Sentimental Value

Jessie lives life in her own little world. But when Devin steps in, Jessie gets the chance to see life from a brighter point of view. At least until he's gone.

Sentimental Value

“You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to,” Devin took a deep breath.  It was the day of homecoming, but he was walking me home. That had sort of become a habit of his. It annoyed me more than a little, and I had made this quite clear, but he was relentless. He continued, “but what happened? Like, why are you so mean?” Thanks, jerk.

I didn’t want to answer. He didn’t deserve an answer, especially since he was going to the homecoming with a certain w***e everyone knew but no one loved.  Still, in some ways, I did owe him. He saved my neck from another in-school suspension. After being late yet another day, my homeroom teacher finally got fed up with me and sent a request to the office for my punishment. Devin convinced him to take it back, under the condition he would make sure I was on time for school every day. Unfailingly, he had somehow managed to do that.

Thinking I wasn’t going to answer, Devin continued, “You have an adorable little brother, a decent house, a good education, and wonderful parents. Your mom especially-“

“She’s not my mom!” The very thing I didn’t want him to know burst from my lips before I could think of what I was about to say, “Does she look like she’s old enough to be my mom? No! The real b***h I call my mom was an alcoholic!” I paused for a minute, my breathing heavy. We had both stopped walking, and Devin was staring at me, his eyes locked on my face, “She’s gone. She got up one night when I was nine and left. She took the good car and some money. I haven’t heard from her since. She could be dead for all I know! I hope she is.” The last words stung, and yet still rolled off my tongue. I knew it was the truth. A truth I had never said aloud to anyone before.

Devin stepped closer and pulled me into a hug, and I realized tears were flowing out of my eyes. I don’t know how long we stood like that, him rubbing circles into my back, me trying to get a hold of myself for pride’s sake. But after a while, I pulled back, and wiped away the black residue that was most likely under my eyes.

“Don’t tell anyone about this.” I said quietly. I felt like such a weak, stupid little kid for crying in front of him. He patted my head, and just enhanced the feeling. I resisted the urge to punch him, just to remind him who the weak one here was.

“I won’t.” Somehow, I believed him. I shouldn’t have, but I did. He took a deep breath, “I have a dance to get ready for. It’s not too late to come if you want. I’ll dance with you.” He raised an eyebrow suggestively and I shook my head.

“I’d rather die,” I said it so bitterly he laughed. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he gave me a hug and then began to walk away. As I took the last steps towards my house the thought of going to the dance didn’t even cross my mind.

Not even once.

However, it lingered in the back of my head when nine o’ clock rolled around and I was sitting in my basement alone. Last minute, Lyss decided the dance was more important than our friendship. Overnight, all of my friends had gotten lives.

I found out later even Matt had somehow gotten a date. This disgusted me beyond reason, and I found a piece of me that pitied the poor girl who went with him. As for the rest of the guys, they would be lucky if I ever spoke to them. I contemplated varying degrees of torture as I slowly sipped from a beer bottle. A bottle that most likely would have been shared, had there been someone to share it with.

They all deserved to die, ditching my party to go have fun at a homecoming dance that they could have gone to any time in the next two years. Homecoming, in essence, was a popularity contest, a beauty pageant, and a grinding festival all combined into one freak show. How they could possibly pick that over a party straight from the good times was beyond me.

I heard my dad’s familiar knock on the basement door, and I yelled permission for him to come down. His footsteps were followed by ones I wasn’t familiar with, and I turned around to see Devin following my dad closely behind the stairs. What’s he doing here?

My dad cleared his throat, “Jessie, Devin is here to see you. Please don’t hurt him on our property. We can’t afford a lawsuit right now.” I won’t make promises. He nodded, and then walked back up the stairs, leaving a very concerned-looking and well dressed Devin staring at me questioningly.

“Looks like you’re having…fun.” Oh, does it now? His tone wasn’t sarcastic, but more questioning. I slouched down in the purple bean-bag I was sitting in, and stared straight ahead.

