Page 41 of Ivy's Venom

"Charlotte, this shit is crazy." I breathe.

"Crazy?" Her voice becomes deathly calm and I can feel my heart thrumming in my chest.

We fly around a narrow corner, the tires squealing, and she doesn't let up on the gas. What the fuck did I do? Why would I ask her to take me for a drive during this time and right after Grandma Jenna died?

"Charlotte," I keep my voice steady. "Please pull over."

She doesn't listen to me and makes a sharp right hand turn down a small residential street. I don't know where we are right now but it's no longer in Whitsborough. We fly down the street at an alarming speed and I begin to sweat, my sobriety fully intact now.

"I have loved you for a year, did you know that?" She sounds crazy. I drove my best friend crazy.

"No." I whisper and she growls, punching the steering wheel again.

"You kissed me at the wharf party last month and I thought this is it, she's finally feeling the same." Her words catch on a sob. "It wasn't fucking it, was it?"

"Charlotte, I care about you." I plead. "Please pull over."

"A week later we were making out every chance we got, is that just a friendship to you?" She grits through her teeth. "Now, you won't even hold my hand?"

"Okay," I reach for her, "I'll hold your hand."

"Don't touch me!" She screams.

"Okay, fine." I hold my hands in the air like a criminal. "No touching."

"Just last week you had your mouth on me, your fingers inside of me and what, you don't love me?"

"I do love you, Charlotte." I try to placate her, because I really do, just not how she wants me to.

"Not like I love you!" She screams and the car swerves. She rights us but keeps going at her breakneck speed.

I try to envision Mother and Dad, Saxon, and my Little Flower because I feel like I may never see them again. This moment feels like an ending and instead of being terrified, I am almost serene.

"You need to pull over before you get us killed." I tell her, keeping my eye on the road as it rushes past us.

"Then you will have to be with me, won't you?" She looks at me, her eyes off the road, "if I can't have you, I guess no one can."

I wake up with a scream lodged in my throat and I swear I can still smell the gasoline fumes. I can't help but think I’m dreaming about Charlotte because of Neil. She promised me I would have no other and she has kept her end of the promise. I haven't had any other and I can't keep another as well. The night she died, so did I.

I think she took my soul right along with hers and left me here to roam the Earth an empty carcass. She made sure that the rest of my days were filled with misery and that each painful day would be my constant reminder of what I did to her.

I sit up in bed and cringe when I peel my soaked t-shirt off my body, letting it slap to the floor. Every nightmare feels like I'm right back in that car with her, simultaneously pleading for our lives and breaking her heart.

I grab another shirt from my dresser and head down to the kitchen for a drink. My throat is dry and feels like I was once again screaming for her not to leave me, just like that night.

After gulping down two glasses, I drag my feet back upstairs, and mindlessly head back to my bedroom.

"You were screaming Charlotte's name." Saxon's voice startles me. "I was going to come in and wake you up."

"Oh," I swallow thickly. "Thanks."

"You were screaming for her to slow down, Ivy." He narrows his eyes on me. "Something doesn't add up."

I can feel my face drain of blood and my throat begin to cease. I stand there silently for a few minutes, just looking at him, and finally he breaks the hold.

"Anyways," he steps back into his room. "Night."

Fuck, this is bad. Saxon is unpredictable and I don't know what the fuck he'll do with that information.

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