“Eleanor!” Jackson runs over to me with a huge grin. “Thanks for coming over! I’m already in a bit of a situation here.”
I giggle at what he just said. “Tell me, what is it?”
“What is sex?”
What?
I look at his innocent face, too stupefied to answer. But then Devon appears with a sly smile hanging on the edge of his lips. And I know at once where the question came from. Ugh.
“It’s—It’s a typo, as in, typing mistake. Nothing else,” I tell the little boy. “Should have been six.”
“And what is semen?” Jackson gives me a puzzled look.
I try not to gape at him wide-eyed. I resist the urge to shoot a nasty look at Devon. Maybe it was a bad idea for him to move in. Especially when he is so sexually frustrated.
“Again a typo. Should have been seven,” I tell him.
“And boobs actually mean books, right?” the kid asks.
“Y-Yeah, yeah, totally.”
“And what about porn?” his baby face scrunches up in confusion.
Can I just kill Devon?
I open my mouth to respond—
“Popcorn,” says Devon crisply.
I shoot him a warning look. To Jackson, I ask, “How did you get so many, uh, typos?”
“Devon was doing some crossword. He told me you’d explain those words better,” Jackson said to which his older boy smirks, “but Devon,” he looks up at him, “there are so many problems with that crossword. You should send an e-mail to the newspaper.”
“You’re right, champ. I’ll do that.”
I roll my eyes. Right then, I see Dave and Cheryl Parker at the head of the white spiral staircase, their arms linked.
Cheryl gives me a chilly look. It’s obvious she doesn’t like me being here. But Dave seems cordial.
“Nice to see you, Eleanor,” he greets
Before I can respond, Devon speaks, “Hey, buddy, why don’t you go get your drawings out? I’m sure Eleanor would love to see them.”
“Okay.” Jackson sprints away cheerfully.
“Welcome to the house of despicable humans, Eleanor.” Devon turns to me. “I’m talking about my father and the woman standing next to him.”
His tone is laced with stark ridicule and contempt. And that gets me extremely uneasy in my shoes.
I shoot a nervous glance at the first floor landing. Dave looks grim. Cheryl lets go of his arm and turns to leave―
“Oh, wait, Cheryl,” Devon says flippantly. “You ought to stay. I swear I’ll honor you through my words.”
This looks bad. I honestly don’t know what’s going on. I don’t wanna know what’s going on, thank you very much. What are the odds that I run away, and it doesn’t make the whole thing worse?
“Eleanor, you might not know this but my father is a coward and a cheat.” Devon’s icy words stab the air making it hard to breathe. “Add loads of deceit and adultery. Add lewd. Also add making a second wife out of a hideous bitch. And what do you get, Eleanor? You get Cheryl right here.”
A chill runs down my spine as I witness the darkness in Devon. There is a lump in Mr. Parker’s throat. Cheryl looks ashen faced. Perhaps I now understand his true motive why he agrees to move back in. He wants to humiliate them. And he put me in this difficult situation because he wants to punish me too for pushing him away.
Without another word, Devon walks out through the front door as if nothing happened.
I wouldn’t have come over if I’d seen this coming.
Chapter Nine
I have to tell Devon that I’m done with our whole pretending thing or ‘The Middle Thing’ or whatever the hell he calls it, and that he can go back to being the player that he is and I can go back to not having anything to do with him. I have to talk to Luke too. We haven’t spoken ever since I held Devon’s hand and stepped onto the school campus the first time. So, I don’t know what I’ll say to him. And I certainly don’t know how he will react after all this time.
I sigh.
Things are so screwed up. I screwed it up. But I’m gonna make things right.
When I arrive at the Parkers’ the following day, I’m led inside by the butler who works for the family. I ask him if Devon is home. He tells me that Devon is in the backyard. As I step onto the patio that overlooks the beautiful back garden, I see that Devon’s not alone there. Jackson’s with him too. And by the looks of it, I can say that all is not well.
