Waiting For You

"So Ivy, are you excited?"

"Pardon?" I asked after a minute, looking up from my computer.

"Were you up all night again? What did I tell you about that? You need to sleep if you want to graduate!" my friend Liz exclaimed. She was also my roommate, "mother," and dishwasher.

"I'm sorry, ok? This is more important!"

"How is a stupid book more important than your schooling?"

I knew Liz wouldn't understand. Writing just wasn't her thing, nor was story telling, or imagination. I seem to have all the creative genes in the apartment. I draw, bake and write stories. Liz studies all the time and she sleeps nine hours a night, but she does clean all the dishes I make. Sometimes I'm jealous that she can just turn off her brain and sleep. I do go to bed, but within a couple hours I'm typing on my computer again.

"It's the 21st," Liz said, breaking the silence. I looked up again.

"Twenty-two on the twenty-second," I mumbled.

"My point exactly."

I spun around to my computer again, and continued to type. Knowing that I'd get nothing done the next day, I needed to get extra words done today. For the third year running, I was participating in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.

"Ivy, can't you take a break from writing for at least five minutes to listen to me?" Liz asked.

"Oh, I thought you were done..."

"No. Now, tomorrow you're coming clubbing with us, and we'll probably be out late, so you should get some sleep tonight. We're meeting everyone for supper at eight, and then we're going out. I expect you to be dressed nicely, and no inviting Matt! I just don't get what you see in him. I've invited a bunch of guys from the soccer team," she said. She got off my bed, and slammed my door.

"So much for my birthday," I mumbled. Liz tried to do this every year. Fortunately, I'd gotten out of it for the past two. I guess she took it upon herself to make our last year together memorable. I had no intention on going clubbing on my birthday. In my honest opinion, clubbing in November just isn't right. Spring and summer is fine, but that's it. November is too cold.

My computer pinged. I rolled off my bed to answer my Skype call. Normally, the only people that would call me at seven in the morning are family members.

"Hello Ivy!"

"Matt! Hi, what are you doing up so early?" I asked.

"I just got back from work, and was checking my emails when I saw that you were up. Did you pull another all-nighter?"

"Yeah, and Liz exploded again." Matt knew all about my relationship with Liz. We were great friends, but she didn't understand my passion for words. Matt didn't either, but he appreciated that I had something I loved, something I wanted to do all the time. He'd told me that he grew out of his creative phase half a dozen years ago.

"So what are the almost-birthday girl's plans for this lovely day?" Matt inquired.

"I have school at nine, and then my parents are taking me out for dinner in the evening," I replied.

"And tomorrow?"

"Liz has dinner and clubbing planned with the soccer team and some other friends."

"But not me," Matt said. He was well aware of her feelings for him. He still tried to be friendly with her, even after she shut him out of our apartment oh so many times.

"I wish you could come," I said sincerely. "You would make the night so much better."

"I thought you didn't like clubbing?"

"I'll go if you go," I said.

"You know I hate it as much as you do."

Our conversation lapsed into silence again; we were both typing away on our respective keyboards.

"Ivy." I looked up. Matt was staring at me. "Tomorrow morning, meet me at our spot. Eight o'clock. Ok?"

I agreed, before leaving to get ready for school. I couldn't wait to see what he was planning.

--

Our spot was a park bench on the mountain. A half hour outside of town, there was a hill. It wasn't hundreds of kilometers high, so I didn’t consider it a proper mountain. Either way, we had our bench there, in one of the parks. It was halfway between our apartments, and our respective cities

Over the years, we'd watched the sunrise countless times from there. . We'd go there whenever we wanted to talk about important stuff, especially if either one of us was going through a rough time.

I made my way there a bit earlier than he was expecting me, because Liz had all but kicked me out of the house. Something about cleaning, and boys. I didn't bother to listen. As I trekked up the hill, I couldn't help but notice how different it was now compared to the early morning, or late night. The last time we’d been here was in September, when he told me about his brother’s difficulties in school. He was just started high school, and wasn’t getting along very well with anyone. Matt had told me about the bullying, and the name-calling. It was really taking a toll on his brother.

Sitting at our bench, I took a sip of my hot chocolate. I still had twenty minutes before Matt was expected. He wasn’t one to be early, either.

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, my hot chocolate was being pried from my hand.

”Matt, my chocolate,” I whined.

“In a minute, Ivy,” he replied. “First though, we need to talk.”

“About what,” I asked, sitting up.

“My sister, Chloe, is getting married,” he said. “She wants you to be in the wedding party.”

“Oh my, wow,” I said. “Really, me?”

“Yeah, she’s liked you since the beginning. She’s also figured out that it’s the only way I’ll be a groomsman.”

I looked at him. “Are you saying that you’d drop out of the wedding if I don’t go?”

“I hate parties, you know that. Having you there would make it a lot nicer.”

“Well, I surely can’t say no.” He smiled and passed me the hot chocolate.

“Come on, let’s go back to my place,” he suggested, “It’s definitely warmer there.” I nodded, and together we made our way down the hill.