FIXING WOUNDS

FINAL DECISION

After the panic episode with Zero, Ivy made a decision.

She was done letting fear run her life.

Freda reached out the day after the field trip. Just a simple _“I hope you’re okay.”_

Ivy stared at the message for a long time. Then she replied: _“Thanks. I’m okay.”_

The next day, Freda asked if they could talk. Really talk. Not as enemies. Not as strangers. Just as two people who’d both made mistakes.

“I can’t wait,” Ivy replied.

And for the first time in years, she meant it.

Ivy realized something sitting there in her dorm room: her life was hers. One life. Short. Not something she was going to let drift away because of other people’s opinions or because of the past.

So she stopped worrying about what people thought of her.

She stopped carrying the weight of what Zara did, what Freda did, what Dylan did.

She started focusing on herself. On what she liked. On what she didn’t like. On what made her feel alive.

And slowly, things shifted.

Freda and Ivy became friends again. Not like before — not overnight, not forced. But real.

Now it was Ivy, Freda, Zara, Sarah, and Zero. Five people who’d all had their own baggage, but somehow ended up in the same circle.

---

When holiday break came, Zara and Ivy went back home.

Ivy walked into her house expecting tension. Expecting cold silence. Expecting her mom to brush past her like she always had.

Instead, her mom was in the kitchen, making Ivy’s favorite soup.

“I missed you,” her mom said quietly when she saw her.

Ivy didn’t know what to say. So she just hugged her.

And it felt… normal. Like nothing had ever happened. Like they were just a mother and daughter again. Nothing more, nothing less.

But to Ivy, that was enough. Her mom wasn’t her best friend. She didn’t need to be. She was just her mom. And that was a role Ivy could accept now.

---

Ivy started doing things she’d never done before.

She joined the university’s voluntary counseling program. She spent hours sitting with students who felt invisible, who felt stuck, who felt like no one understood them.

She switched her major officially to *counseling with a focus on trauma psychology*.

It gave her confidence. It gave her direction. For the first time, Ivy wasn’t just surviving — she was building something.

She wanted to help people like her. People who’d been hurt and thought they’d never heal.

---

One evening, a few weeks into the new semester, Ivy went to Zero’s dorm.

He was sprawled on his bed, controller in hand, completely absorbed in a game.

Ivy stood in the doorway and watched him for a minute.

“The new semester’s starting,” she said. “And I want to relearn everything I was taught last session. You don’t have any reason to keep playing that game.”

Zero paused the game and looked up. “You’re serious?”

“Dead serious,” Ivy said. “If I don’t get anything right, I’ll tell you.”

Zero grinned and put the controller down. “Alright. I agree.”

They sat at his desk and started going through her notes.

But after a while, Ivy noticed it.

Zero kept glancing at her. Not at the textbook. At her.

Finally, their eyes met.

Zero couldn’t pull his eyes away.

“What’s wrong?” Ivy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Zero said, but his voice was softer now. He picked the controller back up and pretended to focus on the screen.

A few seconds later, Ivy got up and sat close to him. Right between his legs on the edge of the bed.

“I don’t understand this particular question,” she said, holding up her notebook. “Can you explain it to me?”

Zero swallowed hard. He tried to focus on the question. Really, he did.

But then he leaned in and pressed a small kiss to her neck.

Ivy shivered. “Zero—”

He kissed her again, just above her collarbone. “Yeah?”

Ivy turned around and sat opposite him, straddling his lap. She leaned in close, a small teasing smile on her lips.

“Won’t you let me focus?” she asked.

Zero chuckled. “What did I do?”

Ivy stared at him. “You know exactly what you did.”

Zero shook his head, still denying it. “I didn’t do anything.”

Then he kissed her again, slower this time. “Show me what I did.”

Ivy rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help the smile. She leaned in and kissed his neck in return.

The textbook was completely forgotten