"Ivy Lynch! Flynn McClean! I'm so happy you guys could make it! Happy summer, friends!" Jake Acker holds his beer up in the air and fist pumps with his free hand to the music blaring through the house.
"Yeah, dude," Flynn says and pats his back. "Where can I get a drink?"
Jake points down to a cooler off in the corner of the room before turning to me. "So, Ivy Lynch, how's it hanging?"
"I'm doing well. How are you?"
He nods and downs his drink. "Good, good. Working hard, studying hard, playing hard. It's all good."
I smile. "Sounds like it." I glance around the room briefly. "Is your fiancé here?"
"Yeah! I think she's in the pool house doing yoga."
"She's doing yoga during your party?"
"Well, she's a yoga instructor. Drunk people pay good money. It's our main source of income." He looks over my shoulder. "Dan Hobbs is that you, my man?"
I lift my hand to wave goodbye as he walks right past me to greet his friend Dan. Heading outside, I pass Flynn who is in mid-conversation with Kirk and Abraham. He gives me a head nod and continues telling his story.
There are only a few people in the black by the pool. The lights are low and makes facial recognition near impossible. Just as I thought I could walk by unnoticed, someone calls out my name.
I recognize the voice immediately. "Landon. Hey." I always forget that Elliott's cliff friends are also friends with Jake Acker.
"Hey!" Yogi walks over to give me a hug. I stand there awkwardly as he wraps his arms around my shoulders. "I haven't seen you what feels like ages."
"Yeah," I comment briefly and turn to the rest of the group so I won't have to solely converse with Yogi. Something about him has always made me uncomfortable and continues to. "How has everyone been?"
"We've been good. We were just talking about Elliott, actually," Jase says.
"Why don't you join us?" Angelina invites. "Take a seat."
"Got any stories about your boy?" Stanley asks as I tentatively take a seat on one of the patio chairs. "I was just telling the group about the time he got totally hammered and jumped off the cliff butt naked."
I raise my eyebrows and nod. "Wow. I can't believe I missed that."
"It's not like it was anything you haven't seen before," Yogi jokes and sits next to me, throwing his arm over my shoulder. "I'm sure this girl has got hundreds of naked Elliott stories to share."
"Not as many as you'd think." I fold my hands together at my lap. "He tends to be clothed when we hang out."
"You two are still together, right?" Jase asks. He turns to Angelina "Is that rude of me to ask?"
"Depends on the answer, babe," she replies and pats his knee.
"We're not together right now," I answer truthfully, though my words feel like a lie. "Just friends."
Angelina slaps Jase's knee. "I told you it was rude of you to ask."
Jase rolls his eyes and looks at me. "I'm sorry, Ivy. We were all rooting for your relationship."
"I wasn't," Yogi whispers in my ear.
I jerk in my seat, leaning as far away from him as possible. "Uh, yeah, I was too. It's just complicated."
"How's school going, kid?" Hardy asks to change the subject.
I continue talking to the group for awhile. Starting with Jase and Angelina, the crowd dwindles down as people begin to leave. When it's down to just me, Yogi, and Stanley, I know it is time to get out of there and get to the pool house.
"Good luck with everything, Ivy," Stanley says before heading back inside.
"Thanks, Stan." I stand up and smile to Yogi. "Bye, Yogi."
"Yogi? You're finally through with calling me Landon?" he asks and finishes off his beer.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Landon," I joke.
He steps in front of me to my path of the pool house. "What is it between us?"
I take a subtle step back. "What are you talking about?" I am very aware of how drunk he is right now.
"This...this passion, desire. Don't you feel it?" He steps closer again, his hand reaching out for mine.
"No. I don't," I say blankly.
Before I can push him, slap him, or kick him in the balls, he kisses me. Immediately reacting, I shove him away.
"Hey, easy, easy," he says and smirks, wiping at his lips. "Don't need to get feisty with me, Ivy."
"Leave me alone," I mutter and try to walk around him to the pool house.
He grabs my arm, this time his grip hurting. He pulls me closer to him and tries kissing me again. I try to wiggle out of his grip but he holds me tightly.
"Come on," he whispers in my ear. "You want this too." His hand lowers to my back side.
