Nancy nudged Devyn who turned to her slowly. “Yeah?” she asked.
“Where’s Nick? Shouldn’t he be here, there’s a test tomorrow.” Nancy looked impatient.
“Photo shoot,” Devyn answered. “He’ll be here tomorrow, don’t worry.”
“Oh okay.”
Devyn looked up to see Professor Lockwood glaring at her and Nancy. Fire seemed to not even discribe the look he giving them. Quickly Devyn opened her notebook and began taking notes on the chapter she was supposed to be reading. It seemed impossible to concentrate, however, because Devyn was pretty worried about Nick. She knew he wasn’t the type of person to exclude himself but last night, that seemed to be all he wanted to do. Devyn thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang. She jumped and looked up to see that Professor Lockwood had tossed a book on her desk. “Devyn, please. I know that most professors don’t care if you pay attention in class but I do.” By now all of the class was focused on her. “Now if you don’t want to do anything, that’s fine but if that’s the case, please don’t return to my class again.”
Devyn was quiet for a second before she spoke. “For months I have sat here and listened to you verbally bash me for the smallest reason but if you’d check your gradebook, which you force your assistant to do, you’d realize that I have a 97% in your class. That’s an A on any scale so maybe you should consider focusing your attention elsewhere.”
“Miss. McPherson. You may have an A in this class," Professor Lockwood sounded surprised." However, you’re destructive to those around you, you have no respect for authority, and you’re not willing to give your time to pay attention…”
Devyn cut him off. “Mr. Lockwood,” Devyn ignored the chattering around her about the disrespect she had just passed upon Professor Lockwood by ignoring his title. “In physics, you always preach that you must prove your opinions with facts, so I’d like to hear this…prove it.”
“Miss. McPherson, please leave.”
Devyn grabbed her book and notebook off the desk. “See ya Nancy, bye Mike.” She sidestepped Professor Lockwood before turning to meet his gaze. “Test tomorrow?” she asked him. He nodded. “Maybe I’ll study.” As the class clapped and cheered, Devyn just made her way to the door and exited the room. She realized that she shouldn’t have said anything about her grade in front of her classmates but she was happy about the effects it had on Professor Lockwood. She walked the campus for ten minutes trying to calm down. At 9:00, she headed towards her next class still feeling the urge to attend an early morning kickboxing class.
At 3:30, Nick was finally finished with the photo shoot with Seventeen. He walked into the dressing room and grabbed his Nike bag while quickly sighing at his appearance in the mirror. The guys had suggested clothes throughout the decades and while everyone else looked good, Nick had been forced into ‘80s clothes: an extremely multi colored tee-shit, pair of jeans, and red Converse sneakers. A figure appeared in the mirror and Nick turned to see Howie leaning against the doorframe in 1950’s style leather looking completely exhausted. “What’s up D?” Nick asked.
“I might ask you the same question.” Howie paused. “I just got back from promoting the Foundation on that cruise ship and I can honestly say that I’m not quite sure how AJ does it.”
“Does what?” Nick asked, pulling his bag over his shoulder.
“Tour alone. I personally get so tired of performing without the rest of you guys. There’s no one to cover for you if you mess something up.”
Nick just looked at Howie and nodded. “More like you are covering for all of us when we mess up but AJ’s strange like that. He likes to think that he’s independent.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Howie got to the point. So, how’s Devyn.”
“What do you mean?” Nick sounded alarmed.
“Exactly what I said.”
“She’s taken,” Nick responded.
“Then why did you go after her before?”
“She’s only three days taken. He’s a new development, you know? The guy’s totally sweet to her and he’s the greatest to everyone else. He has conversations with Devyn that are so deep that I can’t even swim for one minute in them but I don’t know what she sees in him,” Nick’s sarcasm littered the air.
“Oh yeah, sounds like a complete asshole,” Howie joked. “What bugs you the most about him.”
“The fact that he didn’t screw up the first time he met Devyn. When I met her, I thought she was a catty bitch and she knew that I was a jackass. Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, I just really like her. I mean, she’s so smart but completely humble about it, she’s the greatest cook I know, she keeps me on my toes, and you know, she’s really beautiful inside and out.”
“Even though you’ve only known each other for less than a month? You appreciate her that much?”
