The next morning. Just as everyone was getting up for work and school, Mariana and Callie noticed that Ivy wasn't out of her room. They also knew that Stef and Lena had no idea that Nate was in there sleeping with her. Stef looked at her watch as she was chewing on a bowl of cereal "Shouldn't she be up?"
"Well she seemed to be...occupied last night" Mariana muttered as she was trying to keep her laughter down. Everyone looked to her. Callie also tried to keep her laughter, Jude looked at them with his eyebrows raised hoping they don't land Ivy in it whilst Brandon didn't really care that much although he did also find it partly amusing. Jesus didn't know as Jude didn't tell him. Stef and Lena looked at her in confusion and also Callie for that matter.
"What do you mean?" Lena laughed at their laughter from being out of the loop.
"Well-she's got a friend in there" Callie slowly stated out to make it sound not as scandalous. Lena looked to Stef as Stef did the same to her, they then got the grasp and their heads snapped back to Callie "Nate? You mean he didn't go home last night?"
"Who else?" Jude shrugged.
"You knew too!" Lena pointed to him with a surprised gasp and look on her face. Jude giggled and nodded.
Sharon laugh and clapped her hands "Didn't I tell ya? That can girl hook line and sinker anyone she pleases"
"Not exactly helping, mother" Stef said in a hushed tone "Right well then" Stef went to go to the garage. She was quickly stopped by the grab on the arm by Lena as she jumped in front of her "You can't just barge in there"
"She's got a boy in her room-what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Lena tilted her head and said in an almost whisper "She's twenty one years old, honey, I don't think you can exactly tell her whether she can or cannot sleep with her boyfriend"
"A boyfriend who she hasn't been with for all that long. It's been what? One real date?"
"Yeah but in all fairness she has been in love with him for about seven years" Jesus interrupted, Mariana shrugged and nodded "He is right it's not as if he is some random guy she just met they kind of waited to be in each others arms. Also it's been a little longer than seven years"
"Stop her before I throw up" Brandon laughed.
"For goodness sake Stefanie she'll be up soon" Sharon rolled her eyes and stated in her usual loud voice. Stef sighed and looked to Lena who motioned her to come and sit down for breakfast.
Ivy's eyes slowly opened, she looked to the clock on her side table. She blinked slowly to make her vision clearer. When she saw the time her eyes widened instantly "Shit...shit" she started to tap Nate "Nate wake up"
"Mm?" He groaned as he was still half asleep. Ivy rolled her eyes and plucked a hair off the arm that rested over her body. It very much woke him up "Ah! Crap"
"We're gonna be late, come on get up" Ivy quickly shot up and ran to her wardrobe, grabbed an outfit and then ran into the bathroom "Don't go in there in my watch" he called. He had no reply, he simply heard a little giggle. Nate sat up and sent a text to Milo.
HEY BUD PLEASE BRING A BAG OF CLOTHES FROM MY WARDROBE, I NEED A FRESH SHIRT AND SOME SWEATS. THANKS MAN.
As soon as Ivy was dressed which surprisingly didn't take too long. She wore a black t-shirt along with a long grey leather jacket. White jean pants and smart brown leather ankle boots. Her hair was partly tied back as the rest remained free and down. She took him by the hand and brought him out the garage and into the kitchen where everyone still was.
"Oh hello, you two" Mariana greeted in a very enthusiastic tone. Ivy smiled rather smugly to Mariana, she looked to Stef and quickly dropped her big smile to just a little one she walked over to her aunts and grandmother "Nothing happened"
"Ha yeah right" Sharon winked
Ivy rolled her eyes and took a quick shot of espresso that Sharon had passed to her.
"Right...well you should all get a move on" Sharon said fluttering her hands about. Ivy hugged her grandmother tightly and kissed her on the cheek "Have a safe flight"
"Thank you sweetheart, I'll see you soon okay?"
"Yeah, love you"
The kids one by one said goodbye to Sharon by giving her a hug and a kiss before they left. Nate was the last one to go, he didn't give Sharon a hug or a kiss since he didn't know her too well, they met once or twice before now. He gave her a smile and said goodbye, before he had chance to go she stopped him "Hey kid"
Nate turned back "Yeah?"
"I'm sure you've had the protective speech from someone in this family, now I'm not one for threats but if you hurt my granddaughter I will come back down here and you will not like what I have to say or what I will do" Sharon threatened and then giving him a smile.
"Mom! No threats" Stef whined as she put the dishes in the sink, she looked to Nate "Sorry" she mouthed. Nate shrugged and laughed. Nate looked to her a little taken back, he then did a long nod "Understood, I'll do my best" he then turned and left.
