Ivy

(ii) late august

          A WHILE BACK, Ivy had concluded that there was a best and worst thing about the summer holidays.

The best was that this was only time she could spend solidly with Aaron. Attending different schools made it hard enough - the fact that they lived fairly far from each other made it worse.

The worst thing, therefore, was that summer holidays came to an end, whether you wanted them to or not. And that meant seeing less of Aaron. Both were too busy with school work, exams and life in general to find time to see each other as much once the school year had begun, and it was the sad and unavoidable truth.

This year was no different. The end of the holidays was rapidly approaching; the days already felt shorter. And Ivy hated it. Of course she had friends at her school, a close one in particular, but they didn't make up for Aaron's absence. 

They agreed to meet at the park. While Ivy cruised in on her penny, Aaron padded along, his scuffed shoes rustling the grass.

"No board?" she wondered aloud, dismounting hers and picking it up. This was very unlike him. Aaron skateboarded more than he walked.

"Didn't feel like it today."

Ivy's forehead creased, though she continued conversation as they walked. There was something off about the boy; it was evident in his distracted gaze and unresponsive replies.

"Bet you're looking forward to school," she remarked wryly, waiting for him to reply with something witty and equally as stupid. He was so immersed in his thoughts that he said nothing. "Me neither," she replied to his imagined answer. It came out vaguely bitter.

"Ivy..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck and frowning, as if he wasn't sure how to string words together to form sentences. "I'm sorry. I've been meaning to tell you something. I just..."

"Tell me."

"I'm not going to be able to see you for a while," the boy forced out, his face scrunching up almost in pain, as if he couldn't understand his own tongue.

"What?" Ivy asked blankly. She couldn't think of what he could mean, although several ideas passed through her mind all at once, too jumbled to make any sense. She couldn't fathom the context behind the ambiguous statement.

And then it hit her; an impalpable wall of realisation and acute pain.

"Are you moving away?" To a different town; country; continent? She didn't dare add to her question for fear of an answer she didn't want to hear.

Aaron's eyes widened. "No - no. I would never do that, Iv."

The girl sighed silently with relief, although she knew that Aaron's wants never accounted for much when it came to his parents. If they decided that they were to move to Switzerland the next day, it would happen.

"I guess that's a good thing then, huh?" Her smile wavered.

"They're making me board at school, for the whole year. Permanently."

Ivy didn't have to be told who "they" were. Aaron went to a school where boarding was optional, which led to her asking the question: why?

"Don't ask me why," he muttered harshly, slicing through her thoughts, as if he was reading her mind. "I've tried asking them the same thing, and you know what they come up with? 'You have too many distractions at home; you need to focus more on schoolwork; you're not working hard enough'. They're talking shit, of course. My grades aren't perfect, but they're fine. They're the best I've ever had."

His voice was relatively steady as he said this, but Ivy knew anger bubbled beneath the surface, like red-hot lava. He was rarely like this, and whenever he was, it almost always involved his parents. Ivy knew little about Mr and Mrs Montclair - Aaron made sure of that by steering her away from them at every possible chance - but from what she did know, they were people with high expectations. She had a hunch that she, as Aaron's close friend, did not live up to them.

You have too many distractions at home. Ivy knew that was what she was to them - a distraction to Aaron.

"When will I next see you?"

He looked away. "Probably not until Christmas; I don't know."

Four months away. She tried not to think about that. "Okay."

"Sorry. I only found out today, and I would've told you once I'd calmed down about it, but I didn't want to leave it too late either."

"You don't have to apologize. Don't apologize for something you can't help."

Aaron kicked at the grass with the toe of his shoe. "But what if I could've helped it? That's what I hate about the whole thing. There has to be something I could've done to make them not do this." 

Spent less time with me? thought Ivy. This was her fault, now that she thought about it. Maybe she was too clingy a friend.

He exhaled resignedly, and peeked sideways at her from his bowed head. "December's a long way away."

"Are you kidding me? You'll be too busy to notice the time go past. You'll be having fun with your boyfriends having midnight feasts and slumber parties and whatnot -"

Aaron managed a laugh. "Oh yeah, because slumber parties are all the rage at the Hawthorne Academy, the 'prestigious institution for gifted young men'." The snark in his tone couldn't be missed.

"Pillow fights probably are too."

"You think you're so funny."

"When am I not?"

The pair grinned at each other like idiots, idiots that masked their feelings with upturned mouths. The girl's felt too wide and, to her, the boy's looked oddly placed. Hers disappeared first.

"I'll call you," she promised earnestly. "Text, FaceTime, visit you on weekends." She would not be sad in front of him. It would only make things worse.

"No visitors on weekends. My parents aren't giving consent."

"Whatever. I'll break in through a window if I have to. Fly in by helicopter. I refuse to break up with you until the festive period."

The corner of Aaron's mouth twitched. "Yeah. Me too." He looked away again, as if it were a promise already halfway broken.

Ivy took his hand and walked.

"Where are we going?"

"My place. I can tell you're in dire need of sleep - you look like you've got a pair of black eyes. So you can nap at mine."

"And I can't sleep in my own house because...?"

"Your boiler broke yesterday and you can't sleep when it's cold, and even though it's August, I know your house is eerily cold, like, all year round." Because it's haunted, she'd once said. The stained-glass windows and dark interior did nothing to disprove so. Believe it or not, Aaron lived in the type of house that everyone on the same street would avoid, purely due to the intimidating exterior. Ivy herself admired the architecture.

"The boiler got fixed."

"Yeah, but I bet you never wake up to the smell of cookies at yours, right? Also my mum misses your piano playing. To her, you're like... the virtuosic pianist child she never had. Word of warning, though - she will rope you into doing a duet with her."

Aaron sighed in defeat and walked on. "If you're the one baking, those cookies had better be good."