Twenty-Eight

"So he's trying to buy me a drink, and I keep telling him to fuck off since I'm with someone. And he asks where my boyfriend is, thinking I'm making him up. Then Franny shoved him away from me and tells him I like pussy more," Bella smirked as she stared at Francine, who smiled innocently beside her. "And he gets such a shock he leaves us alone."

"Only for another guy to walk up to us and ask for a threesome," Francine groaned. "The nerve of you men."

"I didn't do anything." Sylvester chuckled. "Blame Dave."

"Yeah, Dave, you suck," Francine cackled.

Dave walked up to the counter and said, "Fuck you," while laughing. Devon, who was helping bake pretzels, laughed beside him.

I never got around to telling him what happened. I didn't even get around to texting him. I spent the entire weekend in my room, only coming out to grab food before locking myself back in. I kept my phone off all day and watched YouTube. For the first time in months, I had an actual lazy day. And it was glorious.

On Monday, a few people walked up to me and told me they liked Darcy and mine's performance. A few guys even wound up checking me out, which was strange. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Buddy continued to ignore me. So rather than eat alone, I skipped lunch and studied in the library.

Callie wound up sitting across me. I glanced up from my book and asked if I could help her. "Devon texted me and asked to check on you. Something about you not answering your phone."

I did forget to turn it back on.

She reached out across the table and grabbed my hand. "Has he been stalking you or something? He mentioned you were upset. Is he too dense to realize that it's because of him?"

"What?" I chuckled. "No. I got in a fight with my sister. I kept my phone off yesterday to have a lazy day. A lot of shit's been going on, but it's not because of him."

She cooed. "He's really worried about you, isn't he?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised he texted you about it."

"We were talking about you yesterday at the meeting. He was worried about you since you never texted him. We were actually just texting about a poem I'm working on, and I told him I saw you, and he asked me to check and make sure you were okay. If I knew your phone was off, I wouldn't have thought those crude thoughts."

"He's a really nice person, isn't he?" I hummed.

"One of the sweetest," she smiled. "Is everything okay with you are your sister?"

"Not really. I don't mean to be rude, Callie, but we're not exactly close, so I'd feel weird talking about it with you."

She gasped and let go of my hand. "You're so right. My bad. I just wanted to make sure everything's okay."

"Thanks. Hey, why didn't you audition for variety show? You could have read one of your poems?"

"No way. I trust my group, but a bunch of strangers I go to school with? Yeah, right. I don't have the guts. They're too personal to share like that."

"I get that."

"See you later," she said before walking off.

After that, I finally turned my phone back on and saw that Rick texted me yesterday to subtly ask what was going on with Jeanie and me, to which I was sure she wound up filling him in on later. And I had three messages and one missed call from Devon. The call was from last night, and two texts were from last night. The other from this morning asking me to call him when I had the chance.

I didn't call him, but I did text him about my phone being off and that things didn't go well with Jeanie. Instead of asking what was wrong, he told me that his cousins were going to visit him at work and that I should stop by after school. The moment I arrived, everyone was happy to see me. I was hoping to talk with Devon, but he was busy working. There was a large group at the food court when I arrived, but after a few hours, it became nearly empty.

I sat and listened to Bella and Francine talk about what happened when they went out to a club Friday night while doing homework. I would have been done with it sooner if it weren't for the fact that each time I looked up at Devon, I caught myself staring at him for a while. I knew his cousins noticed, but I doubted he did.

"And what are you staring at?" Sylvester teased.

"Nothing," I said before slamming my book shut. "Finally done."

"Cause you kept getting distracted?"

I glanced back at Devon and sighed. "Yeah. I was hoping to talk to him."

"What about?"

"Stuff."

"Oh, come on," Francine groaned, but she still smiled. "You can tell us. You like Devon, don't you?"

I would have avoided talking about it by claiming I was too busy looking for a band to join to think about being with someone, but I was officially part of a band. I couldn't use that. I could have mentioned not having time for a relationship, but they would have seen through me. They would have called me out and demanded an answer, and I didn't feel like hiding it from them.

"Yeah."

"I knew it," she whispered excitedly. "Does he know?"

"No, and I don't plan on him knowing. We're just friends. He's not interested in me."

"Are you sure about that?" Bella deadpanned. "Have you seen the way he looks at you?"

"No, he only looks at her like that when she isn't looking," Francine answered.

"What are you talking about? He's told me on multiple occasions that he's not interested in me. Or anyone for that matter."

"I don't know, Mel," Sylvester said. "Feelings can change."

"Yeah, but my latest rejection was just last week. I'm not holding my breath."

Francine leaned in, ready to comment, but she quickly pulled away and smiled behind me. I turned around, facing Devon, who sat beside me. "What's up?"

"Aren't you supposed to be working?" I asked.

"Yeah, but Dave told me to take a break." He placed his arm on the back of my chair and smiled. "Sorry I took you away from the Clubhouse, but I'm really glad you're here."

I smiled. "It's no problem. I can take a break from music every once in a while." A sentence I never thought I'd say.

"Yeah, I guess that's true," he chuckled. "Little surprising to hear from you."

"Yeah, it was surprising to hear me say it," I giggled.

