Following Me (24 page)

“Yeah.  It’s the Fourth of
July…well, it’s the fifth now,” he said, sitting heavily on the bed.

The covers fell down past her
breasts, which were only covered by her thin nightshirt.  His eyes followed the
movement, and for once, Devon was glad for the cover of darkness.

She pulled up the sheet.  “Why
are you back already?”  She yawned as she read the clock. 
Midnight.
 
“Aren’t you supposed to be out with your parents or something?”

“Change of plans.”

She could tell something was
wrong by the set of his shoulders.  Her brain hadn’t caught up with her body.  She
had crashed as soon as she had gotten home.  Waking up in the middle of the
night made her groggy.  She couldn’t figure out why he would be home or what
could be wrong.

“And you woke me—”

“Come drink with me.”  He grabbed
her hand and tugged lightly, prodding her out of bed.

Devon yawned.  “I’m really not up
for a drink.”

“You’re never tired this early.”

“I worked my ass off all day.”

“You can sleep in tomorrow.  Come
have a drink with me.  I brought a bottle back,” he said with a boyish grin,
his hand running back through his hair.

Devon sighed and nodded.  He
wouldn’t be asking if something wasn’t wrong.  “Alright.  It better not be
tequila.”

“Would I do that to you?”  He
chuckled.

“Only if you hated me.”

“Which I don’t.  So, let’s go.” 
He stood and padded out of the room.

When he left, Devon kicked out
her feet from the bed and stood shakily.  She couldn’t believe that she was
actually going to get out of bed to have a drink right now, and she didn’t want
to face why she was doing it.  All of it hurt too much.

How long could a person go
without sleeping? 
She would do that if she never had to dream again. 
Alcohol sounded like a better option than closing her eyes and living that
dream all over again.

Still in her nightshirt and
sleeping shorts, she slung a cardigan on and walked out into the living room. 
Crashing down on the couch, she cuddled up with the throw pillow and tried to
hold back her yawn.

Garrett walked out of the kitchen
with two full shot glasses.  He set them on the table next to Devon.  She
stared at them warily as he walked back into the kitchen.  He returned a second
time with two whiskey glasses full of a dark brown liquid.

“You weren’t joking,” Devon said.

“Did I sound like I was?” he
asked, staring at her.

“Guess not.  I’m going to get
fucked up.”

“That’s the point.”  He handed
her a shot of bourbon.

Garrett held out his glass, and
Devon raised hers to meet his.

“To living the life,” he said.

Devon cracked up, thinking how
far from that she felt, but when she looked up to his face, she could see the
feeling was mutual.

“To living the life,” she
repeated, taking the shot back.  It burned like a bitch, but she was from
Tennessee.  She would have gotten nowhere if she didn’t know how to take down a
good shot of bourbon.

Garrett slammed the shot glass
down on the table.  “Fuck that.”  He returned to the kitchen and reappeared a
second later with an expensive-looking bottle of liquor.

Devon’s eyes widened when she saw
the label.  She had seen people drink it, but it was usually served neat out of
a fancy crystal decanter.

Who did shots off of a
two-thousand dollar bottle of scotch?
  Apparently, they did.

Not being able to help herself,
she asked, “Where the fuck did you get that?”

“I told you.  I got a bottle.”

“From who?”

“My parents,” he said with a
shrug.

“Should we be drinking this?”

“That’s what it’s meant for.”  He
poured another shot and handed it to her.

She stared at the liquid with a
newfound sense of appreciation.  Her shot alone was probably worth a couple
hundred bucks.  As the liquid slid down her throat again, she was glad that she
hadn’t choked on it the first time. 
Were people allowed to choke on really
expensive scotch?

When Garrett started pouring
another, Devon shook her head.

“No more for me unless you want
me throwing up.  I need to stagger.”  Her head already felt heavy.

He shrugged and took the shot
without her.

“So, why are you home?” she
asked.

“Got into a fight with my dad,”
he admitted.  The alcohol was clearly loosening him up some more.

Devon sat up as his head lolled
backward.

“Tell me about it.”

“He hates Hadley.  He thinks
she’s a waste of time and a waste of space.  He thinks I can do better.  He
thinks I stay in the job that he helped me get with no ambition and no
motivation to move up in the company.  He refuses to see that I hate the job
and would do anything to get out of it.  But the thought of disappointing him
any further kills me,” he said in a rush.  “He’s just a selfish bastard who
hates his only son.”

Devon didn’t know what to say to
that last part.  Her parents had expectations for her life. 
How could they
not?
  But everything they did was out of love.  They would never push her
so hard that they pushed her away.  Even now, when she was lying to them on a
daily basis, she never thought that they would try to force her into anything.

“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you,”
she said softly, touching his hand.

Garrett scoffed.  “You don’t know
the man.”

“But I know you.  I don’t know
how anyone could hate you.”

