She's My Kinda Girl

”Oh, my God. Did you hear what happened to Devan Saylor?”

“I heard she was drinking and driving.”

“I heard the other person was.”

“I heard that she died on the operating table. Twice.”

“I heard that she’s paralyzed from the waist down.”

“Do you think she’ll be in a wheelchair?”

“Maybe guys will actually talk to her now. Even if it is out of pity.”

“Please, guys will only notice her because of the wheelchair. It won’t make them like her.”

“Maybe she deserved it. She’s not the nicest person in the world.”

“No one knows if she’s nice or not—she doesn’t talk to anyone.”

“Well, still, maybe she deserved it.”

Alex had heard probably every single possible theory from every girl in the school that morning. Devan Saylor had gone from the girl that no one really knew but no one really liked to an instant in-school celeb overnight. And while Alex would normally take credit for some girl gaining popularity, he didn’t say anything. (Of course, all the other times it was because he had slept with them. This time, it was because he almost killed one of them. Oops.)

He avoided the crowds as if they were the plague, as if someone could tell by looking at him that he had done something really, really bad. Even though he knew there was no possible way, he still felt… Oh, God, there was that term again—guilty. Would it ever end? He stopped at his locker and just stared at it for a minute, wondering if the feeling was ever going to go away.

“Hey, man.”

Alex jumped, slamming his locker shut onto his thumb. He let out a loud curse—one that caused a teacher down the hallway to yell at him—and glared at his friend, Rian. “The fuck, man?”

Rian smiled, his pearly white teeth shining. “You okay? Hungover?” he asked, taking notice of the redness around Alex’s eyes.

Alex scoffed, nursing his bruising thumb. “No.”

Rian’s eyebrow shot up in a look of clear disbelief.

“Okay, maybe a little,” he admitted with a shrug.

“What were you up to last night?” he asked with a slight laugh.

“Nothing,” Alex said a little too quickly.

Rian paused, studying his friend’s face. “Bro, what’s wrong? You’re a little jumpier than normal…”

“Nothing,” he repeated. “I’m fine. I didn’t do anything—I’m fine.”

Rian stood there with a stoic look upon his face. “Yeah, I don’t believe you for a second.”

Alex sighed, running his hands over his hair. He groaned in frustration when he realized that the hair he had spent thirty minutes on trying to tame that morning had been messed up even more. He pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head and kicked the bottom of his locker. “I hate Mondays.”

“It’s Thursday.”

“Well. I still hate Mondays,” Alex muttered.

Rian sighed and grabbed his friend’s arm, dragging him down the hall and into the men’s bathroom. He yelled at the underclassmen to get out—who did so instantly out of fear (Rian could be pretty intimidating when he wanted to). He kicked the door to the bathroom shut, locking it to ensure no one else would come in, and he released his hold on Alex. “What the fuck happened?”

“Not—“

“Don’t lie to me, Lex,” Rian said. “I’m not an idiot. You look like shit. And I know it’s not a hangover because you know how to deal with that. You look like you suffered a bad trip or something. Which I hope isn’t the case considering you know my viewpoint on hard drugs. Now I know something is wrong since you and Jack are damn near inseparable and he’s not here today.”

“Adele isn’t here either,” he muttered.

“So they’re skipping to have sex—big deal. I want to know what’s wrong with you,” Rian told him.

Alex sighed. “I did something really, really stupid last night.”

“When don’t you?”

“No, this…this takes the cake, bro…”

+

Devan nodded slowly as the doctor explained everything. Or, well, almost everything. She couldn’t help the fact that she zoned out a little bit—big deal. She pretty much knew what to expect, but she couldn’t help feeling more than a little bitter. She was going to be in a wheelchair for three to four weeks—depending on how fast her body healed. And after that, crutches. And she couldn’t help but think about graduation in one month. She hoped she’d be healed enough to walk across stage. But maybe that was just foolish thinking.

She would be able to leave the hospital by Sunday—they just needed a couple more days of observation to make sure nothing else was wrong. She would be leaving with a prescription for pain medication that she was almost positive she wouldn’t take and a prescription to help fight any sort of infection that she might obtain after leaving. After all, her immune system was slightly compromised.

Of course, the only thing she was thinking about actually leaving the hospital.

+

“Jack and I had been drinking and smoking, right?” Alex started, leaning against the sink. “And…we decided to go for a drive.”

“You decided,” Rian corrected.

Alex frowned. “Why does everyone blame it on me?”

“Jack’s not quite that stupid,” Rian said with a shrug.

