CHAPTER THREE
❝ 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦, 𝘪 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 ❞
✧∘ଂ ࿐ ཾ
🌄🌅🌉🏙🌃🌌
( 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 ! )
ELEVEN O'CLOCK AT NIGHT was the time that Ivy and Corinna stepped into the party that was located at some random house in Los Angeles. It was only the two girls that ultimately decided to go to the party since Sadie had to work on a lengthy assignment for one of her classes that was due in two days, and she had waited until the last minute to start it.
The fact that Sadie would not be at the party made Ivy slightly more apprehensive about going since she knew that, that meant she would probably be one of the only people there that wasn't an "influencer," which would always quickly make her feel out of place.
"Don't worry, we're gonna have fun," Corinna told the raven haired girl, a bright smile on her face. It was almost as if she could sense the nervousness that was coursing through Ivy's body and knew that she had to do something to help ease her friend's uneasiness, which Ivy was quite grateful for and she shot Corinna a smile back in response.
"I really hope you're right," She said, as she and Corinna made their way toward the kitchen of the house they were in; the place that would always be a first stop when they got to any party.
The girls grabbed two waters from an open top cooler that was placed on the counter. Corinna's eyes scanned the party in search of one person in particular, while Ivy examined the water bottle in her hand, not really wanting to do anything else.
Corinna smiled as she spotted the person she was in search of. "There's Todd." She pointed to the right of them where the dark haired boy was laughing along with two other people. As Corinna started moving toward him, Ivy stayed back and took another sip of her water.
"You coming?"
Ivy quickly shook her head. As much as she loved her friend, she definitely wasn't in the mood to third wheel with her and Todd; informally known as, the on-again/off-again lovebirds. "I'm good."
"You sure?"
"Yeah," Ivy told her. She noticed the worried look on Corinna's face, so she decided to continue on. "Who knows maybe I'll find some random cute guy to make out with just like you and Sadie said."
"I hope you do," Corinna smirked and then kept walking toward where Todd was, saying one final thing to Ivy before she got out of earshot. "I'll find you in ten minutes, twenty at the latest."
Ivy shook her head and gave her friend a look that said, "don't worry about me." The raven haired girl knew that she definitely wasn't gonna go find a random person to make out with, but she just wanted to say something to make Corinna not worry about her. Even though she wasn't in the biggest "let's go party!" mood, she didn't want to make Corinna wallow along with her.
The said self-wallowing went on for about two minutes as Ivy stood in the kitchen, until she quickly decided to just start walking around the party, so that she could at least do something before her mind started spiraling toward things she didn't want to think about.
The main topic being Tyler.
The empty water bottle in her hand was tossed into the trash and she began to walk around the spacious house, bobbing and weaving through the drunk and loud people located around her; she had absolutely no idea what she was looking for or what she was walking toward, but that didn't really matter to her because it just felt good to be doing something.
That good feeling immediately vanished, after about only twenty seconds of Ivy wandering around the house, when she saw the exact person that she did not at all want to see. He was standing a good fifteen feet away from her and his gaze was solely on the person that was standing in front of him, so he did not see Ivy notice him, and the people all around helped to make her go unnoticed as well.
She was actually pretty surprised to see Tyler at the party since he's not apart of the "influencer community" and last Ivy knew, there was no one he really knew that was apart of it besides Corinna, who definitely would not have invited him to the party.
It wasn't until her eyes shifted from looking at Tyler to the person that he was talking to that she realized exactly why he was there. A brunette girl, who Ivy informally knew as Audrey Wilson, was standing in front of Tyler, and she was smiling quite widely at whatever he had just said and he smiled right back at her. Audrey was a YouTuber herself so it now made complete sense to Ivy why Tyler was there.
Over the past couple of weeks since the breakup, there were multiple times where she would stupidly allow herself to think about Tyler and Audrey, and them doing cute couple things that Ivy and Tyler used to do; those thoughts would always lead her to crying for a good five minutes. However, seeing them in real life, looking so damn happy with one another, felt and hurt much worse than all of the crazy ass scenarios she had cooked up in her mind.
Before she could begin having a breakdown in the middle of the house, Ivy quickly turned on her heel, away from the sight of her ex and his new girlfriend, and started walking, her converse covered feet leading her right out the front door.
When she was greeted with the feeling and smell of cool and fresh air, she immediately felt ten times better, but that unfortunately did not stop the tears from coming.
As she made her way down the driveway and turned left, beginning to walk down the sidewalk, she was very grateful that there wasn't really anyone from the party lingering around outside to see her in this distraught state. Ivy continuously wiped at the tears on her face with the sleeve of the denim jacket she was wearing, trying to pull herself together, which after about a minute of sobbing, she was finally able to do.
