The Lost //✔️// [DEVON SEQUEL] BOOK 2 [DISCONTINUED]

• Begin Again •

   "What do you mean, you don't think Stanley is your son? Of COURSE H- don't interrupt me Dennis!"
   I watched Stan closely, watched as he flinched whenever his mother's voice got louder, when she cursed at her ex husband over the phone.

  Devon had told me he'd finally set me up with a decent job, he called it babysitting. Not "babysitting the emotionally neglected son of a struggling single mother who has literally ZERO common sense".
   I don't have an issue with Stan, if anything, I understand how he's feeling. No father, emotionally unavailable mother- it sucks. I can't even begin to imagine how a 7 year old would take it.

   My dad died when I was young, yes. However, my mother didn't switch off until the last few years of her life-
   "Aria? Are you okay?" Stan whispered, his mother still ranting on over the phone in the next room.

   I blinked twice, "Yes, yeah Stan I'm fine. Whatcha' playing?"
  Change the subject. I couldn't even begin to explain to Stan why my eyes glass over and I lose myself in a haze so regularly, even when he asks me why I look 'sad'. How can I begin to debunk that to a 7 year old without telling a compete lie? - I can barely make sense of it myself.

   Even after a year.

   "Mario Kart." Stan looked down at his switch, his lips pursed in determination.
   Still flinching every-time his mother screeches.

•

   I finally walked through the door to my house at 8:30. Stanley's mother, Alexis, decided that she was simply "too heated" after her phone call with her ex to make dinner for Stan - and she left.
  
   Yep. She just walked out. Didn't say a word. Alexis strolled back in 4 hours later, stinking of alcohol and cigarettes.
   I sobered her up as best I could before leaving her with her child.
   She's hurt and I get it. But she has a responsibility.

   All the house lights were off, aside from the lamp light in Devon's office. I dare not open the door, I'll get one of two reactions.

   1. He will simply grunt at anything I say.

   Or alternatively, a new one as of late since he has taken up drinking whiskey as a pastime...

   2. Throw anything within his grasp at the doorframe.

    Instead, I knocked twice and waited for a response.
   I got nothing.

   We have been working in this beaten up limbo for over a year now. We wake up, we go our separate ways and we sleep - facing away from each other - in the same bed.

   The last conversation we had was over sprouts. Yeah. I cooked a Sunday dinner. I asked Devon how many sprouts he wanted and he said "How many are there?", which then turned into, "How many do you want?" And then, "just put some sprouts on my plate I really don't care."
   It was a lame attempt at getting him to talk to me, and it ended abysmally.

   Speaking of dinner. The kitchen reeked. In a good way.
   I threw my bag down on the bottom step of the stairs and strolled in, on the table was a plate, with a few slices of recently warmed - I realised - pizza.
   He'd warmed up the pizza for me before going back to his office.
   A small gesture, but a gesture anyway.

   I sat down at the table and started eating, shutting my eyes against the cold chill that blew in from the open window.
   The world is a shitty place. It just keeps getting shittier.

   I'd take being all alone again, honestly, over whatever this is.

•

   I lay on my back on the sofa in the front room, listening to Devon swearing and thumping his desk in frustration.

   With regards to our friends, family really, he had no leads.
   At one point Devon had thought he'd been hot on Jodi and Joe's trail, but that eventually fell flat when he realised that Jodi and Harrison wouldn't be caught DEAD apart. There was zero evidence of Harrison's whereabouts.

   I tried suggesting that maybe they aren't together anymore. The strain it put on me and Devon blew us apart, I'm sure we aren't as tight as Jodi and Harrison... but it's still a very possible concern.
   Yet, Devon didn't want to hear it.

   He wears himself thin. He hardly sleeps, barely eats...
   Devon had been putting in hours, upon hours of work at that awful vape shop in the middle of buttfuck nowhere to pay for the house, my therapy (that he still insists is a necessary evil) and funding his leads to find his gang.

   He works himself to the bone and his temper thins out with him.
   It's awful.

   My eyes were just falling closed when the office door slammed open and Devon came barging in.
   His hair was tousled and sticking up in odd directions, his face was flushed and a sheen of swear glimmered on his forehead.

   I stared at him in stunned silence.
   And my heart began beating double time when he smiled, he actually smiled, for the first time in forever - he smiled at me.

   "I have a lead."

   My mouth dropped open.

   "Jodi is alive."

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ITS SO GOOD TO BE BACK GUYS!
Sorry about the delay, life has been... weird, for everyone I think. I hope you are all staying safe and doing well!
But I finally have my plan, the plot and the write ups all ready to go!
I can't guarantee a specific date of publishing, so my chapters may go up a bit irregularly. But the support from Devon was astonishing, and I do hope you enjoy the lost just as much! If not more! So I will aim to deliver ASAP!
I love you all dearly!

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