Chapter 85: Stupid Ivy

Chapter 85: Stupid Ivy

Ivy

Did Leo know?

The question had been living in my head since last night, circling like a shark that refused to leave.

Was there a way he suspected that something had happened between Andy and me?

The way he had looked at me when I walked into the bedroom. The way he had smiled that empty, polite smile. The way he had told me, so casually, that he had met up with Maddie. My sister. Of all people.

Shit. Stupid Ivy. Stupid, stupid Ivy.

What was I thinking? Kissing Andy like that when I was with Leo? When Leo had been nothing but accommodating to me. Patient with my asthma. Gentle with my body the first time.

He had given me pieces of himself that I knew he didn’t hand out easily, and I had repaid him by letting another man’s mouth on mine in a house that wasn’t even mine.

Was I… a cheater? Did this make me a cheater?

The word sat wrongly in my mouth. I had never thought of myself as someone who could do that.

I always thought I would be the girl who waited, who overthought, who stayed loyal even when it hurt.

And yet here I was, sitting in the Teague backyard with the sun on my bare legs and the taste of Andy still somehow lingering in the back of my throat like a secret I couldn’t actually spit out.

But why did I feel good and bad at the same time?

That was the part that scared me most. The guilt was real. It sat in my stomach. But under it, buried deep, was something else.

Something warm and reckless and shameful.

The way Andy had looked at me like he still knew every soft soft I had for him. The way his hands had felt familiar and dangerous all at once. The way my body had answered before my brain could stop it.

I hated that part of myself.

“You’re spacing out again, Ivy.” Poppy snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Ivana.”

I sat straighter so fast the lounge chair creaked. Heat rushed up my neck. “Sorry. I just had a lot on my mind.”

“A lot that involves Andy dragging you away into his bedroom and keeping you there till Leo returned?” Her voice turned serious, losing the usual playful lilt. She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head so I could see her eyes. “Don’t even try to play it off.”

My ears burned. I glanced toward the house, half-expecting Leo’s shadow to appear in one of the windows. “It’s… not like that. Andy just—”

“I know something happened between you two.” Poppy leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “Don’t look me in the eye and lie, babes. You did something with Andy, didn’t you?”

I glanced around the Teague backyard like the hedges themselves might grow ears. The pool water lapped gently against the tiles. Somewhere inside, the low thump of music from Leo’s workout playlist drifted through an open window.

Julia was out with Poppy’s dad for the day. Andy was nowhere in sight. Still, my pulse wouldn’t settle.

“Keep it down, Poppy,” I whispered. “Someone might hear you.”

She rolled her eyes so hard I almost heard it. “No one’s going to hear me. Leo is working out. Julia is spending the day with my dad. Andy’s at God-knows-where. So relax. It’s just us.”

I still couldn’t relax.

That was the thing with people who had done something they shouldn’t. You started looking over your shoulder even when the street was empty. You started measuring every silence for danger.

I dared not think too hard about what Leo would do if he found out the full truth of what happened in that room.

The version I had given him last night felt paper-thin in the daylight.

“Ivy.” Poppy’s voice softened. “What really happened yesterday? I was worried that Andy would do something to you. Julia on the other hand was weirdly calm.”

“She knows Andy wouldn’t hurt me,” I said automatically. The words came out too fast. “He was just angry. We talked things out. That’s all.”

I stared at my fingers, twisting them together in my lap because looking at Poppy while lying felt impossible.

She gave me the flattest look in her arsenal. “Y’all just talked and Andy woke up this morning whistling and walking around with a fucking bounce in his step? Girl. Be real. Tell me you both fucked and stop lying—”

“Poppy!”

I lunged forward and clapped my hand over her mouth so hard she made a muffled sound of protest. My heart was hammering against my ribs hard enough that I briefly wondered if an asthma attack was coming.

“Don’t say stuff like that. Nothing like that happened.” I glanced toward the house again, voice dropping. “I mean it.”

She peeled my hand away, eyes sparkling with something between amusement and concern. “Hey. Snap out of it. You’re doing that thing where you zone off and go white as a sheet.”

“That’s not true.”

