Ivy

Ivy POV

“Ivy Maree Nolan. Get your ass in the car now!”

Oh great. Mum is already at it. It’s only seven in the fucking morning and I’m already on her shit list. No, come on Ivy, or good morning sweetie are you ready, in a sweet motherly tone like other Mums. Nope, just straight for the kill. I should be used to it by now, it’s been this way for as long as I can remember. I’m normally standing by dutifully at the front door all dressed before she comes down the stairs, but not today. I was up all night studying for my exams and slept in. Well if you call 6am a sleep in.

“Really Ivy? You’re going with your hair like that?” Mum scoffs as if my neatly tied ponytail is some kind of an affront to humanity.

“I have two exams today. I need my hair out of my face,” I reply as calmly as I can when really I just want to tell her to fuck off. I don’t get what her fucking problem is; I’m going to school not on a date.

When we get to Mum’s salon I’m reminded that I need to find my own way home tonight as she is having dinner with her current man friend after she finishes work. Again, no bye sweetie have a great day or love you. Nope. That’s only reserved for Harry. Harry is my 22 year old brother who still lives at home and can’t keep a job to save his life, but can’t do any wrong in our mother’s eyes. Why am I treated differently you ask? Well it’s because I look like my Dad. From the memories I have of my Dad, he was the best. I was his little girl. He died from cancer when I was five. It was half way through my first year at school. It was too late for him to start treatment when they found out and he passed away not even three months later. I miss him so much.

“Morning Stella,” I say to my best friend as she meets me at her car in her driveway.

“Morning Ivy. Coffee? I don’t know about you but all I can see right now are words,” Stella chuckles, throwing her bag into the back seat of her red mini.

“Yeah same. Coffee is a must,” I reply, sliding into the passenger seat.

Stella’s house is a twenty minute walk from my Mum’s beauty salon. On the mornings that I don’t work before school, I walk to Stella’s then we grab coffee on the way to school. We attend St Mary’s Catholic High School. It’s a co-ed (boys and girls) and is closer to the mountain then the beach side of town. It normally takes us fifteen minutes from the café to school so we’re never late.

“I’m so bloody excited,” my best friend says after we’ve collected our morning cup of java.

I’m busy smelling my hot latte and loving the warmth from the cup against my hands while she drives. “You’re excited about exams?” I cock an eyebrow.

“No,” she giggles. “Our tatts. Aren’t you excited? Our first tattoo Ivy.”

I smile. “I wouldn’t say excited. Happy and a little nervous, yes.” I’m getting my first tattoo after school today. I’ve been eighteen for two months and saving like mad. What am I getting? A special tribute to my Dad. He had a tattoo on his left arm. It was a mountain scene about five or six centimetres tall that wrapped around his bicep.

My Dad grew up in the Blue Mountains near Sydney and moved here when he met Mum. It was his way of always being connected to the mountains. He worked for the forestry department too. He got mine and Harry’s names tattooed underneath after we were born, but I’m getting the word Dad with some flowers as he called me his little flower.

Stella notices the change in my mood. “Hey. It’s going to be amazing. He’d be so proud of you Ivy,” she reassures me, reaching across and squeezing my hand.

And this is why she’s my best friend. Stella and I have known each other our whole lives. Our Mum’s worked together and were friends until Mum opened her own beauty salon four years ago and something happened. Since then they haven’t spoken.

“Millie is going to be so jealous,” she adds.

“Well she’s the one who got pregnant, not us,” I retort.

“I know, I told her that she should have got one before she got knocked up.”

I laugh. “That was kind of hard, seeing as she pretty much got pregnant within days of turning eighteen.”

We both laugh. We love our bright and bubbly friend Millie and are happy that she’s found the man of her dreams and is not only engaged to him but is also having a baby with him. We haven’t even graduated high school yet, lucky bitch. Jack was her older neighbour and friend, apparently they both had a crush on each other but didn’t know how the other felt until a shit situation happened on new years eve.

I wish my crush felt the same about me. Not that that will ever happen. I haven’t even seen him for three years. Not since he and my brother graduated from high school. Yeah I know, classic. Teen girl has a crush on her older brother’s best friend and stalks his social medias.