They all drove in separate cars. Lena and the kids in one car. Ivy in hers and Nate in his. When Ivy got out of the car she wished the kids a good day. Lena walked over to her "So last night"
"Yeah last night"
"So did anything happen?"
"Aunt Lena!" she laughed. But she remained silent and blushed.
Lena muttered a laugh "God. You and Stef really are the same person"
"Why?" she then dropped her jaw "How long was it for you two?" Lena looked from down at her coffee to Ivy with an amused look on her face "Are you kidding? On the first date your aunt pounced so hard I have never known anything like it in my life"
"Okay...suddenly regret asking" Ivy laughed as they walked inside the school, she looked to Nate and smiled to him as she bit her lip. He closed his car door looking at her pulling the same smile.
When Nate got into the sports hall he saw Milo sat on the seat stalls with a gym bag his hand "Hey!" Milo called as he launched the bag down hitting Nate in the face, Milo ran down from the top of the stalls and jumped at him "Sup you dirty dog"
Nate shook his head "Shut up and thanks"
"No...problem" Milo's eyes wandered as a group of girl's. Nate looked to him and rolled his eyes "Seventeen. Milo. They're seventeen"
Milo quickly looked away "Christ why do seventeen year olds look twenty these days?" he slid his hands in his pockets and then let out an amused smile to Nate before waving and leaving the gym.
Ivy walked into the classroom. She found a letter on her desk. The same kind of letter from the same person. Her breath shook as she sat there and read it whilst her students did their work. Timothy was off today so it was just her handling this lesson. They were just going over their feedbacks she gave them from their scripts. She felt her hands shake.
She felt herself examine every damn thing that he had wrote. Nibbling on her thumb nail, which she does constantly when she gets nervous. Crapping herself was more of the accurate thing right now, she didn't know what to do. She felt as if she was going to have a damn heart attack. Ivy was suddenly pulled away from it.
"That doesn't look like a script?" She heard Brandon's voice in front of her.
"It also doesn't look like it's any of your business, what's up" she said not looking up to him.
Brandon handed her his script "Did what you asked"
"I'm so grateful" she muttered.
"Look, I'm sorry I didn't go to the beach with you guys it's just..." Ivy slowly looked up from the letter and looked to Brandon. "It's just...to be honest I don't have a good reason, I was just being an ass" Ivy nodded not disagreeing with him. "Okay, thanks?"
"That it?"
Ivy glanced to him as she looked back down the letter and shrugged "What do you want me to say, B? Hm? That I really love your great apology"
"I'm trying here"
"Yeah and I tried many times including inviting you to the beach" Ivy shook her head refusing to be the bad guy here still not taking her eyes off the letter. Brandon looked to the letter "Who's it from?"
"What part of none of your business do you not understand?"
He knew that this was bugging her, because she was being sharp and usually she was a calm person "Are you hiding something from us?"
"Oh so now you're worried about actually being my family? Now that you know I have something"
"Fine not us, but my moms?" Ivy looked up and folded the letter, she licked her bottom lip thinking on what to say "What's in the letter, Ivy?"
"Brandon, back off now"
"It's clearly something bad, and if it is going to cause a danger...keep it away from my family"
"They're my family too"
"Then we have an understanding" he bitterly mumbled as he walked away. Ivy sighed stress-fully. That could have gone a lot better. She glanced down to the letter and read the sentence 'I'm never gonna give up' she closed her eyes for a moment and then placed it back into the drawer. Pressing her fists against her mouth and closing her eyes as she took a deep breath.
In attempts to get her mind off of everything, she went to Nate and visited him as he did a class, it was just a fly by visit "Hey" she whispered.
Nate took his eyes away from his class and smiled to her "Hey you"
"I am going to the burger shack to get some food, want me to bring something back for you?"
"A woman after my own heart. Yes please"
"Usual?"
"You know me so well" Nate leaned forward and kissed her cheek, which got a teasing reaction from his class. Ivy shot them all a 'stop it' smirk before patting Nate's hand and giving him a smile to then leave.
She took a nice walk down the beach to the shack and got her and Nate's usual meals. It didn't take long, the guy who was on shift went to school with Ivy and he was always quite sweet on her, so he put her meal ahead of any others. She put the packed up food in her backpack and walked on. Ivy kept her head down as she walked back along the beach towards the school again.
She watched her feet make prints in the sand when she suddenly had a shadow in front of her. She stared at it for a moment and felt her stomach drop, the outline of this mans body was one that she knew. Ivy slowly looked up and saw him staring at her with a smug smirk on his face "Hey, sweetie"
Ivy felt her breath get caught in her throat "Jason"
Jason hummed a small laugh and rubbed his lips together as he looked at her up and down, she knew the types of things that he was thinking of right now "Damn. It's good to see you. You look amazing"
"The hell are you doing here?"
