Reserved

“Hi, mom.” Jack dropped his keys on the kitchen counter and made his way over to his mother who was busily washing up the dishes from dinner. He quickly pecked her on the cheek in greeting.

“Did you pop over to Alex’s?” Joyce Barakat asked her son, not stopping her activity but glancing at the clock that was hanging on the kitchen wall.

“Something like that... yeah.” Jack sighed tiredly. The truth was he hadn’t been bothered to actually go into Alex’s despite the fact he had driven to his neighbors. They’d already hung all day at school and at band practice that afternoon. Jack had just come straight home, not feeling very social. He snapped moods like that sometimes. He took a seat at the counter bench and watched his mother.

“I called the front desk to see if they had seen you and Carey said you had been and left, so I assumed you’d be with the guys.” She smiled, babbling on. Jack liked that about his mother. She spoke a lot so you didn’t need to and was always so happy. He supposed he was like that too, but it was relieving to know that he could come home and take a break from always being so cheerful and let someone make him smile for a change. “Are you all ready for Thursday night?! It’s been a month since you guys last played for an audien-” Joyce stopped her speaking abruptly. “Is everything alright, dear?” She asked, finally realizing that Jack wasn’t himself.

“Yeah, I’m just a little tired.” Jack managed a smile.

Joyce looked sympathetically at her son; he did look a little run down. Changing the topic to lighten his spirits, however, Jack’s mother continued, “Did you see Zack at Alex’s? He called fifteen minutes ago or so. He wanted to know if you were home, he said he needed to talk. I told him what had happened with your father’s pager and that you’d probably be at Alex’s seeing as he didn’t come here after you finished up at Rian’s earlier.”

If there was one thing Jack didn’t like, it was keeping his mother so out of the blue when it came to things he did. If she knew the reason why Alex hadn’t been over after practice was because Jack and his three best friends had skipped from lunch onwards so they had already hung out before starting, simply because they couldn’t be bothered staying at school, she’d be pretty ashamed Jack had lied to her.

“He said something about going ‘round there and seeing you both-” Joyce continued, but Jack felt his phone vibrating in his pocket again. He quickly pulled it out, suddenly remembering how it had been ringing before he picked up Ivy from the street, and Alex’s name was flashing on the screen.

“Sorry mom, I have to take this.” Jack smiled apologetically and hit the green button as he stood up from the kitchen stool.

“Hello?” He asked. The next thing Jack knew as he pointed upstairs to tell his mom he was going to his room, words were pouring out of Alex’s mouth like there was no tomorrow.

“Hello to you too. Where the fuck have you been? I called you before, no answer. Then, Zack rocks up at my house just ten minutes ago saying that your mom said you were here-”

“Is he still there?” Jack interrupted, as he was halfway up the stairs to get to the second floor of his house. Jack was actually a little worried about Zack telling his mother that he needed to talk to him, given the fact that he had been acting a little down lately, and obviously his uncle being in hospital was the reason why.

“No. I told him you were obviously lying to your mom about your whereabouts, and that he had to leave because Lisa should be here in ten minutes. Mom is with Dad at this work convention thing in the city and they said they won’t be home until after twelve and they told me not to wait up for them, so I was like, ‘Sure thing,’ and in my mind I’m all ‘Fuck yeah!’ because it’s been a while since Lisa and I have… Well, you know, and Daniel’s at work until eleven, so tonight is obviously a God send.” Alex’s voice rambled through the receiver. “Although, we’ve only got an hour and a half to go right now, so she better hurry up and get here.”

“Did he seem okay?” Jack said, skimming over the fact that his best friend was going to be having sex with his other friend, and focusing on the topic of Zack as he reached the landing and made his way down the hall to his room.

“Who…? Daniel?” Alex asked, confused as to why his older brother wouldn’t seem okay. Jack waved at his older sister who was in her room with her door open and playing Hilary Duff’s album while she read a magazine on her bed as he passed.

“No, dickhead. Zack.” Jack corrected his best friend as he finally reached his own door and opened it, shutting it behind him and slumping himself down on his bed.

