Welcome to New Haven (6 page)

Stacey was glaring at her and Dev narrowed her eyes at Stacey before turning back to Holly.
 

“What a tramp” she muttered.

After homeroom, Alex was sitting in History class with Ben.
 

Alex was pissed at Stacey.

Her actions, at that moment, had cause him to miss out on talking to Holly.
 
He knew, now, that she had homeroom with Dev, and had waited outside the room after Dev had walked in, stalling, so he could see Holly and get a chance to have the conversation with her that he’d wanted the day before.

He’d been preparing himself. The anticipation of seeing her, building.
 
He saw her turn the corner and start to walk towards him and the guys.
 
Her head was down, as if she were trying to hide, as she walked at a quick pace.

Stacey had suddenly appeared, as she often did and draped herself over him, making him gag. He’d pulled her arms off of him and had told her to ‘stop it’ but Holly has been fast and had gotten into the room before he could say anything to her.

“Man, what’s up with you today?” He heard Ben ask from beside him.
 

“Stacey pissed me off. Who the fuck does she think she is?”
 
Alex replied, eyebrows knitting together, his jaw tense and teeth gritting.

“Nah, that’s not all it is”
 
said Ben as he narrowed his eyes at Alex.
 
“You normally shrug it off, tell her to ‘go to hell’ and carry on regardless.
 
Sure she’s pulled some crazy shit, but I’ve never seen you
this
pissed before.
 
Well, with what she did, anyway.”

Ben
had
seen him pissed.
 
He’d been there when he’d beaten the senior up for grabbing Dev’s ass.

“I’m annoyed”

“Yeah…Uh huh”
 
Ben nodded his head, obviously disbelieving what Alex was saying to him.

Alex looked up and saw that Stacey was trying to catch his attention by flicking her hair and batting her eyes at him.
 
She gave up with a huff when he rolled his eyes and looked down at his books.
 
He clenched his fists when he overheard her saying to another student…
 

“He can’t resist me forever. I’ll have him soon”

Don’t hold your breath, slut
he thought to himself as he tried to concentrate on the text that he couldn’t focus on.
 

He’d been so close to Holly, yet she’d walked right past him.

Maybe she just doesn’t like me.
 
Maybe because I’m Dev’s brother, which doesn’t make sense because why would somebody ignore the brother of a friend?
 
I need to speak to Dev.
 
See what she thinks.
 

His ranting inner monologue had Ben staring at him.
 

“What?!”
 
asked Alex, frowning again.

“You’re mumbling under your breath dude.
 
What is
wrong
with you?”
 
Ben looked concerned that time, as if something were really wrong with him.

There was.

Holly had gotten under his skin, and he had no idea what to do about it.

Once History had finished, Alex headed to Math class.
 
His class was with Dev, and he had to think about what he was going to say and what to ask so that his questions looked as if he were curious about her new friend rather than if her friend had mentioned him.

He walked through the door and sat down.
 
Dev was texting on her phone as Alex got his books from his bag.

“Hey Alex”
 
Dev said as she hit ‘send’ and then put her phone down on her desk.

“Hey. You ok?” He asked as normal as he could

”Yeah, I’m good. How are you?
 
You look stressed.”
 
Dev’s eyebrows pinched together in concern as she searched his face.

“I’m ok, Dev.”
 
He answered with a smile.

He tried to keep it as genuine as he could, considering what had happened, and took a deep breath to try to ease his thunderous heartbeat.

Dev’s phone vibrated for an incoming text, and she picked it up and smiled.
 

“It’s Holly.”
 
She said before laughing at her message.
 

“What did she say?”
 
he asked with as little interest as he could fake.
 

“She’s so funny.”
 
Dev giggled as she read.
 

“Holly’s taking Spanish classes and Miss Delaney is having a full on conversation with herself.
 
Holly’s saying that she doesn’t understand a word and all she can hear is Charlie Brown’s teacher’s voice in her head. ‘Wah wah waaah wah’" Dev mimicked.
 

Alex smiled widely before chuckling himself.

That is funny

He’d love to hear her voice though.
 
He hadn’t really heard anything other than ‘um…I’ before she’d walked away from him.

“Yesterday, Jake tried to ask her out…”
 
Dev started to tell him.

He listened, intently, as she explained the whole conversation in Chem class and even though Holly had turned Jake down, which he was glad about, he got an angry feeling right in his gut.
 
It felt like…jealousy.
 
He was jealous!
 

Wow…just…wow.

“So anyway, we were sitting in the Cafe and this guy comes over to her and says ‘Hey babe. If I were lady Gaga.
 
Would you want to take a ride on my disco stick?’”

“What?!” Alex said, a little louder than he should have.
 

“You should have seen his face, Alex.
 
She shot him down straight away, without blinking an eye or even getting mad.”
 
Dev was laughing now.
 

“What did she say?”
 
Alex couldn’t stop the words from falling from his mouth.

He didn’t want to sound over eager to know what had gone on, though if the conversation had been aimed at Dev, he would have wanted to know and to find the guy and warn him away from his sister.
 
Riss and Kayla could handle themselves no problem.
 
So could Dev, she had one hell of a mouth on her, but she was still his sister.

“She just looked at him and said ‘If you were Lady Gaga, then you’d be a woman. And since I’m not gay, I would have to politely decline.
 
Plus, saying Lady Gaga has a ‘Disco stick’ is cruelly implying that she’s a man.
 
Which, of course, she isn’t.
 
So that leaves the all important question…What
are
you? A she or a he-she?
 
Not that it matters because even you, as a guy, I would decline, just on the basis that that is
the
worst fucking line I have
ever
heard in my life
.
’
 
The guy just stood there in shock!
 
