I looked at Devon, who was giving Corey the most acidic look I'd ever seen. The room was quiet. It had been silent for two hours now. After I stopped crying and fixed my face, I had to stop Devon from going outside to kill Corey. It wasn't Corey's fault, entirely. Devon knew that, but he didn't care. He was blaming Kelsey and Corey right now, and there was no changing his mind at the moment. In his mind, these two people had just caused his precious little cousin to go in to a state of panic and depression to the point that she had run in to the woods to cry alone.
Finally, Devon spoke. "I'm hungry."
Of course that's the first thing he'd say. "I'll make something."
Devon lifted an eyebrow, a small, sarcastic smile hinting at his features. "I said I'm hungry, not I want food poisoning. Can we go somewhere to eat?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Let me just get dressed and fix my makeup and hair, then we can go, alright?"
"Of course." I truly loved Devon. He was kind, and his voice was smooth, and he never made me feel uncomfortable about crying. He helped me get through everything five years ago, and he made me feel like I had someone that I could trust. Devon was the best person I'd ever had in my life.
I went up the stairs quickly, changed, did my makeup, then began creeping down the stairs. If I knew Devon at all, he was either yelling at them or about to yell at them.
"...if you hurt her again in any way, I will break you, do you understand me?"
I sighed mentally as Devon's voice reached me, but I stopped walking to listen.
"I-You know I didn't mean any harm," Kelsey's trembling voice squeaked out.
For the love of God, go easy on her, Devon. She's like a freaking rabbit, if you scare her too much she'll just drop dead or something.
"I wasn't talking to you, Kelsey, although I'm mad at you too."
Corey didn't say anything.
Finally, I walked the rest of the way down the stairs, and looked at Devon.
He was intensely leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, and there was pure hate in his eyes. When he saw me, his demeanor changed almost simultaneously. "Hey Ryder," he said cheerily. "You ready to go? You still kinda look awful."
I snorted. "Shut up. At least I'm not the one over there dressed like I'm going to a wedding."
"Maybe if you had any fashion sense I wouldn't have to point out your errors."
"Maybe if you pulled the stick out of your ass you wouldn't point them out either." I smirked. "Or maybe you like the stick there."
Devon grinned.
I laughed. Devon was really cool about his sexuality; I was the first person that he had told, and even when I made jokes about it, he laughed along with me because he knew that I loved him and supported him anyway. Honestly, sexuality didn't mean anything to me. I'd never dated, and never really been attracted to anyone very much. Besides, aren't you meant to fall in love with the person? So what if they had the same thing as you between their legs, or the opposite thing? It seemed pretty irrelevant to me.
He stood up. "So is it just you and me, little cousin?"
"Little my ass."
"You do have a small ass, but that's not what we were talking about."
"Suck a dick, Devon."
"Happily."
We both started laughing. After we stopped, I reached around and put my hand in my back pocket. "I don't have a small ass by the way. I just wear baggy clothes, you dill weed."
He rolled his eyes. "I'm not talking about this right now."
"Then get your butt in the car. We're taking yours since it's prettier."
"Alrighty," he said easily, walking to the door.
"You're coming," I added, pointing first to Kelsey, then to Corey.
Corey seemed very surprised when I pointed at him.
"I hope you're the one paying for Dumb and Dumber over there," Devon sighed. I knew he loved Kelsey, so I didn't make a comment on him calling her names.
"Leave Corey alone."
Kelsey looked at me with wide eyes. "What about me?"
"You? No, Devon loves you, he's allowed to pick on you as much as he wants to and I won't say anything about it. Corey on the other hand seems to be less than great in Devon's eyes, so he's not allowed to make fun of him. Only I am."
She grumbled and I rolled my eyes.
"I'm gonna go spread rumors about you in the car," Kelsey said as she passed me, sticking out her tongue. "I'm even going to tell him that you had your first kiss and didn't tell him about it."
Devon's eyes snapped to me. "Excuse me?"
"She's lying," I dismissed casually. It was true; I still hadn't been kissed. I didn't want to be. "Now get in the car and exchange stories or something. While you're at it, you can tell Kelsey what sex is like, since she wouldn't know."
Her eyes widened. She made lots of dirty jokes sometimes, but in all reality, she was one of the most innocent people I'd ever met. This was the same girl that looked up the word 'porn' in the dictionary because she didn't know what it was; three months ago. She had ended up turning bright red and staying that way for roughly thirty minutes after reading it, then she thanked me for not telling her what it was when she had asked earlier that day.
"Oh, sweetie, I have so many things to tell you." Devon grinned wickedly and grabbed Kelsey by the arm, dragging her out of the house while she squealed protests.
I watched them go and laughed quietly, shaking my head.
"Why are you inviting me?" Corey asked suddenly.
I turned my attention to him and looked him in the eye for the first time since he had seen me crying. "Well, you pretty much know too much about me for me to not be your friend now. I can't have you spreading rumors or anything."
He blanched. "You think I'd do that?"
"No, but I didn't want to make you feel like I was genuinely offering my friendship. That's not how I work." I smirked. "I don't make anything easy."
"You really don't," he said under his breath.
Unfortunately for him, I caught it. I punched him in the arm lightly. "Get off my couch, you bum. We're going out with my cousin, and you're going to pretend to be nice, and then you're going to stop living here because I don't think Kelsey wants you at her birthday party tomorrow."
"You're going camping." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, I am."
"For how long?"
"Until the end of break."
He looked at me with a serious expression. "I'm not going to see you for almost two weeks?"
I smirked. "Aw, who's all attached and stuff? It's cute. Now come on," I said, grabbing his hand and towing him to his feet. "You're going to come with me."
Corey didn't say anything.
I sighed. "Why are you acting like this?"
"Why aren't you?"
I looked at him in confusion. "What?"
"You're acting like you're not mad at me. Like what happened less than three hours ago never happened."
Shrugging, I glanced away from him. "That's how I am. I don't hold things against people."
He muttered something under his breath that I didn't catch and looked at our hands.
I lifted an eyebrow. "Are you sick? You're seriously acting weird."
"At least I'm not as sickly looking as you are."
I grinned. "There's the Corey I hate. Let's go."
The second I got in the car, the first thing I heard was Devon. "You got hit by a car and didn't tell me?" he asked in his scary calm voice.
Swallowing nervously, I nodded slowly.
His eyes were ice. "We're going to talk about this, Ryder."
I groaned. Great. Today was gonna suck.
But at least Devon was here.