Mismatched

Epilogue

Six Months Later

"Dahlia! Bryony! Hurry up!" Ivy shouts up the stairs as I apply a swipe of lip gloss. I roll my eyes and Bryony laughs when she sees me.

"You'd think this was her birthday." I mutter.

"You can't blame her for being excited, Daniel is going to be there tonight." Bryony reminded me about Ivy's new boyfriend and Match. Shortly before Christmas a small outline of a star appeared behind Ivy's left ear, just under her hairline. During Spring Break, Ivy met the quiet, sweet, junior and instantly fell for his warm, chocolate-brown eyes. His matching mark of a solid star sitting behind his right ear, just under his hairline. He was Ivy's polar opposite but they complimented each other well and they reminded me a lot of my parents. Daniel was the calm to Ivy's hyper energy and he seemed amused with her silly antics instead of irritated like I would be.

"Still, this is our birthday dinner. She needs to calm down." I cap my lip gloss and do one final fluff to my dark hair. We were all getting ready to head out to meet the boys at a restaurant for a birthday dinner with our parents before all of the girls left on dates with our boys. Bryony finished touching up her makeup in the bathroom as I quickly sat on my bed and slipped on my favorite heeled ankle boots, completing my outfit of skinny jeans and loose, powder blue, satin blouse. Bryony was wearing an adorable sun dress with a light cardigan and strappy heels. She wore her hair down instead of its usual ponytail, the ends curling slightly with our natural wave.

"I'm heading down now." I tell her as I lean into the bathroom.

"Wait for me? I'm done, I just need to grab my purse." She said as she rushed passed me to grab her bag. We came down to Ivy's pouting figure standing sentry at the foot of the stairs, staring at her phone.

"Daniel still coming?" I asked, startling her.

"Yeah, he's already on his way which is why we need to go!" Ivy huffed.

"Chill, baby sis. We're aren't late, Daniel just likes to be early." I tell her, not bothering to hide my eye roll. We file out of the house and into my dad's waiting SUV in the driveway. My mother is in the front seat primping in the sun visor mirror while my dad sits in the driver seat on the phone. When he sees us approaching he finishes his phone call and gives us a beaming smile.

"There they are! Now I have all my beautiful girls." He says. My mother's tinkling giggle is heard, followed by a bashful 'Oh, John' as my mother preens under his complement.
"Are we all ready to go?" He asks and after we all answer positively he backs out of the driveway. The drive is filled with my mother's ever-flowing one-sided conversation, with some music from the radio softly filling any gaps. Ivy kept looking at her phone until I snatched it from her hands and Bryony laughed quietly as Ivy kept trying to reach across me to get it back. When we parked at the restaurant I handed her phone back, which she quickly snatched back with a huff.

Shale, Axl and Daniel were all waiting outside, chatting. Daniel shared a couple classes with each of them so they were already familiar with one another when he met Ivy. Axl told me he approved of him so he had both my and my dad's approval too. They were all dressed up; Shale was in black slacks and a buttoned-up blue oxford and polished shoes, Daniel wore charcoal slacks and a burgundy polo and Axl looked delicious in dark jeans, a black oxford and black motorcycle boots. His hair was styled so it was pulled out of his face, making it easy to see his beautiful light blue eyes.

Ivy hurried over to Daniel and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and smiled down at her. Her earlier irritation at me in the car seems to melt away now that she was with him.