She's My Kinda Girl

It all happened so fast.

Devan wasn’t really sure where reality started to fade and when she started to hallucinate. If she were being honest, she would say she didn’t care. She was no longer familiar with the real world. And that didn’t bother her. She forced her eyes shut so the world would stop spinning, but the noises didn’t stop. She heard yelling, screaming, sirens.

But she had no idea what was going on.

“Oh, my God. Oh, shit,” the voice muttered, deep and scared, his words slurred. “Are you okay?”

“Jack—we have to go, dude, the cops are coming,” another more frantic voice whispered.

“Alex, she— We know her. She goes to our school—“

“I don’t care, bro, she’ll live. But if we get caught, we won’t. We have to go,” he repeated. “Come on.”

“Alex, she could die—“

“She’s not going to die,” the voice said, a mixture of exasperation and frustration in his tone.

“But what if—“

“We have to go!”

Devan’s head lulled to the side and her eyes opened up slightly. She could see the red lights and hear people yelling. She could vaguely feel the grass under her hands and she tried to grip a few pieces, but her hands weren’t agreeing with her. She was cold, borderline shivering, which was not unusual for May in Baltimore. What was unusual was how she couldn’t remember how she got there.

“Ma’am? Ma’am, can you hear me?”

Devan could hear the voice clearly, but her eyes weren’t focusing. She nodded—or tried to; there were hands framing each side of her neck, and she felt herself attempt to cry out in fear.

“Ma’am? Can you tell me your name?”

Devan coughed, her eyes drifting shut again. Her head was pounding and she could still feel the world spinning around her. “Devan. Devan Saylor.”

+

“Alex, what the fuck did you just do?” Jack muttered, resting his head against the window as Alex sped down the nearly empty Baltimore streets.

“Shut up, Jack. Just shut up,” Alex repeated under his breath.

“You almost killed that girl.”

“Shut. Up.”

Jack sighed, running a hand over his face. “Do you know how much shit we’re gonna be in? Drinking and driving, you without a license, hitting some girl, and fleeing the scene?” he asked.

Alex shook his head. “Just stop, Jack. I don’t want to think about this right now.”

“How can you not think about it?!”

“Easy! By not thinking about it,” Alex mumbled.

“If she dies—“

“She’s not going to fucking die.”

“Dude, she goes to our school.”

Alex sighed.

“How are we going to be able to walk through the hallway and not say something?”

“It’ll be easy for me,” Alex said with a shrug.

“Well, I’m sorry it’s more difficult for me to not give a shit than it is for you,” Jack muttered.

“Look, they’re going to assume it was someone else. She won’t remember anything. And we’ll be fine. We’ll graduate next month, we’ll go on tour, we’ll record, and we’ll leave all of this behind us, okay?” Alex said.

“But—“

“No buts, Jack,” Alex said, his tone changing dramatically from comforting to harsh. He pulled the car off to the side of the road, flipping on his hazard lights just in case, and he turned to face his best friend. “We don’t mention this to anyone, okay?”

Jack sighed. “Alex—“

“Not Rian and not Zack. Not your mother, your sister, your brother, anyone, okay? Got it?”

Jack frowned. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to like it, Jack. Just agree, okay?”

Jack sighed.

“Look. If the label finds out, we could get in a lot of fucking trouble, okay?” Alex said.

“Only thinking about yourself again, huh?” Jack muttered.

“Yes,” Alex said with a nod. “We’re not friends with that girl, Jack. We never even talk to her.”

“I’m dating her best friend! How in the hell can I lie to Adele like that?!” he asked.

“Don’t lie to her, bro, just…don’t tell her,” Alex shrugged.

Jack sighed and was about to respond when his cell phone rang, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between the two of them. He glanced down, his girlfriend’s name flashing across the screen. He sucked in a deep breath before answering.

”Jack?”

His eyes drifted shut when he heard her crying. “What’s wrong, babe?”

”Devan’s been in an accident. Will you come get me so I can go to the hospital?”

“Of course, babe. I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Jack said as calmly as he could before he hung up. He didn’t bother meeting Alex’s eyes. “Take me to Adele’s house. We’re going to the hospital.”

“I’m not going—“

“Not you and I, dipshit—me and Adele. Now come on. You owe me that much.”

“Jack, I didn’t—“

“It’s your fault, Alex,” Jack snapped.

Alex scoffed but pulled away from the curb and turned around, heading in the direction of Adele’s house. “So you’re going to blame this all on me?”

Jack nodded and rested his head against the window. He wasn’t sure if it was a mixture of alcohol and weed from the party earlier or whether it was from Alex being a dipshit, but Jack was quickly starting to get an awful migraine. He had no idea how he was going to lie to his girlfriend. And he had no idea why he was even contemplating lying to his girlfriend for his best friend. Maybe it was because Alex had more at stake than Adele did, or maybe it was because of their “bros over hoes” mentality. He wasn’t sure.

“Jack, you know I didn’t do it on purpose,” Alex said.

“I know. But you left on purpose. And if anything happens to Devan…”

“Devan?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “The girl you could have killed? That’s Devan, Adele’s best friend, you dipshit,” he snapped.

Alex bit his lip and turned left at the light (illegally—but, hey, he wasn’t going to wait for it to turn green when no one was around) before pulling up to Adele’s house. “Don’t say anything to her, okay?”

Jack sighed. “Alex, how do you expect me to lie to my girlfriend? I’m not you—lying doesn’t come easily for me.”

Alex sat back in his seat. He and Jack had traded insults hundreds of times—it was normal for them—but that one, no, that one hurt more. “Thanks, Jack.”

Jack ran his hands over his face. “Even when you deserve it, you still have a way of making me feel guilty,” he muttered. “I’ll be right back.” With that, he got out of Alex’s old Honda and walked up the steps to Adele’s house. He didn’t even have time to raise his hand to knock before Adele was out of the door and in his arms, crying against his shoulder.

“Thank you so much, Jack,” she whispered against his shoulder.

Jack rubbed her back, slowly, soothingly. “Let’s get you to the hospital, okay? Do you know which one they’re taking her to?”

Adele nodded. “Her father called and told me. They’re taking her to Mercy.”

“Okay,” Jack said quietly.

Adele started walking to the car and paused. “You brought Alex?” she asked, frowning.

Jack sighed. Yeah, it didn’t help when his girlfriend and best friend hated one another. “Yeah. I was at his house when you called me.”

“He lives twenty minutes away from me,” Adele said. “You made it to my house in seven.”

“We were driving around,” Jack lied. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that hard to lie to her. But that didn’t mean he liked it.

“Oh,” Adele said. “He’s not going into the hospital. He’ll make an ass out of himself.”

“I know,” Jack agreed. “He’ll stay in the car. I’ll talk to him about it.”

“Okay,” she said, leaning up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

Jack smiled and led her to the car, opening the back door for her and shutting it when she was inside and buckled up. He followed suit, avoiding Alex’s eye contact. “She’s at Mercy,” he told Alex.

Alex nodded.

“Why does your car smell like pot?” Adele asked.

Alex rolled his eyes. “Because it’s my car, and I can do whatever the fuck I want in it.”

“Jack. Were you smoking pot with Alex?”

Jack sighed. He loved Adele, he did, but he didn’t love how she tried to tell him what to do all the time. “No. I didn’t.” Another lie, this one coming easier than the first.

“Okay,” Adele muttered. “Are we almost there?”

Alex gripped the wheel a little tighter. “We will be in a few minutes.”

“Good.”