“Oh!” Alex said in a tone of great realization. “Right. Yeah, he seemed fine, he understood completely, said he would just see us all at practice tomorrow and that he was keen for Thursday… So are you going to tell me where you’ve been, or what?” Off one topic and back to another… that was how conversations with Alex always were; kind of like a pinball machine.

“Dad left his pager at home after being called into work, so Mom asked me to drop it off for him. I missed your call because I was driving home.” Jack was interrupted.

“What? If you were driving home then, what took you so long to get there?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow as he decided he should put on a clean shirt for when his girlfriend was to be over… not that it would be staying on for long.

“Ivy was there-” Jack began, but Alex cut him off.

“Ivy, as in Ivy Merrick?” Alex asked.

“How many people called Ivy do we know?” Jack rolled his eyes, not that they really knew her, knew her.

“One, but I just had to clarify.” Alex grinned, pressing the phone between his ear and shoulder as he skillfully took his shirt off without dropping the cell. “Ivy was where sorry?” He went back to the conversation. “In your car?” Alex joked.

Jack was hesitant in whether or not he should share with Alex that he gave Ivy a lift home… it wasn’t really a big deal, was it? “Well, I was going to say she was at the hospital, but yeah, she ended up in my car-”

“What?” Alex asked, half in shock but breathing a laugh. “Looks like I’ll be owing you that fifty dollars, not Rian.” He continued, recalling his bet from that afternoon. “And here I was thinking I was lucky to be getting with Lisa this evening. Holy fuck-” Alex was practically speechless.

“What!?” Jack interrupted, realizing how bad his words had sounded when being spoken to a perve such as Alex. “No-” He tried to continue, but his best friend was still going.

“Oh my God! That’s why you wanted to know if Zack seemed okay; incase he found out you fucked his cousin!” Alex was laughing.

“I didn’t fuck anyone.” Jack said loudly, trying desperately to grab Alex’s attention.

“You didn’t?” Alex asked, tone drained, all his fun and amusement gone, even though he had been a little jealous of Jack.

“No. When I say she ended up in my car, I mean that she was at the hospital seeing her dad, which mind you is why I wanted to know whether Zack seemed okay, because Ivy was distraught about whatever’s going on with her father and I thought that that was obviously why Zack’s missing practices and hasn’t been himself lately. Anyway, Ivy got in an argument with reception after the matron of her dad’s ward asked her to leave, and then reception did as well. I was on my way home and she was walking from the city to end up in Towson… What the fuck was I meant to do? Leave her walking?” Jack poured out everything in a barely understandable clump of sentences.

“She would’ve left you…” Alex muttered, almost to himself. Suddenly his view of Ivy was back to normal now sex wasn’t involved.

“You don’t know that.” Jack said, in a normal tone.

“So you’re meaning to tell me, you pulled over, and she just acted like you were best friends and hopped on in the car with you?” Alex asked in a stronger tone than prior, immediately making the assumption that ignorance of the fact she had rejected Jack’s existence since forever in a situation where she needed his help would be typical of the Towson Princess.

“No, it took a while. She was pretty stubborn at first. Cold. Once she did get in the car we barely spoke except for her giving me Damien Prest’s address to drop her at instead of her own because apparently she needed his help with some assignment-”

“I mean, I understand why you did it, you were just being nice. Believe it or not, I wouldn’t have left her there without trying to offer her a lift either I guess… For Zack’s sake, anyway. But fuck… You better not tell anyone.” Alex interrupted again.

“I don’t plan to.”

“Wait, did you say you dropped her at Damien Prest’s? As in, my next-door neighbor? Senior? Captain of the Towson Herpes Team?” Alex asked.

“Yeah. Sorry bro, I wasn’t really in the mood to come over to yours…” Jack trailed off honestly. “Good thing I didn’t though.” He referred to Lisa coming over.

Alex laughed, “Too true.” He rolled off his bed and opened his bedroom door, practically bounding to the guest room which was located on the side of the house and whose window was directly opposite Damien’s bedroom window. Alex kept the light off in the room, and he had a major decline of feeling like a ninja spy when he discovered that there were only slits of light shining through Damien’s window because the blinds were closed.

