Devlin's Secret

A First Encounter

Andrea - In The Past

Devlin was my friend before she was my girlfriend. And before that, she was some girl who everyone said was stalking me. Obviously she wasn't stalking me, but I was impressionable when I was fourteen and so I knew her as my stalker before I'd even met her. 

I was relatively new to the school at the time. I'd only been there for a couple of months but I was already considered one of the more popular students. My friend Kay had made sure I never strayed from her friendship group. 

Kay hated Devlin, but she would never tell me why. I think it was Kay who started the rumour, if I'm honest. 

I idolised Kay. She was similar to me in every way I could think of. I'd known her since I was nine years old. She was beautiful. I envied her jet black hair and long eyelashes, and the way she could get anyone to like her by shooting them a sultry smile. Anyone including me, who had thought I was completely straight up until she shot that look at me. But it was after an argument with my first ever female crush that I met my future wife. 

She was sitting on the steps as I stormed out of the school building and I almost tripped over her bag. I whipped around to snap at her for leaving it in the way of people walking to find her beaming up at me. She had one of those big smiles, the kind that seem to take up all the lower half of a person's face. It showed off all of her teeth and a little bit of her gums, too. She had braces at the time.

"Nice to finally meet you," she said cheerfully.

"What are you on about?" I replied, scowling. "I've never seen you before."

She laughed in amazement. "It's funny you'd say that."

"Why is it?" I demanded, slinging down my satchel and putting my hands on my hips.

"I'm your stalker, apparently."

I opened my mouth with the intention of forming a sarcastic reply, but I didn't have it in me after my argument with Kay so I just closed it again and sat down beside her.

She beamed at me again, and I couldn't help but smile back. She had freckles all over her face and shoulders. Part of her hair - ashy blonde, dyed blue from the nape of her neck to her waist - was tangled up in her earphones. Remnants of a fringe left to grow had been tied to the side with a hairband.  

For a second, I considered asking her why people said she was so obsessed with me. I mean, she obviously recognised me, but this was the first time I'd ever seen her in my life. But then I thought that would be rude, so instead I said, "I'm Andrea. You probably already know that though."

"I'm Devlin," she said with a laugh. "And you're right, I did already know."

It was at that point that the doors of the school opened and Kay flounced past us, making a show of stepping between us while at the same time clearly pretending not to notice that I was there. Then, at the bottom of the steps, she stopped and turned around. She raised her eyebrows at me.

"Are you coming, Andie, or what?"

I left a patch of silence for a while as I realised that I had the option to freely say no. The problem was, I could never actually bring myself say no to Kay. "Yeah I guess so." I sighed as I grabbed my things and stood up. 

"Did you know who that was?" She asked when we were a few metres away. She said it loud enough for Devlin to hear.

I chose to play dumb and frowned. "No, who?" She gave me a long, penetrating stare and I widened my eyes at her. She tilted her head slightly forward, meeting my eyes from beneath her lashes. "No way!" I said, feigning shock. 

Behind me, I heard a warm chuckle and turned to see Devlin approaching. She brushed past us before stopping over dramatically and swinging around. "Same time tomorrow?"

I smirked and Kay looked her up and down in disgust.

"Ew."

"Whatever," said Devlin. She stuck out her middle finger as she walked away.