“Yeah, but she’s only started to see me in a new light. You heard about last week didn’t you? Did I tell you?”
“Yeah, you told me. It didn’t sound pretty but you said that Devyn forgave you and that the two of you talked it out.”
“That’s true, but she’s only beginning to see me differently whereas I have seen her other side for a while.”
Howie and Nick were interrupted. “Hey Nick,” Brian said, entering the dressing room. “If you wanna make it back to Columbia soon, you better get on the road. Okay.”
“Yeah, I was just about to do that.” Nick grabbed his water bottle off of the table and said his goodbyes to the rest of the guys and was on his way back to the dorm 30 minutes later.
Devyn and Mike were sitting at the kitchen table going over this month’s expenses when Nick walked through the door.
“Whoa Nick,” Devyn started. “You loose a bet?”
Nick realized that he was still wearing his clothes from the photo shoot. “Oh…no, they’re from the photo shoot.”
“Sure Nick, we know that you’re secretly dying to get back into the ‘80’s.” Devyn smiled. “How was it?”
“It was alright,” Nick replied, setting his bag in the hall. “It was really great seeing the guys again and all…” he was quiet for a second. “Hey, how was physics?”
“Oh God,” Mike moaned. “You should’ve been there.”
“What happened?” Nick asked as he toed off his shoes and sat down at the kitchen table. “Or should I ask what did Devyn do?”
“It wasn’t that bad Mike…” Devyn tried her best to keep a straight face.
“Compared to what, World War II?” Mike laughed. “Devyn, it was pretty bad.”
“Whatever…if you’re gonna tell the story, you’re gonna do it without me. I’ve gotta get to the center anyway.”
“Why?” Nick asked.
“I’ve got 5 30-minute counseling sessions back to back until 8:30.” Devyn sighed and grabbed an apple and a granola bar. “By the way, Nick, if you need my physics notes, they’re in my messenger bag. See ya guys.”
“Thanks,” Nick said, staring at anything except for Devyn. He found himself feeling more and more uncomfortable around her every minute.”
“Before you go,” Mike said quickly. “I am gonna be spending the night with my family because my mom can’t stand watching my sister’s kid by herself for another night. I’ll just see you in phsyics tomorrow.”
“Sounds like you’re gonna have fun,” Devyn laughed. “We all know how much you love screaming children.”
“Please don’t remind me,” Mike shuddered for effect while he and Devyn laughed for a moment together and Nick felt slightly jealous. “I’ll see ya Mike…bye Nick.”
Nick watched Devyn leave and then turned to Mike. “So, what happened in phsycis?”
Nick tried his best to listen to Mike but his thoughts continued to drift to Devyn. He wasn’t happy to see her because he knew that she wasn’t ecstatic to see him. Nick remembered back to the first time he and Devyn had kissed and how inappropriate and unfeeling it much have been.
“So, that about sums it up,” Mike said, aware that Nick didn’t seem to be paying attention anyway. “I guess you had to be there.”
“Wha…oh, yeah, I guess so. But it sounds bad,” Nick said, pulling himself back towards reality.
Nick was studying for the physics test when Devyn walked through the door at 10:30. She appeared to be in a zombie-like state as she dragged her feet towards the couch and sat down. “That bad, eh?” Nick asked.
“No, just draining. I’m really glad that I’m not majoring in psychology.”
“I don’t think that I could see you as a shrink.” Nick said as he studied Devyn’s face. Lines of worry and emotional stress were pulling at her forehead as her eyeslids slowly fluttered in an attempt to stay awake. “You going to bed?”
“Can’t,” Devyn answered slowly. “I have to prove Lockwood wrong because I can’t keep my mouth shut which means that I’m going to have to study pretty damn hard.”
Nick laughed a little. “I think you’re gonna do okay Devyn. I mean, if I had known it was you who was setting the curve, I would have killed you a long time ago. Just go to bed.”
“I wish it were that easy but in case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t a perfect world. If I don’t study, I get an F…it’s that simple really.”
In no time at all, Nick had a pot of coffee on the stove and he and Devyn were busy going over inertia equations. Finally, at 2:00 AM, Devyn poured the last bit of coffee down the drain and she and Nick fell asleep on the couch.
Chapter Eighteen
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