Faith finally let go of Devlin when they got to the car. He sat her down gently in the backseat and climbed in next to her but she didn't say anything, simply staring ahead in stunned silence."Are you okay?" He asked tentatively. Had he pushed her too far by making her go into the horror house?She blinked as though coming out of a dream and looked at him. "That. Was. Incredible!" She muttered.Devlin grinned. "My girl!" He knew she would enjoy it!"I'm not going to be able to sleep for a week!""Well, I've got good news then.""What?" "We're not going to be doing much sleeping tonight." She raised her brow at him. "I didn't mean like that." He laughed."Then what did you mean?""Do you know that one of the things Rifloda is best known for is its clubs?"Her eyes widened. "We're going clubbing tonight?""Yup! You're in for the experience of your life.""The last time I went partying with you, you punched a man's lights out. Promise you won't do it this time."He shrugged. "As long a
Faith ignored Devlin's persistent knocks at her door. She'd shed her clothes and crawled into bed the moment they got in.He slammed the door so hard that it rattled. She sat up, wide-eyed. Would he kick the door down? It was his hotel anyway.She waited for his next move. Seconds passed and she didn't hear anything else. Then the outer door slammed shut.Good! He'd left. He could go to his lady friend's room for all she scared. She toyed with the idea of locking him out of his room as well but dismissed the thought. He would just get an extra key from the staff.She fell back onto the bed and pulled the bedspread over her face. She groaned. To think that she'd been ready to forget everything after the day they'd had today but he just had to ruin it.She supposed it wasn't fair to blame him for what the woman did but she was in no mood to be rational. It was the way Elise had made her feel--so insignificant! She didn't even notice her until Faith pointed her out. Then instead of bein
Casiuss and Devlin nursed their drinks silently at the bar. Devlin wasn't ready to dive into the matter at hand quite yet, even though he knew he would have to eventually. That was the whole purpose of this outing, wasn't it?But Casiuss--God bless him--was as silent as ever. He wasn't the type to start a conversation especially when it was obvious that Devlin wasn't ready to.Devlin stared mindlessly into his glass of vodka as it slushed from side to side in his hands. His mind was on the events of this evening.He recalled the way Faith had looked going to the restaurant with him. She'd looked alive and happy, her usual self. He also recalled the way she'd looked when Elise--g*damn her!--had sauntered up to their table and spewed her trash. That shocked, dismayed look on her face--he hated it. It made him feel like trash.But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst had been the look on her face by the time they arrived at the room; that empty, emotionless look. He couldn't read wha
Faith woke slowly. She blindly groped around in her head, trying to remember what had woken her up.She didn't have to search long. Her phone rang again with a sharp cry, waking her up effectively. She grabbed the phone, wincing as she hit the button to shut it off.She peered at the time--11 PM. She'd fallen asleep almost immediately her head touched the bed. By her estimation, she'd only been asleep for about 5 hours. Her body felt groggy. Her mind cried to go back to sleep.Instead, Faith sat up, forcing her mind and body into obedience. She ran her hand over her face and peered into the screen again. Adele's name danced at the top of the screen."Oh, shit!" She muttered. She'd completely forgotten about the girl in all the excitement of being on this trip.She remembered shooting her a text at some point early on but she'd never gotten around to calling her. The girl was probably dying for details.She picked up the call and immediately said, "Oh Adele, I am so sorry I haven't cal
Devlin dragged himself back to the room, more than a little drunk, in the early hours of the morning.After his bleak and short discussion with Casiuss, he'd drowned himself in glass after glass of alcohol, something he usually didn't let himself do.Devlin hated getting drunk. It put him in a position where he wasn't in total control of himself and he didn't like that.Even when he went out to parties, he kept a strict watch over how much he consumed. He'd seen way too many otherwise reasonable people do absolutely crazy things when they got drunk in public. It always left a sour taste in his mouth. He had no intention of making a fool of himself like that. He prided himself on his self-control.Drunk people did stupid things, like banging on a lady's door at 3am in the morning, weeping and pleading to be let in.At least his brain still worked enough for him not to do that. He would've never recovered from the embarrassment.He shrugged his clothes off recklessly, letting them fly
Faith put on her shades and rolled her box out of the room. It was about 8 in the morning. She'd waited until day broke to put a call through to a cab company she found outside.The driver would be outside at any minute so she decided to go down to the lobby to wait. When she stepped into the outer room, she found Devlin sprawled on the bed.His clothes were all over the floor which indicated that he was either naked or almost naked. Thankfully, he'd pulled the covers over his body.She wasn't sure exactly when he'd come back in yesterday. After her discussion with Sheila and Adele last night, she packed her bags in under twenty minutes. There just wasn't that much to pack.She'd considered actually just leaving the luggage after all she didn't own any of it. Devlin had bought it all for her. But she decided against it.There was nothing he would do with these things anyway. They'd just end up being thrown out which would be a total waste.Plus as far as she was concerned, she deserve
Faith looked up slowly, confused as to if she was the one being referred to, and if so why? She didn't know anyone there. No one could possibly know her either.Her eyes landed on the woman's face. She frowned. She recognized her. It was the blonde bombshell that Devlin slept with. Why in the world would she be talking to her?"Excuse me?" She said politely."Are you hard of hearing, sweetheart?"Faith blinked in surprise at her unnecessarily harsh tone. "Can I help you?""I'm not sure there is any way you can ever help me.""Please move out of my way."She looked down, noting Faith's bags. She smiled gleefully. "Oh, you're leaving? How wonderful? Did he finally throw you out?"Faith was still struggling to get her mind together. "Don't you think you're being a little too rude to a stranger?""No. I'm only trying to help you.""Help me?" Her disbelief was apparent in her tone."Yes, sweetie."Faith huffed and said, "How philanthropic of you..." She ignored Faith's jab. "It'll do you
Faith swung her legs back and forth, letting it lightly hit the platform beneath her before springing forward again.She looked down at her white-clad thighs. She'd opted for the cutest white dress she'd ever seen, well below her knees, sleeveless and with a sweetheart neckline.She'd tied a silk, patterned scarf around her neck but it now lay stretched out underneath her butt. When Devlin told her to sit down on the platform and wait for him, she'd thought fast, not wanting to stain her pretty white dress.She thought back on the events of this morning. After she returned to the room and told Devlin to make it up to her, he'd swung into action immediately.He thanked her profusely for letting him try to make up with her, so much so that she'd felt slightly embarrassed.After he took a quick shower, she'd had some aspirin and a glass of water waiting for him. She'd smelt the alcohol on his breath and saw the slight wincing he tried to hide all through their conversation.He thanked h
"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