Now I know that it’s morally incorrect to eavesdrop on a conversation but I still find myself inching forward until I’m close enough to hear them.
“…and couldn’t be a good brother to you,” Devon’s voice cracks with guilt. “I’m a bad person. You don’t deserve any of it, buddy. I’m sorry…”
Guess Devon did something bad to the little boy again.
“I know you love me and you can never think of hurting me,” Jackson says. “But sometimes why do you hate me so much? Did I do something bad?”
“No, champ. You didn’t do anything bad,” Devon says, meaning it. “I would never give you up for anything in the world. It’s just that…I-I don’t know how to say this to you…but trust me, you’re a good kid and I want to be a loving and caring brother to you always b-but…I-I’m just not able to do that…”
I withhold a breath as Devon’s eyes turn moist and a lone tear rolls down his cheek. He rubs his eyes dry at once with the sleeves of his shirt jacket. I feel my heart sink to a bottomless pit, seeing him in pain. He looks so…damaged. I know how it is like. More than anything else I’ve ever known.
I watch Jackson hug his brother. Maybe I should just leave for now and come back later. Like a cue to my thoughts, my phone vibrates. I glance at the name flashing on the screen. It’s a text from Stef.
***
“Got your SOS. What’s going on?” I take a seat facing Stef and Josh at The Mug, the latter has his laptop opened in from of him. Both of them look grim.
“Have a double chocolate, E.” Josh slides the beverage across the table at me as though preparing me for a world war.
“What’s the deal with both of you?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at them.
“There’s something that you need to know,” Stef speaks up.
“What?”
“It’s about Devon.”
“Wait. You sent me an SOS to talk about Devon?!” I stare at her in disbelief. “And you let her do that?” I look at Josh.
“Devon might not be the kind of guy we think he is,” Stef says, sounding mysterious.
“Care to cut to the chase and get to the point?” I raise a brow.
“Josh has been involved in some shady work lately.”
“No, I’m not!” he retorts. To me he says, “Before you judge me, I’d like to say I’m the same innocent guy you’ve always known me as.”
“What about Devon?” I ask impatiently.
Leave it to my friends and they will make everything sound like a Sherlock Holmes story.
“Alright, here you go.” Josh sighs. “Remember when I told you about my great quarterback dream and how Devon was a tough thorn in my glorious path? Well, I did some digging into his life in the Big Apple before he moved in here in hopes to find a weakness, any girl or something that I could use against him to make him lose focus.”
“And?”
“I didn’t get anything because nobody from his previous school is ready to talk about him considering the fact that he was feared but there is this one girl who sent me an e-mail. She said that Devon never had any girlfriend nor did he like any girl. As a matter of fact, he never ever fucked around. Girls were crazy about him but he didn’t give a damn.”
“Also he wasn’t into guys. So we can rule out the possibility of him being gay,” Stef puts in.
“What’s the point in all this?” I ask, seeing nothing wrong with the first half of the information Josh has dished.
“Can’t you see?!” Stef gave me a look of bewilder. “A guy who has never been involved with any girl
comes to Crawford Lane and starts having numerous booty calls?!”
I roll my eyes. “For one, this girl might be lying and even if she isn’t, what’s the big deal? People change. For two, I honestly couldn’t care less about who he is and who he is not. I’m gonna end our whole pretending thing anyway when I see him at school tomorrow.”
“Don’t you have one tiny molecule of curiosity within you?” Stef doesn’t give up. “I’m definitely interested to know why Devon wants everyone to think that he hooks up a lot when for all we know, he could still be a virgin.”
“Still be a virgin? Like seriously?” I snort.
“Of course.”
“Puh-lease. I’ve seen him getting into the janitor’s closet with different girls. I’ve even seen Kelly leaving his trailer one night.”
“You’ve sure seen them. But you can never tell what really happened behind closed doors,” she says grimly.
