•Ivy•
It happened in my first year of high school. My parents had been all up in my business at the time, breathing down on my neck.
And that should have been around the time I started to do things in the company, creating my personal designs and refining the ideas I found old in Eve.
Of course I hadn't been paying attention to boys and likes. Even though everyone my age was. My parents had it engraved into my head that I was going to get married to Dorian no matter what.
Playing around would only get me in trouble and give me hopes that would get crushed in the long run. I believed them, I obeyed them.
Which was why I sent away every boy who came my way.
"I have a marriage partner already. Please, find someone else to like."
I had said these words almost a thousand times in my youth. Some of the boys I said then to had just been naturally attracted to me. Most had been attracted to my last name. Either way, I couldn't be with them.
Henry Hawk had come into my life in an interesting and unforgettable way. A senior who had been skipping class, crashing my reading session in the library.
A teacher had been on his tail and he'd asked me to pretend like he wasn't underneath my desk. I still remembered how close he had been crouching next to my legs.
It had been the closest any guy other than Dorian had gotten to me at the time.
I had even lied for Henry—one of my grand feats while in school.
The teacher had asked me whether I had seen the stubborn senior, I said no. Who would dare doubt the words of a well-known goody-two-shoes?
From that day, Henry had taken a liking to me. Calling me his Savior and all. He had been nice. But I never liked him that way.
I wasn't even sure what it meant to like someone in that way. Even now.
Anyway, Henry had offered a variety of gifts to compensate me for helping me. They'd been very tempting and creative gifts. But I had turned each of them down.
I couldn't go home with a gift back then. How would I explain the way I got it to my parents? They knew all my 'friends'. They were most familiar with my schedule.
Henry had not been a part of my high school scheme. I had to kill his hope of ever getting somewhere with me early. Using the line I repeated to his predecessors.
But his predecessors weren't as resilient. He still kept on trying to befriend me, get me things, make me laugh. It had been nice of him to do those things then. Until it wasn't.
I hadn't been the one to mention it to my parents. One of the 'friends' that my parents had planted by my side did the honor.
That brought about the first of many altercations I've had concerning my private life with my parents. They had made Henry apologize to me and reported to his parents to keep him away from me.
And as for me, I had to change schools. My private life had become nonexistent for months, almost a year even. They took away my phone and everything that would have excited the younger me and planted indecent thoughts about the opposite gender in my head.
It had changed nothing. More guys still tried their luck. And anytime I kept the information from my parents, they would punish me and make me remember that Dorian was the only one I was to have eyes for.
And after everything I went through to keep my chastity and innocence for fucking Dorian Montague, they went ahead to give him away to that fucking Silver.
As though she was the one who'd lived her entire life for him. Like she was the one who always had to pretend he was funny, laughing at his dry jokes. Keeping quiet while he made derogatory comments about her and enduring his weird fucking habits.
Silver did none of those things. I did. I was the one who had to deal with dumbass kid Dorian, angsty teen Dorian, cowardly adult Dorian.
But did anyone care about that? No.
"Fuck them! Fuck them all!" I cussed aloud.
"Ah, yes. Fuck them all." Camden repeated my words, concurring with them.
One of his hands was wrapped around my waist, while the other one held onto my arm that was slung around his shoulders.
Drinking time had ended, and boy did we drink. Camden and Adrian seemed to be the only ones who could handle their alcohol. I thought I was like them too, until I started getting tipsy and seeing double.
Adrian sent Henry off. And Camden was in the middle of doing the same to me.
"Fuck who, exactly?" Camden decided to ask after my sudden outburst. His mouth was so close to my neck when he asked that question that I could feel his warm breath on my skin.
"My parents! Duh!" I staggered, shoving him away to stand on my own.
However, Camden didn't let me go. If he had, I would have fallen on the street's concrete ground and gotten myself injured. How embarrassing would it be to explain to people how I got an injury from the roadside?
"Then yes, fuck them." Camden said with a smile, looking ahead to hail the next cab that came our way.
I hummed, taking the time to observe his features. His face and neck were glistened with sweat and his black hair stuck to his slim forehead. His facial structure was so symmetrical.
Why did he have such a nice side profile?
And with my face so close to his own, I could see just how long his lashes were. They were as long as falsies!! If not longer. They couldn't be real, could they?
Only one way to find out. I plucked them out with my hands.
"Ow! What the fuck, Ivy Beaumont!?"
I paid no attention to Camden as I brought the lash hairs closer to my eyes. "Whoa… They're real…"
"Did you just fucking pluck my eyelash to check if they were real?" Camden asked with a flared nose, I could see one of his eyes watering. Definitely the one I'd plucked lashes from.
"Yes…?"