“Well, I think you’re the only
one left who doesn’t.”

“Garrett, what happened?” she
asked.  “It can’t be as bad as you say.”

He offered her another shot, and
she took it from him only because he seemed so desperate.

“Hadley and I show up at my
parents’ house in the suburbs for the holiday.  Everything is going fine.  We
barbeque, play football in the yard, and the girls are laying out by the lake. 
Right before the fireworks, it all goes to shit.  My dad asks me about my job,
and I say one thing that he doesn’t like.  One thing!  He flips out and starts lecturing
me.  We start yelling back and forth loud enough for all of the guests to
hear.  I wouldn’t back down.  I was tired of him always trying to assert his
dominance over me.  I’m a grown man!  I told him I was going to quit.”

Devon gasped.  “Quit?”

“I’m really thinking about it.  I
hate the work.  But it gets worse,” he said miserably.

How could it get much worse?

“When I refused to take his shit,
he brought Hadley into it.”

“Oh no,” Devon whispered,
imagining Hadley hearing all the things that Garrett’s dad thought of her.  She
knew her friend too well to assume she would sit out of the conversation.

“Yeah.  You can imagine the
things he said about her.  I’m ashamed to even repeat it.  Small town, white
trash, gold digger.”  Garrett shook his head.  “He even called her a fucking
drug addict right to my face.  I don’t know where he gets the nerve.”

Devon froze. 
So, Garrett
still didn’t know.
  She wanted to tell him.  She really wanted to, but he
was already so down right now.  She couldn’t be the one to break it to him.

“Hadley flipped out at all of his
accusations.  Her screams only fueled my father, not that she didn’t have every
right to yell back, but I think it proved to him what he thought of her all
along.  And then she thought that I was somehow in on it.”

“What?”

“Her anger went from my dad to
me, and then she just left.  I was seeing red after that, and I ended up
punching through a wall in my parents’ house.  Hadley left upset and took my
car.  I took this bottle of scotch and my dad’s Mercedes and got out of there,
too.  Hadley won’t answer her cell.  I think we’re done,” he said, ending his
story.

AFTER HIS DECLARATION, Devon and
Garrett sat there in silence for a while. 
Hadley and Garrett were done.
 
It couldn’t be true.  Hadley was head over heels for Garrett.  She had come to
Devon just that afternoon, worried that he was cheating on her.  Hadley
wouldn’t have left him for good.  She had probably just overreacted.

And that wasn’t a pleasant
thought either.  Hadley’s overreaction in her state of mind was a recipe for
disaster.  She had been trying to quit, but stress made people do stupid
things. 
Who knew where she was right now?
  She could be out there
somewhere overdosing on drugs.

Devon shuddered and pushed that
thought out of her mind.  No way would Hadley be
that
stupid.

Garrett poured them both another
shot, and Devon gladly took it this time.  She wanted to get that image of
Hadley out of her head.  Devon was all sorts of dizzy, and she dreaded the
thought of standing.  The scotch sure was potent.  She hadn’t allowed herself
to drink much ever since her last vomiting experience after she had first
arrived in Chicago.

“Hadley will come around,” Devon
said softly.  She wasn’t sure who she was convincing.

He nodded.  “Can we just…talk
about something else?”  He leaned his head back on the couch.

“Sure.”  But she didn’t have
anything else she would like to talk about.  “What do you want to talk about?”

He was silent, considering an
answer.  “Why did you leave St. Louis?”

“Uh…” she muttered.

“You said you ran away from your
life.  What were you running from?” he asked, suddenly staring at her intently.

Devon glanced down at her feet. 
“I think I’m going to need another shot for that.”

Garrett complied, and the fourth
shot of scotch gave her courage.

He slid his hand on her shoulder
and squeezed.  “It’ll be okay.”

She hadn’t realized that she had
started shaking.

Devon moistened her lips and then
turned to look at him. 
This was just Garrett.  It wasn’t some stranger.
 
He had poured his heart out to her, so she could trust him with her secret. 
Couldn’t
she?

“Well, since you told me a story,
I’ll, uh…I’ll tell you one of my own.”

“Alright.”  As he straightened
some in his seat, he stared at her.

She swallowed and tried to meet
his gaze. 
How drunk was she?  Could she do this?

Taking a deep breath, she began. 
“My mama always told me that once in a lifetime, you are given a chance at true
greatness.  That you would know it when it happened, and it would be true love
at its finest.  I believed her.”  Tears were already hitting her eyes.

“I wanted greatness, just like my
mom.  Her greatness is my dad, and they found each other in their music,” she
told him.  “When it hit me, I didn’t know how I could have ever lived another
day without it.  I don’t know how to explain it, except to say it was like the
universe was suddenly in alignment.”

“So…you fell in love?” he asked,
scrunching his eyebrows together.

She could see he was wondering
where this was going.  She didn’t blame him for his confusion.