“I must be doing a very poor job then cause you don’t seem to be laughing.”“Oh, shut up." She pulled the car door open and climbed in.“Please, do come in,” he said sarcastically.She ignored him. “You were invited to Baylor’s concert?”He shrugged. “That’s what the paper says.”“How?”“I pulled a few strings.”“Why?”“Because you said she was your favourite artist the last time. Couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to show off now, could I?”“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! This is insane! It’s for tonight’s show. So are you going?”He sighed dramatically. “Geez, I sure would like to go but…”“But what?” she demanded.“I don’t want to go alone. I'll be so lonely. If only I could find someone to go with me?”“I’ll go! I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!” She yelled.He laughed. Faith held her breath as she waited for his verdict.“Hey, breathe. Your face is turning red. I don’t want to have to explain why a lady fainted in my car. I came here to get you so we can go to the thing
"You. Want. Me. To. Meet. Baylor. Right. Now!?" Faith sputtered."Yup." It would be a dream come true. She was one of those fans who never even dreamt it possible that they would meet their faves.She was content to watch her on a screen or attend whatever concert she could afford and see her from the crowd. To think that she would be seeing her up close and personal was almost too much for her heart to take. Her legs buckled slightly. He reached out to grab her arm and steady her. "Whoa, steady there. You really like her that much?""Is that a question?" She quipped. In her opinion, there was no one better. She was the best to ever do it.He shook his head. "So, you wanna go?""Again, is that a question?" She asked incredulously."Alright then, let's get this over with."They left the box, heading to a small doorway at the back. Devlin nodded his goodbyes to his celebrity friends. None of them spared her more than a glance or the occasional nod. Devlin was known to have lots of wom
"What did she say to you?" Devlin asked for the umpteenth time.And for the umpteenth time, she answered, "None of your business.""She didn't say something bad about me, did she? That cheeky little demon."Faith rolled her eyes. "What do you care if she did?""I don't like to be talked bad about.""Have you done something bad to be talked about?"He laughed. "Oh honey, I've done plenty bad."She shook her head. "You're incorrigible!'He shrugged. "That's why you love me," he said, flippantly.Faith panicked, her eyes flying to him. "Who says I love you? I don't!""Geez, don't get your knickers in a bunch. Of course, you love me. Everyone does. I'm awesome."Faith mentally facepalmed herself. Why had she gotten so worked up. Of course, he hadn't meant that she was in love with him. He didn't know that, but if she kept acting like this, he'd find out soon enough.Baylor had definitely seemed to pick up something from her face today which must have been why she issued the warning.She
What!? This price was insane. Two thousand for a basic two-piece she would have gotten for $200 at a different store. Faith fought the urge to cry. There goes lunch for the next week or more, she thought.Devlin soon came out in the first outfit she picked. It was a simple, white, oversized cotton shirt and navy blue pants. He struck a pose in front of them like a model.Faith could hear the attendants chittering excitedly behind her. Yup, she thought, I agree. He's gorgeous. He ended up wearing all five outfits because she couldn't decide. He looked good in every single one.She eventually settled on a dark yellow top and silver pants. They weren't colors she would combine naturally but he managed to pull it off.Both now dressed, it was time to pay and leave. Faith reluctantly fished out her card from her purse as they followed Millie to check out.Her hands flew over the keyboard. "Here is the total sir," she turned the screen around for him to see instead of saying the price out
The party was in full swing by the time they entered. Faith was hit in the face with a burst of smoke. She coughed, waiting for her body to adjust.Once she was able to breathe again, she took stock of her surroundings. A man came up to Devlin."Dev, my man!" They clasped hands.Faith peered up into the handsome face. She recognized him from a movie that had been showing recently. It was all the rave."Hello, lady," he said when he noticed her straing.She blushed. "Hello.""Devlin's date, uhn? Sorry but you don't seem like his usual kind.""I'm just his tutor," she said."That's great then. How about we ditch him and get some drinks?"Devlin pushed his friend back lightly. "Find your own woman."Woman? Faith looked up at him, but his eyes were on his friend. Did he just refer to her as his woman?"Alright! Alright! I won't intrude on your turf. Nice to meet you though," he said to her and left them.They moved further into the room, stopping often to exchanges greetings, hugs and che
Michael, unprepared for the punch, reeled back and landed on his a*s. He didn’t say down for long though. He hopped back to his feet and charged at Devlin.“Noooo! Devlin!” Faith ran forward and planted herself between the men, shielding Devlin behind her. At the last moment before another punch landed on her, Devlin pushed her out of the way. She stumbled to the side. The punch landed on Devlin’s cheek instead, causing his head to snap back. Faith screamed, throwing herself between them again. Someone grabbed her from behind, pinning her hands to her side. She fought and trashed but they held on tight.Devlin was prepared for the next attack. He sidestepped quickly causing Michael to lose his footing and fall to the ground again.He was a little slower in getting up this time. Devlin watched him through dark, stormy eyes, waiting for him to rise like a predator playing with its food.By this time, the party had stopped around them and the partygoers formed a ring around them. Sever