“Who even cares what happened between him and the girls?! I, for one, don’t. I mean why are we even having this conversation?” I feel incredulous about the whole thing.
But Stef chooses to ignore what I said. “There is only one way to find out the truth. We have to talk to Kelly.”
“Hell no!”
“She is hosting a card party at her place today and we’re gonna crash it,” chirps Stef with pride.
“Well, count me out,” I tell her.
“Too late. Already counted you in!”
Groan!
“Err, just to be clear, I’m still right here,” Josh mutters. “And I don’t know how to break this to you girls but you just had a huge, like a huge debate on Devon’s virginity and I’m not sure how I feel having heard it.”
***
I’ve never been to Kelly’s before. She lives right at the heart of Crawford Lane. We’ve never exactly been on speaking terms. More like she chooses to look right through me if ever we happened to cross paths. I do the same. Let’s just say the Queen Bee aka Bitch hates the fact that Luke chose me over her.
And today I’m at her doorstep to ask her if Devon really had sex with her. Just Perfect.
I’m so not up for it. But Stef insists that we go on a mission to find out the truth. I roll my eyes at her over the top act.
Kelly answers the door and is startled to find us on her doorstep. She looks classy in the amazing peacock print white satin kimono dress that she is clad in.
Yeah, right. I’m complimenting her. But I keep those words to myself
“You’re not invited to my party, pea brains. So fuck off and bury your ugly faces in the woods.”
She is about to shut the door on us but Stef stops her. “Bet Devon told you that when he refused to sleep with you,” my friend counters with sass.
Looks like Stef scores a goal with that ‘cause the redhead turns red. “How dare you, bitch?!” she scowls.
Stef rolls her eyes. “Look, we are trying to figure out something about Devon and we think you can help us.”
“Yeah, so if you’re done being a jerk, let me tell you that girls should help other girls,” I remark just for the joy of it.
“Well, here it is. Devon and I did hook up, and it was amazing,” she says curtly. “We’ll be doing it again and you can get lost now.”
“Kells, wait.”
I see a blonde cheerleader from over Kelly’s shoulder. “I think you should let them in. I need honest answers and I guess we all do,” the new girl in the picture adds.
“Fine,” the redhead agrees reluctantly and steps aside to let us enter.
Stef and I now sit in the living room amidst the top Westford High cheerleaders and other popular girls from school who are dressed in kimonos holding cards and glasses of mojitos in their perfectly manicured hands.
They could actually make good Barbie dolls.
“I want to talk about it,” the same blonde speaks again looking at everyone, “I can’t hold on to my curiosity anymore. I need to know whether it was just me who got asked by Devon to lie about having had sex with him ‘cause if that’s the case, it honestly hurts.”
Say, what?!
“Don’t worry,” a brunette, Molly, speaks up. “He told me to do the exact thing before showing me the door,”
“Yeah, same here,” confesses yet another girl.
“Count me in,” another blonde adds. “He didn’t want to do it with me but wanted me to fake that we did,”
I’m at a loss for words when all the girls in the room who used to gush over having been with Devon come out with the truth one after the other.
“Fine, I accept I couldn’t get him to bed,” Kelly finally speaks up in frustration. “I didn’t want anybody to know about this ‘cause no guy has ever been able to resist me.”
I roll my eyes at her display of vanity. Stef has that glow of pride and satisfaction on her face. She got to hear exactly what she wanted to. Guess our work here is done. Stef and I show ourselves out.
***
“So, the cat is out of the bag, isn’t it?” Stef muses as we step out in the evening streets of the beautiful neighborhood.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I respond, feeling amused. “I mean whoever said that it’s very difficult to understand women, surely hasn’t crossed paths with a Devon Parker.”
“And you thought he wasn’t hooking up after you guys started the whole pretend thing because you asked him not to.” She chuckles.
“You know what? It’s none of my business, why he does whatever he does,” I tell her, feeling sort of unnerved.
