Forbidden Love: Fate (Zac and Ivy Trilogy Book 1) (26 page)

“You! Go and get a tissue. Zac’s hand is
bleeding. Get a tissue quick.” And then Ashley sees the craft knife
dripping with blood in Ivy’s hand. Ashley gives out another scream.
“Ivy, you stupid girl. What did you do to Zac?”

“I… I… cut his hand,” Ivy stutters out, her
eyes flicking at my pained face, then back to Ashley’s.

Ashley opens her eyes wide in shock when she
hears Ivy say this.

“You stupid girl. Why did you do that?”
Ashley starts screaming at Ivy. “He needs that hand to play the
guitar. Do you know what will happen now?”

I grow mad. What’s Ashley’s problem? Why is
she yelling so much? Her screaming only makes my head hurt even
more. I want to tell Ashley to stop her yelling, but I’m still
feeling that dizziness in my head.

“He won’t be able to perform at prom night.”
Ashley continues with her berating. “He won’t be able to play the
guitar anymore. He needs that hand to play. You just ruined his
life. How could you do this? You’re so cruel.”

That’s the last straw. I shout at Ashley,
“Stop yelling at Ivy. It’s not her fault. I accidently cut myself.
Don’t blame it on her.”

“But, Zac, she cut your hand. She said so
herself.”

“I just told you I cut it myself. Ivy has
nothing to do with it.”

Ashley is boiling with rage. Her face blows
up like a puffer fish and she’s seething under her breath. Instead
of yelling back at me, she redirects her anger at Ivy instead.

“It’s all your fault. You made Zac mad at
me.”

Ivy seems to have woken up from her
paralyzed state and drops the knife. She springs forward, passing
Ashley, and comes to my side, clinging to my arm.

“Zac, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt
you.”

I want to tell her I’m fine; she doesn’t
need to worry about me. My hand isn’t important right now. What’s
more important is her, Ivy, my Ivy. But Ashley comes in before me
and shoves Ivy to the side.

“Get out. You’ve caused Zac enough pain
already.”

“But… I… I cut Zac’s hand. I’ve got to help
him,” Ivy says again, coming to my side.

“You’ve helped him far enough,” Ashley says,
trying to shove Ivy off to the side again, but Ivy clings to my
arm, preventing Ashley from pulling her to the side.

“But I cut Zac’s hand,” she keeps on saying.
“I have to help him.” Then turning to me, she says, her eyes almost
breaking out in tears again, “Does it hurt, Zac? Are you in
pain?”

I smile. Even though right now the situation
is dead serious and no one seems to care that my blood is dripping
onto the floor, I still smile at her.

“I’m fine, Ivy. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“Put your hand under running water. I’ll get
you some tissue.” Ivy tells me. But Ashley is already shoving her
to the side again and takes her place next to me.

“What are you still doing here? Get out. Zac
doesn’t need you. He has me now. He doesn’t need you anymore,”
Ashley screeches at Ivy. I can feel her claws on my arm where Ivy’s
soft paws were once before.

I want to rebuke Ashley’s claim. I turn to
Ivy, telling her with my eyes that I need her and want her.

Ivy, please help me. Please hold my hand.
Please wrap the tissue around me. I want you to look after me. I
don’t want anyone else but you. Please help me.

I want to tell her all this, but all she
does is look at me, her eyes growing large with fear and something
else.

I grit my teeth and want to bite Ashley’s
head off. What is Ashley doing interfering in our relationship?

“He’s already got me. I can help him. So get
out.” Ashley continues screaming her lungs out at Ivy.

“That’s enough, Ashley. You’re the one I
don’t need. You’re the one who should get out.”

“Zac!” she screams at me, drumming her feet.
Then she turns on Ivy again and lunges at her.

“It’s all your fault. Your bloody fault.
That’s why Zac’s speaking to me like this,” she screams out
again.

Ivy can’t do anything in her distressed
state but just let herself be shouted at.

“Stop shouting at Ivy,” I shout at Ashley.
“If you continue to act like a stupid girl, then I won’t consider
you my friend.”

“Zac.” Ashley’s lip wobbles.

I’m about to turn to Ivy to tell her that
everything is fine and that Ashley won’t interfere with our talk
anymore, but Ivy’s already running out the door.