She took a deep breath, to steady her shaky breathing and quickly thought about what she was going to do since she knew that going back into that party and trying to "have fun" was no longer an option.
Okay, I'll just go in there real quick to find Corinna, tell her what happened, and then get the hell away from this party, She thought.
However, that mini plan she came up with quickly went to shit when she turned around to start walking back toward the house and almost immediately crashed into someone. That someone was a guy, whose whole attire was black, including the baseball cap he was wearing over his shortish, dark brown hair. For some reason, Ivy felt like he looked familiar, but she wasn't able to tell how she knew him.
"Shit, my bad," He said, his eyes cast downward toward his phone. When he turned his gaze away from it and looked up at Ivy, his expression quickly turned to one of concern. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Was Ivy's immediate response, even though it was a complete lie, and she knew that the guy could probably tell. She hadn't looked in the mirror since she had finished crying, but Ivy knew that she most likely looked very not fine.
"You sure?" He asked. The question pretty much confirming Ivy's thoughts about him being able to tell that she was lying.
Ivy didn't know if it was the soft tone of his voice, or the look of genuine concern on his face, but whatever it was made her become completely honest with him. "No, I'm not. I'm really not okay."
The guy gestured toward the curb that was located a few feet away from where they were standing on the sidewalk as a way to say, "wanna sit?". Ivy silently nodded her head and they both took a seat on the cool concrete.
"My boyfriend broke up with me a couple weeks ago and I just saw him in that party with the girl he dumped me for," Ivy told him in one quick breath, her eyes looking straight ahead at the street in front of them. "So, um, yeah, that fun little chain of events is what led me out here bawling my eyes out, for what feels like the thousandth time in the past two weeks since he ended things."
"That really sucks," He said to her, his voice still soft. There was a beat of silence between them before he filled it. "Wanna hear something that's possibly worse than that?" Before Ivy could nod or shake her head in response to his question, the dark haired boy continued on.
"My girlfriend and I broke up about a month ago and no one knows. We're in the same friend group, but we haven't told any of them. And our relationship is pretty public, so literally everyone still thinks we're together, and a lot of people post stuff all the time about us being the 'best and cutest couple' and other shit like that, which is not really the most fun thing in the world to see every day."
For a second, Ivy was confused about what he meant about the relationship being "public," but then she remembered the type of people that were at the party she was just at, and how that was probably the same place the guy had also come from, so everything he had previously said made sense to her.
She in no way could relate to what he was saying, but could fully imagine how shitty it must be to be constantly reminded of a relationship that has ended. "Holy shit. Yeah, that is much worse."
"Yeah," He let out a small, awkward laugh. "I'm David, by the way."
Upon hearing those words, Ivy looked over at the guy sitting next to her. Now that she knew his name, the reason why he looked vaguely familiar finally clicked. "Are you friends with Corinna?"
There was a weird look on his face as he answered Ivy's question. "Yeah."
"Sorry, that probably sounded super random," She quickly said to him. "I'm Ivy. Also, friends with Corinna."
"Oh, okay, yeah, I knew you looked kinda familiar. I've definitely seen you in some of her Instagram posts and stories," The guy, she now knew as David, told her. "We've tried to get her to bring you and your other friend, Sadie, around but she never wants to."
"Yeah, me and Sadie aren't really into being in Youtube videos and all of that. And no offense, but from what we heard from Rin, your friend group can be pretty," She took a pause, thinking of the right word to say. "Intense."
David chuckled at that. "Yeah, intense is definitely one way to describe us."
Ivy smiled a bit. "Anyway, speaking of Corinna, I should probably go find her so I can get out of here. I just hope to God I don't find her and Todd having sex in some random room in the house."
"I can give you a ride if you want," David offered, then quickly noticed what he said. "Wow, I'm just now realizing how creepy and serial killer-ey that must've sounded. But, trust me, I won't murder you."
"I feel like that's something only a serial killer would say," Ivy joked, but didn't decline his offer for a ride. Even though she would've been okay with going in to find Corinna, she was partially glad that David had said he could give her a ride because it meant that she didn't have to risk seeing Tyler and Audrey again. She stood up from the curb and dusted off the back of her black jeans with her hands. "But, I'll take my chances. Where's your car?"
David followed suit, getting up from the curb as well, and pointed in the direction of where his car was then started walking that way. The walk to the car only took about a minute and as they made their way to it, Ivy quickly sent a text to Corinna that said, "i'm heading out now, so i'll talk to you tomorrow. have fun with your loverboy lol."