"I came here for you, bring you back to where you belong"
Ivy stared at him and shook her head, keeping her tone sharp and stern "You harassing me with those letters. I thought was a bluff, I thought you'd never be stupid enough to show your face"
"I just want to meet the family"
"Stop it! Jason, you have got to go home"
"You're my home"
"Oh for fuck sake" Ivy mumbled under breath, she walked past him and then stopped. Turning back around to him, she slapped him hard before shouting "You know what you did to me!"
Jason groaned and looked back to her "You're being dramatic"
"Dramatic?"
"Yeah" he said with a laugh in the back of his throat. Ivy slowly shook her head with her eyes slowly filling up. God she hated him, he made her feel sick. His face, the way he spoke. Everything. It wasn't always like that, Ivy put her hands on her hips and looked away from him "You were my friend. Before the obsession, before the stalking. Before the violence-"
Jason sighed and shrugged "Fine. Sorry for what you felt I did that was so terrible"
"Do you even remember-"
Jason just smirked and shook his head "Plays differently in my head"
"Course it does. More pleasurable in your head, right? More romantic?"
He took a step forward, holding his arms out to take hold of her waist "Come on-" Ivy quickly slapped his arms away before pushing him "Don't come near me! You're lucky I'm not calling the cops"
"Then why don't you? If what I did was so terrible then why don't you get my ass thrown in prison?"
Ivy shook her head, her tear falling down her cheek "Because I know that nine times out of ten, it's guys like you that get away with it. And women like me are left humiliated and robbed of justice. I don't want to put my family through that. I don't want them to know"
Jason took a small step closer "Cause you know it'll taint what they think of me...and you still want-"
"All I want from you is to get out of here and go back to San Francisco. Or hell. I know where I'd prefer"
His face changed from being smug and smirky to getting bitter and full of rage, something she has seen one too manny times. Jason gulped heavily and groaned under his breath, biting his lip and coming out with "You seriously don't know what you're doing. If I gotta get through to you some other way to show I'm not giving up then I will"
Ivy felt her stomach drop as she scoffed "Meaning?"
"Meaning you should really put your instagram on private. Lotta weirdos around here who can I dunno-see pictures of your family, new fuck buddy and save them to remember who to look out for" Jason got out his phone and roamed through his camera roll for a split second "You certainly seem comfy with…" he held photo in front of her "This chick"
Ivy stared at the picture of her hugging Callie from her birthday party. Jason smiled as he turned the screen back to him "She's cute. New cousin right? Ones your dykes took in"
"Keep away from her" Ivy said sternly.
"Got a special bond going on? Can kinda tell by the photos. Hell you seem close with all of them but um, she seems like you...she's hot too, maybe I should move on to-"
"I swear to god. If you go near her or any of my family. I will kill you"
Jason smirked and laughed "Yeah, and how? Dueling pistols? I know I've got mine"
Ivy's jaw dropped, staring at him, her eyes darted around everywhere "Jason...you haven't got it have you"
"My pride and joy, baby, after you of course...I'll see you real soon" he smiled, touching a strand of her hair which made her flinch. Jason winked to her and added in a mutter "Tell your new toy boy to look out. If I see him you might have to be picking him up at the hospital. Or the morgue"
She said nothing, she was too shaken to do anything. He left her alone and she just watched him walk away. Once he was gone, Ivy let out a shaken cry, putting her hand over her mouth and staring down at the sand. Letting out another strained cry. Ivy took a deep shaken breath, dropping her hand from her mouth and putting it back on her hip as she took deep breaths.
"Shit" she cried to herself in a whisper. Ivy crouched down and dropped her head in her hands, repeating the curse in yet another cry.
Ivy returned back to the school, she went to Nate and just put the food in his office, then saying to him without letting him greet her "I can't have lunch with you"
"Wha-how come?" Nate said, still with a small smile on his face. But Ivy was too worked up to put on a smile for him, she just shook his head and said with a sharp tone, not being able to speak in any other way "I just can't"
Nate reached for her hand with a confused smile still on his face "Babe-"
"I said I can't" Ivy took her hand out of his and just walked out. Nate watched her go and let her, he didn't get it at all. One minute she was all happy and laughing, next minute she was sharp with him and distant. She'd never been sharp with him before, and although he was confused and a little wounded, he let her go. Clearly she needed space and he was going to give it to her. Nate turned to his lunch and stared at it. He sighed and muttered to it "Never really wanted you anyway"
Ivy walked down the hall and went into her empty classroom. She didn't want to eat, she didn't want to talk to anyone. She didn't even know what things she didn't want to do. She was just utterly lost, within herself and in the real world on what to do. What was she going to do? She could tell Stef, be honest about everything. But that would mean telling her everything. She had already worried Stef enough with the past things, to add something else to the list would make things so much worse. Not to mention the full blown protection strategies she would go through to make sure Jason doesn't get near them. But they may need that. Ivy was going to have to bite her tongue on the tears, on answering all the questions.