Faith froze, unsure what to do. She slowly lifted her hand and placed it on his head. When he didn't shrug it off, she began to stroke his hair.There was no telling exactly how long they stayed that way, but it was Faith who eventually broke the spell."Are you okay?" She whispered.He drew back, effectively breaking the contact. Her hand fell off his hair. She immediately regretted talking."I'm fine." He dragged his hand wearily over his face. "Sit down." He patted the space beside him.She sat. Since she's already broken the spell, she might as well ask what she'd been itching to ask."I have to ask...why did you suddenly start throwing punches at that guy back at the party? We were having fun, just dancing and stuff, until you came."He scoffed. "Having fun with Michael Wall? Honey, Michael is famous for the things he does to ladies--nasty things. I saved your hide tonight.""What kind of nasty things?" She asked, suddenly alarmed."What's the worst thing you can think of?"Reali
"Good night," Devlin called over his shoulder as he left the room.Faith remained standing there for a while, too stunned to move. What just happened? She thought for sure he was coming to her but he'd just whirled around and left.It wasn't fair for him to leave after looking at her with eyes like that. There went her sweet night of rest.Time ticked by. When it became apparent that he was not going to return, Faith put off the lights, crawled into bed and pulled the covers over her head.Due to her severe fatigue, it wasn't long before Faith was asleep. The murky waters pulled her under, stamping out every thought so that her body could recover from the strenuous day.She was completely out of it, oblivious to the slow crawl of time so she couldn't even say how long she slept before the dream started.The tendrils of the dream slowly stretched their way into her mind, wiggling past her mind's rest shield and pushing into her brain. The dream started with Devlin leaning against the
"Dev! Get out!" Faith yelled. "Out! Out!" Sheila yelled too, determinedly pushing Devlin out of the room. "You shouldn't be here. Don't you know that it's a bad omen to see the bride before the wedding?"Devlin groaned. "Come on! I don't believe in superstitions. Can I just see my lovely wife?""She's not your wife yet, mister. Not until the ceremony is complete. Plus, you saw her last night. You too idiots slept in the same bed. I don't understand why you can't stay apart for even a second." She got him out the door and slammed it shut in his face."Done," she declared, dusting off her hands and returning to Faith. There was a short knock at the door and it opened again.Sheila turned around in exasperation. "Devlin, if I have to tell you one more time--"But it wasn't Devlin who stepped in. Adele squealed and rushed over to Faith, pulling her into a hug. "Oh my gosh, honey, congratulations!"Faith hugged her back. "Thank you, Adele. I'm so glad you could fly in.""Girl, I wouldn't
Immediately Faith saw Devlin walk through the door, her heart started beating faster, her palms started sweating and her breathing became heavy.She was scared of how their encounter was going to go, but damn did he look good. He was dressed in black cargo pants and a teal green shirt. His hair was rough and uncombed. He'd obviously come straight from bed.As soon as he entered, his eyes started scanning for her until he saw her and their eyes met. He pressed his lips together and started walking towards her, not breaking eye contact.From the corner of her eyes, she saw Adele pulling a reluctant Sheila away and into the house to give them some privacy.“Faith”, Devlin said softly as soon as he reached her.“Devlin”, she replied, breaking their eye contact now that he was close. It felt uncomfortable to continue to look him in the eyes like that. Also, she was worried her heart would go into overdrive at the sight of him.It wouldn't do to show him how much he was affecting her. Not w
As she drove to his house, she could not help but feel nervous. This would be the first time she was seeing him since they went on the road trip together and he had all but said he’d be fine with whatever direction their relationship took.She had been a friend when he desperately needed one but now that she had offered all the help she could as a friend, she could not continue with that. And even though she was the one who severed their relationship in the fist place, she loved him too much to be able to accept that.She drove like a madman, remembering ironically that she'd called Sheila that just earlier that day. She was mostly nervous and worried for him but underneath the nervousness, she was excited to see him again and maybe that had a part to play in why she drove so fast too.She arrived at his house several minutes earlier than she should have, jumped down and practically ran to the front door. She pressed on the door bell.Devlin himself answered the door, but the sight th
