"I'm so happy for you, Ivy," Rob said, sipping on his beer. He and Alice had come to my apartment to celebrate the good news with pizza and alcohol.

"Thanks," I grinned. "I'm really happy too."

"What did your mum want?" Alice asked.

"She came to tell me that my dad died," I said.

Rob and Alice both looked at me, shocked.

"I'm so sorry, Ivy. Are you okay?" Alice asked.

"I'm fine," I replied.

Rob continued to drink his beer, not phased by my lack of expression, but Alice looked confused.

"My dad is the reason Liam was put into care... I'll let Rob fill you in later," I told her, not wanting to get into the whole story.

She gave a small nod. I guessed that she didn't want to push me into talking about it when I was in such a good mood about Liam coming home.

There was an awkward silence for a while, so I decided to change the subject.

"Have you heard from Larissa?"

"No, I text her this morning, but she hasn't text me back," she said.

"I hope she's okay," I said. "I'm gonna text her."

"Is that a good idea?" Rob frowned.

"I just want to make sure she's alright. What if she needs somebody to talk to?"

"Then she'll call you, or Alice... you need to give her some time. You don't even know if they have broken up, maybe she's forgiven him," he said.

I sighed. As much as I hoped he was wrong, it was definitely possible. A lot of people stay with cheating partners. Then, it hit me that Larissa had also technically cheated on Brandon with me. My eyes widened. Maybe she was more likely to stay with him because she felt guilty about her relationship with me.

"Ivy, are you okay?" Alice asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine."

"Dude, you need to forget about Larissa. At least until all of this blows over," Rob said.

I knew he was right, but it seemed impossible to forget about her. And I wasn't sure that it would ever blow over.

"I know," I whispered.

"What are your plans with Liam this weekend, then?" Alice asked.

"I don't know, I'd like to take him out for the day on saturday, but I don't know where to go," I replied.

"What about the zoo? Or the beach?"

"He's sixteen, I don't know if he would be into that kind of thing," I said. "I've been away from him for so long that i don't even know him anymore."

"So use your weekend to get to know him. You don't need to take him anywhere or try to impress him, Ivy. He's your brother, and he's missed you. Just spend time with him," Rob smiled.

"Yeah, you're right. I've got plenty of time to take him places."

We chatted a little longer about Liam, then Rob and Alice went home.

It was too early to go to bed, so I put a movie on and lay on the sofa. I didn't pay any attention to the movie, as I was playing on my phone. I scrolled through facebook and found Larissa. I wasn't proud of it, but I stalked her profile for a while. I was disappointed to see that her relationship status remained unchanged, but hoped that she just hadn't gotten around to changing it yet.

I decided to text her, ignoring Rob's advice.

I sent the message, then stared at my phone, waiting for a reply. I wasn't surprised that I didn't get an immediate response.

After thirty minutes of staring at my phone screen, I fell asleep.

~~~~

I was woken up the next morning by a loud banging on the door. I sat up straight, slightly disoriented and confused by the fact that I was on the sofa.

I rubbed my eyes, and tried to wake myself up properly. Before I had managed to gather my thoughts, there was another loud knock at the door.

"Okay!" I yelled, and walked to open the door.

Surprisingly, my mother stood before me again.

I had no desire to talk to her, so I pushed the door, hoping she would get the picture. Her foot stopped the door from shutting, and she soon barged her way into my apartment.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked.

"That's no way to speak to your mother."

"What do you want?" I growled.

"I told you there was more to explain, I didn't want to get in the way of your inspection with the care home," she said. "I'm assuming everything went well with that?"

I didn't respond to her question, I just waited for her to say what she came here to say, so that she would leave.

"Your father died from an aortic

aneurysm. He had something called

Marfan Syndrome," she said, and I frowned. "It's a genetic disorder, which caused his aorta to rupture. You and Liam will need to be tested. His doctor requested that I make you both an appointment, but as neither of you are in my care, I thought it was best to tell you."

"Okay, I'll make appointments for us both. Now you can leave."

"That's not the only reason I came here, Ivy," she said. "I need money."

"So get a job," I told her.

She looked angry at my comment, which made me happy.

"I have a job. Unfortunately, my wage is not enough to pay for the house, and your father left no money for me."

"Do you want sympathy?" I laughed. "Seriously, what do you expect me to do?"

"You need to start sending me some money, or I'm gonna fuck up your chances of Liam ever living here."

"Okay, first of all, you can't fuck it up because you have no say in the matter," I started, raising my voice. "Secondly, I don't have any money to give you because I also have bills to pay. And finally, what the hell is wrong with you? Have you not done enough to mess us up? Why can't you just get out of our lives for good?"

She stared at me for a second, contemplating what to say.

"I'll get out of your life, if you give me five grand. I'll move away and you'll never have to see me again."

I laughed at her words, I couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth.

"Get out of my house," I said angrily.

She hesitated for a second, then started to move toward the door.

"I'll give you a week, Ivy," she threatened. "One week to get me the money, or you'll regret it. I promise."

She walked out of my apartment and slammed the door behind her. I went to the sofa, and slammed my fist into a pillow several times.

I decided that a pillow wasn't good enough, and quickly got changed into my gym clothes.

I lit a cigarette as I got into my car, and called Rob before I started to drive.

"Hey, what's up?" He answered.

"Get ready and meet me at the gym in ten minutes," I ordered.

"I didn't know you were climbing today."

"I'm not," I replied.

"Oh shit. Okay, I won't be long."

I hung up the phone, and continued smoking as I drove away.

I loved how I only needed to say a few words to Rob for him to understand what was going on. We usually only went the gym for climbing. However, if either of us was really pissed off, the other always had to be the punch bag in the training ring. More often than not, Rob was the punch bag.

I arrived at the gym a few minutes later, and lit another cigarette, while I waited in the car park for Rob. He looked a little scared when he finally arrived.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"After," I said.

He nodded, then we both headed into the gym. Instead of taking the usual door on the left, where we would find the climbing wall, we took the door on the right into the gym. There were a few people using the treadmills and resistance machines, but it was too early for the gym to be busy.

I pulled on some of the gym's boxing gloves as I climbed into the ring, and Rob slid the sparring pads onto his hands. I swung my fists at the pads angrily for several minutes, until the sweat was dripping down my face.

Rob eventually started play-fighting against me, pushing my arms with the pads, and laughing when he was faster than me. Every time we were in the ring, I started angry and ended up laughing and joking, and usually forgot why I was angry in the first place.

"You ready to talk now?" He said finally, panting from the exercise that always shocked his body.

I nodded, and we walked both got on a treadmill, and jogged slowly while I explained my morning to him.