Always

8 : ring

She's not okay . If anything she's far than okay . I don't think she can breathe properly or see straight, as a matter of fact. Her legs are bouncing up and down, her face looks pale. She's sitting beside me with her head rested on the headrest. Think of something, you idiot. "So, um, what's your favorite color?" I clear my throat. She looks at me like I've grown two heads. "What? It's a good question," I say, shrugging with a soft smile.It's the shittiest question to ever exist. I mean, what are we, two? Besides, I know the answer is gonna be 'black'. "Black," there it is . Her whole personality screams black . "Favorite series?" "When I fly towards you." Damnit. "So, um, how come you're moving to the neighborhood?" she takes a deep breath as of preparing herself to speak

. "Some fucking idiot thought that it would be a good idea to start a campfire in his apartment, which caught fire, and I lived in the penthouse above him. Long story short, the penthouse burned to ashes.". "Sounds like something I would do," I say, shrugging. She looks at me and was about to say something, but her phone rang. I pass her a water bottle, which she takes, muttering a thank you. "So when are you shifting?" "I'm shifting tomorrow," she says , receiving a text. "Actually, scratch that, I'm shifting today," she says, looking up at me. "Well then, welcome to the neighborhood," I say, and she nods. Shocker.

We soon reach 'Angel,' it's a famous café. Mostly celebrities visit this café since media is restricted inside for privacy purposes. Ivy and I are sitting on one side of the booth , and Felix and Celeste are in front of us . Ivy looks more anxious than ever. Even though her face is neutral, her legs are bouncing, and she's scratching the groove of her nail of her right hand which is resting on her thigh. I don't know why, but I have this sudden urge to comfort her anytime she's feeling down. So without thinking twice, I cover her hand with mine in order to stop her from scratching it further. From the periphery, I can see her staring into my soul , but she neither says something nor tries to remove my hand.

I try to focus on Celeste, who is rambling something about how ketchup should be banned. After ten seconds, I remove a ring from my finger and quietly place it on her thumb since it's ginormous for her fingers. "Don't scratch your pretty little fingers, fidget with this instead," I whisper and she looks confused, and that is the first expression I got from her forever neutral face. Progress . Fuck yeah . Just as she opens her mouth to reply, a waiter comes to take our orders, and Celeste continues to say random things I have no idea about, and from the looks of Ivy and Felix's face, they don't either.

Ivy looks confused, her eyebrows are raised in concentration , and she's trying so hard to follow up, and I can bet my whole life on the fact that Felix isn't even trying, he's just staring at her with those lovesick eyes that scream 'I'm so in love with you.' Soon our food arrives, and Ivy looks like she's about to make a run for the door. We both ordered salads, apparently. I did so because I'm on a diet, and I'm guessing the same for her, but I don't think she needs a diet. She's in perfect shape, but it's not my place to say. We are halfway through our meals, but she hasn't even taken a bite. I didn't mean to pry, I just noticed it. Did she not want the salad ?

After a while, we are all done with our meals. Surprisingly, Ivy finished as well. Now, Felix and I are fighting over the bill while Ivy and Celeste are in the restroom. I told him that I wanted to pay and he told me to go to hell . he just doesn't care. "Excuse me, can we get the bill, please?" she looks shocked . Like we asked for her kidney instead of the bill ."Um, sir, you don't need to pay." What in the world. "What ?" she laughs nervously and rubs the back of her neck. "Because I don't want to be fired " .

"What do you mean?" Felix asks but before she could reply Celeste and Ivy arrive just in time and Ivy replies "What she means is that none of you have to pay. I own the damn café," the waitress smiles at Ivy. "You can go, Natalie," she says. Well that explains the waitress smiling at her in the start . But what troubles me is that her face looks pale, her cheeks are flushed, but I just shrug it off. Maybe she just washed her face. "Why didn't you tell us?" Celeste asks her and she just shrugs. "But at least let us pay, how is that fair?" Felix says annoyed . Ha , take that sucker . "I don't do fair, Felix. I do exactly what I want," and we just leave it at that because we know that there's no winning with Ivy Kennedy. Felix finally met his match. He's been bossing me and Celeste since forever.

We both leave the café in my car. It was a silent ride. Nothing was said but it felt comfortable. I drop her at the place she was working at since her car was in the parking. She removes her seatbelt and looks in my direction. "Thank you for the ride" she says. "No worries " . "And thank you for this," she says, returning the ring I gave her. "Keep it," I say and she looks dumbfounded. "So that you don't scratch your hand," I say to save her the trouble of asking and I know she's about to argue, so I cut her off. "Take it, Ivy. I insist, and I have the whole night if you want to argue," I say, crossing my hands across my chest. She says a quiet "thank you" and bites the inside of her lip, avoiding eye contact . "Ivy, are you smiling?" I ask, shocked. Her eyes widen . She looks like a deer caught in headlights. "What, no, shut up, bye,"

she says this and opens the door to get out "and Lucas " she turns around and faces me "if you try to start a campfire or pull some dumb shit that ends up burning the neighborhood , I'm gonna bury you six feet deep inside "she says with a straight face making me laugh . "No promises" I say with a goofy smile. She just rolls her eyes , biting her lips and gets out of the car . she might be the first who threatened me and got away with it . I drive off once she's in her car.

You're something else, Kennedy.

Xoxoxoxox-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

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K. Byeee
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