Alex sighed. “Fine. I decided to go for a drive. And…I was speeding, you know? It was late at night—I didn’t think anything of it. And it was down on Thames, so I know that road really well. But, I don’t know. My mind was hazy, and I ran a stop sign.”

“Okay…?

“You know, uh, Devan Saylor?”

Rian’s eyes widened. “You didn’t.”

“That was my fault, Rian,” Alex whispered, just in case someone else could hear him.

“You could’ve killed that girl!”

“I know!” Alex said. “But Jack and I— We all have that record deal to think of, Ri. If the cops had caught me, we would’ve lost the deal and the tour, you know?”

“So you left the scene?!”

“We made sure she was okay! Jack and I pulled her from the car and made sure she wasn’t, you know, dead…”

“You left the scene,” Rian repeated slowly.

“She’s okay, though! You’ve heard the rumors—she’s alive. And she didn’t look that bad when we saw her at the hospital last night,” he muttered under his breath.

Rian paused. “Wait. So you almost kill the girl, then leave the scene, then go to the hospital to see her?”

Alex shrugged and nodded.

“Why did you even go to the hospital, Alex?! Did you just have to see all of the damage you caused?!”

Alex frowned. Okay, he didn’t have the best judgment in the world—he knew that. But he didn’t think that he deserved to have Rian think so little of him. He could have come up with some really great excuse, but instead he went with the truth. “Jack’s girlfriend, Adele, is her best friend. Adele needed a ride so I gave her one. I stayed until she got out of surgery.

Rian sighed. “Does Adele know?”

Alex went to answer but he was cut off.

“No, of course she doesn’t know. And Jack has no intention of telling her, does he?”

“Well, I think—“

“No, of course he doesn’t,” Rian mused. “My friends are idiots.”

“Thanks,” Alex muttered dejectedly.

Rian sent him a look before rolling his eyes. “So what are you going to do?”

“About what?”

“About Devan! C’mon, Alex, you’re not that stupid.”

“I don’t know,” Alex answered honestly. “I’ll probably avoid her until graduation—“

“How can you avoid her when you’ve never even talked to her before?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m a man of many talents. And never talking to her actually helps the situation. She won’t even realize it.”

“Shut up.”

“Well, what the fuck do you want me to say, Rian?!” Alex asked, beginning to grow annoyed. “No matter what I say, you will find a reason to disagree and say it’s stupid as fuck. So why don’t you tell me what you want me to do.”

“Simple,” Rian said with a careless shrug. “Tell Devan it was your fault.”

+

Devan sighed, staring at the yellow Jello sitting on the tray that was in front of her. It was not her favorite flavor. In fact, she actually really, really hated Jello. But more than that, she hated being stuck in that damn hospital bed and not being able to leave whenever she wanted. That—That was probably the worst part.

“You know, you’re going to have a lot of homework to catch up on if you insist on staying at the hospital with me,” Devan said quietly.

Adele looked up from her laptop and shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck.”

“You should go to class tomorrow.”

“When I know you’re okay, I will.”

“I’m fine, Del.”

“No, you’re not,” Adele told her. “I’ve known you for years. I know when you’re okay. You are not okay.”

“I’m—“

“Physically, I know you’ll heal because you’re a strong girl. But I don’t think you’re in the right mind right now.”

Devan glanced back at her friend with a frown on her face. “I’m wonderful, Del. I can’t use my legs for a month, I’ve tarnished my perfect attendance record, and I have to go through physical therapy. I’m fucking wonderful.”

“Dev—“

“And on top of that, the bastard who hit me, left the scene. No one saw it happen, no one knows who it was, and it’s their fault I’m fucking like this!” she snapped.

Adele paused, not really knowing what to say.

Devan ran her hands over her hair, ignoring the pain in her wrist. Yeah, she was mad. She was really fucking frustrated. It would’ve been a completely different story if the person had stayed to help her, but she couldn’t remember much. The only thing she remembered was a pair of dark eyes, someone asking her if she was okay. But she couldn’t decipher whether that was from before or after the police got there. She just…didn’t know.

And, okay, she was taking it out on her best friend. Her best friend who rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night to be with her, to be there when she woke up from surgery. But, well, it was always said that people took it out on the ones they were closest to. And Devan was most definitely doing that.

“I’m sorry, Del,” she whispered. “I just… You’re right.”

“It’s okay.”

Devan sighed. “No, it’s not. I just… I’m angry, you know?”

Del nodded. Okay, she didn’t really know know, but she knew. Relatively. Well, kind of.

“Whoever did this… I just. I hate them. You know?”

Del nodded again and walked over to Devan, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I do, too, babe.”