“Dammit.” Alex sighed. He didn’t know why he had been so eager to spy on Zack’s cousin, or what he was hoping to see, but after the general disappointment of seeing nothing, Alex realised what a freak he was being.

“You just got up to go look through his window, hey?” Jack asked, rolling his eyes and turning on his side.

“No.” Alex defended himself as he heard Lisa’s car pull up in his driveway. “But hey, Lisa’s here. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Use protection.” Jack laughed.

“Always do.” Alex replied, making his way downstairs to the front door.

“See you, bro.” Jack then hung up the phone with a sigh and rolled back onto his back. He wanted to fall asleep, and he swore he could without trying. Before he did though, he texted Zack.

Hey dude, sorry I missed you tonight. I’ll catch you tomorrow.

Alex took in a deep breath as he heard Lisa knock on the door. He was going to wait a bit before opening it, not wanting to seem like he had been ready to open it for her. Alex was praying that tonight would fix the void he was feeling inside of him when it came to his and Lisa’s relationship. Although he hadn’t told anyone, something wasn’t right between him and her lately, and Alex knew that Lisa was also aware of that but not willing to admit it.

&&&.

It wasn’t before ten when Damien finally got home; it was seventeen past, to be precise. His parents had let Ivy in when she had arrived and said that she was able to wait, and his mother showed her to his room and apologized for the mess. Ivy liked his mother. She seemed nice. Ivy wondered what her real mother was like. She felt so empty, not knowing any of these things.

Mrs. Prest had started picking dirty clothes up off Damien’s floor and putting them in a pile in the hallway while carrying out a light hearted conversation with Ivy about how Damien was always working when he wasn’t he was at Lacrosse training, and when he wasn’t at Lacrosse training he was either at school, doing homework, or eating. Once she was done, she offered Ivy a drink or something to eat as she picked up the pile of dirty laundry to take downstairs. Ivy declined and Mrs Prest insisted that if she needed anything, just to call out.

Ivy didn’t need anything that Mrs Prest wasn’t providing her by simply letting her in the house. She just needed somewhere to stay that was away from everything and somewhere she could think. Think about what she was going to do with herself, and what a mess her life had become in the past eight days, and how the one man who had given her life had unintentionally made her feel so lost as a person. Ivy was sure that meeting her biological parents was meant to make her feel whole, but instead, her dad transferring to Baltimore hospital with cancer did the complete opposite.

Ivy just sat on the corner of Damien’s bed uncomfortably and didn’t even notice the time go past until he appeared in the doorway with his gym bag over his shoulder. She saw him in her line of vision, but her mind wasn’t really connected to her body at the point in time, so it took her a while to function.

“Hey,” He said at first, entering his room with a smile wide on his face, “Mom said you were here.” Damien was used to being stared at, but he wasn’t used to being greeted with silence… everyone begged to talk to him. He closed the door behind him before he continued talking to her.

“Ivs?” Damien asked, with an eyebrow raised at the quiet girl, “You right?”

“Hmm?” Ivy asked, snapping out of her trance “What? Oh yeah. I’m all good.”

“Well, that explains why you told my mom I needed to give you last minute help on your non-existent assignment.” Damien spoke sarcastically and smirked. “I mean, I’m not complaining, because at least this way she thinks I do assignments.” He took a seat at his computer desk and swiveled the chair around to face Ivy after he had dumped his bag and he began taking off his shoes.

Ivy sighed, rolling her eyes. “I need a place to stay for the night.” She stated bluntly.

“Now, now.” Damien smirked some more, mischievously. “If that’s another way of telling me you finally want to do the dirty with me-”

“Don’t even think about it.” Ivy spoke sternly.

“Oh come on,” Damien grinned, rolling his own eyes. “You can’t just expect me to let you spend the night here, and then no doubt give you a lift to school tomorrow, without something in return.”

