Ivy

The ride home was farely uneventful for Ivy. After Polly had explained what happened with her and Hugo at the Autumn do she said that she would rather not talk about it, Ivy didn't really blame her for it. If anyone understood heartbreak, it was Ivy.

Piper tried to make conversation with the others to turn their attention away from Cassandra but it was no use, everybody preferred to stay silent for this awkward car trip.

When the four arrived back at Ivy's house her dad Gerald retired to his garage, leaving Ivy and her friends to set up camp in the living room. As the mattresses were dragged onto the floor and the blankets bundled up, Ivy looked fondly upon the memories of their sleepovers.

Every weekend at a different house, the four girls used to follow the same routine of sleeping in the living room, staying up all hours drinking coke. Ivy loved that her and her friends still carried out the old tradition, it meant that they were friends then, best friends now and life-long friends in the future.

The four sat at the foots of their make-shift beds, still unsure of what to say.

"what are we going to do about the picture?" Piper spoke, Ivy knew this was coming.

"there is nothing we can do, some freak sent me a naked picture and wants me to 'research' it. It's probably just some sick joke"

Polly wanted to ignore the whole thing, but Ivy knew better. Ivy had been Polly's best friend for six years, she knows better than anyone that Polly could never simply let things go.

"you can't Polly! the person signed it 'an allie', they sound like the wanna help you"

 Now that Ivy had made her point she knew what was coming next.

"it might be the tattoo, I've seen it in a history lesson once. It apparently represents all evil" Piper said, again, trying to steer the conversation away to a safer subject.

"and have it tattooed between her breasts? I don't think so" Polly retorted, making a valid point.

"still, could be a succubus or something" then all eyes were on Piper.

"What's a succubus?" Louise questioned in a whisper.

"It's a seductive demon who feeds on men's testosterone with their monster tongues, like a killer prostitute" suddenly Ivy didn't feel like harmless gossipping anymore.

How did Piper know so much about demons and not tell Ivy or the others? it easily could have popped into conversation, knowing Piper, but it never did. Now everybody wanted to discuss the picture, or in other words, the demon.

"overlooking that there is no such thing as demons, why would somebody send me a picture of a succubus?" Polly asked, for her sanity's sake.

"maybe you know the succubus, maybe an old school rival or something" Louise suggested, adding her contribution to the debate.

Ivy couldn't think of a single person who would want to kill Polly, of course Polly had enemy's but they never went as far as wanting to kill her, Polly wasn't that trusting.

"Polly, maybe you should study it" Ivy suggested "so you can find out who the person is and be done with it"

Ivy saw the look in Polly's eyes, a sign that Polly was going to cave in eventually. It had been a minute or two until Polly spoke, giving a frustrated sigh she responded.

"screw it. Maybe it won't hurt" and with that, the conversation was over.

As Ivy lay awake that night she knew that she could sleep with ease, having nipped Polly's worries in the bud and at the same time, taking care of hers. Giving one last thought to her Aaron and his amber eyes, Ivy's eyes finally closed for the night