Page 1 of Devanté
CHAPTER ONE
Some of my first memories came from waking up early in the morning to my mother in the kitchen playing Jill Scott while making butter and maple syrup-drenched pancakes. Eggs that were sunshine yellow fluffy clouds. Smoky applewood bacon, thick and crisp. Man, she had the entire house smelling like a restaurant.
I tried my best to recreate that feeling every time I woke up. Today, I woke up to Jill Scott singingIs It The Way?Her clear-as-a-bell voice in my ears was like taking a trip back home. Only thing missing was Mom and those banging pancakes.
I rolled out of my too small, too short twin bed and carried the speaker with me into the bathroom so I could get ready. It was nine, which meant my best friend, Blake was in her apartment cooking and I didn’t want to miss it. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and got dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. My roommate lifted his head from the pillow long enough to notice me leaving and toss two fingers up at me. I returned the gesture then headed to Blake’s.
I could have moved in with her when we got to college, but I wanted the dorm experience. I grew up watching A Different World and I lived for the experiences Dwayne, Ron, and the crew had. True, I was barely old enough to remember watching but I remembered enough.
Blake wasn’t like me. She wanted to be as far removed from dorm life as possible, so her parents got her a nice apartment five minutes from campus. Her staunchly introverted personality meant she preferred intimate interactions. Nothing like what went on in the dorms.
Me? I wanted all of it. Especially the attention from the ladies.
I decided to walk to her apartment instead of catching a ride to get in a little cardio since I knew I was about to crush whatever Blake made for breakfast. Several girls I was cool with saw me hiking across the busy street and blew horns, hanging out the window and asking if I needed a ride. I declined.
Even as I entered Blake’s building, I slapped hands with a few of the guys I had classes with who were leaving their apartments. I never met a stranger in my life. Blake always called us the odd couple because we seemed to be polar opposites on the outside but that was just to the untrained eye. To everyone that knew us…we were twins.
Soul twins. That’s what I always called us. It annoyed the shit out of Blake though. She frowned her face up every time. She secretly lived for that shit though.
I used my spare key and walked into the sweet, thick maple smell of syrup and the smoky aroma of bacon. I rounded the corner, already seeking out food.
“You don’t even text anymore when you’re stopping by?” Blake stood at the kitchen table, setting a second plate down. The fluffy scrambled eggs, bacon, and buttery pancakes stared back at me like a long-lost friend and I was about to give it the same attention.
“You had my plate ready, so you already knew I was coming.” I flashed her a winning smile that normally made girls melt into a saccharine puddle of giggles and fluttering lashes.
Not Blake.
She didn’t care how popular I was or how sexy all the girls said I was. She looked right through me and she always had. Now was no different. She stood there with one fist on her full hip, glaring at me. I could almost hear her readying the word asshole on her tongue.
“How do you know that plate is for you?” She fought off a smirk, but the corners of her mouth twitched with a grin.
“Come on now, how long have we been doing this?”
“Too damn long, because you’re spoiled. Sit down and eat, Devanté.” She smiled when I sat at the table.
The slices of light filtering in from the blinds made her cinnamon-brown skin glow. Even first thing in the morning she held a natural beauty. Blake’s skin was smooth as glass except for a few blemishes on her cheek that she attributed to stress eating and not getting enough sleep. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail that moved along with her head every time she fussed at me. Her eyes were deep topaz behind black rectangular frames that seemed to slice through my bullshit and find the truth no matter what.
I tore my gaze away from her so she didn’t think I was being weird, but it was hard not to stare. She didn’t know that kind of beauty she had. It was rare. It was understated and quiet but I always heard it loud and clear.
“You’re being a creep again,” she pointed out as she sat across from me at the table.
“I was just thinking about something,” I shrugged before digging into my food.
“What exactly were you thinking about? Because it looked like you were staring at me.” She moved her fingertips to the blemishes on her cheek and I sighed.
“No, Blake. I wasn’t staring at you.”
Lie. I’m always staring at you…
“Then what were you thinking about?” She asked.
“How to butter Gabi up so I can meet her mom.”
Gabi Perez was one of the most popular sophomore chicks on campus. She ran her clique like the fucking military. They were a group of brainless girls who followed behind her, clinging to her every word and command. It was almost too cliché to be true.
I didn’t give a fuck about Gabi but her mother was an agent at Imperial Models. It was one of the highest-ranking modeling agencies in the state. I heard she even got a few models on the runway at Fashion Week in New York.
My ultimate goal was to be on screen, acting but I was no stranger to modeling. I’d done it off and on through high school in the form of catalogs and commercials but I wanted to start getting my foot in the door of bigger and better things. Landing a spot at Imperial would open up so many doors. Not to mention, the extra money wouldn’t hurt.