All I want is for Elliott to be here right now to stop him. I want Flynn to run outside and stop him. I want Nora to have cancelled her plans with friends and have decided to come to this party and stop him. I want someone, anyone, to save me.
"Dammit, Yogi, you're such a little bitch," I hear a voice mutter before his sleazy body is pulled off mine.
I wipe a tear on my cheek and glance up to see who my hero was. In the dark, I just barely make out Carter's face as her hand flies across Yogi's face. The contact of her hand on his face makes a horribly loud yet satisfying smacking sound.
"Get the hell out of my fiancé's party, you sleaze," she spits and kicks him on his way out.
There stands my hero, a 5'8" model with gorgeous tan legs in a sports bra and yoga pants. She also just happens to be my arch nemesis.
"Thank you," I say quietly, crossing my arms over my chest.
She looks at me from the corner of her eye before turning to face me. "Yeah. I've been dying to slap him since the day I met him... so..."
I force a smile and bite the inside of my cheek. Suddenly, cussing her out doesn't seem like the right thing to do tonight.
"Do you want to talk in the pool house?" she asks, pointing to the mini house behind her. "I just finished a yoga lesson."
I nod and follow her into the house. It's pretty clear that Carter is living here, in Jake's pool house. There's a bed, clothes scattered on the floor, pictures of her on the walls. I take a seat on the couch in the corner of the room. She sits on her bed.
"So, Jake said you wanted to talk to me?"
"Yeah." I look down at the tiled floor. "I...I'm just confused, I guess, about the whole Brown thing." I play with the end of my shirt. "Why did you do it?"
She purses her lips and stares me up and down. "Aren't you going to start with a thank you? I did get you in second semester, didn't I?"
I shrug, hating that she's right. "Maybe. I don't know."
"Look," she sighs, "Ivy, here's something you need to realize. I didn't get you into Brown. Elliott didn't get you into Brown. You got yourself into Brown."
I squint my eyes. Why is she telling me this? We're arch nemeses. I open my mouth to say something, but she holds her hand up in the air to stop me.
"You had the grades and the test scores and the work ethic that got you into that school." She shrugs. "Really, the only issue was the money. That doesn't take away from all the hard work you did to get into Brown."
I nod, surprised to hear someone other than Lucy or Vic say that to me. I somehow believe it much more easily when it's said by someone so fed-up and annoyed like Carter is.
"All Elliott did was help pay some of your tuition that you were unable to afford. All I did was go to my dad and talk about letting you in second semester. Now that you had the money, it was an easy choice for him and the rest of the admissions board. So, you can stop whining about the whole situation," she says and rolls her eyes.
I initially want to start screaming at her for telling me to 'quit whining', but I'm able to remain calm. "I think you're forgetting about one other tiny detail to this whole story."
"And that is?"
"You blackmailing Elliott into breaking up with me so I can get into Brown," I say, keeping my fuming to a minimum. "Remember that?"
She clicks her tongue and moves to sit at the end of her bed. "Well, definitely not one of my proudest moments."
"Why would you do that to me?" I ask. "Not to sound like a totally cliche victim, but what did I ever do to you?"
Carter sighs. "Nothing, obviously. I was just jealous."
"You have feelings for Elliott?"
As if I told the world's funniest joke, Carter starts laughing hysterically. "Me? Oh God, no. Of course not."
"Do you have feelings for...me?" I ask, unsure of what she means.
"No, no," she continues laughing a bit more subdued. "I was jealous of what you two have...or, rather, had."
I cross my arms over my chest. "You were jealous of our relationship?"
"Can you blame me? I had the opportunity for something like that for a year when I was with Elliott, and I threw it away. For what? Ted? The model boyfriend who dumped me for a fellow male model? Then I had Jake, but he never looked at me the way Elliott looked at you."
"He proposed to you," I say.
"He proposed to my body," she replies curtly.
I raise my eyebrows in shock. We all know I'm not a fan of Carter, but for some strange out-of-this-world reason I feel sorry for her. Her love life sucks.
"I mean, maybe if you weren't such a bitch all the time..." I close my eyes and wave my hands in the air. "Scratch that, sorry. Wrong words to use." I clear my throat. "Maybe if you were a bit nicer to people, then they'd see your inner beauty." I'm not even sure if she has an inner beauty, but she did save me from Yogi. I can't overlook that.
