“I’ll say it only once, leave us alone and I’ll leave your face in one piece.” Devin stepped forward aggressively.
“I’ll leave, I’ll leave, but can I just ask how you went from making her the laughing-stock in high school to actually dating her?”
“Let’s just say I have you to thank for that. Now leave.”
I watched as the one person I hated most walked away. Before I could even thank Devin, he pulled me toward him in a hug. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I didn’t do more.” He stepped back and looked down at my face, his hands on my shoulders. “I just thought it best he leave instead of beating him to a bloody pulp and having to face murder charges.”
I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck, catching him off guard “What you did was perfect, though the bloody pulp thing is tempting. Thanks, Dev.”
“For you, anytime, CJ.”
I was about to ask what he meant when Larissa and Zach walked up.
“What happened? We didn’t see much except that you were upset at someone.” Larissa said. “You looked like you wanted to punch his lights out. Who was it? We didn’t catch what he looked like.”
“Did I hear that guy say you were dating her?” Zach asked.
“Yes, but—”
“I knew it!” Larissa shouted excitedly over the music. “I told you, didn’t I?” she said, looking at Zach.
“Fine, you win, but the others won’t let you win so easily next time.”
Devin interrupted before I could say anything. “You guys had bets that I was dating Christy?”
“Not Christy exactly, just someone. But then I saw Christy this afternoon and I went double or nothing on her. And guess what? I totally just won two hundred bucks!”
“I hate to break it to you—” Devin tried to tell them.
Larissa interrupted again, “So who was the creep?”
I looked up at Devin suddenly, unable to speak. He gave me a sympathetic smile and put an arm around my shoulders. “He is Christy’s ex from high school. The biggest asshole in the world.”
“So can I ask a question?” Zach hesitated. Devin nodded his head but kept a tight grip on me as if he was afraid the question would physically weaken me. “What did you do to make Christy the laughing-stock of school?”
Larissa hit him in the arm.
I cracked a smile. “It’s okay. I don’t mind that part of the story,” I told them. “A long time ago I wrote in my journal that I was going to marry Devin.”
“How cute,” Larissa cooed.
“Well, my brother showed Devin and Devin brought it to school—mind you, I was a freshman at the time—and he showed it to everyone as a joke. So people knew me as the stupid little girl who loved Devin. But I guess the thing that made it worse was the fact that because Devin and my brother made fun of me for it, everyone else thought they could too. So until I graduated, people still remembered me as that girl.”
“Wow, Dev, that’s pretty harsh stuff. It’s a wonder you managed to get her to go out with you in the first place,” Zach said.
“I’m still not completely in her good graces.” Devin smiled and looked down at me. I saw it in his eyes the moment he realized they still believed we were dating. But before he could say anything, Larissa’s phone rang.
“Hey! Yeah, we're at the club. Okay, I’ll tell him. Yeah, all right. See you in a bit.” Larissa looked at Zach. “That was Kevin, he said the others are at his place.” I recognized the name of one of their fellow cast members. They were probably having their own get together.
“Okay, awesome.” Zach looked at us. “Sorry to cut this short, I really want to hear more about this little duo that’s going on here,” he said, motioning to the two of us. “But we got to head out. See you tomorrow?”
Devin tried once more to tell them the truth but Zach and Larissa just waved as they ran off.
“I’ll just tell them tomorrow.” Devin shrugged.
“Poor Larissa. She’s going to have to give them their money back.”
“She’ll survive. She seems to win any bet she makes,” Devin said. “Do you want to leave now?”
“I just need to get my jacket.”
I walked back toward the VIP room, pushing through the crowd. I looked back and couldn’t see Devin behind me.
“Looking for your boyfriend?” Eric asked, and I flinched. “Not so tough now without him, are you?”
I kept walking, thinking it was best not to engage him. I’d be near the VIP room in a few steps anyway.
“You know, I think what I miss most about you, Christy, is how willing you were to do anything I wanted, as long as it made me happy, right? I’ll never forget your face though, at that party, when you found out it was fake. We had a pretty good laugh, too bad you didn’t stick around.”