~Ivy, fifteen-years-old~

I was going to kill my best friend if she didn't hurry up.

It was almost midnight and Kade Hendrix's newest album was set to come out in less than five minutes--no, wait, make that four minutes.

I was dying to see if the rest of the album matched the songs that he'd already dropped as singles leading up to the new piece of work and hoped to all the gods above that it did because his new pop/folk combination was so far out of left field from his usual traditional pop that had gotten him famous in the first place.

Constance burst through the door as if her entire ass were on fire. Good. That should teach her about being late to the Kade Hendrix eargasm fest we were about to feast our senses on.

"I know I'm late but you can't hate me because I brought snacks."

She was right, obviously. Snacks immediately forfeited my right to be angry at her for being late.

As long as it involved mint chocolate...

"And I got the chocolate chip mint ice cream, the whole tub, and three spoons since we always end up dropping one and don't feel like making it to the kitchen for a new one."

Arms filled with a few sacks piled to the brim with chocolate, candy and ice cream (and extra spoons), Con took her rightful seat beside me on my colorful rainbow rug in the center of my bedroom.

My mom had helped me decorate the room at my dad's where I stayed every summer, but her absence was in everything we'd picked out together in this room.

"Are you ready for this?!"

"More than ready. I heard he wrote some songs completely alone along with cowriting the rest."

"Great, so not only does he have more talent in his pinky finger than I do in my entire body, but he's also the most gorgeous human alive too. Sometimes I wish I knew what it was like being God's favorite."

Con sighed dreamily as she drifted her focus to her phone, face scrunching up in confusion as I checked my own phone and saw the time, it was 11:59.

"It's go time!"

She didn't answer my excited screech. She didn't even look the least bit enthused.

"Con! What's wrong?"

"Check your voicemail, Ives. Something's wrong."

"What?"

Blood rushed in my ears as I did what she had told me, but I didn't want to believe what I was hearing as I played my mom's rushed voicemail she'd left me.

'Hey, Ivy I need to talk to you about your father. He's petitioned the courts, again. Listen, don't look at the news, it's not pretty. I really don't want to say this in a voicemail, but...okay. You're going to have to stay with him for a little while, just for me to get things under control. It won't be forever, I promise. Call me back, I love you to Venus and Saturn and all the ways that matter.'

"What does this mean?"

"It means everything is about to change."

Kade Hendrix's first brand new song hit the speakers before I had a chance to turn it off.