Your Sweet Six Six Six | Sitkolson [C]

Chapter 24 | Note Cards

Third and forth period were a lot more painful than usual. At least there was no group work today, or else Ricky might've just jumped out the nearest window. Everyone can tell when two people are ignoring each other, too. That makes the whole thing even more awkward. Thankfully, even though Ricky and Ryan had fifth period together as well, Devin also had the same class. 

She sweetly asked Ryan to switch seats, just for today, and he wasn't going to argue. The teacher didn't even notice, or at least he didn't say anything. It was a big class, to the point every seat was full, so it was most likely he didn't even care to notice that a different goth was sitting in the seat another goth usually sits in. 

After class, Ricky walked along with Devin to her locker. She seemed to be doing okay today, for the most part. They were already to lunch without incident, which was good. As Devin opened his locker, though, that statement ended up becoming false. A handful of note cards fell out, spilling onto the floor. Devin jumped back in a fluster, then saw the words written across all of them. 

Gay, fag, sissy, freak, slut. Ricky saw this all play out and was quick to kneel down to pick them up. The sooner they were out of Devin's sight, the better. She instantly felt like her stomach had been kicked in. That familiar sting hit her eyes, but she didn't want to fucking cry here. She knew some of the people who put those there must've been watching right now.

Just as Ricky stood up from cleaning up the mess, Chris walked up. It was actually a surprise he was here. Usually by now he'd be gone to go have lunch with his girlfriend at her school. Whatever the reason may be that he stayed, Ricky was just thankful he was there. Chris was about the only person in their friend group that people were afraid of. 

"What happened?" He asked when he saw Devin on the verge of tears.

Ricky sighed, handing him the papers in his hand. "Someone stuffed these in her locker." He kept his voice down so no one could hear him refer to Devin in those pronouns. By now, he'd figured out it was a comfort for her to be referred to as a woman, even if she very rarely got to hear it.

Chris flipped through a few of them until he got the gist of it. He handed them back to Ricky to hold before pulling her into a tight hug. As he did so, he gave glares to any onlookers to make them go the fuck away. They all started to thin out and head down to lunch. The hall cleared out pretty damn fast. Once Devin knew it was just the three of them, she started to actually cry.

"It's okay. Don't listen to them, Dev, don't." Chris soothed her.

"Do you want me to report this or do you just want me to throw these away?" Ricky asked. 

She kept her face buried against Chris' shoulder, murmuring, "It's not worth it. Just throw them."

Chris gave him a telling look, one that Devin thankfully couldn't see. He glanced towards the counselor's office and Ricky understood what he meant. Devin doesn't want her name dragged through all this because it'd only lead to more trouble, but they really couldn't let this go. They had a counselor that was thankfully very understanding of her students' privacy.

"I'll be right back." He muttered. 

There was no need for any kind of investigation of this. They had a few guesses as to which bimbos did this. They just wanted to make sure someone in the school knew Devin now had a target on her back. She was new this year, which automatically had put her in a shitty place, but this is just making it a lot, lot worse.

"I'll gut every last one of them if you want me to." Chris gently said.

Through her tears, that made her laugh. Devin pulled out of his embrace and looked in the small mirror in her locker to fix her makeup. She sniffled, "I'm a fucking mess." She bragged her makeup bag, fishing through it for an eyeliner and a blending brush. Her hands were trembling, and he took notice.

"May I help?" He asked. "You're shaking too much."

"Uh- yeah, thank you." She shyly responded.

Chris picked up her compact first and softly powdered over her cheeks to fix the tear marks in her foundation. Then he fixed her eyeliner and smudged it out for her. Considering he was trying to present male, just a very goth male, his makeup wasn't fancy or clean. It was just a black mess. Thankfully, those looks are the easiest to clean up.

"There. Now, why don't we go get some lunch?" He smiled at her.

"I'm not really hungry... or in the mood for a room full of loud people. I think I'll just go for a smoke." Devin mumbled while closing her locker. 

"Now that," Ricky replied as he returned, "I can help you with. C'mon." 

Okay, it may have been a shitty moment, but she had something that a lot of people in that position didn't. She had friends, that genuinely cared for her. That made it a lot easier to get past it. In the end, she didn't give a shit about what anyone else thought, but it was a little hard to take that kind of abuse. Anyone would be upset.

"I got an idea." Chris stated as they walked downstairs to the lunchroom, "You think your dad will let you come over today to study?"

"Probably. He's been easing up a little more. Why?" 

"Text Mike and see how late he's working today. If he can, why don't you two meet at my house? I think it'd do you some good to get to spend time with him." He suggested.

Her face lit up like a Christmas bulb. "Really? You'd be okay with covering for me like that again? I don't want any trouble for your parents."

"Trust me, it doesn't bother them. Plus, they aren't home. They left on Sunday to go on a cruise for like two weeks. It's just my brother and I." He replied.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and she nearly knocked him over with a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squealed.

Ricky and Chris laughed at how happy she got for that man. He really meant the world to her, even if it seemed like it would be nearly impossible for that relationship to work out. They were twelve years apart. That was a pretty big age gap, and most people could never make it work, yet they did. It was obvious exactly who held the key to Devin's heart. 

She pulled out her phone and text him as fast as humanly possible. Ricky stepped in front of her and opened the door to the courtyard for her. Chris went on ahead of them to the table out a ways that everyone else was already at. The other two stopped under the awning where all the other smokers hung out. 

"I never did ask you what he did for a living." Ricky spoke while lighting up.

"Oh, well, a few things. His main job is he owns his own shop. It's got like, creepy knickknacks in the front part, and a tattoo parlor in the back. He doesn't tattoo much though, he mostly just manages the place, but he also will commission designs on the side. He also refurbishes things on the weekend and resells them, but he really just does that for a little extra spending money."

"Sounds like he's got his life figured out." He muttered between drags, "That makes me happy, that you've got someone so stable." 

"Fuck knows I need it." She laughed, then nearly squeaked out of happiness when her phone dinged.

It's funny how fast she could go from hating herself to the most vibrant person in the world because of him. Ricky couldn't help but think how grateful he was that she had Mike. What would they do if she didn't?