Even Though She Doesn't Believe In Love

“So, how was your day with Alex?” Jack asked later that night while hanging his head out his window. I sat on my balcony with a giant smile on my face.

“It was good,” I giggled. His eyebrows instantly rose.

“What went on?”

“Nothing bad. We just made out and stuff.”

“You are such a bad influence on me, I’m going to bed. Goodnight,” he laughed and turned like he was leaving.

“Oh please, at least I’m still a virgin.”

“Hey!” He pointed his finger at me. “That was one time, and I was tipsy,” he lied. Everybody knew he was still a virgin.

I laughed at him and looked inside at my clock. It was 11:57 PM. “Goodnight Jack.”

“Night Dev.” I shut the door and closed my curtains before turning on my alarm and shutting off the light.

I got up the next morning, took a shower, and left my hair down. I was getting dressed when someone knocked on my bedroom door. “I’m naked!” I yelled.

“Oh well,” Jack barged through the door as I pulled my bra over my head. It’s times like these I wish I had never given him a spare key that he had supposedly “lost”.

“Jack Bassam, I swear, you have no shame.” It wasn’t the first time he’s seen me naked, but it gets on my nerves when he does it on purpose.

“Please, you’ve seen me naked before. You act like it’s a big deal,” he picked up my perfume and sprayed it on his neck.

“True, but it wasn’t intentional. What was the purpose of that?”

“Because if I have a girl’s scent on me, it will make me seem more attractive
knowing I could be taken,” he winked.

“No, it makes you seem gay,” I laughed and pulled on my skinny jeans.

“Damn, I haven’t seen you in those in forever! I forgot you even had them.”

“I know, I’ve missed them,” I laughed, and slung my backpack over my
shoulder. “Come on,” I pulled him with my down the stairs, shut off all the lights, and locked the door.

We had just gotten to the corner when the bus pulled around and let us on. I sat next to Jack in a seat and waited to get to the school. “Dang Devon, sit still. You’re bouncing off the fucking walls.”

“What? I can’t be excited for school?” He shot me an oh-please look.

“We all know why you’re excited to get here, and it’s defiantly not for school, now get your ass off the bus,” he pushed me into the isle and followed me.

“Okay, big deal.” I rolled my eyes and walked right into a random kid. I muttered a sorry and continued walking.

“Bye Jack,” I waved and walked to first period. I was caught off guard when someone’s arms wrapped around my waist, picked me up, and spun me around. When I was set back on the ground, I turned to see Alex with a goofy grin on his face.

“You scared the hell out of me!” I laughed.

“I’m sorry,” he kissed me.

“It’s okay,” I smiled and walked with him into Social Studies.

“Excuse me, Miss, are you a new student?” Ms. Elk asked me.

“No ma’am, it’s Devon,” I laughed at her.

“Oh my, I didn’t even recognize you! Your hair looks so pretty when it’s down,” she smiled.

“Thank you,” I walked inside with Alex.

“See, I told you,” he smirked and I stuck my tongue out at him.

We marched on through the rest of the day and made it to gym. “Hey, what are you doing after school?” Jack asked.

“Nothing that I know of.”

“You wanna hang out with us at Alex’s?”

“Naw, I think I’m gonna stay home and clean up the house a little bit,” I lied. I totally wanted to hang out with them, but I didn’t want to kill their ‘guy time’.

“Suit yourself,” he shrugged and turned around.

Since Jack went home with Alex, I sat on the bus by myself. I went home and changed into my short shorts and a tank top. I was blaring blink-182 through my stereo speakers and belting out the words to every song.

Jack and Alex hung out almost everyday that month, and I ended up making up tons of excuses to not intrude. I’d go over there every now and then just so it wasn’t as suspicious, but I didn’t think they bought it.

Alex and I were still together, and Jack was still my best friend. They ended up kicking out the old drummer they had and replaced him with Rian, the kid I had dissected a frog with earlier this year. They had asked around for a bassist, but no one has come back to them yet.

It was a week away from Halloween, and I had no idea what I was going to be. Yes, even though I’m fourteen, I still dress up for it.

“Devon!” Jack shouted. I snapped into reality and looked at him. “I know what we can do for Halloween!”

“So tell me.”

“I’ll be the pimp, and you, Rian, and Alex are my hoes,” he said and I busted into laughter. “I thought it was a good idea…” he pouted.

“It is a pretty good idea, but have you talked to the guys about dressing them in slutty outfits and sending them into the cold?”

“Good point, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“Can’t we just get ninja costumes from the Dollar Store or something?” I suggested.

“Dev, I’m like, five foot seven. Those costumes are for five year olds.” I raised my eyebrow at him.

“And your point is? How great would that be to see a bunch of teenagers walk up to your door with tiny ninja costumes on and ask for candy?” I saw the corners of his mouth creep into a smile.

“Meet me at my house after school and I’ll get my mom to drive us.” I laughed at him and went to my next class when the bell rang.

I trudged on through the day, happy to get to gym knowing it was the last period of the day and tomorrow was Saturday. Of course, my parents would be home, but at least it was a few days away from school.

“So, Jack told me about your idea for Halloween,” Alex said.

I laughed and nodded my head. “You in?”

“Hell yeah! I wouldn’t miss this for nothin’!” I laughed at him. Class flew by fast and next thing you knew I was in the backseat of Joyce’s car with four six year olds’ costumes next to me.

Alex and Rian had come over where we gave them their costumes. “Man, this is gonna be awesome!” Rian exclaimed.

