Devyn stretched in her bed and rolled over, thanking God that it was Saturday. “11:30...” she muttered softly, disappointed that she hadn’t sleep past noon. For a long while, Devyn lay on her back thinking about Nick and then this whole situation and then Nick some more. She wasn’t sure exactly how to go about any of this as having even the thought of a family scared her and more so, she wasn’t sure how to handle the idea that she was starting to care for Nick as more than just a roommate. Nick had crossed over to sacred ground with Devyn...he was becoming one of her best friends. The sudden shrill ring of the telephone caused Devyn to jump a bit. She scrambled for the phone so as not to wake Nick or Mike and answered it on the second ring. “Hello?” she gasped.
“Devyn...I’m sorry for calling so early...I know how much you like to sleep...”
Devyn smiled. “Eric, it’s okay. Is everything all right?” There was a pause. “Eric?” Devyn’s voice grew more and more concerned.
“Sorry,” Eric laughed. “I dropped the phone. Yeah, everything is fine. I was just calling to see if you wanted to come with me and the guys. We’re going out to Manhattan today and I knew that I couldn’t just go without letting you know in case you wanted to come... seeing as how it’s your favorite spot in the world and all.”
“I’d love to,” Devyn said. “What time are you guys leaving.”
“That’s the thing,” Eric paused for a second. “I’m actually outside your building.”
Devyn smiled. “Can we add stalker to your list of characteristics yet?” They shared a laugh. “Give me five minutes and I’ll be right down.”
“Okay, great. I’ll see ya then.”
By the time Devyn was tying her sneakers and writing a note to Mike and Nick, she had a smile on her face that stretched from ear to ear.
Nick sighed loudly as he read the scribbled note from Devyn.
Nick almost kicked himself for allowing his heart to sink. Devyn was happy with Eric and Eric was a nice guy. “Besides,” Nick told himself. “I don’t even know how I feel about her yet.” It was a lie though. Nick knew that he had long since noticed Devyn as more than a friend but he knew that his feelings would have to be put on hold for the sake of the newfound friendship. “It’s sick,” Nick later told Brian. “I wanted to be with someone so bad and that’s all I saw Devyn as and so I sacrificed a friendship but now that I know Devyn, all I want is to be with her and I’m stuck with the friendship.”
“Yeah, you suck too!” Devyn playfully yelled in the direction of Eric’s beat up Honda. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she laughed.
Eric honked, smiled, and drove off yelling in a joking manner, “Yeah, see you then hot stuff.”
When Devyn opened the door she was still smiling. Her smile fell however when she nearly tripped over a pile of luggage. A puzzled look crawled over her face as she walked into the kitchen. “I’m home,” she called, still confused.
Nick was the only voice that answered her back. “Hey, how was you day in Manhattan.” His tone was flat and non-caring.
“It was fine...” Devyn said walking towards Nick’s room. She lightly pushed the door open and found Nick, wearing only a pair of sweatpants, stuffing shirts into a large suitcase. “What are you doing?” she asked, failing to conceal her surprise. “You’re leaving?”
“It’s called touring Devyn...it’s what us Backstreet Boys do to make a living...remember?”
Devyn bit her tongue and stood silently although she wanted to slap Nick for using that tone with her. “When?” she asked softly, wishing that Nick would say ‘Just kidding’ and give her one of those famous smiles.
“Leaving tomorrow morning...6:00. Hey, ten days earlier than expected. You should be happy.”
Devyn ignored Nick’s comments. “You don’t sound too thrilled about it,” she offered, leaving the sentence open for Nick to add on. When he didn’t, Devyn spoke again. “Are you going to be like this all night Nick? Seeing as how it’s your last night here, we could go have fun with it. I will miss you ya know?”
Nick breathed out a ‘yeah right’ and zipped his bag. Devyn noticed the muscles flex in Nick’s arms as he picked up the bag and made his way to the door. “You gonna move?” he snapped.
Devyn silently stepped out of his way. She felt like she was about to explode and yet, her whole body seemed calm. In an instant, Devyn was following Nick to the door. “So...when did you find out that you were leaving?”
“Why the fuck do you care Devyn?! I’m leaving, that’s that! Okay?”
There was a small pause. “Hell no it’s not okay,” Devyn yelled, allowing her voice to rise with emotion. “It’s not okay for you to be treating me this way. Now, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. As much as it sucks to leave, you chose this lifestyle and you obviously love it or you wouldn’t have done it for almost a decade. If you’re worried about never seeing us again, you should know that we’ll stay in touch with you however we can, Mike and I are awesome at writing letters. If it’s your degree, it’s pretty easy to see that you’re going to be taking college with you. So what the hell Nick? Why the hell are you so mad and further more, why are you taking it out on me?”
“I’m not mad Devyn,” Nick bellowed. “Okay? No just leave me the fuck alone.” At that, Nick stormed back to his room and shut the door.