"God, Ivy, are you always like this?" she asks, rubbing her eyes.
"Like what?"
"Have you ever slapped someone before?" she asks curiously.
I shrug. "Maybe."
Her eyebrows raise in sudden interest. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah. I've slapped two people. Honestly I was expecting my tally to go up tonight when I talked to you."
She laughs. "As if you could take me."
"Don't test me," I warn, holding back a smile. I watch Carter laugh genuinely, something I haven't seen her do before. "Why did Jake propose to you the second time?" I ask, unable to stop my curiosity.
"I don't know," she answers. "I'm in love with him. I couldn't say no, even though I don't know if he loves me. He gets rash and irresponsible some days, but the day he proposed he seemed very conscious about the decision. He showed up to my door and said that a life without me is a life unworthy of living. We're so young, so it's probably stupid. I don't know. I'm not sure."
I bite the inside of my cheek, crossing my legs in the chair. "I'm not completely sure why I'm saying this to you, but I think you two are really something together...this time around."
"I knew it! I knew you were-" Elliott stops yelling when he notices both Carter and me sitting on opposite sides of the room. He drops his hand from the pool house doorknob and stares blankly. "What is going on here?"
"What did you think was going on here?" I ask, cocking my head to the side.
Elliott pinches the bridge of his nose and lifts his free hand in the air. "Ivy, not right now, okay?"
"Well, you didn't think your perfect girlfriend was cheating on you, right?" Carter stands up from the bed to gain a more dominance stance. "No, you couldn't have."
"Technically, she's just my girlfriend-to-be and if she were with another man then I'd have to be cool with it," he explains.
"So barging in here like that was cool?" I tease.
Elliott squints his eyes at me. "Okay, Ivy, we get it." He looks from me to Carter. "What were you two doing in here?"
"Making out," Carter lies in her sultry way. She picks up a shirt from the floor and throws it over her sports bra. "See you around, Ivy." She leaves the pool house with hips swaying.
Elliott blinks his eyes open to look at me with a confused yet faintly amused face.
"Can we go home? I forgot how much I hate parties," I say casually and stand up from the couch.
"She was messing with me, right?" Elliott asks, trailing closely behind me as we exit the pool house. "Ivy, right?"
I laugh and take his hand in mine. We walk through Jake Acker's house to the front door. Flynn is arm wrestling with Kirk, and Abraham is off to the corner dancing with some girl. They don't notice us as we walk past. Jake is sitting with Carter on the couch. They're talking, laughing. It makes me feel a warmth inside.
What is happening to me?
"You know, Ivy," Elliott says as he gets in the driver's seat of his car, "when I told you to make friends that are girls, I didn't exactly have my ex in mind."
~~
The next morning I go over to the Kennedy's the babysit for the day. Mrs. Kennedy and Elliott are at work. Addison is at the water park with Mikey. Jonas still isn't responsible enough to take care of the other kids.
We're all at the kitchen table coloring signs for the lemonade stand Crystal and Rosie plan to run for the day.
"Tell me more about this Noel kid, Jo."
"I don't really know him," Jonas says, grabbing a yellow crayon.
"You guys are all in the same film club, right?"
"Yeah, but he's really shy. He doesn't say much," Jonas explains. "That's why I'm so shocked he wrote that note in Jett's yearbook."
I nod. "So is Jett. He's actually in denial. He thinks it was someone else, which is so not true since I saw his number on the screen."
"Who does he think is was?"
"Beats me." I write a giant 25¢ on a piece of paper. "I did have my original suspicions of someone else though."
"Ivy, are you kidding me? 25¢?" Crystal asks, taking the piece of paper from my hands. "No, no, no." She draws in a period between the 2 and 5 and adds a zero after the five to make the new price $2.50.
"Crystal, you can't charge $2.50 for lemonade!"
"Watch me," she replies, flipping her red hair behind her shoulder.
I shake my head and grab a new sheet of paper to draw a glass of lemonade. I go back to my conversation with Jonas. "I thought you wrote the note."
He raises his eyebrows. "Me?"
"No, I thought Ethan did. Yes, you, Jonas," I sass.
