Chapter 3
chapter three
donavan
The smell of sweet sugar and fried batter made my stomach growl, and reminded me that I skipped lunch today.
I did my usual routine of going to the gym and stopping by my parents’ for the day, before heading back home.
As a professional golfer who just won the FedEx Cup for the second time, I was due for a break.
Ivory was on my mind, but I knew that she was safe at my home.
It brought me some comfort to know all I had to do was head there, and she’d be waiting for me.
In a perfect world, she’d be there as my wife, ready to greet me at the door with her infectious smile.
I fell in love with that smile back in Ms. Nivea’s math class.
“Mr. Matthews, since you are late to my class yet again, all of the partners for the presentations were chosen, except for one young lady in the back. Sit by her and try to be better than your brother, the headache I obtained in his presence is finally gone.” Ms. Nivea’s words rolled right off my back.
She was just mad because we didn’t put up with her disrespect and Tracey and Elijah made it their business to come to the school when someone fucked with us.
I heard there was a new student at the school; Gray kept telling me and Braylin how fine she was, but he had an entire girlfriend, so I ignored him.
My eyes scanned to find the empty seat, seeing it was way in the back. I dapped and high-fived all my friends on my way to the seat.
Once I sat down, my body perked up at the smell of candy radiating from the girl beside me. Her face was buried in a book, but from her side profile, she was fine.
She had on the boring school uniform, a white blouse and black pants, but it looked better on her than the rest of the girls here. I knew I was being a creep by just staring, but my eyes wouldn’t stop finding their way back to her.
“It’s tough enough being the new girl here, you can imagine how many kids were already staring. I knew moving here was a mistake, all of y’all are weird.” Jokes made everything better.
“What are the odds that we would both be new students?” She finally shut the book and turned in the chair to face me fully.
I wasn’t prepared for how beautiful she was, my breathing actually stopped for a second. There I sat, looking like an idiot, with my mouth wide open and my heart beating at an alarming pace.
“Are you new, too? Oh my goodness, I thought I was the only one. Everyone has been looking at me like a fish in a bowl. It’s annoying, to say the least.” The excitement on her face made me feel bad because now I had to tell her I was just kidding.
“I’m sorry, I was just kidding, but I promise to be your guide until you feel good to roam the halls on your own. Let me see your schedule, maybe we have some other classes together.” Surprisingly, she didn’t get mad; she slid it out of her Spiderman folder and placed it on my desk.
Ivory Jones, has African American history, and pre-cal with me.
“You can’t possibly be my guide until you tell me your name and show me your school ID. I’ve watched every cliché movie on Netflix, you could be the popular boy and hanging around you could bring me nothing but problems.” Fine and funny, wow, she was my dream girl.
She was right, though, the Matthews boys were popular but only because of who our parents were.
“I’m Donavan Matthews. It’s nice to meet you, Ivory.” She smiled a bit wider and her handshake felt like new beginnings.
I wanted to put a smile on her face, all she had been doing was crying and questioning herself for the past ten days. It was fucked up the way her ex did her, Acacia was crazy about Ivory, at least she made us believe she was.
Ivory used to love going to the carnival, but since we were in the early stages of winter, I planned a weekend cabin trip over in Holly Hills. It was only 45 minutes outside of Slatesville. Holly Hills’ small-town ambiance was the perfect slow pace we’d need for this weekend.
For the entire winter season, they’d have a Christmas village up and running.
Since it was the beginning of winter, we had some snow on the ground.
Ivory was bundled up as if she was about to go flying down the side of the mountain.
Her golden brown skin was shining because she lathered her face with Vaseline.
We just arrived not too long ago. They had a talent show going on today and I signed her up for it, she was going to kill me when she found out. Ivory used to sing in our school’s choir in high school, but I haven’t heard her sing in years, and I missed it.
That was on the list of things she seemed to forget about herself once she got with Acacia.
I never spoke badly on their relationship, in spite of my feelings for Ivory; I respected the fact that she was taken a long time ago.
The only thing I wanted was for her to be happy, now because of her ex, she wasn’t.
“I can’t believe you found this place, thank you for bringing me. Can we go ice-skating? Let’s have a race! The first one to go around three times has to buy dinner for tonight. Deal?” Ivory thought she was slick, she knew my 220lbs, 6’0ft built wasn’t a good combination for ice skating.
“Poison Ivy, let’s make the bet even sweeter. If I win, you have to do whatever I say and vice versa. What do you say?” The squint in her eyes was laced with curiosity and a hinge of fear.
“This better not be your way of getting me on that ferris wheel.” Ivory had always been scared of heights.
She cried on the swings at the local fair when we were eighteen years old.
I only teased her for a few minutes until I recognized that her panic was legit.
The objective of this weekend was to make her laugh, that’s it, and that’s all.
“I don’t have time to play around with your scary ass, don’t worry, today won’t be the day you conquer your fears. Now, stop stalling. Are you down or what?”
We hadn’t done this in a long time – have uninterrupted fun together.
I could tell Acacia felt some type of way about our friendship.
I didn’t want her to force Ivory to choose, so I took the back burner.
We used to talk until one of us fell asleep on the phone, but I started ignoring her calls after a certain time.
I missed my best friend over the years; once they got engaged two years ago, our friendship hadn’t been the same.
I had to be one twisted motherfucker to torture myself for years, hoping that her body chemistry would change to see me. To want me. To crave me.
Once I was tired of my heart being broken over and over again, I stored all the feelings I had for her and put them in the ‘do not disturb’ area of my brain.
It was hard to do, but it was the best thing for me.
“You know I never back down from a challenge, DJ, you better be ready to be my slave for the duration of our time here.” She took off running towards the line, nearly knocking over a few kids making a snowman by the hot chocolate stand.
Shaking my head, I pushed everything else away and just appreciated the role Ivory wore as a badge of honor in my life.
Best friend.