Page 101 of Ivy's Venom

“This isn’t Charlotte, Neil.” Shay says quietly as she tries once again to tug me back into my seat, “Ivy will be okay.”

Charlotte.

It’s like God is laughing at me from up in the sky, another tragic accident involving a girl I love, and somehow connected them together.

“I love her.” I say quietly and Shay rubs my arm.

“I know.”

I hear hurried footsteps and then see a flustered Carmelo barge into the room.

“Where is she?” He’s panting and he has this wild look in his eye. “No one told me.”

“Bro,” I motion to the seat beside me, “come sit. She’s out of surgery and her parents are with her.”

I watch as he nearly collapses with relief and slowly comes to the seat I pointed out.

“I thought… it was like last time…” he looks at me with sadness. “You know.”

“Yeah man, I know.” I nod because I know exactly what he means. “I should’ve called you but I’ve been pretty fucking useless for the last few hours.”

He nods and we sit there in silence, waiting for answers. Right now, time is my worst fucking enemy.

“CHARLOTTE! PULL OVER!” I screech, my voice panicked. “Pull the fuck over!”

“Why did you let us become this?” She sounds sad, so fucking sad. “I’m so tired of pretending.”

“Charlotte,” I touch my fingers to her cheek, “stop the car.”

“I’m in a lot of trouble, Ivy.” She whispers as the tires screech on another sharp bend.

“What trouble? Tell me.”

“Mom is kicking me out for taking her pills. My school is kicking me out for selling them.” Her cheeks shine with all her tears, “I need the money.”

“I will give you money, you don’t need to do all of that, you know this.” I beg for her to see reason.

“I tried to get you out of my mind and I used him to do it.”

“Used who?” I ask, my stomach dropping with dread.

“You don’t know him, he’s goes to my school.” She whispers and wipes her nose on her sleeve. The car swerves with her motion and I scream until she rights it.

“Please Charlotte, please pull over.”

“I wanted us to raise it together, like a family.” She ends her words on a sob. “My family will never forgive me.”

“For what?”

“I got pregnant!” She screams and I startle at the sudden volume change.

“Oh no.” I breathe and she turns her head to look at me.

That was the wrong thing to say because she growls in frustration and clenches her fingers on the wheel.

“I love you!” She screams, “we could’ve raised this baby together.”

She’s pregnant and as terrible as that is, she’s also been heavily taking drugs. This Charlotte that’s in front of me isn’t the real version, the real one is sweet and level-headed, and she would’ve never gotten herself into this trouble. No, this is something wild Ivy Greene would be expected to do and I can’t help but think maybe it’s due to my influence over the years.

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