She Came To Stay. GxG (COMPLETE)

21. He left.

Ivy.

With another deep breath, I lift my hand to the white door. Gently, I knock, and my heart sinks to my stomach.

I wait a few more minutes, but there's no response, I knock for the second time and take a step back. I inspect the house; the windows are open but no one seems to be home, with another sigh, I walk down the wooden porch to make my way back to my house. Just then, the door behind me creaks and I think someone opened it.

I turn with a smile on my face, expecting to see Levi. I believe he is the only one who can get me out of my grim mood and cheer me up a little. But is he back from school, did he even go? Because he did not show up at my house to pick me up.

Perhaps I was still asleep when he came, and my mother told him that I would miss school today. I informed her, before she left for work, that I felt "under the weather" and I wouldn't be able to concentrate even if I went to school. And so, she permitted me to stay home until I felt alright. I wondered how my body hurt so much, I don't remember doing any exercise yesterday. But I woke up with body aches as though I played soccer the entire night.

My limbs, my back, and all of it hurt. It is a miracle I can walk.

My smile fades when Sandy appears in the doorway, wearing a green dress and pink flip-flops. She has a towel in her hands, and she is wiping her hair.

"Ivy? Are you okay?" She inquires, squinting her already small eyes. Are those not shutting already?

"Yes." I smile and fidget with the sleeves of my shirt. "Is Levi back from school?"

She hesitates for a moment, and I see how her face contorts with a question mark. Has something happened to her son?

"Is he okay?" I question when she does not say anything.

"Did he not tell you?" She lifts her sad eyes to face me.

"Tell me what?"

"He, um, he left for the city. He will be there for a while," she explains with just as much tension as she expresses on her face.

I crease my eyebrows, how could Levi just leave? Just like that? Without even saying bye? I wonder if it was something I did, did I do anything to provoke him?

"I am sorry," Sandy brings me back from my reverie, and I look up at her. I force a smile before making my way back to my house. My mother is still at the hospital, so I fix myself something to eat from the leftovers.

I chomp a chicken wing with my phone placed to my ear. Impatiently, I pace the floor. Why won't he pick? But it did not even go through in the first place, how do I expect him to pick up? Did he switch off his phone deliberately? To avoid me?

I gulp and put the phone away, it's no use. Maybe when we see each other again, I can ask him why he left so suddenly. Whatever I did to push him away.

Lazily, I make it to my room, searching the place before grabbing a comb. Since I did not make it to school, the least I can do is keep myself busy. I cannot study, I am too distracted for that, and so I start to braid my hair—something, my dear grandmother taught me.

Her old face flashes in my head and an idea crosses my mind, could use the time to look through my grandmother's hospital records. I will be able to find out whatever my mother was hiding from me. Or was she just keeping it away for my good? She liked to put this, that way.

I get up and somehow before I reach my closet—where I hid the box—I manage to trip and swoop. An angle so awful that I feel my ankle sprain. I scream out, agonizingly, but there's no one to help me. So, I pick myself up and take a seat again in front of the mirror.

"You're clumsy," I say to myself and stare deeper into my brown eyes, they dance with a sparkle that is contrary to what I feel right now.

Wait, why am I smiling?

I touch my face, I am not smiling, but why is the mirror telling me that I am smiling?

"Hi."

My heart jolts, but I cannot run because my ankle stings.

"It's me, I hope by now we are friends, and we won't scare each other," Vera speaks. I shake my head, letting out a sigh and looking away.

Why am I not surprised?

She has some guts to appear out of nowhere! I remember her, how could I forget one of the most frightening things to ever happened to me?

"I am pleased to see you, although I am not sure, you can say the same about me. What happened to your ankle, and why do you look so dismal? What is going on? Update me," she demands and for the first time today, I want to laugh my lungs out. What does she mean, I update her? Are we friends now? Am I insane to talk to my mirror image?

"Just go away, wherever you came from. I am not in the mood," I dismiss her and plop my eyes down to the comb in my hands.

"Okay, we are doing moods, I see," she pauses for a moment. I almost think she has disappeared, but when I look back in the mirror, she has her hands folded, and she pretends to be thinking about something. "Look, Ivy, we are one person. It's hard to explain this right now, but with time, believe me, you will understand.  For what it's worth, Sierra asked me to do this."

"Do what?" I perk up, curious.

"To be part of you, I was part of her before she got murdered."

"My grandmother died a peaceful death, she was not murdered," I inform her.

She chuckles, "Is that what you were told?" I can't get used to how fast she talks, even when she has my voice.

"It's what happened."

"Well, those are lies and that is why your grandmother sent me to you. To tell you the whole truth about all this." she whirls a forefinger.

I marry my eyebrows. What does she mean by the truth? Did my mother lie to me? Why?

"My mother can't lie to me," I utter, defending the one person I love more than anything.

"No, she cannot, and neither can I," she says, "Now it's your call to choose which stories to believe or not. So buckle up, this will be fun."