How You Really Feel




 Angel Go, Danny Tarro and Ivy Pitts are 20

September 2026 - SSU Semester 1.1

SSU Previous update here
Danny's Previous update here



It was annoying. People always thought they knew how you feel but really, they had no idea.


  The whole summer had been one long parade of sympathetic looks and comforting comments, and now Ivy was back at college, it had started all over again.  She had tried to tell them that she was ok, but it was fairly obvious that no one believed her.


And really, why would they? Ivy had plenty of reasons to not be ok.  At the end of last semester, her longtime boyfriend Danny had left her, after admitting he'd been seeing someone else.


Someone he had married during the summer, barely weeks after they'd split up.


Of course the split had hit Ivy hard, especially at first. For a while, she hadn't known what to do with herself. She spent part of the summer home, helping her parents move into their new apartment.


Amaya had come to visit, and they'd spent some time exploring the city nightclubs.


Ivy might have felt down at first...


... but it was hard to stay that way for too long.


Danny's absence was far from the only change in their household this semester.  Anna had graduated and moved out, and was now sharing an apartment in the city with Danny's aunt, of all people.


Richard had also moved into the city, sharing an apartment with his boyfriend Steven.


It wasn't the nicest part of town, but it was ok...


...and Richard said that he barely noticed the trains going past anymore.

Back at SSU, Ivy's brother Joshua had moved into the house...


...along with his girlfriend Lora and his best friend, Anna's brother Nicky.


Joshua was majoring in arts and, although he hadn't said much, Ivy was sure their father would have preferred that he'd followed the family tradition and gone into medicine like their elder brother.

All the changes had meant a major bedroom reshuffle, and Ivy now shared with Angel. She had to admit, she hadn't really gone out of her way to get to know her at first. Ivy had been asked to look out for Angel when she moved there, as she had apparently been in some kind of trouble at her previous college. It had made her seem more like a responsibility than a potential friend, and with school and her already-strained relationship with Danny, Ivy really didn't have room for another responsibility.


It was only when they shared a room that Ivy had really spent any time talking to her, and they were fast becoming good friends.
----

Although they hadn't really talked about it, Angel would have agreed with Ivy's annoyance at other people thinking they knew how she felt.

In Angel's case, it was one particular person, her friend Marie.  Marie was certain that Angel needed to be in a relationship, and that Ivy in fact wanted to be in a relationship, regardless of how many times Angel said that she didn't.  It had gotten even worse since Marie had started seeing Nicholas.


While Angel was glad that her friend was happy, it wasn't a kind of happiness that she was looking for herself. By just try telling that to Marie...


"You just need to be more proactive," Marie said. "You waited too long, and now you've let Michael get away..."


"He never got away," said Angel. "Getting away would imply I had him in the first place. I never had him and I never wanted to."

"Ok, so not Michael," Marie said. "Then who?  There must be someone in this whole place that interests you!"


But there really wasn't, and it was just as well because almost everyone Angel knew was part of a couple already.

Lewis was with Amaya, although Angel had barely seen them lately. They'd both dropped their grades last semester, and were already working hard to bring them back up.


Matthew's girlfriend Sam had started college this semester, and moved in with him. Over the summer, their baby daughter Sophie had been born.


Matthew talked constantly about the little girl, and Angel doubted there was anyone in their dorm who hadn't seen pictures of her yet. Sam, on the other hand, barely mentioned the child. Angel wondered if it might be because she missed her - it couldn't be easy leaving behind a baby only a few weeks old, even if the pair did travel back to Richmond to see her every weekend. Meadow and Jamie had found a way to stay with their baby and finish college, and it was a shame Matthew and Sam couldn't figure something similar out.

Ok, so maybe there were occasional times when Angel would have liked to have someone like Matthew or Lewis or Nicholas in her life.


But based on her past experiences, the chances of finding someone like them were fairly low, and there was no reason that she couldn't be happy on here own. Plenty of other people were, if only she could make Marie see that.

----

It was annoying. People always thought they knew how you felt but really, they had no idea. They tried to be sympathetic, but they just didn't understand. How could they, really. Ivy and Danny had been together a long time, so of course people would expect Ivy to be hurt when he left. Of course they would expect her to feel betrayed, or bitter, or angry.


The truth was, she simply didn't.

She had been, probably for  most of the summer.  It was only when she came back here that she finally realized. Ever since they'd started college, Danny had been pulled between being here, and supporting himself and his family at home. And Ivy had been pulled too... wanting to enjoy the social life that school had to offer, but never fully able to do that. Missing Danny when he was back at Richmond or at work. Arguing with him about it when they were together. Slowly finding less and less common ground to share

And now it was over, and she felt more free and more at peace than she had in a long time.

No one really believed that, even when she tried to explain it. She didn't care, though. There was only one other person who really needed to know.


"Ivy?"

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not here to make trouble. I just want to talk.."
He just stared at her.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
"Uh... sure," he said, stepping aside to allow her in. "Sorry about the mess... kids... um... "


"It's ok," Ivy reassured him. "It looks like you've been having fun."
He smiled. "Yeah, we have."

"You're probably wondering why I'm here..."
"You could say that..."
"I just...I... we need to clear the air.  I mean, we've got a lot of the same friends, your aunt is rooming with one of them, even... we're going to see each other around, right?"

