Purity | ✓

Chapter 10

P U R I T Y

"So then he literally grabs me by the waist and just... kisses me. It was perfect. And the stars were actually shining for once too. It was like a moment meant for movies."

I look at Jolene and smile. I was happy for her. She'd found a guy last week at a party and they hit it off immediately. She told me how they spent every free moment together, even after or during school, until he made his move and kissed her after a dinner date. Right underneath the stars. "That sounds perfect, Jolene. I'm really happy for you."

Pinning the dress together, I took a step back and admired my work. I was happy with and right on track. It would be, hopefully, finished by next week if I kept this up. "You alright, Ivy-Reese?" I looked at her absentmindedly and nodded.

"Of course. Just a little under the weather is all."

She bit her lip at me. "I've known you for a while now. Sure it's not because of the boy who's currently blowing up your phone?" My eyes zoomed in on my device, which lay upwards to the ceiling and showed all the messages and missed calls I was getting. I quickly flipped it over and smiled at Jolene.

"I'm fine, trust me. Tell me more about this mystery man. What's his name again?"

She gave me a look to which I returned it. I forced my smile to be broader until she relented and continued on with her story, "His name is Nathan. He's a sweetheart. After the date he even brought me flowers then took me to-,"

As awful as it was, my mind kind of just drifted away after that and I focussed in on her words every once in a while. All in all I understood her story, I could probably recite most of it, but my mind wasn't with her. My mind was far away processing all my millions of thoughts at once and I physically couldn't find room for me to just breathe. But Jolene didn't need to know that. She looked so happy- her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed as she recited her night and she just looked so content. She'd found love.

Lucky.

"Hey, Ivy?" I hummed a reply and picked at the fabric on the mannequin, trying to move it to my liking. "I think Caroline's outside waiting for you." My eyebrows furrowed until my eyes widened in realisation and I took out one of the headphones I had kept in my ear. Turning around, I saw Care wave at me from outside the door and I began packing up my things.

"Crap, I forgot I'm supposed to go have lunch with her. Sorry, Jolene." I apologised, organising my things into my tote and keeping some in the space I had provided by the school. Jolene looked unaffected and just smiled my way.

"No worries!" She handed me my phone before I forgot, "Go eat your lunch. I'll see you soon?"

"Definitely." I smiled, sliding my phone into the pocket of my jeans before moving the mannequin back then sending a final wave to my friend. I walked straight to the door and immediately apologised to Caroline. "Sorry, Care. I completely forgot and lost track of time."

She waved it off. "Relax, I've only been here a couple minutes. You all set?"

"Yeah." I was actually excited for our lunch together. We were going to the restaurant with the cold foods which had my favourite pasta and salad. I hadn't eaten it in a while so we Caroline suggested it I immediately accepted her offer.

For the past week, Caroline hadn't exactly left me alone. I think she was afraid for me because I wasn't talking about things- which wasn't that unusual- and kept it bottled up in me. For the most part she knew everything about my life but when things got to a different extent of seriousness I had a bad habit of not talking about it. So she was either walking home with me after class, eating lunch or dinner with me and binge watching Netflix shows. I don't think she's even seen Tag this week and that was very unlike her.