Following Me (20 page)

Leaning into her, he whispered,
“Just wait.”

A spotlight hit center stage a
minute later, and the opening chords of a song strummed through the speakers. 
Then, the woman launched into her song, and the cheers followed.  Brennan
released her hand, and Devon tried not to fidget.

As the woman held the last high
note, ending beautifully, the crowd grew even louder.  Then, another person
took her place on stage and began singing.  Devon wondered how many acts were
performing tonight and where Brennan was in the lineup.  If this was going on
indefinitely, she would need a drink.

“When did you say Hadley and
Garrett are getting here?” he asked, checking his watch after the last singer.

“They didn’t say.”

It was getting late.  They should
have been here already.

“I have to go backstage soon.  I
hoped to catch them before I left, but I guess I can’t help it.  Tell them I
said hey, and I’ll see them after the show,” Brennan said, rising from his
seat.

Devon fiddled with her phone and
contemplated texting them to find out where they were.  Hadley was a
compulsively late person, but Garrett wasn’t, so they usually balanced each
other out.  A new person anxiously walked up onto the stage and began awkwardly
strumming a guitar.  Devon knew this one was going to be a nightmare.

She leaned over to Amy and
Hannah.  “How many of these people are generally terrible?”

They both looked at her like she
was being rude.

“They all have the guts to go up
there at least,” Amy said with a shrug, not meeting her eye.

“Yeah, it’s not easy to get up on
stage like that,” Hannah agreed, crossing her arms.

Remind me to never try to make
conversation with you again
, Devon thought.

“I’m going to get a drink,” Devon
said to no one in particular.

They weren’t listening anyway.

Careful to avoid the table that
had harassed her earlier, she ambled over to the bar and saw there was a long
line.  Devon sighed, debating whether it was worth it.  She decided to wait anyway
since she didn’t have anything better to do.

She spent the time scanning the
room more closely.  Earlier, she had only been looking for her friends, but
now, she could simply people watch.  A group of girls in the corner were
dressed in nothing short of hooker attire.  She wondered if they were actual
prostitutes or if they just dressed that way for attention.  If it was the
latter, it was working.  A couple was pressed up against the wall in the
corner.  The woman’s leg was hitched around the guy’s waist, and that was
pretty much all Devon could see of her.  The couple would be leaving soon if
they didn’t prefer the convenience of the restroom stalls.  More than a few
groups of guys had similar appearances to the meathead who had come on to her
earlier.  This place seemed to be a breeding ground for them.  She would have
to tread more carefully to evade their wandering hands on her return to the
table.

She looked away from a large
group of guys making less than playful banter with one of the hooker types. 
The girl must have been pretty headstrong because she looked like she was ready
to take them on…or maybe she was taking them on in other ways.  Devon didn’t
want to think about it.

Just as she was finishing her
assessment, her eyes landed on a couple near the entrance to the restroom. 
They appeared to be in the midst of a heated conversation.  Devon took a step
forward in line and narrowed her eyes.  It was dark, but she could just make
out the shape of those shoulders, the style of the guy’s hair, the thinness of
the girl’s waist, and the flash of blonde hair in the light. It was Hadley and
Garrett.

How long have they been here?
Devon wondered.

Devon observed their body
language because she was too far away to hear anything they were saying. 
Hadley looked out of sorts.  Her hands were flying, and her mouth was moving
nonstop.  From the looks of it, she appeared to actually be yelling at Garrett,
but that didn’t make any sense.  Garrett was standing far enough away from
Hadley to not look domineering.  He seemed to be listening intently, but his
posture showed that he was uncomfortable.  It was a weird look on him.  Devon
had spent hours and hours with him, acting completely silly and also completely
serious, and she had never seen him look uncomfortable.

She watched as Hadley pushed
Garrett away before she turned her back to him.  Garrett reached out and
grabbed her wrist.  He yanked her back toward him, crushing her against his
chest, and then slammed his lips down on her mouth.  Hadley struggled against
him, beating at his arms and shoulders, before she caved and sank into his
embrace.  When Garrett finally released her, Hadley slapped him across the face
and stormed into the restroom.

The girl behind Devon nudged her
forward in line.  It was her turn to order, but Devon just stood there and
stared on in shock.

WHAT THE FUCK had just happened?

Seriously.  What the hell had
just happened?

Devon ordered her drink, so the
woman behind her would stop bothering her.  Finally, with her drink in hand, Devon
turned back to the place where Hadley and Garrett had just been.  Neither of
them was standing there, and she searched the area to see if she could spot
them.  They weren’t in plain sight.  They must have moved on.

She couldn’t understand what had
happened.  Hadley and Garrett were in a realm of perfection that didn’t exist
in other relationships.  Devon was surprised Hadley didn’t have a ring on her
finger already.

