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𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝚏𝚕𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐,
"𝐎𝐇! 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐄!" ivy jumped in front of the lense of stuart's camera, flashing a picture-perfect one-in-a-million smile for the mechanical click.
it was the last day of summer and, as always, ivy was dressed for the occasion, grinning in her orange, red, and yellow dress that made her shine and fade and glow like a sunset, sublime. a sliver of a headband the shade of tangerine was settled in her dark brown hair, glowing in harmony with the warm golden tan of her skin.
"stu the photographer," ivy said thoughtfully as stu squinted back at her, partly weary but completely amused behind the cigarette he was lighting with his free hand. "and me, your muse!" stu's hand was snatched away from him and taken in hers to twirl her in an easy circle.
"sure, ivy," stu entertained this daydream, or delusion, of hers. he humored her in this way almost as much as john tended to. stu's nose crinkled as he squinted through the camera again, blowing a puff of smoke as he snapped a candid of her. "when i'm big, you'll be my number one."
someone cleared their throat loudly and dramatically from somewhere behind ivy and stu. the pair turned to, of course, pete, exasperated and impatiently tapping the watch on his wrist. "let's get this over with, preferably before i hit old age, okay, babe?" he made a shooing motion at ivy.
right, there was a reason everyone was assembled in john's front yard on the last day of summer. ivy had to search the small crowd.
obviously there was stu stood at ivy's side, the photographer of the event. and there was pete a little ways away from them, arms crossed as he leaned against a tree, with david and randy chatting to pass the time to his left. there was george with gwen, sitting shoulder to shoulder under the other tree, whispering and giggling to each other. vivienne slept in gwen's lap, evelyn and beth searched for bugs in the dirt across the yard. there was john, alone on the porch steps, resting his head against the railing and staring off into space.
then ivy found him in the crowd, paul, looking back at her with an embarrassed half-smile and a box full of kittens. he couldn't believe he was doing this, again, for ivy, again, but he'd made peace with it.
and he was doing this again, demonstrating his commitment by carrying the box to her side. "welcome everyone!" paul began after ivy's slight nudge. "thank you all for coming. we're gathered this time around for a much happier occasion: the naming of the kittens!"
the confused group exchanged glances. that was not the reason any of them thought they had been invited. because naturally, ivy had told every member of the group a series of varying lies about why they were truly here.
paul had to resist the urge to laugh, naturally putting two and two together before any of the others did. the whole thing was so characteristic of ivy, yet entirely uncharacteristic since (for once) her target hadn't been him. grinning, paul spoke before the members of their audience could object, "want to start?"
"yes!" ivy exclaimed, and reached into the box. she cradled a black, brown, and white striped kitten in her arms. "everyone, this is ivy jr." ivy's eyes flitted to paul, his turn.
paul lifted a gray kitten from the box with extreme care. "alright, and here we have paul jr. say hello, paul jr."
ivy let paul introduce the next two kittens, cutie pie and elvis (it was painfully obvious which person had named which kitten). ivy retrieved the last kitten from the box and found herself beaming at the sight of paul with an armful of kittens. "finally, this is our problem child, stinky." ivy kissed the top of stinky's head and presented him to the crowd.
the only sound was the clicking of stu's camera. he wasn't completely sure what he was supposed to be photographing, but he took the photos regardless.
no one knew how to react, still struggling to believe that they'd been gathered this whole time, in john's front yard, on the last day of summer, for a "naming of the kittens" ceremony. when the silence persisted for too long, gwen started to clap. and despite their silent, extreme hesitation, the crowd gave ivy and paul a round of applause.
ivy turned to paul. unfortunately, the look on her face made the entire stupid thing worth it all. paul didn't think he'd ever be able to tell her that. instead, he shuffled the kittens slightly in his arms to free one of his hands, to high-five her. ivy touched his hand and was about to speak when something, or someone, over his shoulder caught her eye.
over paul's shoulder, john was motionless on the porch steps, eyes staring blankly into the grass. ivy frowned, passing ivy jr. and stinky to paul, who walked alongside her as she approached john.
"hey." ivy rested on the step below john, rested her hand on his knee. "thanks for letting us come today. i just thought everyone could be together, before.. and i'm sorry for making such a commotion. i just get carried away."
john shrugged indifferently. he thought she should've known by now that he never minded her antics. more often than not, they carried her away. besides, she was hardly the reason he was having such a rough day. for nearly two months now, all of his days had been rough. today simply felt worse than usual, and he didn't have the strength to hide it.
a silence fell over the trio. ivy thought of saying something else, but she knew she wouldn't be able to say it right. the way paul could. her eyes darted from john to paul, back again, figuring she should probably just leave.
"hey, john's okay, ivy. but maybe you could get him a cup of water or something, just for good measure." paul nodded at ivy, ivy nodded back. it was funny, how telepathic they were becoming.
"oh, i can do that. i'd love to do that," ivy emphasized. her heart pulled at the thought of john's pain, but she knew whatever paul planned to say would be the most perfect thing, and might even bring him some comfort.
ivy smiled at her friends, kissed her fingertip, and lightly touched john's knee with the same finger. their eyes followed the movement of her figure into john's house.