“Ivy, Ivy.” I grab a random cloth from
somewhere, wrap it around my bloodied hand, and am about to make a
run after her when I get pulled back by Ashley.

“Zac, you can’t go. You have to stop your
bleeding hand first.”

“I’m not going to die from a bleeding hand,
Ashley,” I yell at her. “Stop fussing over me.”

Ashley’s lips quiver again and tears spring
from her eyes. “You’re so mean, Zac.” Then she races out of the art
room.

Good grief.

I’m so mad with Ashley that I can feel my
own blood pulsing through my veins. But more than anything, I’m
worried about Ivy’s welfare. All I can see in my mind’s eye is
Ivy’s scared, pale face as she saw my bleeding hand.

“Don’t worry, Ivy. I’m going to be fine.” I
keep telling myself this as I run outside with my bloodied hand
wrapped in a towel, looking for her.

Over and over, I call out her name, while
random students come up to me and urge me to go to the infirmary to
get my hand looked at. I ignore them and keep on calling out Ivy’s
name. I search the whole school for her, but she’s nowhere to be
found.

The bus stop. She must be waiting for the
bus.

I race to the bus stop at the front of the
school gate. My heart’s working extra hard, pumping out blood to
accelerate my limbs, allowing me to travel faster, getting me to
the bus stop faster, before the bus leaves. But along with it also
is the negative effect of my bloodied hand. The blood’s seeping out
even more from my hand onto the towel, staining it into an ugly
dark red. But at that moment, though, I don’t care. All I want is
to talk to Ivy, to check her welfare, to ask if she’s okay.

Unfortunately, my arrival is badly timed,
because by the time I get to the bus stop, the bus has already
left, taking Ivy away from me.

I can only do one thing. I drop down and
cry.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

IVY

Because I Love Only You

“He’s already got me. I can help him. So get
out,” Ashley screams at me.

That’s all I hear. That’s what makes me rush
out of the art room and go to hide at this little spot near the
back of the art class, crying my eyes out.

Oh God. I’m so pathetic. I want Zac to get
out of my life, to cut our ties of friendship, but here I am,
crying my heart out because Ashley said he doesn’t need me
anymore.

I know why I’m like this. It’s because I
love him. I love Zac. I knew from the very moment he came and
embraced me from behind. I didn’t push him away. I continued to let
him kiss me, on my hair, on my shoulder, on my earlobe, my chin, my
jawline, and finally on my lips. I didn’t put up any resistance.
All I did was uttered a no, a refusal once in a while, but
otherwise, I was his to take.

I was lost in this fantasy world of love
until I saw his emerald-green eyes. It awakened me from the fog,
and that was when I pushed him away. But then, again and again, I
fell into his sweet honey trap and let him embrace me, again and
again, until I had to will myself to let him go.

When I saw his bloodied hand, the hand that
I accidently cut when he came near me, wanting to touch me again, I
froze. The image from that accident from five years ago crawled
back into my mind and I was once again back at the scene.

Blood was everywhere around me, covering my
head and on my hands. Not until Ashley yelled at me did I come out
of that nightmare. But now here I am, my body shaking, crying to
myself because I did in fact lose a friend, a good friend and the
boy who stole my heart.

With daylight savings in the Southern
Hemisphere, around five o’clock the sky is already turning dark.
I’ve been crying for almost an hour now. I get up from my position
and find my knees are weak. But I persist and get up again, waking
slowly.

The bus has already left by the time I get
to the front gate. I have to wait for another hour and a half
before another bus arrives. Instead, I walk home.

By the time I get home, the whole family is
alarmed. I didn’t turn on my cell phone, so they couldn’t get
through.

I tell them I had some important things to
do at school, that’s why I was late in coming home. Gigi and Clare
are satisfied with my answer, and after I kiss Moon good night, I
go straight to bed. But I’m not given any peace when Clare comes
into my room and brings me dinner.

“What’s wrong, Ivy?” Clare asks.

I don’t reply, just turn the other way,
closing my eyes and pretending to sleep. Clare comes and pats my
hair.

“Did you have a fight?”

I still don’t respond. I don’t want to talk
about the event that transpired today. I want to sleep and sleep
and sleep. Maybe sleep like Juliet. Sleep until my Romeo, my Zac,
comes and kisses me and then we’ll live happily after ever. Unlike
the real story, when Zac kisses me on the lips, I will wake up and
then he will take me away in his battered old car, and we can
disappear somewhere together, forgetting about everything in this
world, about the past accident, about Dillon, about everything that
would cause me pain. If only I could.