“No doubt,” Alex replied.

“You know what I love about Halloween?” I asked, sitting down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn in my lap.

“Everything,” Jack said, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, but the scary movies are the best,” I said, flipping through the channels to find a good one.

“That is if you can find one that’s worth your time,” Rian stated.

“That is very true, but if not, they almost always have The Nightmare Before Christmas playing, and everyone knows that’s the greatest movie ever.”

“Oh please, everyone knows the Halloween movies are the best,” Rian said.

“No way man. Jack Skellington is way better than Michael Myers any day.” His jaw dropped as if he couldn’t believe I just said that.

“Dude, you might as well just agree with her, because you’re not going to win. Devon always wins. I don’t know how she does it, but she does,” Jack said.

Rian shot me a whatever look and I stuck my tongue out at him. We ended up watching a bunch of cheep, straight to DVD movies until about ten at night when we all went
home.

Halloween finally rolled around and Alex, Rian, Jack and I were running the streets in ripped and torn ninja costumes. They didn’t lie when they said ‘Ages 6-10’, because fifteen year old guys and a fourteen year old girl could not fit into them.

We would jump around and peek out from around corners before running and hiding behind other things with our index fingers pressed together like we had guns. We got quite a few strange looks from the elderly when we knocked on their door, but we didn’t care. We were just being young and dumb, just having fun, and it was worth it.

All of us ended up falling asleep on the floor of Alex’s pool house, with the permission of our parents of course.

It was mid-November in Maryland and we could tell it was going to start snowing any day now. My parents were gone for the week and I was blaring Green Day when someone knocked on my door after school.

I leaped down the stairs and opened it up to a boy around my age with shoulder length black hair and a skateboard in his hand. I gotta give him credit, he was pretty cute.

“Hi, is Jack here?” He asked shyly.

“He actually lives next door,” I pointed to the house to the right of mine and tugged at the bottom of my shorts to make them a few inches longer.

“Sorry, he gave me really confusing directions, thanks though,” he said.

“No problem, can you tell him I’ll be over there in a few minutes?”

“Yeah, course,” he smiled.

“Thanks,” I returned the smile and went upstairs to change into some pants and a hoodie before wiping some of the eyeliner that was running off and shutting off my stereo before walking outside. “Oh, shit,” I whimpered as the cold hit me in the face.

I knocked on the door once before walking in, knowing it was just the boys there. His sister Leeyh and his brother were still at the elementary school they attended and both his parents were at work.

“Thank you, Miss Impatient,” Jack said as he met me at the door.

“It’s fucking cold out there!” He laughed at me as I kicked off my shoes and grabbed an apple off his counter. “Hey guys,” I waved at Alex, Rian, and the kid who showed up at my door.

“Devon, I love you,” Rian cried.

“What do you want?” I asked, taking a bite into the apple.

“Food.” I laughed at him.

“I’ll tell you what, if one of you guys will go over there and get some money out of my purse, I’ll pay for pizza,” I offered. Alex was already at the door pulling on his shoes.

“I’ll be right back,” he kissed me quickly and ran out the door. I laughed at his face when he realized how cold it was outside.

“You do realize he’s probably gonna go through your drawers and stuff, and sniff all your shirts?” Rian asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders and sat next to him on the couch. “It’s fucking cold out there!” Alex repeated my words as he walked through the door.

“Told you!” I smirked as he sat on my lap. I let out a groan of pain before pushing him off of me.

“Have you met Zack yet?” Alex looked up at me from the floor.

“Kinda,” Zack replied. “I accidently got the wrong house and went to hers
instead.”

“Yeah, I’m Devon, by the way,” I waved.

“Dev, you want just cheese, right?” I nodded. “Will pepperoni work for you guys?” They all nodded.

“Man, Alex, I bet you hate the fact your girlfriend’s vegetarian,” Rian said and both me and Alex shot him a question mark look.

“Umm, why?” Alex replied.

“No blowjobs for you,” Rian smirked and I heard Jack giggling in the kitchen.

“Shut your mouth, Jack!” I hollered and smacked Rian on the arm. They were all still laughing when I went in the kitchen, picked up an orange, threw it and hit Rian in his side as hard as I could. Jack instantly stopped when he realized he was next.

“Jesus Devon, I felt the wind off of that!” Alex cried as he looked up from his crouched position.

“Sorry, blame it on Rian,” I laughed and heard a knock on the door. I sat on the couch, my legs on both sides of Alex, who was still sitting on the floor with his back against the couch.

Jack came into the living room with two Dominos boxes in his hands and placed them in front of us on the coffee table and we all dug in.

After eating, they decided they were finally going to play a few songs and see if Zack was in or not. The kid was amazing at bass, and I wasn’t shocked when they let him join them.

I was walking around Jack’s house while they were taking a break. “And it feels like I'm at an all-time low, slightly bruised and broken from our head on collision,” I sung the words under my breath.

“Wait, say what you just said again,” Alex said. I hadn’t even realized he had walked into the kitchen where I was. I repeated the same lyrics and his eyes lit up. “Guys, I got it! All Time Low!”

“Like the New Found Glory lyrics?” Jack asked and Alex nodded.

“I think it would sound awesome,” Zack said and Rian nodded in agreement.

“So it’s settled?” They all nodded.

“What’s going on?” I asked, confused.

“You just helped us pick a name for the band. Thank you!” Alex said, taking my face in his hands and kissing me.

And that’s when you knew they were serious about the band.