Page 107 of The Crush Next Door

No Doubt

Time stopped. Or seemed to anyway as we all stared at each other in the growing darkness, the building lights illuminating this scene of utter madness.

What could Devon possibly want? My mind couldn't even process it. Did I still have something of his? Was that it?

He stood up and walked towards us, his confident posture of before diminished somehow, looking like a ghost of the man I remembered.

Glancing back at Josh, I could see a small frown pulling at the corners of his mouth as he watched Devon move closer.

"Sorry," Devon finally spoke. "I was just hoping we could talk."

"W-what?" I sputtered. "Who? Me?"

"Yes, you. Of course."

Duh. Why would he want to talk to Josh? "Um, what about?" It dawned on me I did have something of his, something big, something both valuable and sentimental. "Do you want your ring back?"

"I don't care about the ring. I just want to talk."

Wow, he sounded awful. Almost desperate if I wasn't mistaken.

My eyes darted back to Josh, who still stared at Devon. "Um, now isn't really the best time to talk," I said.

Josh finally looked at me. "It's fine. Go ahead."

What? "No. It's not fine." I whirled around to face Devon again. "There's nothing to talk about. Nothing."

His head drooped as he muttered a curse under his breath. What could this possibly be about? He wouldn't dare ask to get back together, would he?

"Hey," Josh suddenly said, "I'm going to head up and shower."

"No, wait. Josh, wait," I pleaded.

Magic howled and then started barking, obviously hearing us downstairs.

"I gotta go," Josh said, already halfway up his steps.

I turned to glare at Devon. "What the hell do you want?"

"I just want to—"

"Talk. Yeah. I get it. Fine. Fucking fine. But only because Josh is going to be a little while. And I want to give you back your ring so it's not hanging over my head."

He let out a noise that sounded something like relief as I rushed past him to head up the stairs. I unlocked the door, flicked on the lights, and headed straight for the bedroom to grab the ring.

The sooner I could be done with this, the better.

The day after I'd flung the ring across the bedroom, I'd accidentally stepped on it, screeching in pain. And that's when I had decided I'd put it back in its stupid little box and put it in one of my dresser drawers. I'd remembered that the ring had been his grandmother's, and I felt like it was some kind of bad karma to throw it away or sell it. So I'd planned on giving it back to him at some point.

But honestly, since then, I'd forgotten about it. What with my dad reappearing from the dead and falling for Josh and all.

As I scrambled through my mess of underwear and fuzzy socks, I heard a noise behind me. Devon, of course, following me in here.

"I made the biggest mistake of my life," he said in a low voice.

I didn't pause in my search. "Oh, what? Did Violet break up with you?"

"No. I did the breaking up."

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