She's My Kinda Girl

Alex hated hospitals. Well, okay, he didn’t know anyone who actually liked them. He supposed most people were rather ambivalent in regards to hospitals—better places to be and all of that. But, no, Alex actually hated them. It got to the point where even if he was injured, he wouldn’t go to the hospital. (And he had gotten injured a few times in the early days of band practice, before Zack got all buff and could carry amps on his own, Alex and Jack had dropped a few. And, yes, a few times they landed on feet regarding in broken toes that went untreated because Alex refused. He also liked to use the ‘I’m a man and a man can put up with pain’ excuse, too, but no one bought it.)

But as he stood outside of Devan’s room, he pushed that feeling aside. It would have been easy, so easy, to turn around and forget all about it. After all, Devan had no idea. But then Alex’s mind flew back to that moment, when Jack was leaning over her and he was pulling his best friend away. What if she did recognize him? What if she pointed fingers? What if—

Alex shook his head; no, the entire idea was ludicrous. Devan wouldn’t remember.

Or would she?

Alex frowned, smacking himself upside the head in order to shut that nagging little voice (ie: his conscience) up. With a heavy sigh, he walked further down the hallway until he stopped outside of Devan’s room. Part of him was surprised he remembered the room number, but a bigger part of him would’ve been embarrassed if he hadn’t. He was about to step into Devan’s room when Adele came walking out, her eyes wide as they landed on him.

“What are you doing here?” Adele asked folding her arms over her chest.

Alex paused for a minute. “I was…looking for Jack,” he said.

Adele’s eyebrows shot up.

“He wasn’t at school today. And, uh, this was the…first place that came to mind,” he told her.

“Mhmm.”

Alex sighed. “Whatever. Have you seen him?” he asked.

“He went home a little bit ago. I was going to go call him,” she told him.

“Tell him I said hi.”

“Okay,” Adele said, not bothering to add more to the conversation and also not bothering to move.

“What?” Alex asked.

Adele watched him for a minute. “Are you leaving?”

“In a minute,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Me, too.”

Alex sighed; the girl was giving him a migraine and the conversation had been less than two minutes. He could easily pull the ‘I don’t know why she hates me so much’ card with Jack, but he never did. Because, being Alex, he had probably pissed her off at some point in time. But Adele never bothered trying to be civil or forge any sort of friendship for Jack’s sake, so Alex never bothered to either.

“You can go now,” Adele snapped.

“Ladies first.”

Adele sighed. “There’s really no point in you talking to her. She doesn’t like you.”

“She doesn’t know me.”

“Even if she did—“

“Because you don’t?”

Adele sniffed. “Because she has better taste than that.”

Alex smiled. “Right. Okay.”

“She does.”

“Stop trying to convince me.”

Adele’s jaw clenched. “Fine,” she snapped. “If you go in there…”

“What are you gonna do about it?” Alex asked, walking around and stepping closer to the door.

“Alex—“

“What?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Don’t—“

Alex smiled and walked into Devan’s hospital room, pushing the door shut behind him. His eyes immediately landed on Devan, who’s eyes shot open at the sudden sound.

“What—“

“Hi,” Alex said awkwardly, his hand reaching up to scratch the back of his neck.

Devan sat up slowly, noticeably flinching, and she fumbled for the remote for the bed. Hitting the proper buttons, the back of the bed raised to help support her, and she finally settled her attention on the teenager standing in the doorway of her hospital room. “Hi.”

“I’m Alex. We…go to Dulaney together,” he told her.

Devan nodded slowly, wishing she hadn’t sat up so quickly (even though it was rather slow) as her head was starting to hurt. “I know,” she replied, reaching over to the bedside table for her water, frowning when she couldn’t reach.

“Oh, let me,” Alex said, rushing over to the table to pick up the cheap plastic cup of ice water, handing it to Devan so she could take a drink.

“Thank you.”

Alex nodded before taking a seat on the couch that was placed in front of the window.

Devan set the cup down on her lap, her finger wiping off random rows of condensation. “What—What are you doing here?”

Alex should have known that she was going to ask that—he really should’ve. But in his haste to actually get to the hospital (and then to get inside before he could talk himself out of it), he really hadn’t prepared a response at all. “I heard about the accident at school.”

Devan let out a soft laugh. “Not surprising.”

“I um, I brought you a card.”

Devan’s eyebrows rose. “Did you?”

Alex flinched, wanting to punch himself for sounding so stupid. “No, I—I didn’t. But I should’ve, huh?” he asked with an awkward laugh.

“I hate cards.”

“I didn’t know girls had the ability to hate something thoughtful,” Alex mused. “I guess you learn something new every day, huh?”

Devan laughed. “I actually find cards to be the exact opposite. If one was really so thoughtful, they wouldn’t need to use someone else’s words—they could use their own. Cards are a cheap throwaway reminder that the person didn’t put as much thought into it as possible. That and people rarely read them, they merely sign and are on their way, as if that little ‘get well soon!’ is actually relevant in some way,” she rambled with a cursory shrug of her shoulders.

Alex paused. “You’ve put a lot of thought into why you hate cards, haven’t you?”

“Would you believe I just pulled that pseudo-rant out of my ass?” she asked.

Alex laughed. “Did you really?”

“I did. But I really do hate cards,” she told him.

“Duly noted.”