Oh my God, Alex, you should have seen his face.
 
He didn’t know what to say.
 
He just turned and
literally
ran away.”
 
Dev threw her head back and laughed.
 
“It was funnier because her accent had gotten really thick.”

Alex was laughing too.
 
He liked this girl even more.
 
He just had to get her to speak to
him
now.

He was looking forward to lunch that day.
 
They’d all get together at their table and as Dev’s friend; she’d probably be introduced to the rest of the group.

Holly
he thought to himself, and smiled.

Lunch time came around, and Alex had knots in his stomach as he and Ben walked into the canteen to get their lunches.
 
Ryan and Kyle met up with them before they walked out to their table.
 
As they got closer, he could see Dev, Riss, and Kayla sitting there…but no Holly.

They walked over and sat down, as the girls were chatting about the events at the cafe the day before.

“Hey guys!”
 
Riss said as she noticed them there.

“Hi.”
 
The guys chorused.

“Are you ok?” Dev asked Alex when she turned to him.
 

“Yeah, why?”

“You look upset about something.
 
Has Stacey done something again?”

“Oh…um…just the usual shit but, other than that, I’m good.”

Dev just stared at him for a moment before looking at the others.

“Anyway…I don’t know whether you guys have met Holly yet, but we were going to go out, again, to have lunch with us but she had to go and get some papers signed, so she’ll be having lunch with her Mom.”

Alex tried to hide his disappointment but had a feeling that he had failed when he heard a snicker coming from Ryan’s direction.
 
He wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of making eye contact, so he just looked down at his lunch and picked up a potato chip.

He didn’t know why he was suddenly so interested a girl, apart from the obvious.
 
She was gorgeous!
 
But, what he found strange, was that he felt some sort of connection to her.
 
Like he
knew
her somehow.
 

He didn’t talk much through lunch and Dev, sensing something was wrong, sat closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

She would often do that, when they were kids, if he were in a bad mood or were pissed at something. She wouldn’t say anything, just sit down, and put her head on his shoulder. It made him feel better just knowing that his sister was there for him.

He didn’t see Holly for the rest of the day. Not that he hadn’t tried because he’d been looking around for her after lunch and last class.
 
He’d even tried to stall when they’d left to go home, looking around the parking lot to see whether he could see her. He didn’t know what car she drove so he was kind of blindly scanning for any sign of her.

“Looking for me, baby?”
 
he heard Stacey’s grating voice from the side of him.

His stomach dropped at her sudden presence.
 

“Not in this lifetime.” He said as he started to walk towards his car.
 

“Isn’t there an STD you need to catch, or have you finally completed your collection?”
 
Dev said to Stacey as she caught up with him.
 

“Bite me, bitch.”” Spat Stacey, her tone venomous.
 

“Ew, no thanks. I don’t want your cooties.”
 
Said Dev, scrunching her nose up in distaste.
 

“You can’t protect him forever.” Stacey mumbled, but Dev had caught what she said.
 

“Protect him?
 
What, you think that you’d actually have a chance if I weren't here?
 
Oh. My. God…you’re funny.”
 
Said Dev before she and Alex got in the car.

Ben got in as Dev was putting on her seat belt.
 
He was chuckling to himself.

“That was a good one Dev.” He said.
 
He’d heard the exchange between Dev and Stacey as he was walking up to meet Alex.

Ben had ridden to school with them that morning.
 
A lot of the time, Alex would pick Ben up in the morning, and then Ben would pick Alex and Dev up another day.
 
They drove separately on the days that Ben helped his Dad in his metal shop.

It wasn’t a regular thing though. Just when his Dad had a lot of deliveries and Ben would help take inventory and enter the new stock onto the computer system. The business was doing well and Ben liked to help out when he could.
 

“Thanks.” Dev replied as she got her phone out of her bag and began to tap the screen.

Ben and Dev either said very little to each other, had a full on bitching contest, or said nothing. There were the few occasions that they held a conversation but that was only because they both liked gossip.
 
If something were going on, they would get the information from each other and then that would be it.

Nothing.

Ben was staying over at their house that night, so Dev would usually watch a movie with them, probably because they wouldn’t be talking, but a lot of the time, she would go off and do her own thing.
 
Usually going out with Riss and Kayla if they had plans.

“Hey, how did everything go?
 
Did you get your stuff done?”
 
Dev was talking on the phone.
 
“Yeah, I told the girls you were getting your papers signed.
 
Was Sheri ok with you not coming back?
 
Oh…good.
 
No, we’re just on our way home.
 
Alex is driving right now.
 
Ok, I’ll text you later.
 
Bye Hol.”

Dev was talking to Holly!

She hadn’t come back to school after lunch,
that’s
why he hadn’t seen her!

“Why didn’t she come back after lunch?”
 
Ben asked as he turned in his seat to look at Dev.

“There was a delay at the registration office, and they had to wait for almost an hour. She called Sheri to let her know.”

Well that explained why Alex hadn’t seen her.
 
Maybe he would have to start asking Dev about her.
 
But, how to ask the questions without her becoming suspicious was another matter.
 

He didn’t want Dev to make something out of it, especially if Holly didn’t want to know him. He’d have to plan out how he was going to get more information, but in the meantime, he was going to try to talk to Holly again.

Tomorrow… I’ll see her tomorrow.

Chapter 4

Holly left for school a little earlier that morning, because she noticed that Hot-guy showed up around the same time as Dev.
 
He’d been outside their homeroom and Dev had only just gotten there too.
 
Hopefully, by getting there early, she would be able to avoid bumping into him and get to homeroom without her face flaming.