Chocolate Emergency

Sixteen Bad Blood

            Sixteen Bad Blood

            Raven black hair are strewn across Devlin's pale forehead. He isn't wearing the usual blue scrubs- a red loosely fit t-shirt clings to his broad shoulders paired with an edgy black Levi jeans and russet combat boots. The casual clothes suit him- making him look like a typical American teenager. His thick-framed glasses are missing. There is a teasing gleam in his brown eyes as he takes in my shocked state.

            Sandy digs her elbow into my rib- jolting me out of the trance. "I'd so exchange SpongeBob for him," She squeals into my ear.

 I notice all the other students are staring at me- with a bored, dull expression. Beatrice and her friends including Carmen mutter something to one another and then burst into fits of laughter.

            It didn't take a genius to figure that they were talking about me.

I avert my eyes from them and look at the right side of the auditorium. The entire front row close to the foot of the stage was empty. No-one really prefers to sit right in the face of the teacher. But if Devlin here then I don't mind sitting in the front row seats.

            "What is your boyfriend doing in our biology class?" Sandy whispers into my ear as we walk towards the front.

He's not my boyfriend. I wish he were though.

I shrug my shoulders, trying not to look at the stage where Devlin stood chatting with Mrs. Sandalwal. Mrs. Sandalwal sagging wrinkles lift upwards as she laughed heartily. I don't think I've ever seen the woman laugh.  She presses a hand on her red-lipstick ridden mouth- a stroke of rose colors her cheeks.

Comfortably, I take a seat, setting my books on the adjacent empty chairs. Sandy gives me a pleading expression; the freckles in her cheeks tighten.

            "I don't know why he's here," I sigh. "He didn't tell me anything about this," I steal a quick glance at the stage; he's hooking up the microphone back onto the podium. Mrs. Sandalwal trails to his side like a leech. Isn't she a bit too old for him? What in the world are you thinking, Alice?

            "He's obviously here for you,"

I roll my eyes. "Sandy, I'm pretty sure he has hundred better things to do than follow me to school,"

            Her pigtails swing back and forth as she shakes her head. "Patrick says Devlin is madly in love with you,"

             "Yah, like I'm the only girl left on the planet," I scoff.

The girls in Beatrice's group make weird noise. Out of curiosity, I turned to look at them. Maybe one of them had a heart failure or something. Wait, they don't have hearts.

            Beatrice's black-brown eyes smile shyly as she watches Devlin. She curls a strand of blond hair around her finger, biting the corners of her red lips.  Instantly, I feel sick. She likes him, of-course. Who wouldn't?

            "Look," Sandy giggles. "Beatrice is so in love with your boyfriend. God, she looks like a pink jellyfish," I wonder if that's what I look like when I watch Devlin.

I raise my eyebrow. "And you're not?"

            "Well, I have SpongeBob," She sounded unsure about that one.

"Beatrice has Oliver,"

            Sandy wiggles her eyebrow. "Someone sounds jelly,"