After they had breakfast and washed the dishes, they moved to the living room to hang out. The next few hours were full of light-headed conversations while munching on snacks.Sheila suddenly reached out and smacked Faith on the head. "Hey! What was that for?" Faith complained.“We’re going to a pool party. You should come with us”, Sheila said with wide, innocent eyes. But her amused smile gave her away.“Yeah, you should come. It’ll be a lot of fun”, Adele added.“I don’t know. You know pool parties aren’t really my scene”, Faith replied shaking her head. “You guys go have fun.”“Not without you, babe”, Sheila said.“Yes, pleeease”, Adele added pleadingly.“I don’t know”, Faith said. She was not really feeling it.“Come on, you had a lot of fun yesterday, right?” Adele asked her.“Yeah, but that’s different. That was you two. This time it’ll be a bunch of people I don’t know”, Faith replied trying to convince them.“It’ll be a lot of fun. And you won’t be with the bunch of people,
They got to the movies just in time to see a rom-com movie. Sheila wasn’t much for it but it was the only movie left that hadn’t started. They got some popcorn and drinks and went in to the cinema.It was always nice to spend time with Adele and Sheila, though they did not do it very often. A little into the movie, they started started talking to each other, making funny comments about the actors.One of the attendants came up to them and told them to keep quiet. Apparently, someone somewhere had complained they were disturbing everyone. They agreed to keep it down and the attendant walked back up t his post.A little later, they could not help it and just started talking again. Adele who did not seem too enthusiastic about the movie at first started shouting out her comments loud enough for the entire cinema to hear them.The attendant started for them once more but seemed to decide against it halfway and turned back. Maybe because everyone was laughing and no one was complaining. Sh
They ate the dinner prepared by Laura and once again, they offered to wash the dishes. Laura agreed after much persuasion. Once they finished with that, they went back to the living room where they struck up a conversation.“So Faith, how did you meet Devlin," his father asked.“Devlin reapplied to College. He needed a tutor and fortunately for him, I was available--the highest scoring entrant that year.”“Tutoring him could not have been easy. He must have been a pain in the ass. Pardon my language.”Faith smiled. “Oh, don't worry about it. And yes, he we incredibly insufferable. He’s lucky I was patient because I don’t know what he would have done without me.”“Well, thank you for staying by his side even when he’s such an idiot”, he said looking at her in a way that made her feel like he also understood what was going on. Was that something every parent had, she wondered.Devlin didn’t seem to understand since he was just laughing. He looked like he was really happy to be back home
Walking up to the house seemed to take forever. Now that they were here, Faith could not help but be nervous. She was nervous for him of course, but she was also nervous for herself, because she was going to meet the parents of the man she had been dating. Well, use to date.She had no reason to be nervous since they were not seeing each other anymore- for the moment- and she was only supporting him as a friend. Her body however had a mind if its own as she could not stop fidgeting.Eventually, they got to the door but nobody knocked. Devlin seemed to be a little scared so she fought down her own nervousness and knocked for him.A few seconds later, a man who looked exactly like Devlin, except older, opened the door. Immediately he saw who his visitor was, his eyes widened in surprise and a smile gradually formed on his face."D-Dad, its-its been a while", Devlin said looking down unable to meet his father's eyes."Devlin. What are you standing there for? Give your old man a hug."Wit
"So, tell me what happened", Faith said immediately."Well, I got in, and we talked and...""Oh no, my bad. First, what happened at the door?""This is going to be long, isn't it?""Well, the faster you answer, the sooner it'll be over"."How about I just give you a detailed summary of what happened?""Ok, alright." "When I rang the doorbell and she opened up, she was of course surprised to see me. I couldn't tell if she was scared because she sent the letter or was just still angry. Either way, I was still to blame"."She asked me what I was doing there and I told her I just came to talk. Of course, she replied that I was a few years too late and I did not have any right to come into her home after all that time.""Then I remembered what you said about speaking from my heart and I just told her, "I know that I ran away, but I loved your daughter. And it's because I loved her so much, that I risked coming all this way and getting turned back to get a chance to make things right.""By
Two days later, Faith and Devlin were in her car on their way to Isabella's parent's house. They chose her car since it wasn't as flashy as his and conveyed at least a bit of humility.They had left very early in the morning. He had to drive to her house first since she insisted they take her car. He arrived to meet her ready, so they started the journey without him having to enter her apartment.It had been a very silent trip. He was terrified of what he was on his way to do. She didn't quite know what to say to him, so they spent their time doing separate things, her on her phone and he pretending to be focused on driving.After a while, he stopped the car on the side of the road and said to her, "Would you please take over driving. My hands can't seem to stop shaking"."Of course", she replied at once. She then immediately came out of the vehicle and switched seats with him.Once they were back on the road, he turned to her, "I don't even know what I'll say, how to start. I just te