Country Club Living - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Thirty - Five - Going Away Party

Upon returning to Kildare Ivy was met with the familiar sight of a beat-up orange and white van outside of her home, inside sat the Pogues with Sarah returning from Ivy's front door shaking her head. When the black car pulled up to the driveway Sarah beamed and rushed over to it instead of the van, causing the members inside to crane their necks to see where she was going.

Ivy parked her car and unclipped her seatbelt, stepping gingerly out onto the pavement in anticipation of what was to come, she did not know what her former friends were outside her soon to be old home for and she was nervous to find out after their last encounter. Giving a small wave to the 5 pairs of eyes on her she timidly took a few more steps toward the rusting van. Sarah approached her first and gave a weak smile.

"We know that you're heading to college soon so there are a few things that some of us had to say" She spoke, directing her attention to Kie and JJ who sat with their legs swinging over the side of the opened van, JJ's legs planted firmly on the ground below as he looked anywhere but at the girl in front of him.

"We're sorry Ivy, we were out of line last time we saw you" Kie said sincerely

Ivy nodded politely and turned her attention to the blonde boy whose eyes were fixated on his muddy combat boots.

"JJ? You got something you wanna say, buddy?" John B called from the driver's seat

"Yeah like, I'm... sorry or whatever" JJ mumbled through gritted teeth

Ivy let a smirk creep up on her face before letting a laugh slip, causing the rest of the group to laugh too.

"What's so funny?" JJ asked suddenly looking around at the group

"Was it really so hard to say sorry?" Ivy giggled

JJ mumbled something unintelligible before allowing a smile to creep up onto his face.

Ivy looked at the boxes in her car and then to the group before her and asked if they wanted to come inside to which they all agreed.

The house felt even larger due to the emptiness of it and the Pogue's looked around in sheer awe. Despite the walls being bare of art and the lack of fancy ornaments and miscellaneous items around the house they couldn't help but be in shock at the grandeur of the home. They had been in Sarah's home a handful of times, but this was new territory for them, and expensive territory at that.

To break the silence Ivy held up the container of broken pie and offered it to the group. JJ was the first to clock the bashed baked goods in Ivy's hand and snatched them quickly.

"Dude. Swiper no swiping" Pope said

"Yeah fuck off Dora" JJ smirked before shovelling broken bits of pie in his mouth

The group all gathered around the breakfast bar in the kitchen and talked for a bit, making sure that plenty of apologies were given. The pogues for being so horrible to Ivy when she was struggling and Ivy for sneaking around behind their backs and making them believe she had ulterior motives. When the topic of conversation had changed to who had made the god-awful pie, Alexis came through to the kitchen with a box on her hip and a bandana wrapped around her head to keep her hair out of her face, sporting her natural hair which she hadn't done in quite some time.

One thing to be noted about Alexis since her divorce had been finalised and she had regained contact with her brother was that she was finally happy again. Things had never been perfect between her and Leo and all the money in the world couldn't cover that up. She often thought back to the times before she gave up on her family and wondered what would've happened if she had chosen to stay on the cut, she may have been struggling but she would have been happier and as her daughter sat around the countertops with her friends that wore dusty converse with the soles almost falling off and tank tops with small holes she couldn't help but smile at them all, something she would not have done had it been a month prior. The misfits in her kitchen almost felt more like home than the empty house she stood in did.