"Why would you think that?" he asks, both offended and confused.
"I don't know. I thought you might have found it funny to mess with Jett like that," I say. "It was just my first guess."
"I wouldn't do that to Jett," he defends. "He's my best friend, Ivy. I care about him."
"I know you do," I assure. "He's my brother. I care about him too. I just can't help but think about what you said to him last summer."
"The whole cookie scandal of the summer of 2016? Ivy, come on, you know I'm not like that anymore."
I shrug. "I know. I just worry that popularity is more important to you than friendship sometimes."
Jonas shakes his head and throws down his yellow crayon in fury. "You know what, Ivy!"
"What?" I ask, only slightly amused by his dramatic, angry slur.
"The only reason I'd be the one to write that note was if I really cared about Jett, got it? I don't get a kick out of messing with him! He means too much to me."
"You wrote the note?" I ask, unsure of what to make of what he just said.
"No, I didn't," he yells, frustration reaching his maximum point. "Can everyone stop thinking I'm in love with Jett? He's my best friend and I love him, but I'm not in love with him! Just because he's gay doesn't mean I am."
"No one said you were," I say calmly. "Why are you acting up so much about this?"
"Because everyone at school thinks we're a couple! You remember my girlfriend, Ivory? Yeah, well, she thought she was my beard or something! She said to me, I've always wanted a gay best friend. And I said, bitch, what? And then we broke up!"
I stick out my bottom lip. "I never trusted her."
"I was so sick and tired of everyone thinking I was gay!" He puts his head in his hands. "But, dammit, I messed up."
I slowly piece things together in my head. "You did write the note, didn't you? So that people would start thinking Noel and Jett were a couple, and not you and Jett."
Jonas glances up at me with a frown. "Was that bad of me?"
"You shouldn't meddle. We have watched too many That's So Raven episodes for you to know that." I squint my eyes. "Also, what was up with the pervy note, pervert?"
He sighs. "I noticed Noel maybe liked Jett a little. He would always laugh at his unfunny jokes and stuff during film club. It was so easy to write that note and put down Noel's number without even thinking."
"Well, when are you going to tell Jett?"
"I wasn't thinking I would," Jonas says slowly.
I frown. "You have to tell him, Jo. He thinks Noel has a crush on him!"
"There's a possibility that Noel does have a crush on Jett, Ivy. We just don't know it yet. Please, just give it a week before we tell him."
"I don't know, Jonas," I sigh. "He's going to be upset when he finds out. He's going to think you were just messing with him."
"Well, I wasn't. And I'll explain everything to him, just like how I explained it to you," Jonas promises. "Come on, Ivy. Let Jett explore his love life."
I let out a huff. "Fine."
Jonas smirks and nods his head. "Operation Film Lovers is back in business."
"This better end well," I mutter.
We help the twins set up their lemonade stand on the corner of the street. I'm in charge of making refills of the lemonade while they handle the business itself. I guess more people come to a stand with cute redheads selling lemonade than a nineteen-year-old. I get it.
Elliott comes home for his lunch break. He stays with me in the kitchen while I make lemonade. The business is truly booming out there. I've made five pitchers already.
"Do I get a discount on the lemonade?" Elliott asks. "$2.50 for a Dixie cup of lemonade is way out of my budget."
I laugh. "Take it up with Crystal."
He smiles and eats more of his turkey sandwich. "Oh, I almost forgot. Yogi invited us to this opening party at the cliff."
I open my mouth, hesitant with the right words to say. "Uh, I can't that day."
"I didn't tell you what day it was," Elliott says.
"Yeah, but I..." I shut my eyes. "I don't want to go, Liott."
"Why not?" he asks, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Yogi said he saw you at the party last night and you guys got along really nicely."
"It's not about that, Elliott. I just don't feel like going to any parties. It's...uh...it's not part of the friendship deal. When I'm at parties, I just...I just want to make out with you. And-and I can't make out with you when we're just friends. So...no parties."
Elliott looks at me skeptically. "You don't want to go because you think you'll make out with me?"
"Yep." I nod and clasp my hands together. "That's the reason."
"Okay," he says slowly. "Well, now I'm a bit more inclined to get you to go to a party," he jokes.