Or...she could save everyone the heartache. Sacrifice herself in fact and just go. Ivy looked down to her lockscreen that was of her and Nate and had her eyes quickly filling up, going would mean letting him go again. But she would be protecting him. Ivy wrote a note down, telling someone that she was sick and went home, for them to go get a sub and then left.
Nate parked up outside of Ivy's house after one of the students made a joke as they passed him about Ivy being an extra in Fast and Furious from taking off in her car so fast. Something was definitely wrong.
He walked through the back and saw that he door was open, she was stood by her bed. He walked forward, trying to make out as to what it was that she was doing and then saw her packing her bags. He practically ran in and put his hand on hers, making her jump "Whoa whoa whoa, baby the hell you doing?"
"I can't"
"Can't what?"
"I can't stay here"
Nate's brows pinched together as he watched her pack more of her clothes and then stopped her again by taking hold of her hand "Ives talk to me. What is going on? Why do you think you need to leave"?
"You don't understand"
"Then let me, explain to me. What's happening?" Nate put his hand on her cheek and slowly turned her to him. Seeing how much that she was crying, how she had been crying for a while now given that her eyes were really red. Ivy couldn't even look at him. She didn't want to because if she did, she'd back out in doing this. Ivy closed her eyes, she rested her forehead on his shoulder and just blurted in a whisper "He's going to hurt you"
Nate looked even more confused, he put his hand on the back of her head "Who's gonna hurt me?"
Ivy sighed and then moved herself by sitting down on the bed and looking down to her hands, she sniffed up her runny nose and began to talk "I dated someone in San Fran...Jason"
"Uh huh, you mentioned-"
"No Nate just please" Ivy held up her hand and said breathlessly "Please just let me get this out to you...Jason was temperamental, he was overwhelmingly protective. I felt safe around him until I actually ended things. I ended things because I couldn't love him and he became obsessed. Scarily obsessed. He followed me wherever I went, would always be knocking on my door and trying to break himself in...he began to scare me a lot. He turned violent to me and anyone who went around me that he thought was some kind of threat" Ivy took a breath, she licked her bottom lip and shook her head. Leaving out an important chunk of their past and just skipped ahead to "And now he's found me here, I saw him today at the beach"
"What? Are you okay?" Nate sat beside her, putting his hand on her back "Did he do something to you?"
"No. No he wouldn't dare touch me in any kind of aggressive way in public...but he made threats" she put the back of her hand to her mouth as she let out a brief sob, taking in a breath to calm her down "He made threats to hurt my family and h-hurt you and I can't deal. I can't do it. I know he will"
"If you tell Stef-"
"If I tell Stef then it will just make things so much worse and I don't want them to drag them into this"
"So your solution is to run? And what? Give him what he wants to protect us? Ivy you don't have to play the hero" he slid his hand in hers "And to be frank, anything he tries to put on us won't compare at all to you leaving us. I know which will hurt more"
"And if he hurts you? I'll never forgive myself...the things he's capable of I...god I wouldn't be able to live"
Nate kissed the side of her head and pulled her close. Softly rubbing her arm. He took his phone out of his pocket and did something that he knew was something he shouldn't do, but he was thinking of her in the end result. As he spoke to her to calm her down, he went down his contacts without even looking and called Lena. He just let it ring and carried on talking. With Lena catching on that this was to overhear a conversation by the way he was talking.
"If you just tell your aunts about this guy, Ives they can protect you"
"I don't want to burden them" Ivy sobbed into his shoulder, then lifting her head up and adding "They open their home to me after all these years, they take care of me and love me. I dump all of this shit on them from my past, all these issues I now have I cannot dump another one on them no way"
"This is your home. It always has been. And you're not dumping anything on them...and with this Jason being a dangerous guy, making threats against me and your family then...you gotta reach out. Just please don't run away"
Lena slowly brought the phone away from her ear as she just heard the cries from Ivy on the other side. Staring down at the desk in pure shock and horror. She hung up and then called Stef. Just waiting and waiting until "Stef. You need to get back to the house right now. It's Ivy, I think she's going to run"