Ivy knew Damien was right, she shouldn’t have expected him to be an understanding friend in her time of need. She shouldn’t have been so naïve to think he wouldn’t be a horny prick for one night. Ivy had been stupid coming here. But where else was I meant to go? If she went to a girls, she was under the impression the whole school would know that she hadn’t slept at her own home the next day, and then there would be too many questions.

Ivy silently swallowed as she watched Damien’s eyes trail her body. “You can’t be serious. Your parents are downstairs.”

“It’s a good thing they’re rich and invested in sound proof walls.” Damien went back to smirking as he stared at Ivy’s chest for a little too long. He would be the first to admit that simply seeing Ivy in a corridor at school turned him on. She was just so… different from every other girl he knew and talked to. Ivy wore make up, but she was hot to begin with. Ivy was fashionable, but tasteful at the same time, never wearing the tacky too-tight clothing everyone else did. The way she dressed just made him want what was underneath her clothes even more. All the other girls tried so hard, but Ivy looked like she didn’t try at all. Her hair was perfect, but at the same time it looked like she could have just woken up out of bed that way. She could pull off anything… Including my clothes, if she wanted to. Damien thought dirtily in a completely different context as he felt his pants tighten just thinking about being with the girl in front of him. “You know you want to, Ivy.” Damien smiled, getting up off the chair and sitting close next to her on the bed.

“You know I don’t.” Ivy spoke back effortlessly in a strong tone. Damien laughed as he continued with his move, pushing her long blonde hair onto her other shoulder and planting his lips on her shoulder blade, smiling up at her with his eyes.

Ivy sighed, showing she wasn’t impressed. She had learnt the hard way that saying no to a boy and attempting to push him away usually just indicated to them that the girl was vulnerable. Ivy figured that if she let Damien do the small things such as kiss her shoulder and her neck, and not show any signs of enjoyment, he’d get turned off as quickly as he was turned on.

“Come on, Ivs.” He whispered seductively, moving his hand in between her thighs and leading it slowly upwards, “If you’re staying, we’re going to need to do something to keep us busy anyway.” He kissed her neck as he rubbed her thigh, inching closer to where he wanted to go. Ivy tried to not squirm at his touch and conveyed a complete pokerface as best as she could.

“Believe it or not, if you’re going to act like this, I’m not going to be staying here at all.” Ivy said in a bored tone, although she was getting a little scared that her plan of turning him off wasn’t working.

Damien suddenly backed off to her surprise. There was something different in his eyes as Ivy met them that made her feel uneasy. “You leave, and I’ll tell everyone that you came here begging me to fuck you. Do you know how much that will shit all the girls that I’m playing with at the moment? And I’ll tell them that we did it, as well.” He threatened in a hoarse tone.

Ivy rolled her eyes. “Fuck off, Damien.” She said, pushing herself up off the bed, ready to pick up her bag from the floor and leave, not wanting to take his shit. It was at this moment she regretted not having genuine friends. While she was bent down to get her bag, Damien grabbed her wrist roughly and pulled her down on him, connecting their lips and his other hand groping one side of her chest.

Ivy forgot all about her no pushing rule in those few seconds and shoved herself away from him with all of her might.

“What the actual fuck, Damien?” She exclaimed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and grabbing her bag, too scared to let him leave her sight this time, however.

“You asked for it!” He defended.

“What the fuck?!” Ivy continued. “I told you from the beginning I didn’t want to do this.” She said, gesturing between herself and Damien.

“No,” He laughed. “That’s not what everyone at school is going to be hearing tomorrow.” He smirked. “You asked for it.” Damien corrected her.

“You’re a fucking dick, did you know that?” Ivy asked rhetorically, turning for the door as Damien just sat on his bed leaning back on his hands with a sick grin on his face.

“I love you too, baby.” He called out with a laugh as Ivy pulled open Damien’s door and made her way down the hallway to the stairs, at the bottom of which she was happy to let herself out of the front door.

Alex had Lisa pressed up against her car door, kissing her softly and switching between her neck, shoulder blade, behind her ear, on her jaw and her lips, in his driveway. Neither of the pair noticed the sound of Damien’s door next door opening and closing. Alex was more concerned about getting Lisa to leave by ten thirty to make sure there was no obvious way his parents would find out she was over, knowing his brother could use it as ammunition one day.