“On the contrary, Eleanor, I think this is about you.”
“No, it’s not!”
“Devon wasn’t messing around like you thought he was when he said he likes you. He really meant it.”
“No, he didn’t,” I say quietly. I’m just so glad right now that I didn’t tell her that Devon and I kissed.
Stef scoffs. “C’mon, Eleanor, haven’t you ever noticed the way he looks at you? I want Adam to look at me that way.”
“Stef, please. Drop it, will you?”
“You should talk to Devon,” she says as if she didn’t hear me.
***
Devon isn’t home when I go over to the Parkers’. I head to the riverside next and find him boozing in the trailer. It is essentially dark in there with just a pale yellow light glowing on one of the walls.
Devon puts the bottle of liquor down and rises to his feet from the couch when he sees me. I fail to avoid his deep exotic gaze. It is almost as if he doesn’t really need a voice to express himself. His seductive looks, his irresistible eyes do him justice better than words could ever do.
His presence is like a blazing intoxicant that unapologetically takes away the innocence and purity of the glass it fills. And I feel drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
“I’ve been thinking about you.” Devon walks over to me; his voice gives me chills.
“You don’t have to anymore,” I say flatly. “I came by to tell you that I no longer need your help with Luke. He called and apologized,” I lie. “We talked things out and we’re good. I wanna get back with him.”
I turn to reach out to the door when―
“Liar, liar Sanchez on fire.”
His voice pierces through my ears and my feet stops. “I’m not lying!” I defend, turning around to face him again.
“I don’t care, Eleanor,” Devon says matter-of-factly. “Do you think I really wanted to play stupid cupid with you and pig boy Thomas?” He scoffs but then his expression turn dark and fierce, “I’m selfish, Eleanor. I had to do it to get close to you because your stubbornness didn’t leave me with a choice. And I don’t have any plans of letting you go back to him. I won’t.”
My throat runs dry at the intensity of his tone. Fear envelops me like poison.
“I don’t know what you thought but I only agreed to your offer so that I could get Luke’s attention back. It’s selfish, I know, but that’s all there is to it.” I struggle to force the lump down my throat.
; “Wrong.” Devon takes long strides and seals the distance between our faces. “You said yes because you couldn’t see me fucking around with other girls.”
My heart beats loud behind my chest. I want to argue with his claims. I want to say something close to a no. But there’s no voice left in me to back me up because it’s hard to deny the truth. Maybe he is right. After all, even when I was still with Luke, I couldn’t seem to get away from him ever since he moved in to town. Since the start of the school, Luke may have been my boyfriend, but it was him who was always there. He has given me the kind of attention that Luke couldn’t give me. Damn, I even had more conversations with him than I had with Luke.
And what am I supposed to do now?
“For the record, I didn’t sleep with any of those girls,” he admits, his gaze boring into me. “Trust me. I didn’t because I couldn’t get you out of my head.”
My breath hitches as Devon cups my face, and captures my lips for a searing kiss.
I couldn’t stop the warmth of his mouth from spreading over my cold body. My hands move up to hold his face, and I kiss him back. Sparks ricochet through my entire body as he caresses my lips with an unapologetic zeal, marking every spot as his. It made me want to feel alive. My arms go around his neck as I press my body further into his hard frame. His hands move down to coil firmly around my waist as I open my mouth to let his burning hot tongue in.
I heave breathlessly when he lets go of my lips and dips his head down to the crook of my neck. “I want to be with you.” I shiver as he whispers against my aroused skin, kissing that sensitive spot. “I have always wanted you ever since the time I first saw you, Eleanor.”
I sense a chilling enigma in his tone which breaks my trance, and my eyes dart open. I back away from him at once. Devon is caught completely off guard with my sudden recoil.
“I-I can’t do this. We’re done. ” I turn to my heels and leave the trailer, brushing away the tears in my eyes.
Again: A Young Adult Romance Page 8