"Her first day off of school and my little sister doesn't even want to spend time with me. What did I even come home for?" Alex says as though he's surprised by my actions.
"I already told Naomi and Tori that I'd be at the party tonight, and I honestly know that after a couple days with you I'll be asking when we're going to ship you back. Now, would you rather that happen sooner or later?" I ask, not even looking at my brother as I grab my phone and keys and walk out of my room, closing the door behind me.
"Cruel much?"
I just shrug, knowing that he knows I'm just kidding.
"Well, don't do anything I wouldn't do," Alex tells me as we walk down the stairs and up to the front door.
"That's an extremely low bar," I say flatly. He just shrugs and says goodbye before he begins to walk back through the hall towards the kitchen, leaving me standing alone at the front door as I tug my coat onto my shoulders.
As I slide into my car, I feel my phone buzz in my back pocket, prompting me to pull it out and check it as I close the door behind me.
Ivy: Hey, you up for hanging out tonight?
Me: Shit. I'm sorry. I promised Tori and Nao that I'd be at a party tonight.
Ivy: Oh, well maybe another time then?
Me: Or you could come to the party....
Ivy: I don't know....
Me: Nope. I'm already on my way to get you.
Ivy: You better not be texting while driving!
Me: ;)
Ivy:
Me: I'm not. Don't worry. I'm leaving my house now though, so I'll see you in a few minutes.
As I pull into the driveway of Ivy's house, I don't even have to send her a text that I'm here as she almost instantly walks out the front door, clearly having been standing there watching for me. My heart warms at the sentiment.
"You ready?" I ask her in a rather sarcastic tone, knowing that a party isn't exactly her scene which almost makes me wonder why she didn't put up a fight on whether or not she would actually let me bring her along.
Ivy just gives me a flat stare and then turns to look out the window, a signal for me to start driving.
We both stay silent for a few minutes before I make the move to turn on some music, specifically some One Direction, one band that she's clearly a closeted fan of. Smiles form on our faces as we both sing the words we know by heart, Ivy always slightly off key which just adds to the overall cuteness.
As we pull up to the house that the party is supposed to be at, I definitely don't miss the frown that takes over her face as the music turns off. And as she gets out of the car, I also don't miss her shivering which prompts me to walk over and wrap an arm around her, earning me a grateful smile.
"Are you sure you're ok with being here?" I double check with her before we walk through the door. She nods with a smile before stepping forward and opening the door for me.
As soon as I step through the doorway, I almost immediately spot Tori standing with Naomi by the drinks and grab Ivy's hand as to tug her through the crowds towards them.
"Ivy! I didn't know you were coming!" Naomi says excitedly with a smile as she spots my best friend.
"Come on, Nao. They're practically attached at the hip. If Aspen's somewhere, so is Ivy," Tori tells her rather coherently, clearly not having been at the party too long yet.
As I look over at the alcohol and back over at Ivy who quite obviously wants to spend her time at this party with me, and I then decide that I don't want to miss a second of it.
Using her hand that I never actually let go of, I tug my best friend onto the dance floor and immediately begin to jump around to a song that I'm not sure I've ever heard of before. Ivy gives me a look as if to ask what made me think she would actually want to be on the dance floor at a party and I just smile in response before grabbing both her hands and resuming my jumping as I twist my body around, forcing her to do so with me.
It's then that I'm blessed with a reluctant smile that soon turns into a wide one as she finally lets herself go and begins to jump around with me, disconnecting our hands once she begins to get more and more into the music. I have to force myself to keep dancing around so that I don't stare in awe at the girl in front of me and how "herself" she's being in this moment.
After a few more songs, we eventually leave the dance floor, both out of breath but with smiles on our faces. However, we don't make it far until I'm suddenly pulled away from her by none other than a frantic Naomi.
"What the fuck, Nao?" I try to yell at the girl despite the blaring music.
"You'll see," she yells back. It's then that we round into a hallway to find Tori having a drunken screaming match with her very sober ex from two years ago, looking as though she may pounce on him at any moment.
"Fuck you, Lewis!" Tori yells at the boy.
"You already said that, Tor," Lewis says, clearly already over having this conversation.
"Don't call me that, cheating scumbag,"
"I never cheated on you!" Lewis tries to defend himself.
"Liar,"
"I'm not! You're the one who broke things off with me!" Lewis exclaims, throwing his hands in the air.
"Because you cheated!" Tori says, pointing a rather shaky accusing finger.
"I didn't!"
"What? Was I not pretty enough for you?"
"Tori. You're beautiful. I swear I never cheated!"
"Yeah? Then who the fuck was Carolyn?"
"Carolyn? My sister?" he questions her.
"Likely story," Tori tells him, narrowing her eyes.
"Ok. Fine. What makes you believe I cheated,"
"You were texting her and sending her photos and you had a higher snap streak with her!"
