Life of Ives ✔️

Sixteen

IVES

Josie and I are seated in the coffee shop just outside campus together, and we're chatting away about some assignments we've received this week. It's Thursday, there's another party tomorrow, and Dean invited me to see his band practice before their gig on Saturday.

We were supposed to be studying here, but Josie is already tired of studying. She's very happy about everything else in her life, though, especially that one thing that starts with a B, and ends with "oyfriend".

I'm learning more about her every day.

She's an only child, her parents divorced when she was ten, and she stayed with her father while her mother took her part of her ex-husband's money and traveled the world. Now, she's cooped up in a small apartment in New York trying to make it as an actress. Josie doesn't seem very upset about that, in fact, she seems to be kind of careless towards her mother, which I don't really understand. She still has her.

She adores her father, though, and he's a successful lawyer of some kind, so he makes quite a bit of money. That fancy box Greg brought her on the first day here suddenly made a lot more sense. I would have just used cardboard if I were to use boxes. She doesn't seem to want his money, though. She's been talking about getting a job to support herself more, and I was agreeing with her. I want that too.

I sip my coffee as she checks her phone, and then she smiles at me.

"Actually, this place looks like they're hiring part-time workers now. That's perfect," Josie says, and she jumps up from her seat and walks up to the barista.

It's the same girl that's been there the other times I've been in here, and she looks just as friendly. It probably wouldn't be the worst thing working here, she seems like she would be really nice.

Her light hair is pulled back into a bun, and she's wearing a black apron covering most of her outfit.

"Hey," I hear my roommate's quirky voice say, as I make my way over to them myself. "My friend and I wanted to know if there's any chance we could interview for jobs here?"

The barista smiles at us both, and shrugs.

"Sure, leave your names and numbers, and I'll let my manager know."

We both write our names and numbers on a piece of paper and smile at her.

"Uh, Ives?" the girl says as we turn to get back to our table.

"Yes?" I ask nervously, and look her over.

She looks calm and she's smiling.

"We'll need your last name," she says and hands me the paper and pen once again.

"Ives is my last name," I say and try to walk away again before she can say anything else.

She's going to say it. She's going to say it.

"Then we'll need your first name," she says, and I push my fingertips into my palms, making fists of my hands.

"I'd rather not," I say, and send her a small smile.

I make my way back to Josie who's looking at me with a weird look, but when the barista comes after me and asks for my first name once again, Josie seems to catch onto what's happening. I don't want anyone to know my first name. They'll just use it, and I especially doesn't want it to be displayed on a name tag or something, for everyone to see. It's bad enough that it reminds me of mom, but even before her death, I never liked it. What kind of name is it, anyway? It should only be used for those red gemstones, nothing else. I fucking hate it.