I turn to Clare, my eyes red raw.

“Clare,” I say quietly, almost no sound
coming through my lips. “I’m in love.”

Clare smiles at me. “I know.”

“I love him.”

Clare nods her head again. “I know.”

“But I told him I don’t want to be his
friend anymore. And now he has someone else to look after him.”

Clare pats my head again. “Love can be
complicated,” she says, coming to sleep beside me in my bed. I
shift a bit to let her in. “You know, when I was young, I fell in
love with your brother.”

“You told me that.”

“Yes, I did. But I did the same thing you
did. I was scared. I was scared of my own feelings, of why I was
feeling so in love with this guy when I was only a young kid. I
mean, come on, I was only sixteen, a year younger than you are now.
But your stubborn brother was very persistent. He was a year ahead
of me. He asked me out every day. For three years, he hung around
me, annoying me. Not until the final year before he left to go to
university did I cave in and go out with him. And now we’re so in
love. Even when he’s gone, I still love him dearly.”

Hearing Clare say this, a little pain pulls
at my heartstrings.

“What would happen if you saw Dillon again
or any family member of Dillon?” I ask.

Clare sighs heavily. “Let’s just say I want
to forget about the past.”

Clare’s explanation is quite vague. I’m sure
what she means by that but don’t ask any further.

A minute passes between us with no exchange
of words. Then Clare speaks again. “What shall we do about your
relationship with this boy you like?”

“I don’t know,” I say.

“At the end of the day, it’s up to you,”
Clare advises me before getting up off my bed. “It’s your future,
Ivy. It’s your happiness. Don’t let anyone come in the way of
finding true happiness. Because I tell you, it can disappear right
before your eyes. It’s only one single moment, one single
opportunity, but when it’s gone, it’s very hard to find that
happiness again. So grab it while you can.”

That’s all Clare says and then she leaves my
room.

I have a lot to think about tonight. And I
do think a lot that night, because by the next morning, I haven’t
sleep a wink.

I’m glad school is off today, though,
because prom is tonight. School has given year thirteen, my year,
and year twelve, Zac’s year, a day off to prepare for prom night. I
stay in bed the whole day until Moon comes barging into my room,
along with Mandy, at noon.

“Get up. What are you doing in bed? We have
to prepare for tonight. We’ve only got four hours.”

I don’t want to get out of bed. I feel so
tired, but Mandy urges me on. She even yells at me for not sleeping
properly.

I reluctantly roll out of bed and have
lunch, feeling hollow and raw inside. Mandy raids my wardrobe when
I say I don’t know what I’ll be wearing. Then she finds the blue
dress Zac bought for me, hidden in the back of the wardrobe, the
dress I swore I wouldn’t ever lay eyes on again.

“Ivy, this dress is beautiful. Wear this
one.”

“No. I don’t want to wear that one,” I tell
her but I can’t refuse as Mandy already pushes me into the
bathroom. I get changed as slowly as possible.

When Mandy see me, she exclaims that that
dress suits me to perfection. She asks me where I got the dress
from since it looks so expensive, but I tell a lie, saying Clare
bought it for me for my birthday.

“I didn’t know Clare had such good taste in
prom dresses,” she exclaims, touching the round white and blue
flowers on my dress. “You look beautiful, Ivy. I saw that lace
scarf in the wardrobe too. I thought it would look nice with the
dress since it’s the same color. I hung it on the hook near your
mirror. Come down when you’re ready. I’m going to go downstairs
now. Sam should be picking us up any minute.”

When Mandy leaves, I look at myself in the
mirror. Mandy is right. I do look beautiful. When Zac bought me
this dress, he even bought a matching blue lace jacket so my wrists
could be covered.

My hair is styled in a chignon bun with my
long fringe hanging loose to cover the scar on my forehead. Mandy
is really good at hairstyling. When paired with the dress, it makes
me look like a little blue angel descended from heaven.

I shake my head, thinking of the same line
as Zac when he saw me in the changing room. My eyes catch sight of
the blue scarf Zac also bought for me. It’s hanging on the hook
just as Mandy said.