“The hell you’re not mad,” Devyn muttered under her breath as she pulled her tennis shoes on and left for a long run.
When she came back, nothing in the dorm had changed. Mike was still gone, probably at his Econ Seminar, and Nick was still hauled up in his room blasting Nirvana at the highest volume. Devyn sighed. “Jesus Nick,” she whispered. “I wish I knew what was going on.” Almost as an answer, the music stopped and Devyn shivered a little bit at the silence. After shaking her head and letting out another sigh, Devyn stepped into the kitchen to begin dinner. As the noodles for the pasta were boiling, Devyn sorted through the large stack of mail which was resting on the table, seemingly untouched. A letter from the United States Adoption Recovery Program caught her eye. She turned over the letter so as to open it and noticed that someone had beaten her to it. “Nick,” she yelled, anger surging through her body. She pounded on his door. Without waiting for an answer, Devyn threw the door open to find Nick and another guy, whom she didn’t recognize, sitting on the bed looking at some papers strewn about the room. Devyn forced calmness to over-take her, realizing that she had already made a complete ass out of herself. “Nick,” she started calmly.
“What Devyn,” he answered, mockingly.
Devyn drew in a breath to hold her anger. She held out the letter. “Why did you open my mail? And at that, why did you open this specific piece of mail?” All though she didn’t know why, Devyn was fighting back tears.
“If you must know,” Nick answered. “I figured that I had just as much right to it as you did. I did pay for it you know?”
Devyn shook her head slowly and blinked away the tears which were longing to drip down her face. “Forget it Nick, I don’t even know why I asked.”
The mystery guy spoke. “Are you always this big of an ass to her?” He turned towards Devyn. “Just excuse Nickkers...He’s always like this before a tour.”
“Are you sure?” Devyn asked, glaring at Nick. “Because I could’ve never pictured it getting this bad.”
“C’mon Bone, don’t side with her on this. She’s been pushing me around the whole time I’ve been stuck here and now I’m finally free. Anyway Devyn, if you could please excuse us, AJ and I...”
“You’re Devyn?” AJ asked cutting Nick off.
“Yeah,” Devyn tried to smile. “Are you AJ?”
“Yep, that’s me.” He stood up to shake her hand. “Sorry about not introducing myself before...I’m just here to make sure that Nick has all the new stuff down for the concert. It kicks off in a week, I think you should go.”
Devyn was dumbfounded. “A week...” her sentence trailed off as she found Nick’s attention wondering away from hers. “He lied to me,” she thought to herself.
AJ tried to gain back Devyn’s eye contact, “Yeah, little Nicky here will be leaving you in just under 4 days. Are you gonna be sad to see him go?”
“Yeah...,” Devyn said shortly. “Well, anyway...” she was about to blow up for the hundredth time that night and so her voice was distracted. “...it was nice to meet you AJ. I’m sure all the fans in the world are wanting to kick my ass right now...two Backstreet Boys in my dorm room...lucky me,” her tone dripped with sarcastic anger. “Well, I’ll see ya later.” She shut the door quickly and ran down the hallway and out the door. As soon as she had made it outside, she sat down on the steps and cried silently to herself. “Why the hell would he tell me that he’s leaving tomorrow when he’s really leaving in four days...?” Devyn’s mind was racing with questions.
Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted. “Devyn!” Came Eric’s voice. His tone turned from excited to worried when he saw her. “What’s wrong?” he climbed the stairs and sat down beside her.
“Eric,” Devyn said, a little surprised to see him. She attempted to dry her eyes and speak over the lump in her throat. “Nothing, I just needed some fresh air, that’s all...what are you doing here?”
“You left this in my car,” Eric held out a sweatshirt and smiled. “I thought that you might need it tonight...in case you go running....or something...”
“Oh, thanks.” There was a moment of silence. “That was nice of you.”
Eric smiled. “So what’s wrong?” he asked in a serious tone.
“I’m really okay...”
“You’re crying Devyn, are you sure you’re doing okay?”
“...I hit my shin really hard against the table...” Devyn lied. She didn’t want Eric to worry about her but as he sat there, she felt completely wrapped up in his heart and nothing else in the world, including the paternal test and Nick’s attitude, meant anything. “Sorry, it’s been a...different day...but I’m fine, really.”
Not believing her, Eric enveloped Devyn into a big, comforting hug. Devyn held her tears in for a couple moments longer before she let herself fall apart, crying on his shoulder as though the everything in the whole world had just crashed into pieces. For long minutes, Eric sat holding Devyn, comforting her. He knew that she didn’t want to talk about it and that was fine. All Eric cared about at that moment was Devyn and as he sat there in silence, he realized that all Devyn needed was someone to understand that. After long moments of silence, Eric asked soothingly, “What’s going on Dev? I mean, besides the obvious...the paternal test...is there something else?”
Devyn sighed. “Yeah, but even I can’t understand it...I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next...”
Chapter Twenty-One
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