“What’s going on?” Mike asked, running into the kitchen. “Jesus, from all the commotion, I could’ve sworn something was on fire!”
Nick stopped dead in his tracks. “I thought you were gone for the day...”
“I was, but I’m back now. Is that a crime?”
Nick shook his head.
“Well then, what the hell is going on?!”
“Nothing really,” Nick lied. “I...I ah...I cheated on this test in Theory and Professor Donahue caught me. She’s pretty pissed off and now I don’t know if I’m going to pass.”
“Is that all?” Mike asked, laughing a bit. “God, for a second there, I imagined you were bleeding from a gunshot wound or something.”
“Funny you should mention that,” Nick thought. He cleared his throat. “No, I guess I just got a little carried away, that’s all...ah...I was just venting...I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Mike didn’t believe Nick for a second, but he decided that Nick would tell him the real reason for his worry if he wanted to. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that you did. I probably would have slept right through my Business Calc class if you hadn’t burst in here like that. I’ve got 5 minutes to get there as it is. Thanks Nick...I’ll see you later.” Mike walked past Nick with a skeptical look on his face. He grabbed his backpack, which was laying by the door, and said his goodbye before opening and closing the door behind him.
“Oh God!” Nick muttered, rubbing his hand over his face. “Could this get any worse?” The phone’s loud ring seemed to answer his question. “Hello?” he half cried.
“Damn Nickers, do I even have the right number?”
“Shut up AJ!” Nick snapped. He wasn’t in the mood to hear another I-told-you-so speech. “I just had quite possibly one of the worst days in my life...”
“Oh, well then, sorry for calling,” AJ sounded a little hurt but his true emotion was masked fairly well with anger.
Nick sighed. “Sorry Bone, it’s just that...ah...Devyn knows...she knows everything.”
“What do you mean everything?”
“Everything...I think...she knows about the money I sent to the foundation, she knows that I did it behind her back...I think she’s figured out everything.”
“Okay,” AJ cut in. “Slow down a bit. She found out about the money. How?”
“A letter, I must not have checked very carefully for it and she found it.”
“Are you dead yet?”
“Actually, she said that she wasn’t mad but she doesn’t know that I know.”
“What?” AJ was now completely confused. “How is that possible?”
“She stuffed the letter with the information into my jacket pocked.”
“How did you know she did it?”
“I think the handwritten note at the bottom signed “Devyn” gave it away.” Nick was sitting at the table now, messaging one of his temples.
AJ let out a short chuckle. “Oh man...your screwed.”
“Thanks AJ. Next time I have a problem, you’re the first person I’m turning to...”
“Is that a promise?”
“Nope,” Nick exaggerated. “It’s a threat.”
“Well...that’s good to know,” AJ sounded like he was enjoying Nick’s pain. “Listen Nick...I called because I need to tell you that our mini tour starts in two weeks, not one month like we thought before. We’ve got 10 cities on our list and then you can go back to obsessing over Devyn...okay?”
Nick coughed in disgust. “Shut up Bone...I really don’t need to hear this right now. Thanks for calling though.”
“Don’t mention it,” and with that, AJ was gone leaving Nick to obsess over the days events by himself.
“Hey Carter!” Devyn’s call caused Nick to nearly jump out of bed as it was the first time in almost 18 hours since Nick had heard her voice. He feared the moment when confrontation would begin and therefore, he kept Devyn away as much as possible. She still didn’t know that Nick had found the letter and, in one way or another, Nick wanted to keep it that way.
“What?” he called back timidly.
“Are you going to wake up for Physics, or am I going to have to drag you there?”
“Damnit,” Nick muttered to himself. After clearing his throat, he called, “I thought it was Saturday.”
“In your dreams...it’s Friday,” Devyn laughed, pushing Nick’s door open. “Close though.” She smiled a bit at the sight of Nick, all wrapped up in blankets. While tossing him a bagel she laughed again. “Well, get going,” she commanded jokingly.
The door closed moments later leaving Nick in a state of confusion. Devyn was playing with his mind...she wasn’t about to give away any insight into her thoughts but Nick could see right through it. “I should just talk to her,” Nick sighed as he pulled on a hooded sweatshirt. It was the same conclusion on either side of the coin. The only question now was when. Nick finished dressing and quickly made his way to the kitchen to meet up with Devyn and Mike.
It was already dinner and Nick still hadn’t said a word about the letter. Even when he and Devyn had bumped into each other at Wendy’s and decided to split an order of French fries, Nick hadn’t revealed anything. He liked the fact that he and Devyn were now laughing over an order of fries instead of fighting and destroying that was something that he didn’t want to do. Now as she stood in front of the sink washing a head of lettuce for the salad, Nick knew that it was now or never. He cleared his throat. “So...I ah...” he paused, urging himself to go on. “Ah...”
By now, Devyn was finished washing the lettuce as was staring at Nick with a curious look on her face. “Yeah...”
“Okay, I’m just gonna spit this out. I saw the letter, I’m sorry...I’m so, so sorry that I did that behind your back.”
Devyn sighed. “I was mad when I first saw it...” she began. “I went through an entire bag of potato chips...but then I woke up. Nick do you even realize what you did for me? You found the missing link and that’s awesome. I really can’t even thank you enough.”
Nick blinked in disbelief. “Are you sure?” he said, letting the last syllable hang for a while.
“Yeah,” Devyn said without hesitation. “Thank you Nick. The only unfortunate thing is...did you read the line about Prof. Lockwood? I almost went through a whole other bag of potato chips because of that.”
Nick laughed a bit realizing that Devyn was taking all of this extremely well. “Tough break,” he said jokingly. “Are you gonna go through with the tests?”
“If I can get that ass to agree to it...that’ll be the day.”
“But this is serious stuff Dev. I can see it going either way...but honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t know how to say no to something like that. ‘Hi, um...I’m possible the result of some sex that you had a while back and ah...you might be my father but oh...what’s that...you aren’t going to help me out? Oh okay...’ I mean, you just can’t do that.”
Devyn was laughing at Nick by this time. “That was probably the most disgusting thought I’ve ever heard that came from your head...and I sat with you through Striptease.”
Nick returned Devyn’s laughter. “But that was your choice...”
Devyn cut him off. “I plead momentary insanity, okay...plus, you begged me because it's Friday night and little Nicky got stood up...”
“Drop it Devyn.” Nick said shortly.
Devyn laughed again as she put together the final touches of the salad and brought to bowl to the table. After sitting down she realized that she had forgotten the bread basket and jumped up to grab it. When she turned around, Mike was standing directly in front of her causing her to scream and drop the bread to the floor. “I should have known why it was so quiet,” she laughed. “Nick, why didn’t you say anything?”
“Eh, didn’t feel like it. I think that blowing one thing a day is my limit. Plus, Mike paid me to keep my mouth shut.” Nick smiled and held up two one dollar bills.
“Damn you Carter! And damn you Mike...where have you been?”
“Hiding from you. I wasn’t about to be in the same room when you two were talking about the letter. That could’ve been ugly.”
“But it wasn’t,” Devyn said triumphantly, picking the bread basket off the ground.
Nick, Devyn, and Mike talked and laughed together until well after midnight and then fell asleep with a feeling of an extremely close bond.
Chapter Twenty
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