“Yeah, yeah I am.” No, no I’m not. He walked towards me until he was right in front of me. I didn’t like looking up at him, but standing up would bring us just too close. He nudged the bean bag with his foot.

“Is this really better than homecoming, Jess?” You are not allowed to call me that! Instead of answering, I gave him an indignant look and took another swig of the beer, half tempted to see what his face would look like if I offered him a sip.

Rather awkwardly he sat down beside me. It was comical how he was prevented from free movement by an almost casual suit. I almost reminded him to stay at least an arms distance away, but then figured he wouldn’t listen anyway.

I suddenly made a connection, “Why are you here?  Sara-Jay would kill you if she knew-”

He interrupted me, “She’s sick. Food poisoning.” He looked at me for a moment, like he expected me to take credit for it. I only smiled.

“It appears I have someone to send flowers too.” My smile grew a little bigger and Devin gave me a look that would have told anyone else to shut up.  It was just an invitation for me to continue. But before I could say anything else, he took a deep breath and stood up.

“I knew you were likely at your house, so I thought I’d stop by and see how you were doing.” He held out his hand like I was supposed to do something with it. “You want to dance, Jessie?”

I wouldn’t dance with him to save my own life, “No.”

“Jessie. Please. Just one dance.” His eye pleaded pathetically. I resisted the urge to spit on that puppy-dog face.

An excuse presented itself to my mind, “There’s no music.”

He kneeled next to me, dropping his voice so it was as smooth as silk, “And if there was?” I wondered how long he had practiced that voice to himself in the mirror.

Stupid, stupid boy. “But there isn’t.”

His eyes searched mine, and he raised an eyebrow with a half smile, “What if there was, though?”

He was a throne away from being crowned the most annoying person I had ever met, “If music magically comes out of nowhere, I’ll dance with you.” I gave him a sarcastic smile that faded as he pulled an mp3 player out of his pocket.

“What song shall we dance to?” He asked with a self-assured, clever grin on his face.

There were no words for how much pain I wanted to put him in, “F**k you.”

He laughed, “I don’t think I have that song. How about John Mayer? Gravity.”

He was not going to ruin one of my favorite songs for me, “I’d rather not.” He ignored my comment, and waved the hand still in front of me back and forth slightly. With an exaggerated eye roll, I took his hand. He pulled me to his feet, and offered me an ear bud that railed down to a matching one meant for the other ear. He pressed a few buttons on his mp3 player, and then a very familiar song filled my right ear. He lifted my other hand, and began to step to the side, leaving me no choice but to move with him.

I stayed firm and didn’t move an inch closer to him than I had to. No one made me dance and got off easily. I felt him try to pull me closer, but I took a purposeful step backwards, so we had almost completely tested the distance of the chord that connected the headphones. Smartening up, Devin stepped towards me. I wasn’t immature enough to take another step back. I turned my face sideways so I didn’t have to look at him. Unfortunately, when someone is that close to you, and holding both your hands hostage, wherever you look you’re always aware they are there.

I counted the seconds until the song ended. Daring him to make another move. Wondering how many laws I could break in the span of a minute if he did.

A minute and forty-three seconds later, the song ended. I stepped back quickly, yanking the ear bud out of my ears as he released my hands. I quickly sat down again before he could ask me for another dance. I glared at him, daring him to say anything to make me mad.

Devin rolled the chord of his headphones around the mp3 player, and then looked at me with a satisfied smile. He gave me a nod, and started a slow walk towards my stairs, pausing for a moment as he spoke, “I hope you and your jack have a lovely evening, Jessie.”

I wondered how many seconds of the song he had spent thinking that up.

Reviews

[Daydreamer54]

I love it when theyr'e togehter! everything's so comical and devin is really sweet! At least now we know the reason behind her anger...I hope devin is able to change her.