Devon knew it was ridiculous to
think that.  It was easy to see the perfection on the outside, but she lived
with them.  She knew what their schedules were like and how little time they
actually spent together.  She knew that Garrett’s dad didn’t like Hadley, and
she knew that Garrett didn’t know about Hadley’s little coke problem.

Devon stopped in her tracks. 
Had
Garrett found out about Hadley’s drug problem?
 She ran back through the
scenario in her mind, recalling what she had seen. 
No.  No, it didn’t make
sense.
  He wouldn’t have kissed her like that. 
Would he? 
Maybe he
had asked her to choose him over the drugs.  Maybe the kiss had been an act of
desperation on his part to convince her, to try to keep her. 
Gah!
  She
didn’t know, and she really, really wanted to know.

She returned to her seat to wait
for Brennan’s performance and stress about Hadley and Garrett.  Amy and Hannah
continued to act as if her appearance at their table was of little importance,
and right now, Devon was happy for the reprieve.  She had too many other things
on her mind.

Coming to Chicago to escape her
life in St. Louis wasn’t working out exactly as she had planned.  Not that
anything ever did.  Not that she had really planned it out to begin with.

Hadley was supposed to help
ground her.  Garrett wasn’t supposed to take her place.  Devon didn’t want to
be more comfortable with him than Hadley.  Brennan wasn’t supposed to be so
appealing.  She had too much to work out in her life without dealing with the
intruding thought of Brennan’s lips against hers again.  She couldn’t do
that…not with everything else.

“I think he’s next,” Amy
squealed.

Devon glanced over at them and
noticed what she hadn’t seen before.  They liked Brennan.  She hadn’t paid any
attention at work, but it was pretty obvious now that she was looking for it. 
Maybe they had heard about how she had gotten the job at Jenn’s and that was
why they didn’t like her.  They must think she was competition.  It would
explain a lot.

Well, if that was what they
thought, they were wrong.  After Devon had turned down Brennan, she couldn’t
fathom him trying again.  She had made it clear that she was off-limits.  Even
if he wanted to cross those lines, she wasn’t sure he would act on it again.

Ugh!
  She couldn’t even
think about it all.  It just made her head hurt.

Devon placed her palm on her
forehead and tried to massage out the growing ache in her head.

“You feeling alright, Dev?”

As Devon’s head flew up in
surprise, she found Garrett standing over her.  “Garrett!  You’re here!”

“Yeah, sorry about being so
late,” he said.

She looked around, wondering
where Hadley was. 
Was she still in the restroom?  Was Devon a bad friend
for not following after her?
  Devon hadn’t felt like it was her place to
step in.  Garrett and Hadley didn’t know that she had seen their argument, and
they probably didn’t want her to know about it.  Still, maybe she could go
check on Hadley.

“Where’s Hadley?” Devon asked,
knowing the answer.

If she wasn’t with him, then
he had left her in the restroom.

I guess it is just going to be
a guilt-ridden night
, Devon thought.

Garrett took the seat Brennan had
left unoccupied.  “Oh, she really, really wanted to come, but she’s sick
tonight.  I couldn’t even drag her out of the house.  Are you okay?  I hope you
don’t have the same thing that she has.”

Devon stared at him blankly.  He
was lying.  He was looking her in the face, straight in the face, and lying. 
And he was
damn
good at it.  She couldn’t even tell.  She
knew
he
was lying, and she couldn’t even tell that he was.  He actually made her doubt
what she had seen with her own two eyes earlier.

“Wha…what’s wrong with her?”
Devon asked in disbelief.

“Headaches, body aches,
exhaustion.  She has been really moody all week, so it could just be PMS,” he
said with a shrug.

PMS?
  He was really going
to use that.  Hadley had just slapped him across the face, and he was going to
blame her behavior on PMS. 
Yeah right!

It’s more likely the amount of
cocaine she is using,
Devon thought.

“That sucks,” Devon said finally.

“Yeah, she really wanted to
come,” he repeated.

“I’m surprised you came out at
all if she wasn’t feeling well,” Devon said accusingly. 
Why wasn’t he
chasing after her?  Why was he letting her go?  Wasn’t that what was supposed
to happen?
  She felt deluded about Garrett and Hadley’s relationship.  She
had wanted so badly for it to be as perfect as it looked from the outside.

“She told me to go.  After all, I
couldn’t do anything for her,” Garrett said. He leaned back into the chair, his
ankle crossing over his knee.

“Of course,” Devon said, trying
to hold back the sarcasm from her voice.  “I sure hope she gets better soon.”

“Comes once a month.  I’m sure
she’ll be fine,” Garrett said over the applause from the last performer.

Devon rolled her eyes and looked
toward the stage.  Garrett wasn’t going to give any clues as to what had
happened between them.  She would have to ask him later, or maybe she would
have to ask Hadley.  Hadley had been the one who was pissed off, so she might
be more likely to spill.  For all the confidence that Devon and Garrett had
been entrusting each other with, she wasn’t so sure he would tell her, but
maybe she would ask him about it again later anyway.