Alex POV

I’m home from work for a month. I got back two days ago. I work at a mine as an electrician in outback Queensland. I’m what they call a FIFO; a fly in, fly out worker. For the past two years I’ve been working six weeks on, four weeks off. My contract is up for renewal and I’m honestly not sure what to do. I’ve been studying part time at university at the same time, but if I continue at this pace my four year Bio-Science degree will take me eight fucking years to complete.

My job pays great, don’t get me wrong, but I’d prefer to work with nature. Marine Biologist that’s been my dream for as long as I can remember. But after nearly three years of studying part time, I’m only about a year and a half into my degree.

My best friend Harry has been blowing up my phone since I got back but I’ve needed to finish off and submit my assignments that are due. I’m studying a mix of online and on campus so when I work away I watch my lectures online and take notes that way. When I’m back home, I get stuck into finishing my assignments, submit them and attend lectures in person.

My schedule tends to keep girls away. They think it’s great to start with until I don’t return for six weeks and then they decide it’s too hard to maintain a relationship and jump ship. I’m not looking for a one and done either, I leave the hook ups to Harry.

“Nick,” I greet my tattooist as I walk into Tatt’s on Espy.

“Hey man. Glad to see ya back. Ready to get that sleeve finished?” Nick replies.

“Fuck yes,” I smile.

I’ve been getting a full sea creature scene tattoo on my left arm for the past year. Every time I’m back home, I come in and spend four to six hours on the table adding bits. Today is the final session.

“Righto. I’ll do the dolphins then the water. Cool?” Nick says as he gets his inks ready.

“Cool,” I reply, getting comfy.

Harry drops in at one point to bring me a coffee and some snacks, but he doesn’t stay long, just long enough to tell me we’re going out to the pub on the weekend. He doesn’t like needles and has an afternoon class at uni. The fucker has a cushy life, he lives at home with his Mum and younger sister, goes to uni and does sweet fuck all. He’s not stupid just lazy, he hasn’t been able to hold a job for longer then three months since high school. His grandparents are loaded and since he got the money from his Dad’s will last year, he’s become even lazier if that’s possible. Don’t ask me why I’m still friends with him.

“How the fuck did you meet that dip shit?” Kenji, one of the other tattooists asks me.

“School. He transferred to my high school when we were in year nine,” I reply.

“What makes him a dip shit?” Nick asks his colleague while he works on my arm.

“He was going out with my sister. She saw him when we went out to lunch the other week and he acted like he didn’t even know her,” Kenji says, shaking his head. “Stupid dick was lying through his teeth because he picked her up from my house for a date only the week before.”

“Yeah, well, he tends to only think with his dick most days,” I say. “Your sister is better off with out him.” Again I’m questioning why I’m friends with Harry at all.

I was one of only thirty boys boarding at St Joseph’s and I was a bit of a loner and a nerd too until Harry moved schools. He’s loud and likes to party and be seen. We had all our classes together that year and we just clicked. I was allowed to go to his house every Friday night, which we spent playing games on his x-box. But since we’ve left school we have gone in different directions. We’ve each made friends on our own but he keeps coming back to me.

The shop has been fairly busy while I’ve been here. Kenji had a break for forty minutes between clients so chewed my ear off about my work and study. He’s a pretty cool guy. The little bell over the door dings, letting the guys know that someone has come in. I can hear some feminine voices over the sound of the tattoo gun, but I’ve got an air pod in one ear and my eyes are closed as I lay here trying to ignore the pain as Nick pushes the colour near the bone of my shoulder. I answer a text from Harry to say that yes I’ll be over for dinner tonight. Dinner meaning pizza and beers.

I’m all wrapped up and ready to head out when I spot two girls getting tatts done. They are happily chatting away. Wait a minute.

“Ivy?”

“Oh. Hi Alex,” Harry’s little sister replies. Only, she’s not little anymore. Fuck, she was always cute but now she’s smokin’ hot.

“When did you turn eighteen?”

“A couple months ago,” she grins.

I’ve never seen her smile. Not like this. This is a genuine happy smile. Not the small timid one’s I’m used to. I’m curious so I walk over to see what she’s getting done.

Huh, interesting. “You getting your Dad’s tattoo?” Harry never talks about him. I asked once when I saw a photo and he cracked the shits.

Ivy nods, looking down at her arm.

We chat for a bit and I realise that this is the most we’ve talked in like… at all. She would always disappear to her room when ever I came over. I’m introduced to her best friend who is getting a very typical girl tattoo, a couple of butterflies on her shoulder blade.