"I guess... "
"And you should know... you deserve to know... " She took a deep breath. "You should know how grateful I am to you," she said.
"What?"

"You really were right, Danny. We're not right for each other. We want different things, we value different things. I kept trying to hide from that, but you saw it, and you were strong enough to make me see it, too."
"But I... Candice... when we were still... "


"You couldn't help it, you needed someone who would make you happy. I couldn't do that for you, and you couldn't do it for me. But I kept trying to make you into the person I wanted, and I kept pretending it was working. We both deserve better than that"

"I'm so sorry..."
"Don't be.  If I'd been more honest with myself from the start, you would never have been in the position of needing to cheat."
"But I did cheat. And I never told you for weeks. And I - "
"So we both made mistakes"
"If I could make it up to you - "
"No. We're even now, ok."


He smiled. "Ok, if you say so..."

"There's just one thing," she said. "You shouldn't have had to leave college. I don't care what you say about getting bad grades in the end, you're smart. And you could have made it."
"I had to leave," he said, gesturing to the toddlers. "We've got four kids to support now. It just wasn't meant to work out."


"Not necessarily," she said. "One day, they'll be older, and things won't be so hard. You can always go back."
"But - "
"You said you wanted to make it up to me, right? So don't throw the idea away, ok? That's all I want you to do, just keep that in mind. And know that if there's any way I can help you, I will. I have some making up to do, too."




"I've got to go," she said. "My train's leaving soon, I'm going into the city for the weekend."
"Well... say hi Anna for me if you see her... and Richard, too."
"I will. 'bye Danny."





"Goodbye."

---

Ivy really blew me away with her reaction to the breakup... from a gameplay point of view as well as a character one. I thought I knew how it worked in the game when sims catch their partner cheating - the slapping, becoming furious, garbage can kicking, etc, etc... well, apart from the initial slapping, Ivy didn't do any of that. 

Their relationship only dipped into the very low negatives and came back up into positives before Danny even left college, because they talked while we were waiting for the taxi to come. From there on, Ivy rolled fears of having bad interactions with Danny, wants to phone him or do stuff with him, fears that he would die... no romantic wants, but she definitely still cared for him in some way. Making her one of the nicest sims in my hood, and this is the story I got from it.

Angel's admirer Michael wasn't patient enough to wait for someone who doesn't live in his dorm, so he struck up a relationship with a dorm townie. She honestly doesn't care - no romantic wants at all. This may change next semester when I'm finally able to change her aspiration from popularity to family, which suits her so much more. Marie's boyfriend is also a dorm townie, but one that comes with a backstory - you'll find a bit more out about him in the near future.

Also in the near future - my YAs just love drama - someone in this update is pregnant.


Comments

  1. It is really interesting when Sims don't just act the way you'd expect; Ivy and Danny's relationship kind of permeated this whole update, even though it is technically "over." Looking at the last picture, after their conversation really felt that she could feel free to finally start to move on, now.

    How fun, everyone moving on and getting their new places...I especially like Richard and Steven's place.

    I hope Angel (she is SO cute) will find someone eventually...

    And which one is pregnant??! Another baby for this age group, unbelievable!! Your YAs DO Drama well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ivy and Danny were one of my favourite couples so I wanted to give them a kind of closure, and Ivy's positive way of dealing with it gave me the opportunity.

      Not saying who's pregnant yet... I do seem to have a run of YAs with babies at the moment - Meadow, and Sam (she was a teen when she got pregnant, but she was so close to going to college, I'm counting it as YA), and now this one. I think that this baby is going to stir things up a bit when it comes.

      Delete
  2. I agree about the surprises in this game. It really is interesting to see something go completely in a different way when you expect your sims to behave in a certain way, and brings more life the characters.

    Ivy handled her talk with Danny really well. It could have gone badly, but it was good to see that they both realized that they weren't right for each other and that Ivy cared enough to encourage Danny to not give up on school completely.

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  3. Wow, that is very big of Ivy, I have to say! I can't say that I, or indeed most women, would be quite as understanding about it. But you know, seeing she is taking it quite well, it seems like she's well on the way to finding her own happiness, whatever that may be. She's obviously not wasting any more time fuming at Danny.

    And someone's pregnant? Hmmm...I really want to put a guess in, just for the hell of it. I don't know if you've peppered any clues into this update but right now, I'm getting a feeling it might be Sam! Man, can you imagine?

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  4. So excited to see a post from you when I returned from vacation, and it did not disappoint! Marie and Angel are both super pretty, they have a great, youthful appearance, and sparkly with the promise of a promising future. And Ivy... wow, she is awesome! I'm glad that she handled it all well, and got knowledge about herself in the process instead of being bitter and the victim. I applaud her for being so mature, and I'm also glad that she did have a rather sulky summer to start, because it's important to have those feelings too. She's pretty awesome! It was nice seeing all your university students, especially Matthew and Sam. And wow I hope it's not Sam that is pregnant, can you just imagine?!

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  5. I like that this ended well for both of them. Danny's happy, Ivy's happy, even Angel's happy at the moment. It's a nice lighter update after the last one.

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