"That's because I obviously knew her longer so yes the snap streak was longer and I think the photos you are referring to are called 'memes',"
"You knew her longer than me! So was I just a side piece to you?"
"Carolyn is my sister, Tor,"
Tori suddenly gasps as though this statement was a revelation.
"Sweet Home Alabama," Tori sings under her breath, causing me to let out a snort before Naomi elbows me in the side.
"Excuse me?" Lewis asks her.
It's then that Tori steps closer to him, clearly ready for physical violence but luckily enough, Naomi and I catch her arms and pull her back, despite both slightly being in previous shock due to the unfolding scene. She struggles against us, but eventually just settles on glaring at the boy in front of her.
"I'm so sorry about her, Lewis," Naomi says very sincerely to Tori's ex. Lewis lets out a sigh as he looks at the girl.
"Too much to drink again?"
"You know it," Naomi says with a nod.
"Well, I better get going while you guys have her. Just make sure to tell her hi for me when she can actually comprehend what she's doing again,"
Naomi gives him a nod in assurance and he then bolts out of the hallway.
"Yeah. You better run," Tori calls after him. After a few seconds, we let her go and it's then that I turn to Naomi.
"You needed me why?" I ask her, suddenly remembering the girl that is probably now both alone and feeling lonely without me.
"I didn't want to just let her make a fool of herself, Aspen. Besides, if we hadn't been here to hold her back then she would've actually pounced on him,"
"One, it's her fault for getting this drunk. Two, maybe she should've taken him down if her accusations had any truth to them,"
"One, next time you're drunk maybe I should leave you to do whatever you want then. Two, I have no idea where she got her claims from but I doubt they hold much truth right now," Naomi acts like the peacemaker as always.
"Whatever. I have to go find Ivy," I decide with an eye roll as I turn on my heel and make my way to the place I saw Ivy last. And to my luck, she's still there.
"Hey, Aspen," Ivy slurs as I approach her, nearly falling off the counter she was leaning on. It takes a moment for me to fully register what's happening, but as soon as I do, a scowl overtakes my face.
"Hey, Ivy. Where'd you get that drink from?" I ask the girl sweetly as I point to the cup in her hand.
"Ashley said it would make me feel better. And she was right!" Ivy says joyously as she throws her arms in the air, accidentally spilling her drink all over herself.
"That fucking bitch," I hiss under my breath before I grab onto Ivy's wrist tightly and begin to pull her around the house until I finally find Ashley making out on the living room couch with her boyfriend.
"What the actual fuck, Ashley," I yell over the music, causing for her to pull her lips away from her boyfriend's and turn around on his lap to face me.
"Hey, Aspen. And Ivy! Good to see you again," she says too sweetly for my liking.
"What the hell did you give to Ivy?"
"What do you mean?" she asks, tilting her head as an attempt to act innocent.
"She's clearly drunk, Ashley and she got her drink from you. What the fuck did you give her?" I repeat myself.
"I asked her if she wanted some punch to sip on while she was waiting for you and she said yes. Sue me for being nice," Ashley snaps back rather defensively.
"That punch was fucking spiked, Ashley,"
Ashley's eyes widen at my words, as if she's surprised by them.
"Shit. I'm sorry. I-"
I don't let her finish as I roll my eyes and grab Ivy's hand before walking away to find a place where we can get away from the party scene a bit and I can try to cool down. I burst through the first doorway I see and am happy to find an empty bedroom. After slamming the door behind us, I finally turn to look at Ivy who just looks back at me, confused.
"We're gonna stay in here for a bit," I tell her as I lean back against the door I just slammed closed. She frowns at my words before crossing her arms over her chest.
"No!" she whines in protest.
"I need to calm down, and you need to sober up at least a little bit before I take you home," I explain to her as I slide down against the door to sit on the floor. Ivy doesn't say anything as she walks back over to me and plops down onto the floor across from me.
I can't help but stare at her, but not only because of her enticing beauty, but because of the slight differences her drunkenness has caused. Her usually guarded self just seems more open, though a semblance of it still remains. Her eyes are wide but still tired. Her fiery hair is messy, but the structure of the previously tight braid stayed.
"Remember when we first met?" Ivy asks, tilting her head slightly as she slurs her words.
"We just talked about this with Dustin. Remember?" I ask her softly, twiddling my thumbs.
"No! When we first met!" Ivy whines slightly. While she's an annoying drunk, it's pretty cute on her.
"What do you mean?"
"I hated you," she says with a giggle.
"Oh shit. You're right. You joined the football team in seventh grade and all of a sudden Dustin started talking about this girl named Ivy whenever we hung out. You were trying to steal my best friend away from me!" I exclaim, smiling at the memories.
"You mean your future boyfriend," Ivy says with a wink.
