Chapter 5
Ivy was chill with his stare. She grabbed an alcohol wipe and dabbed it on his cut. Dude didn't even twitch, so she kept at it, treating him real gentle.
He was all stone-cold, not a peep, just some serious brow action and quiet breaths.
"The cut's not mega deep, but don't go rockin' that bandage non-stop, you feel? Don't wanna mess with tetanus..." Ivy's voice was low-key as she tidied up. "If your head's still pounding tomorrow, or if that gash looks sus, hit up the ER. Gotta put health over wealth, right?"
Nolan's eyes were on her, kinda intense but not too much. He flashed back to how she got all awkward when she snagged his lighter before, mumbling 'sorry' while cleaning it off.
He thought about that moment she lit his smoke, swapping the lighter to her other hand to ditch that med smell.
He cocked his head, a half-smile playing on his lips, though his eyes stayed frosty, "All about helping out, huh? Good Samaritan."
Ivy paused, meeting his gaze dead-on, "A good Samaritan would send you to the real doc."
He just watched her, all cool and aloof.
Ivy bagged up the trash and got to her feet, slinging her backpack on.
She reached out her hand, "You good to stand?"
It was her clean hand, no med smell.
Nolan peeped at it, his gaze drifting to her wrist, then froze.
Her skin was mad pale, and stretching out her arm made her sleeve slide up, showing off a bruise on her wrist, all shades of purple but kinda faint.
He got up on his own.
Ivy pulled her hand back, kept her mouth shut, and started walking towards the mouth of the alley.
Their steps were soft, one after the other, the breeze getting louder.
At the alley's end, Ivy adjusted her backpack strap and hit him with, "Look after yourself. Peace out."
She drifted off, seeming like she might just get swept up by the wind any second.
Nolan hung back a few, then split in the other direction.
Once Ivy hit a well-lit spot, she peeped her hand.
There, in her palm, was a shard of glass. She'd plucked it from his hair - looked like a piece of a beer bottle, brown and all.Ivy was about to chuck it in the bin, but something made her pause. She stared at it, deep in thought, then did a quick wrap-up in a napkin and slipped it into her pocket instead.
-
Her belly was throwing a full-blown tantrum, and pinpointing the pain was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Ivy doubled over on the desk, taking shallow breaths to keep it together. Right there on the wall, a frame shouted out some Insta-worthy quote "Respect begets respect; love begets love." Her hand was a mess, blood drying up in gnarly clumps. A quick swipe on her textbook, and it flaked off like some morbid confetti.
She blew on the mess, trying to keep it chill, and grabbed her pen again.
"Alright, peeps, that's a wrap for today. The rest of you can hit up each other after class for the deets." Ivy Sterling dropped her pen.
On her draft paper, a few lines of her signature sharp black text were throwing major shade:
Bad peeps can hit rock bottom, like no coming back; they're already chilling in their own personal hells, just trying to drag the good ones down to their level.
...
...
...
...the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
"Ivy, step outside with me for a sec."
She pulled herself together, folded the note, and stashed it in her book like it was NBD. The hallway was like a wind tunnel, and Ivy was there trying to tame her wild hair, staring down at her kicks, lost in the silence.
"Senior year's no joke, girl. How can you be napping through life right now? You still dreaming about that top-tier college life?"
"You were the it-girl at Brookville Heights, remember? All those trophies collecting dust now?"
"A whole year at Riverdale High and you're still playing the new girl card. Come on, adapting's a skill too, Ivy. Don't let the social game wreck you."
"You're always in your bubble, you know how that's rough on us teachers? Makes it weird for the other kids to slide into your DMs. Gotta see it from their side, am I right?"
"Focus on the grind, Ivy. Skating by ain't your style. I got faith in you, it's time to level up, okay?"
"Cool, cool. Head back to class now."
Ivy hit her with a soft nod, all polite-like, "Later, Mrs. Hartley."
But then, her gaze drifted off to the sports field far away.
The sun was doing its thing, flags were all hype in the breeze, and there were the starters, getting their game on, the crowd thinning out...
Would he roll up near school today?
