ivy ; malachi barton

chapter six ; camden

"self diagnosing til im borderline. i'll do whatever helps to sleep at night." camden; gracie abrams

malachi ✟

I was packing the remainder of my clothes for New Zealand, as we were leaving tomorrow. We had a quick stop over in Vancouver, where I had planned to hang out with Maya Fontaine briefly before we left.

I had an intense headache. I had since I last saw Evelyn. She was driving me crazy; the way she controlled my mind without even looking at me.

I hated how I treated her. I knew it was wrong - all I wanted to do was keep her close to me, love her and protect her from the world. But whenever my feelings got too real, I blocked her out, saying the first hurtful thing that came to my mind. The thing that would turn her away the quickest.

My friendships were suffering because of it. I was grateful for Dylan, even though he had a massive blow at me for the way I treated his sister. It was fair; I deserved it. At least he was still speaking to me. But Brady and I hadn't spoken since that night at the restaurant, when I made fun of Evelyn and they both up and left. I saw the way they looked at each other. I saw the whispers and stolen touches. It was maddening.

What confused me most of all, was that Brady was with Xochitl less than a month ago. Sure, they weren't actually together, but everyone with eyes knew that they had feelings for each other. It was a sudden switch - like Brady just started paying attention to Evelyn and dropped Xoch one random day. They were always friends but... not like that.

"Yo, you almost ready Mal?" MK popped his head into my room, appearing suddenly. His face was adorned with his signature grin, his locks embedded with colours of dark red.

"Yeah, just give me a minute." I replied, pushing my suitcase closed. I was surprised when it zipped shut with ease; I'd packed twice the amount of stuff I needed to.

"We're supposed to be at Julian's in twenty. Hurry up, brother." MK urged me along, picking up one of my back packs and walking back out my room and down the stairs. I rolled my eyes at him, hauling my massive suitcase and backpack along behind him. We were all staying at Julian's tonight since his house was close to the airport, and we had an early flight. I didn't ask, but I assumed that Evelyn would be there as well. I just prayed she didn't bring along her little side boy.

"Thank god. I was scared we were going to pick up Evy's reputation and start being late to everything." MK chuckled, leading us out the front door. "Random, but she's the coolest. He and I just vibe so well." I scowled, knowing that he was teasing me by mentioning the girls name. As my best friend, he knew everything I felt without even asking. MK knew about my obsession with the girl just by watching the way we interacted. He also knew how much she got under my skin.

"Yeah, well Evy wants fuck all to do with me, so have fun vibing with her on your own." I laughed, shoving our luggage in the trunk of my car.

"And who's fault is that? She even offered to forget all the shit you did to her and you continued to make fun of her." My best friend exclaimed, shaking his head. "For fucks sake, for a guy who wants Evy as bad as you do, you treat her like absolute shit."

I decided to ignore MK's last remark. I could get lost in the rabbit hole of my feelings and sentiments towards the girl, but god knows where that would lead me. In a fit of rage, probably.

Finally, we both got in the car and were on our way. Julian lived about forty-five minutes from me, so we were definitely going to be late. It didn't matter too much, as we were staying in that night to just catch up and 'bond'. Julian's words, not mine.