Always & Forever (D. Swing)

Chapter 70.

Devyn

"So this is your bedroom here?" Donald opens the door to the plain and lifeless guest room of the Hailey's house. It literally has no color to it and the bed set looks like it traveled into the future from the seventies. It isn't revolting or anything, it just doesn't particularly compliment the remainder of the house which I find it extremely comical.

Donald and I had to take the bus here, though he still didn't give me an explanation to why he was living with them but I didn't bother him about it after he left my question floating into the air. I can assume it something to do with family issues. He has developed a very rebellious nature over time with a reckless mouth that couldn't be stop—though that's from observation developing into inferences. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the case since he already told me what his dad did to magically remove the ink from his chest. His eyes were always screaming words of terror that means something else must've happened to why he's not there anymore.

"Yep, this is it." He kind of body slams his bookbag on the bed and I frown at his odd behavior. Motherfucker is weird as hell. So much anger and hostility coming from him, but I can't be the one to complain. I also carry these characteristics, but I think mine are under control for the most part. I remove my bookbag off along with him taking out the books I kept from about a year ago or so. He takes out his books too, sitting on the bed with the pages falling open. I reluctantly make my way over to the bed sitting a fair distance away from him. "Pretty nice." I say gazing at bleached white walls.

Laughter ecsapes his lips, "This shit is ugly. You don't have to lie, Devyn. They know it's ugly too." He emphasizes talking about The Hailey's. "I'm just staying here for a little while anyway. I'm probably leaving this camp when I graduate in June."

"That's if you graduate." I cover my mouth instantly after the words emerge from my mouth. My eyes fall as I give him an apologetic look. "I did not mean for it to come out that way, or say that at all." His head falls down into his books and I mentally beat myself up realizing I might've hurt his feelings. Though the remembrance of him hurting mine millions of times causes the empathy to vanish. But forgiveness is the key right? Yes and no? I'm conflicted.

"Nah, you right.. That's if I graduate," A calmness beams off of him as he taps his fingers lightly against the book, "but that's what I have you for." A smile appears on his face, but I know it's forced. I shoot him a smile back, gazing at the math textbook in front of him. I let out a quiet sigh, knowing this lesson is going to be hell for me. Math is one of the subjects he does worst in and sometimes he doesn't have the patience to genuinely understand. Sometimes I think he doesn't try to understand simply because it's math, but he has so much potential to.

"Alright, so I think we can do this." I say firmly. He looks up at me with a confused look. "We can do this. This is like the last math you have to take, right?" I question resulting in him nodding up and down. "And you only have one semester to take of this course. If you just cooperate with me and try harder than those others times I tutored you, then it'll be a piece of cake and we got this." I say confidently, actually believing my words. I know he can do it. "Alright, so let's get started. You do these two problems first and I'll see where you need most improvement on."

As he works on the problems, my mind wanders off somewhere else despite me still looking at the lined paper. My eyes trail up to the small marks on his face. I'm not sure if they're old or not, like from the time Kobe bruised his face up but the scars are minimal in size but very noticeable, but it's not deep enough to be there for the rest of his life. What happened during the four months we weren't communicating with one another? The more I observe his exterior, physicality, and manners, the more interested I become. How didn't I notice before? Everything seems so different now. He has a new location, a scar on his chest and little ones on his face, seeming to take authority over things, and demonstrates fierceness. It reminds me of myself. It seems to be when I develop, he develops right along with me. Odd.