Free The Ivy: Scandal by Lauren Kunze, Rina Onur

you’re ready to leave?” she asked.
    “Sure,” said Vanessa. “This party’s a bust anyway. I wouldn’t go on a date with anyone here even if they’d had the fair opportunity to pay me.”
    Callie laughed. “I’ll get our coats.”

    When they were outside, Vanessa rounded on her. “So what’s the deal?”
    “Before Gregory disappeared, he left me…a note,” Callie confessed quietly as their heels clicked along the cobblestones.
    “What?” said Vanessa, stopping outside Dexter Gate. “Where? When?”
    “On a Post-it…right before he disappeared, I think.”
    “A Post-it?” Vanessa repeated skeptically, starting to walk again. “What’d it say?”
    Callie took a deep breath. “‘Callie: My apologies for the delay.’”
    “That’s it?” Vanessa frowned. “I mean…sorry.”
    “It was significant,” Callie persevered. “He stuck it on a book that we both love and then left it for me to find.”
    “Left it where?”
    “In his room.”
    “So you found this note in his room?”
    “Actually Alessandra found it.”
    Vanessa stared at her. “Was it even signed?”
    “Initialed. G. B.”
    “Let me get this straight,” Vanessa started slowly, halting in front of Wigglesworth, entryway C. “Out of everything he could have done to explain his absence or tell you how he feels, he chose a Post-it, and you think ‘sorry for the delay’ actually means ‘wait for me, baby,’ except it’s in, like, code or something because even though it’s addressed to you he somehow…knew that Alessandra might find it before you did?”

    “Exactly,” said Callie, though for some reason it sounded incredibly far-fetched when Vanessa said it out loud. “Or maybe he meant to write more, but he…ran out of time?”
    “Okay,” said Vanessa. “I—er—hate to be the voice of reason here, but when I think back to your track record with notes and to his track record in general…” Vanessa made a face as if she didn’t like what was about to come out of her mouth. “This isn’t the first time he’s vanished in the morning and left you with no explanation,” she pointed out, recalling Gregory’s behavior after Harvard-Yale.
    “Yes,” Callie admitted, “but that was because of Clint—”
    “Clint—Alessandra—there’s always someone else, or something else, keeping you two apart,” Vanessa interrupted. “When are you going to stop making excuses for him and admit that maybe it’s just not meant to be?”
    Callie recoiled, stunned.
    “Sorry!” Vanessa wailed instantly. “I’m sorry, that came out—ugh! What I’m trying to say is it’s not you, it’s me. It’s not me, actually, it’s my mom. Her therapist and her spiritual guide from the Manhattan Kabbalah Centre are both on vacay this week, so she won’t stop calling me and spewing all this psychobabble bullshit about my dad and—”
    “It’s okay,” said Callie, placing a hand on Vanessa’s shoulder. “You don’t have to explain yourself. Let’s just…go inside.” She scanned her key against the lock. “Anyway,” she continued as they mounted the stairs, “you might be right. Maybe I should stop making excuses for him. Maybe we really aren’t…meant to be.”

    “Are you okay?” Vanessa asked, pausing at the top of the stairs.
    Callie swallowed. “I’m fine. But it’s true: if he really wanted to reach me, wouldn’t he have found a way? And definitively dumped Alessandra?”
    “Eh.” Vanessa shrugged. “Look on the bright side: if you’re right and she’s lying, then at the very least he hasn’t contacted either of you.”
    “She is lying.” Callie furrowed her brow. “And you know what? I can prove it!” Grabbing Vanessa’s hand, she dragged her down the hall, stopping in front of suite C 23.
    “Callie, what are we—”
    “Shh,” hissed Callie, holding a finger to her lips. Then, opening the door, she pulled Vanessa inside.
    It was dark, but they could hear noises coming from OK’s