine had described to him only an hour before. "sure it will, thank you for having us! she's off this way?" jim gestured in the direction of the kitchen, causing ivy to respond with a smiling nod. after receiving a second thank you, ivy watched jim wander off with mike trailing behind, giving her a prompt once-over before mumbling his own significantly more awkward thanks.
once the two of them were traveling out of earshot, ivy turned back to paul, her golden hands moving to stifle a delicate laugh, most obviously directed at his stunned expression. "quit gaping," she finally said. "you look like a fish."