“Thank you for coming.” Alex paused in showing his affection. Sure enough, the void he had been feeling had been filled after the hour or so Lisa and himself had spent between his sheets.

Lisa giggled, “Anything for my baby.” She smiled, overly happy, rubbing her nose against his gently.

You have got to be fucking kidding me. Ivy thought as she walked down Damien’s driveway toward the sidewalk and her eyes met his neighbor making out in their own driveway. Ivy hated public displays of affection; of course, this wasn’t exactly this couple’s fault, seeing as the street was empty, and they probably weren’t expecting anyone to see.

She kept her head down once she reached the sidewalk, wanting to walk past the couple and mind her own business on the way out of the street, still furious about what had just happened with Damien, and a little flushed.

Alex could have spotted her in a crowd though, seeing as she was just one of those girls, so Ivy walking down the empty, well-lit street alone wasn’t exactly a challenge for him. Plus, with the prior knowledge that Jack had dropped her next door earlier, Alex had no doubt that it was Ivy-Elisabeth. He backed away from Lisa for a moment, not letting go of her waist though.

“It’s a little early in the evening to be doing the walk of shame, isn’t it, Merrick?” Alex called out with a smirk.

Ivy’s head immediately shot up from her stare at the ground as she walked, distracted from her thoughts. When her eyes met Alex’s and then those of whom she could only presume was his girlfriend after seeing her in a couple photos with him and the guys on Zack’s digital camera, she didn’t understand what she had been doing wrong lately to have all these fucked up things happening to her. What are the fucking chances? Fuck my life. She thought dully.

“I don’t know, what does your friend think?” Ivy played back like a smart ass, her eyebrow raised. It wasn’t her fault whoever Alex’s girl was seemed to be wearing a shirt of his, which was long enough to be a dress on her. By the sketchy way that the girl seemed to be ready to get into the car and drive off, and none of Alex’s house lights were on except for one on the second floor, it was a given that she had gone down on Alex and now that she was done she was leaving. Ivy didn’t mean to be rude, but from her point of view, Alex set the call up for her and she had no choice but to rebut with it.

Lisa knew who Ivy was immediately. Not just because Alex called her ‘Merrick’, or the fact she was wearing her Towson cardigan, but also because everyone at Dulaney knew who she was, incase everyone at Towson knowing of her wasn’t enough. Lisa looked her up and down, not liking the way she had just been insulted, but at the same time not finding anything worthy enough to rag on her about. Alex will come up with a witty response. She thought, not a worry in the world.

“Touché.” Alex laughed with a smirk, not being able to help himself from slyly checking Ivy out. Her tongue-in-cheek attitude made him very… aware of her. Meanwhile, Lisa glared up at her boyfriend, not liking the way he hadn’t even bothered to defend her.

“At least Alex and I are dating.” Lisa defended herself seeing as no one else was going to, refusing to let Ivy win so easily like her boyfriend had. She knew who lived next door, and she also knew that Damien was a person that messed around with many other people instead of committing to one girl. Lisa pulled Alex a little closer to her.

Ivy stopped her walking for a moment and smiled, “I’m happy for you.” She said meeting Alex’s girl’s eyes. Lisa didn’t like the way she couldn’t decipher whether Ivy was being sarcastic or not, either.

“Should I tell Zack I saw you, or would you rather me stay quiet?” Alex spoke this time, sending Ivy a smirk. He wasn’t quite sure why he was trying to keep up conversation. He presumed it was because now he knew that Ivy had lowered herself to get into a car with Jack, she had earned herself one tiny bit of respect in Alex’s books. Ivy noticed the way he was looking at her, however, and couldn’t quite understand his intentions. She raised an eyebrow.