I smile. "It's not happening." I glance at the clock on the oven. "You should start driving back. Your lunch break is almost over."
"Yeah, you're right," he says and grabs his keys off the counter. "Text me later."
I nod and wait for him to leave before letting out the breath I was holding in. I couldn't tell Elliott about Yogi. After seeing his reaction from the concert with that old guy, I couldn't imagine what he'd do to Yogi. And who knows what a guy like Yogi would do to him.
"Hey, Ivy, can some of my friends come over to play Wii Sports in the basement?" Jonas asks as he walks into the kitchen.
"Sure. What time are they coming over?"
"Right now."
I look up and see Jett standing next to Jonas. Behind the two is Noel.
"Oh!" I gasp. "Oh, hey! Hey, guys. Hey, Jett, my brother from another mother." I smile at Noel. "And...and it's Noel, right?"
Noel nods. "It's nice to meet you again, Ivy."
"Noel and Jett stopped by the lemonade stand. They were hanging out. I said, hey, why don't you come on over and play some Wii Bowling with me?"
"And we said yes," Jett finishes the story for Jonas.
"Okay, well, have fun." I smile, eyeing Jonas knowingly.
He salutes me before heading downstairs with his friends.
This makes for an interesting day.
I join the twins and Ethan at their lemonade stand with Bethany. I told them that the baby will really bring up sales. Crystal couldn't argue with me on that one.
"Ivy, do you want to come over for dinner on Saturday?" Ethan asks me.
"Saturday? What's Saturday?"
"Dinner," Ethan responds with a shrug.
I look to the twins, but they pretend like they know nothing about it. Bethany just giggles, which isn't helpful because she's always laughing. Or pooping.
"I think I'm free," I say. "Are you cooking the meal?"
He shrugs.
"Okay. Well, I'll pack a dinner just in case you are cooking," I joke.
"$2.50 for a cup of lemonade? You've got to be kidding me! This is insane! I'm not buying your overpriced lemonade!"
I look up to see what all the commotion is. Flynn is standing there with his little brother at the lemonade stand. Crystal stands across from him with her arms crossed over her chest. Rosie is in a similar stance.
"If you're unwilling to pay the money, then we won't be doing business with you," Crystal says.
Flynn drops his mouth open. "Do you want to know how much I charged for lemonade? 25¢! $2.50? What's next, $50 for a cookie!"
"We don't sell cookies here," Rosie says firmly.
"Rose, stay calm," Crystal advises before turning back to Flynn. "Look, you big cheese head, you either pay us $2.50 or go to another stand."
Flynn looks back at me for help. "Ivy, how are you allowing this to happen? Crystal just called me a big cheese head!"
I shrug and return to my magazine that I brought along.
"You know what..."
I hear the twins gasp loudly before the sound of a metal chair hits the pavement.
"Charlie, run! Don't look back!"
Flynn is sprinting down the street with his brother right at his heels. Flynn throws an empty lemonade cup over his head as he continues to run.
"Did we just get robbed?" Rosie asks Crystal in a panic.
"I'm calling the police!" Ethan screams and starts running towards the house.
I grab the back of his shirt to stop him. "Hey, hey. It was just Flynn. He's our friend, remember?"
Crystal crosses her arms over her chest. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, kids."
About thirty minutes after the robbery, Flynn and Charlie return with a cooler. They stay on the other side of the street. It isn't long before I realize their move.
"Are they setting up a lemonade stand?" Rose asks in horror. "Right across from ours?"
"Lemonade!" Flynn yells. "Get your lemonade here! Just 25¢!" He smirks, glaring directly at Crystal.
"This means war."
~~
AN:
a lot happened in this chapter so I decided that ending it on the lemonade war made the most sense
I am trying to update more frequently for you guys but life just flies by! I felt like I updated last chapter a few days ago to be completely honest. there's a lot of plot I need to get covered before wrapping things up, so it takes me longer to make decisions on what I want to add in and what I don't. hope this doesn't drive you guys insane too much!
thanks for sticking around
what's up with yogi? ugh I never liked him. and carter? is she redeemable? once a hoe always a hoe that's my motto
#TEAM NOEL or #TEAM JONAS
let me know in the comments below and make sure to give this video a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button
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