Time And I

Eighteen

Devon kept his promise about texting me. We texted every night up to Saturday. Most of the texts were just little things like 'Good morning/Good night' or 'I hope your day goes well,' but they all made me happy. Randomly pulling out my phone and seeing he texted made me so happy, and I actually looked more forward to my day.

Buddy noticed my sudden mood change whenever I looked at my phone. He never joked and asked if it was someone special I was texting, and he never got upset either and stayed in a foul mood for the rest of day. He was genuinely excited for me, so I at least knew he was taking the rejection well. Hopefully that meant nothing much about us would change.

Darcy was excited about the date. While most her was excited to finally be going out with Amber, there was a part of her excited to finally meet Devon. The moment I told her he agreed, she would not shut up about how excited she was to finally be meeting (in her words) the man, the myth, the legend that was Devon Quid. And when Buddy tried to shut down her overenthusiastic thoughts by explaining how he was just a regular guy like us, she refused to believe it. A part of me was worried that she would be let down by who he actually was, so I warned Devon about it in case she actually sulked about it.

While Devon found it to be a little funny, he worried about how his reputation was holding up at school. He wasn't a traditionally popular guy, but he was well known enough to be qualified as popular. It was just the bad kind with all the horrible rumors, and not the sexy kind. That was what worried him the most. Because of all the rumors, people were afraid of him, and if he went back to school (which seemed more likely each day), people would be even more afraid of him, thinking he took the time off to get better at fighting and that he had a short fuse. If Darcy didn't like him, people would find Buddy and me to be crazy for wanting to spend time around him, probably assuming he brainwashed us. So if tonight didn't go well for him, his hopes of going back to school were crushed.

"I really want for them to like me," Devon told me as we sorted through his closet together.

I was already dressed for the date: a black, long sleeved dress that was slightly above my knees. It fanned out slightly, but not by much. And I added a pair of knee length black boots with it. Otherwise, my hair and makeup were the same as always. The only shred of color on me was my dark purple lipstick.

"They will. I meant it when I said Darcy was looking forward to meeting you."

"Yes, but she thinks I'm a bad guy. If she believes it and I show it, then that confirms it. Everyone will be scared of me forever."

"Not everyone," I said, smiling as I pointed at myself. "Look, high school is full of jackasses. No matter what, we're all one in some sense."

"Some more than others," he snarled.

"That better not mean you."

He was silent, staring right at me. He meant Jett.

I turned back to the closet and pulled out a plain black t-shirt and a belt to go with the black jeans he was already wearing. "Tuck the shirt in," I instructed. I kept my back to him, but glanced over my shoulder to see he wasn't stripping. He stared at my back and blushed. "I don't care if you take your shirt off. I'm not looking."

He chuckled, still blushing. "You are if you know I'm not changing."

"I didn't hear you move."

"You just want to see my amazing body."

"All in due time," I muttered, still going through his jackets. The look would have been better without one, but since it was getting colder out, I didn't want to worry about him freezing.