“If given the option, I’d rather you stay quiet… in general… for the rest of your life. In fact, I’d want you to keep that mouth shut forever. But that’s just my opinion.” Ivy smirked back, beginning her walk again, wanting to get away from the situation. Alex had laughed lightly at her comment instead of taking his usual offence. Ivy was not enjoying the fact that she felt like Alex was beginning to rock the boat a little just as Jack had earlier that night. Ivy was a Towson girl, and they were Drug-laney dicks. There was nothing more to it. There couldn’t be anymore to it, and it had to stay that way.

“Why didn’t you defend me? She made me sound like trash.” Lisa asked her boyfriend after she had turned her head to watch Ivy walk further down the street.

“I made her sound like trash. She was only defending herself.” Alex shrugged with a smile down at his girlfriend.

“I don’t give a shit.” Lisa blurted out. “I’m not trash, Alex. I shouldn’t have been brought into it just because you told the truth about her. Damien Prest? Really?” Lisa scoffed, looking at the ground. “I cannot believe that she’s Zack’s cousin.” She muttered to herself, her boyfriend barely hearing her.

“Hey, I know you’re not trash-” Alex began.

“Well you did a pretty shit job at telling her that.” Lisa interrupted stubbornly. “She probably wants you. You know that right?”

That Alex laughed at. “I highly doubt Ivy would lower herself to such a standard as myself. We’ve never even had a proper civil conversation.”

“You’d be surprised.” Lisa told her boyfriend, leaning up and kissing his cheek and then opening her car door. Although she had been irritated with Alex and it was probably weird for anyone else to comprehend how she could possibly be fine with him again out of nowhere, Lisa was a girl who lived to be reassured. She was a pushover when it came to Alex, and him stating that she wasn’t trash was enough of an apology. “Everyone wants you at one stage or another.”

Alex was once too modest to believe that, but the more Lisa said it, the more he became much more aware of the girls drooling over him everywhere he went. Sure he wasn’t the sporting guy, but he was the bad guy, and that was enough. But somehow, he just couldn’t ever see Ivy in their position. She was just too… hot popular to be the one doing the chasing. Alex was under the impression that Ivy had too many boys chasing after her to even consider liking someone that wasn’t in line. If she was anything like Alex, she’d consider that as way too much effort.

“It’s too bad she can’t have you.” Lisa continued, taking a seat in the driver’s spot, smirking up at Alex like a fool.

Lisa started the ignition from the new position in her car as Alex closed the door for her. She wound down the window. “You were good tonight baby. I had fun.” Lisa smiled, changing the subject. “But you owe me two dates your shout because the way in which tonight was organized definitely belongs under the heading of ‘Booty Call’.” She said in a playful tone.

The funny thing was that she was serious though, and Alex knew it. That was the thing that got to him about Lisa; she was a high maintenance girl if he ever knew one. It took away the spontaneity of things, and the materialistic side of her was always quick to piss him off. She consistently needed attention, and even though they were meant to be in a relationship, sometimes he felt like he was just paying to keep her around because if he didn’t, he’d lose her… and he didn’t want that to happen most of the time, because she definitely did have redeeming qualities despite her insecurities that there were too many girls after him. She was smart, she was a good listener, she was pretty, and his parents liked her. Not to mention (Although he knew it was unhealthy in a relationship to take advantage of such a fact) in the end, Lisa gave him what every seventeen year old boy wanted when their testosterone is running high and their minds are in the gutter; sex.

Alex tapped the bonnet of the car, “You bet ya.” He replied, not even in the mood to tease her or deny he owed her anything just to see the look on her face and the grin when he would later tell her he was joking. He wasn’t interested tonight.

“Bye baby, I love you.” She smiled at his response anyway as she reversed out of the driveway.

“Love you too.” Alex muttered, smiling over enthusiastically as he watched her car drive away and giving a simple wave before sighing. He watched her drive off up the street and turn the corner. Suddenly now he was on his own, he felt empty again. His eyes caught the back profile of Ivy almost ready to turn the corner on the footpath as well now. She wasn’t walking fast like any teenage girl by themselves on a night in the suburbs of Baltimore would be… she was dawdling.

In fact, she seemed a little lost in what she was doing, like she had no particular direction of where she had to walk. Alex found closure in the fact that he wasn’t the only one feeling like that lately.