Chapter ten

Okay, I expect a lot of things of my day, like being yelled at by my aunt for no exact reason or being yelled at by my aunt to not forget to go to the store and get her beer or something but what I definitely did not expect is to open my front door and see Ivan standing there.

" Wha- What are you doing here? ". I asked trying not to sound rude.

He sighed stuffing his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. " I'm really sorry for coming here unannounced but we need to talk, can we talk? ".

" Okay ". I said slowly. " But not here ". My Aunt isn't home but I still don't want him coming inside.

" Oh! That's ok, we can walk somewhere, if that's okay with you ". He walked here? but why.

" Did you walk here? ". I voiced my question.

" Oh! yeah I kinda did ".

I cocked my head to the side. " But why? ".

" I just wanted to ". He shrugged. " So are we going? ".

I shrugged. " Sure, let me just- grab my jacket ". I stepped back into the house and closed the door, turning around to head upstairs to my room.

Grabbing my jacket and leaving the room, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell this could be about. I decided to settle with the fact that he probably couldn't help me with the whole dropping out of school thing and just came to tell me. Yep, that's definitely it.

I put on my jacket, stepping out of the house and closing the door. Ivan who is leaning on a light pole looking down at his shoes, he looked up at me immediately I had shut the door.

" Are you ready? ".

I locked the door and turned to look at him, stuffing my keys into the pocket of my jacket. My aunt has her own key so I don't have to worry about how she'll get into the house.

" Yeah I'm ready ". Definitely not ready. why did I agree to this again?

He pushed himself off the pole and I walked up to him. We started down the street in silence, complete silence. Me looking ahead of the street and Ivan looking down at his shoes.

" Soo ". I started mimicking his previous actions. " Do you wanna tell me what this is about or you wanna wait till we reach wherever we are going- where are we going by the way ".

" There's a cafe up ahead, I noticed it as I drove you back home that day and yeah I'll kind of prefer we wait till we reach the cafe before we start talking ".

" Okay ". I nodded in reply

We walked in silence until we finally reached the cafe, Happy home. It wasn't that far from my house so it made me wonder how I never noticed it before.

We made our way to a booth at the far corner by the window then we waved a waiter over.

" So I need to tell you something ". Ivan started immediately the waiter had walked away after we had placed an order.

" Yeah I kinda guessed that part ". I said leaning back. " listen I totally understand if you weren't able to convince March to let me continue go- ".

" No it's not that ". He cut me of. " Actually March actually agreed to let you continue going to school there but- ".

But? why is there always a but? It's never good when there's a but.

" You are going to have to win the high school seniors bowl competition ". He said slowly.

My jaw dropped open. " What?! ".

He sighed. " I made a deal with March that if you win it, you could continue, he wanted me to prove that you are worthy to be in that school and that is a good way to prove it "

" What?! ". I exclaimed again. " No way, the high school bowl competition, no, no way, what the Ivan? you've gotta cancel it, I can't do it ".

I paused as the waiter walked to us and dropped our orders for us. Ivan, hot cocoa with whipped cream and scones and I hot cocoa without whipped cream a biscuits.

" That's crazy Ivan ". I continued once the waiter had left. " I can't do that ".

" Don't say that Anne, I know you can, that's why I did it in the first place ".

He sighed. " No Ivan, your wrong, I can't do it, I can't do anything, I can't even come early to school or solve two algebra equations without falling asleep, I can't do it ".

He gave me a small smile. " Well I know you can, I believe you can ". He said softly it made my heart skip a beat. He believes in me? no one has said that to be in a long time.

I sighed and wrapped my hand around the mug of hot cocoa and raising it to my lips taking a sip.

He sighed taking a sip of his hot cocoa then wiping off the whipped cream left on his lips.

" Plus your not alone, I'm with you, I'm going be with you every step of the way ".

NO DON'T DO THIS ANNE, DON'T AGREE TO IT.

" Fine I'll do it ". I said. Dang it.

He smiled widely. " That's great ".

" Where do we even start? ".

He chuckled. " We'll talk about that tomorrow, for now, let's just enjoy our hot cocoa before it gets cold ".

I nodded giving him a small smile.

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" I guess I'll see you tomorrow ". I said to Ivan as we slowly came to a stop in front of my house. We had spent some time in the cafe before we left just talking about random stuff and it felt... fun hanging out with someone again.

" Yeah tomorrow, my house? is that good with you? ".

" Yeah I'm okay with that ".

I looked past him at the black BMW behind him. He had called his driver a while ago to come pick him up at my house.

" Good night Anne ".

" Whatever Ivan ".

He chuckled at my words. I turned and walked up to the house, entering inside.