"Dude, we never dated," I remind her. She smiles wistfully at the reminder.
"Oh yeah. Well, I wasn't trying to steal my best friend. Wait. Your best friend," Ivy corrects herself.
"You definitely were! Every time I would hang out with Dustin, you would glare at me!"
"That's because you started it first!"
"I most definitely did not. I was so excited to meet you once Dustin started talking about you!" I defend myself.
Ivy narrows my eyes and I just shake my head at her.
"Well, thank goodness we agreed to go out to eat together with Dustin that day then because we clearly wouldn't have became friends otherwise," I tell her with a smile.
"I knew I wanted you to be my best friend once you poured that lemonade on the mean eighth grader's head," Ivy says wistfully, still slurring her words quite a bit.
"I thought we agreed to never bring that up again," I say as I cover my face with my hands. Ivy grabs my wrists and pulls my hands away, suddenly much closer than she was before.
"You jumped to defend him with no hesitation," Ivy says quietly.
"And impulsiveness clearly had its consequences," I say as I look away from her, my cheeks beginning to heat up at the proximity.
"That's what I'm here for. We balance each other out pretty well, don't we?" Ivy asks with a lopsided smile. I nod and then proceed to look back up at her.
"You're really pretty. You know that, Aspen?" Ivy asks me, tilting her head as if in deep thought even though I'm not sure how many truly deep thoughts she can form in her state.
I clear my throat as I push her away from me and stand up before looking back down at her.
"Well, you're clearly not sobering up any time soon, so I better just get you home?" I tell Ivy as I offer her an outstretched hand before proceeding to help her up. And I continue to hold her hand as I guide her back out of the room and through the house. I only let go once we reach my car.
I play One Direction on the way to her house for her sake and she most definitely lets herself go while listening to them, making up her own little interpretative dances to each song which make me smile without fail.
As we reach her front door I quite honestly can't tell if she's truly sobered up at all, figuring the punch must've been spiked with something strong or she drank more of it than I had previously assumed.
The lights are all off in her house as we enter and it's practically dead silent outside of the soft humming of the heating system. And so I pull her onto my back, figuring the easiest way to get her to her room would be to carry her. She giggles softly at the action, but stays quiet outside of that, thankfully. And as I trudge up the stairs, I can't help but be more thankful for her than I have been in a while. She always drops everything to help me out when I'm drunk with rarely any complaints, and she has been for years. With her dead weight on my back as I make my way up the stairs, I realize just how hard such a job must be.
Once we enter her room, I instantly let her go and close the door behind us, however it only takes half a second for her to seemingly lose her balance as she grabs my wrist to steady herself. And yet, despite her intent that I would help steady her, she ends up throwing me off balance too and we end up on her floor, her lying on top of me and my heart nearly beating out of my chest.
It's only when she lifts her torso up off me and plants her legs on either side of my body that I completely lose my breath. Her eyes flicker down to my lips and I'm totally frozen in place. The moment I've been waiting for years to arrive finally has and I can't even form a coherent thought.
However, as she starts leaning in, my morality kicks in first and I push her away and sit up so that we're both sitting on the floor next to each other.
"Ivy. You're drunk," I tell her, regret from my choice of actions just beginning to set in.
"And?" she turns to look over at me, her eyes conveying a sort of sadness I wasn't expecting.
"I can't do that to you," I say quietly. I care too much about her to ever take advantage of her in this situation.
"We're going to end up kissing anyways, Aspen. Remember our New Year's deal?"
And as she asks for me to remember it, I can't help but think about how I can never seem to forget it, especially now that we're less than a month away.
"If we both haven't had our first kisses by New Years Eve senior year, then we'll be each other's," I summarize it quietly to answer her question, my heart pounding even though I'm calm and collected on the outside.
"And I haven't been kissed yet. Unless there's something you haven't told me,"
"Ivy...."
My voice barely works.
"All we're doing is speeding up the process," she slurs slightly, giving me yet another reminder as to why I can't give in to the temptation.
"You're still drunk right now, Ivy. That's the problem here," I tell her. She pouts at my words.
"No one ever wants to kiss me,"
I cringe at her words, knowing full well how much I want to. My heart squeezes slightly.
"Ivy, if you feel the same way when you're sober tomorrow, we can go as fast as you want," I promise her though there's an underlying condition that I didn't say out loud. She would also have to remember what happened tonight.
Ivy tilts her head at my words before eventually giving a satisfied nod which causes me to smile.
"Well. You better get to bed," I tell her with a sigh. She jumps up quicker than expected and practically throws herself onto the bed, successfully making me chuckle.
I tuck her into bed before giving her a soft forehead kiss goodnight. I then turn around and walk out of her room.
It isn't until I get to my car that it hits me what just happened and I have utterly no control over the way my heart soars with hope.