“I can see it in your eyes—”

“See what?” I snapped, defensive now. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Poppy went quiet for a second. Then she said, very calmly, “You had sex with my brother, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t!” The denial came out sharp. Then something else clicked into place and I narrowed my eyes at her. “Wait… you’re not mad?”

“Why would I be mad? He’s my brother. Not my lover.” She shrugged one shoulder, the movement lazy in the heat. “Plus… you’re young, Ivy. You’ve been into Andy for as long as I’ve known you. People make stupid decisions. Andy can be yours if that’s what you want.”

I stared at her. The sun was bright enough that the water threw moving light across her face, but I still saw the honesty there. “You’re okay with Andy being my stupid decision this summer?”

She smiled, small and almost sad. “You know it’s a stupid decision. You know it’s wrong. You know Leo would probably whoop both your asses if he found out the whole truth. But you’re still gonna do it because you only live once.”

She sighed and leaned back against the lounge chair. “Frankly, I’m tired of running these circles with you. You still love Andy. You might probably do so forever. And it’s honestly tiring watching you pretend otherwise. Just… do your thing. Then regret it when you're older.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Nothing useful came out.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” I admitted finally. “I thought you’d be mad. Disappointed. Something.”

She snorted. “It’s summer, Ivy. Not the rest of your life. You’re still going to go back to California when this is over. My brother is still going to patch things up with Maddie because those two are so obsessed with each other it feels like their souls are glued together with industrial adhesive. And you and Leo?” She tilted her head. “Well. Let’s say no one knows exactly how long a famous boxer’s interest can last when the girl he’s with still looks at someone else like that.”

Something about that last part made my chest tighten hard enough that I had to consciously loosen my grip on the arm of the chair.

“You think Leo’s not going to be into me for long?” I asked, quieter than I meant to. “He loves me, Poppy.”

“He does,” Poppy agreed without hesitation. “But do you love him the way he wants? The answer is no. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Sooner or later he’s going to notice that the effort only goes one way. Guys are like that. They start thinking they wasted their time. That the effort isn’t going to pay off. Then they leave the girl they’ve been chasing for someone who loves them back harder. Or someone easier. I think.” She chuckled under her breath.

I didn’t find it funny.

My mind went straight back to last night. Leo standing in the bedroom, calm as anything, telling me he had met up with Maddie.

The way he had said her name without flinching. The way he had shut down every question I tried to ask. He had been so chill about it even though he knew I wasn’t on great terms with my sister.

Did he… like her?

Had my boyfriend already started falling under the Maddie charm the same way everyone else eventually did? Had my sister won again without even trying?

The thought made my stomach turn.

“So…” Poppy’s voice pulled me back. She was watching me with open curiosity now. “What actually happened between you two yesterday? I’m dying here. You weren’t this tight-lipped before.”

I bit my lip hard enough to feel the sting. For a long moment I considered lying again. Then the weight of everything became too heavy to carry alone.

“We kissed,” I admitted, so quietly I almost hoped the pool filter would swallow the words.

It didn’t.

Poppy’s squeal was immediate and far too loud. “I knew it! I knew something happened!”

“Keep it down!” I panicked, half-rising from the chair. “Leo’s inside—”

“He’s training,” she said, waving a hand. “He can’t hear us from out here. The music’s up. The fan’s going. Relax.”

I didn’t relax. I didn’t take her word for it. My eyes stayed on the house like it might grow a mouth and start repeating everything we said.

Poppy lowered her voice anyway, leaning in. “So what now? Are you going to start sneaking around with Andy behind Leo’s back?”

I frowned so hard my forehead hurt. “No. Yesterday was… a mistake. It’s never going to happen again.” I was trying to convince myself more than her. “I wasn’t thinking. My head was all over the place and I messed up. That’s all it was.”

She smirked, the kind of smirk that said she had already written the rest of the story in her head.

“That’s what they always say.” She chuckled and lay back against the lounge chair, sunglasses sliding back down over her eyes. “This summer is truly gonna burn, Ivy. Hope you’ve got enough sunscreen.”

I didn’t answer. I closed my eyes against the sun and tried to breathe through it.

Stupid Ivy.

Stupid, stupid Ivy.

The summer had only just started, and already I could feel the heat climbing.