"Cinnamon pretzel?" Dave questioned. I jumped, turning back to find him standing behind me with a pretzel in a bag. My stomach gurgled loudly, and I sheepishly took it from him. "Thank you."

Devon pressed the home button on my phone and frowned. "I guess it is getting close to dinner time."

"It probably doesn't help that I skipped lunch."

"Why would you do that?" Devon asked.

"Oh, and what was the deal with you texting Callie to check up on me?" I chuckled. "I'm fine and alive. I promise."

"Yeah, but after your big rant on the way home Saturday, I got worried. And she said she saw you, so I figured she'd tell me if you were purposefully trying to ignore me or something."

"Never," I stated. "If I were ignoring you, you'd know."

He snickered. "Gee, that makes me feel so much better."

I smiled cheekily. "It should."

He reached out, moving a strand of my hair away from my mouth before I bit into my pretzel. His eyes were soft as he stared at me, smiling to himself before frowning. "What happened with you and Jeanie?"

I told him all about our fight, and he didn't say a word during it. He let me rant again and nodded and said the occasional 'yeah' or 'hmm.' By the end, we were closer than before, practically leaning against one another. His face was close. I could feel his breath as he talked, which smelled a lot like hot pretzels.

"It's normal for family to fight," he murmured. "Completely normal. Rena and I get into petty fights all the time."

"This one was different. I said a lot of things I shouldn't have."

"You said what needed to be said. She is your sister, and she is putting her brand before her family. Someone needed to call her out on it. At least now you'll know what she's really thinking based on how she reacts to this. If she continues to act the way she had been, then you'll know she really values her brand over her family."

I sighed and stared down at my lap.

He squeezed my shoulder. "But hey," he cooed, "maybe she'll take your words to heart and try to work more on being there for you."

"Devon, I'm in a band now. If she suddenly stopped focusing on her brand to spend more time with me, it'd be fruitless. I'm not going to have a lot of time left. Concerts all weekend. Rehearsals throughout the week. Plus schoolwork. I'm not going to have a social life, or even a family life for a while."

"Doesn't mean she won't be there to support you," he shrugged. "Besides, the way you describe her makes her seem like she's obsessed with her gaming platform, and that's not healthy. She should find a hobby or something. Make some new friends."

"She's more than welcome to join us," Bella commented.

We jerked our heads over to her. Everyone glared at Bella while she stared at us.

"Were you listening in on us?" Devon asked.

"It's hard to look away when you two are doing... well, that," she defended, as she pointed limply at us.

I noticed we were squeezing closer, but I didn't think much of it. Honestly, I forgot where we even were, which prompted me to quickly pull away and jump up from the table. "First off, I don't know how I'd feel about my sister hanging out with us all in a group. I mean, she's seven years older than me."

"That's around our age," Sylvester commented.

"Still," I cringed. I looked down at Devon. He stared right back up at me. "You're right, though. I should talk to her. I'd rather have an actual calm conversation with her."

"Devon, drive her home," Dave called out.

He looked back at him. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, take the rest of the night off."

"Okay." He stood up and patted my back. "I need my bag."

I nodded and faced his group of cousins, who all smirked at me. "You all suck."

"He likes you," Francine sang as Devon walked back out.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Let's go. See you guys later."

"Be safe!" Bella called out. I knew that was a double entendre.

As we walked out to his car, Devon slipped his hand off my shoulder and down my arm to hold my hand. "Thanks again for coming today. It really helped make the time go by."

"You were in the back for most of it," I teased. "I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, but the more I looked at you, the more it felt like time was slipping away."

I blushed. That sounded like something someone would say if they liked the other person. Maybe Francine was right and Devon did like me. But that shouldn't have happened that quickly, because a week ago he apologized for kissing me back and agreed that he wanted nothing to change.

But things were changing. The hand holding. The arm around my shoulders. The hugs. They were all growing more intimate. I wasn't sure if he realized it or not, but things were getting more intimate between us. As much as I may have liked it, we couldn't be together. I didn't want to ruin what we had either, but more than that, I meant what I've said about not having the time to be in a relationship. If I were to date Devon, he deserved a lot more time than what I would give him. The only way I'd have any time to be with him was if he were to come back to school. And at this rate, I was sure he would drop out.

I let go of Devon's hand before rushing up to his car. He quickly followed behind me and drove the short drive home. We didn't talk much on the way, once again using the radio to fill the silence. But unlike last time, I wasn't agonizing over whether or not I was supposed to apologize. Instead, I was busy trying to figure out how I was going to stop liking him. Maybe it was a good thing we only saw each other once a week. It gave me time to separate myself from him as well.

"I guess I'll see you Friday night?"

"For what?"

"The Billy Joel concert. Did you still want to go?"

"Yes," I quickly assured. "It slipped my mind for a second, but no, I definitely want to go. I'm looking forward to it."

"Great," he exhaled. "I'll pick you up from the Clubhouse?"

"Sounds good."

I waved goodbye as I walked up to my front door. I was surprised that Rick wasn't watching me from the window, since his car was parked in the driveway. I assumed he was knee deep in work, so I wasn't expecting to walk in on Rick straddling Jeanie and making out with her on the couch.