Devan smiled softly and took another drink of her water before reaching over and setting it on the edge of the table. She flinched and reached for the button to release another dose of pain medication. She knew it would take a minute or so but she still settled back against the bed. “You’re one of Jack’s friends, aren’t you?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. And you’re his bitch—his girlfriend’s best friend?”

“Yes,” she said. “And Del can be a bitch sometimes, so no worries.”

“Well that’s good to know.”

Devan nodded.

Where Alex felt no need to further the conversation with Adele, he wanted Devan to keep talking. He didn’t know why. He shifted in the seat and his eyes never left her face. “Do you remember?” he asked softly.

Devan didn’t bother opening her eyes. “Remember what?”

“The accident.”

She let out a soft sigh. “Not really. Just lots of noise and screaming—most of the screaming was probably me.”

Alex didn’t bother correcting her—she hadn’t screamed once. “Do they know who did it?”

“No. I still can’t believe whoever it was left, though,” she said quietly.

Alex flinched visibly. He should’ve expected that and, okay, he did, he really did. What he didn’t expect was all the guilt building up inside of him. He was feeling a lot of that lately; he doubted it would ever go away. “Yeah, um,” he cleared his throat, “what an asshole, huh?”

“I’m trying to do the whole forgiveness thing, like a good Christian would,” she told him. “But it’s hard.”

“Forgiveness is always hard.”

“It’s always easier to imagine all the ways I could stop their heart by beating them to a bloody pulp,” she commented.

Alex’s eyes widened, not necessarily out of fear but out of shock. He never would’ve guessed that Devan would say something like that. But he didn’t know her all that well, so maybe it was normal. But he found himself wondering why he had never made an effort to talk to her before. “Yes, that is always easier,” he muttered.

Devan didn’t bother responding—the pain medication was already settling in and she could feel her eyes getting heavier.

“Are you in a lot of pain?” Alex asked softly.

She nodded.

There was that guilt again—hitting him like a Mack truck in the pit of his stomach. “Shit.”

“It’s not your fault, Alex.”

Oh, yeah, it was building up again. Fuck.

“Hey, Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I hate asking since, well, we aren’t friends, but…”

“Yeah?”

Devan shook her head. “Um. Would you be able to bring me the work I’ve missed?”

Alex paused. She was in the hospital, after a horrible wreck (that was most definitely his fault), in such a high level of pain that the medication kept her nearly unconscious most of the time (he imagined, anyway), and she was going to worry about schoolwork? “You, uh, you do realize we graduate in a month, right?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“So…why bother? I’m sure your grades are high enough.”

Devan sighed. “Three reasons, Alex. One: I want to graduate with honors. If my grades slip, I’m out of National Honors Society and there goes half of my scholarships to Berkley. Two: I don’t not turn in homework. I’m a nerd. Three: I’m bored. I need something to do until my doctor says I can go back to school.”

Alex shrugged. That was a simple enough breakdown. Of course he was always surprised (and impressed, if he was being honest) by girls who took their education seriously. Intelligence was attractive, even if half (or more than half) of the girls he had hooked up with didn’t even know how to spell the word. “Okay. I can get that for you.”

“You can probably get my schedule from the office,” she told him with a shrug.

“I could get it from Adele—“

“No.”

Alex paused. She didn’t want him talking to her best friend? Could it get any better? “Why not?” he asked curiously.

Devan sighed, her eyes opening slowly and meeting his without fail. “She’ll say I have other things to worry about. I’ll say that I’d rather focus on something I can change versus something I can’t. She’ll say something snarky, I’ll say something bitchy, we won’t talk for a few hours, and then we’ll move on. But I don’t have the strength for that right now.”

Alex smiled. Yeah, he really didn’t know why they had never talked before. He was really starting to regret that. Of course, he was finding himself starting to regret a lot of things as of late. “Sounds like me and Rian sometimes.”

“Dawson?”

Alex nodded.

“He’s a nice guy.”

“Yeah, he is.”

Devan smiled softly. “Thank you for coming to visit me.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s no problem. I’ll get your classwork for you tomorrow.”

“Could you… I mean, if it’s not out of the way, could you…bring it here?” she asked.

“Yeah, definitely.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” Alex said.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, a hand reaching up to rub at her eyes. No. She was not crying. She didn’t cry.

Alex stood up and walked over to the bed, grabbing her hand gently. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

Alex smiled, his thumb rubbing over the back of her hand.

Devan’s eyes drifted shut slowly before opening abruptly when she heard her hospital door open quickly.

Alex jumped back, releasing Devan’s hand and shoving his own into his pockets.

“Hey, daddy,” Devan said with a smile.

Mr. Saylor stood by the foot of her bed, eyeing Alex. “Hi, sweets. How are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

“Maybe your company should leave them,” he said.

“I was on my way out, Mr. Saylor,” Alex said politely.

“Alex was just offering to collect any work I’ve missed since I’ve been out,” Devan said.

“That’s very nice of him,” Mr. Saylor said. “I was going to do so tomorrow.”

“I don’t mind, Mr. Saylor.”

“It would be easier for him, dad,” Devan said. “So you wouldn’t have to go out of your way.”

Mr. Saylor nodded slowly, still eyeing Alex.

Yeah, Alex knew that look. It was the ‘I don’t trust you around my daughter’ look. He had gotten those before. Whatever. It wasn’t anything new.