DYSFUNCTIONAL • [ D. BOSTICK ]

| 28. | completely depressing

"I swear to God if he shows up–"

"You won't be the only one to kick his ass. I doubt he's coming in today, at least fake a smile for the customers, Devon."

"He fucking put his hands on her, Rich." Devon said, the emotion and anger conveyed in his voice even though he was talking quietly.

"I know. He's a deadbeat, a fucking loser but is it seriously worth losing your job over?"

"I fucking hate this place anyways, I don't think it would really matter." Devon scoffed as he cleaned the counters rather harshly with a bar towel.

Devon was fuming. His teeth kept grinding against each other so hard it felt like his jaw was shaking. His muscles were tired from lack of sleep and consistent rage, nothing seemed to be able to calm him down.

"You need to chill, you're actually kinda freaking me out a little."

"I'm gonna kill him."

Richard sighed. "Not now you're not."

"I'm gonna kill him, Rich. I'm gonna end up in prison because I will only be able to afford the lawyers already appointed to me, Nora is going to be sad and probably get evicted, she's going to cry when she sees me through glass for the first time, and I'm gonna cry myself to sleep every night while clenching my ass hole as tight as I can-"

"Calm the fuck down. You act as if I wouldn't let her live with me or vouch for you."

"Then you'd be an accessory to murder, your poor cat is gonna starve to death, Nora is still going to be sad - you know I hate seeing her mildly upset when she even misses jeopardy - and I'm still going to be clenching my ass every night as I cry myself to sleep in a four by ten." Devon says, mostly all in one breath. Richard gives him a blank look as he raises a questioning eyebrow, clearing his throat as he walked off to make extra popcorn.

"Nora loves Skittles as much as I do, I doubt she'd let him starve."

—

"I don't understand why you're still upset when I'm over it."

"You're not, denial is just how you cope. Similar happened to me, too you know, so I know how it feels and if you're seriously okay with it then I'm even more concerned, Nora." Devon said, pausing the game for both him and Nora.

She sighed, "I'm not in denial, and I'm honestly mad at myself for not breaking a rib or two but what would the difference be? He still would've touched me, and if anything I should be glad he and I weren't alone because who knows what could've happened then."

"You literally gave that cougar at our old apartments a broken nose and who knows what else, but god forbid I even want to talk about this with you or take it to my manager to get Alex fired."

"I'm not the one who works with him, it didn't happen at work. If you talk to your boss they're just going to say that it happened during personal time and not at the workplace – which is exactly what happened."

"Something needs to be done." Devon said, his voice raising in volume with every word he said and enunciated. "Not just because this happened to you, the only woman I've ever loved, but because he could also do it again to someone else." Devon said, trying to explain why he felt the need to take some sort of action.

Nora was quiet as she digested his words with her eyebrows furrowed. Devon simply tried calming himself down since the more he talked about it, the worse he felt. He remembered exactly what he felt like in the laundry room of their old apartments, he can only imagine how Nora felt at the party since she was the one who touched.

Devon almost spoke once again, until he heard Nora's soft voice travel through the air. "You're in love with me?" She said, her tone whispered.

Devon's heart immediately began racing against his chest, anxiety rising up and creeping throughout his body as he realized what he said. He cleared his throat, "Well..." He started, trailing off and taking a deep breath instead of finishing the sentence.

"At least now you know why this isn't forgettable for me." He said softly with a slight scoff. "I mean, I'd care either way - whether I knew you or not but..." He sidetracked before continuing.

"Since I love you, I can't fight the disgusting feeling I get every time I think about this or about him. I'm not going to let it go, I don't care how or where he touched you — he still touched you. That's no where near alright with me." He finishes, looking towards the girl sitting criss crossed on the couch next to him.

Nora didn't meet his gaze as she fiddled with her fingertips, her head facing down to her lap and her ponytail spilling over her shoulder. Devon knew that she didn't know what to say or didn't really want to say anything, this is exactly what she did when she was feeling uncomfortable or slightly overwhelmed and didnt want to show it.

"I don't expect you to say it back or anything, at the end of the day I know how you feel about me and that's enough for me. This was probably the worst circumstance I could tell you under but at least you know now."

"I've loved you for a very long time, Devon. I've been in love with you for probably just as long." She said softly. She finally looked up at him and a small smile spread across her face.

Devon scooted over closer to her and grabbed her hands, holding them in his own. He brought them up to his mouth where he placed a soft kiss on the back of her hands and her fingers.

"Well then I guess tonight wasn't completely depressing, was it?" Devon said rhetorically as he leaned forward.

Right before he was able to kiss her, Nora tilted her head and hummed. "I don't know, if you ask me your flirting is pretty depressive." He scoffed.

"Shut the fuck up and kiss me, please."

—

(I feel like all my chapters are super short and I always do time skips but it's just my writing style... let me know, though if you'd be alright with lots of time skips if it meant longer chapters because I'd absolutely write longer ones if y'all are okay with it...I just feel like it gets annoying.

also, I got my daith and conch pierced and the daith hurt like a bitch [serious 9.5 out of ten. didn't cry tho. conch was a soft 3 tbh] but hey I haven't even gotten one headache and I used to literally get them daily. highly recommend if you get headaches often.)