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“Why are we doing the chicken thing again?”
Ivy rolls her head over the back of her seat to look at me.
“Tanner suggested it since he thinks this is a good way to prank Gabe.”
Nodding my head at that, I laugh to remember the time in high school she set over fifty loose in Gabe’s house. We spent hours chasing them.
“So what’s the plan once we get to his place?”
Shrugging a shoulder, she grins.
“Tanner said he’ll make Gabe drop his car off at the house so that they drive to my dad’s in Tanner’s car. That way he can make sure Gabe goes straight home from there.”
“I’m shocked he’s helping you.”
She laughs.
“I think he just wants to see the look on Gabe’s face. That and get back at him for the other pranks.”
Makes sense. If pranks are happening, it’s better to be on Ivy’s side than against her.
Silence falls between us, my thoughts rolling over the problem with Emily and everything else that’s gone down. I’m also a little worried that Ivy and Gabe won’t be able to work things out, but mostly I’m concerned she’ll reveal too much.
Breaking the silence, I nudge her with my elbow and ask, “Why did you tell him the truth?”
“About knowing he was setting me up in high school to burn down the pavilion?”
The last few weeks of our senior year were like a powder keg. Emily with us, and Ivy with Gabe.
Everything was blowing up around the same time, and while I was doing my best not to fall in love, Gabe was doing his best to trap Ivy into asking a favor of the Inferno.
He did a damn good job of it, the rumors he spread cornering Ivy into having no choice but to accept the challenge of burning down her father’s pavilion.
Around the same time, however, Damon and I got into a fight in defense of Emily. Seeing it was enough to back her off from us. She hated it when we fought, hated the constant threat of violence. She couldn’t stand the bruises or the cuts. And it angered her to see us add more by immediately jumping to fists whenever someone insulted or threatened her at school.
Two days passed where she wouldn’t talk to us after that fight. And I wasn’t happy about it.
So I went behind Gabe’s back.
“Yes, about that. I’m still in shock you actually went through with it.”
She grins.
“I went through with it to trap him back. I think we both know none of you ever do a person a favor and walk away.”
Ivy’s right about that.
“But I was done with the games,” she adds. “The lying. All of it. So I told him the truth. I knew and did it anyway.”
“Why?”
She sighs and gives me a look.
“Because I love him. I think that’s always been obvious.”
Laughter bubbles up my throat. “I can respect that.” Pausing for only a second, I take a breath. “But did you tell him the full truth?”
Grin stretching wider, she shoves a piece of hair out of her face.