oo2, the last show.
both sides of a smile dave ft james blake
It was the last competition of the season. Devon had been away from home for at least a year and a half, longer than she had once expected but she wasn't complaining. Being away from home wasn't so bad, it was refreshing. She was living her dream. The academy had taken a liking to her determination right way, noticing she was adamant to be competing as soon as possible, Devon was soon out across Europe. Unfortunately, her mother and sister's hadn't been able to come watch her compete across Europe. Tickets were terribly expensive, however, they did try to attend her mini-shows and exhibitions when back in the USA.
It started off with the entire family coming: Suze, Lexi and Cassie. After a month, Cassie wasn't sitting next to Lexi in the crowd and it was just the two of them. Then, only Suze was sat in the crowd. The front row she would sit, proud and passionately she would cheer, clapping and screaming as her daughter preformed in-front of her, watching her daughter live the reality of her dreams. At first, the disappearance of her sisters upset her, but like always, that sadness turned into anger. How could they be so ignorant? Not showing up to their sisters shows, to support her through one of the biggest journeys of her life. Devon was furious, she would never do this to them - she had always supported them, no matter what they did. But no longer she cared, the anger she had polished and now was as sharp as the toe pick at the bottom of her figure skate.
Tonight, July the 18th, was the final night of the season based in England, London. This season was going great, considering it was her first she had won first place in the majority of the competitions and had enough trophies to fill her wall. But it wasn't about the trophies, or the certificates or the heaps of medals, it was the feeling when they announced her name, "Devon Howard, for first place."
"Nick, come on, we can't be lying around. I mean, I'm competing in less than thirty minutes!" Devon stressed, pacing the room.
Nick, who seemed way to chilled for her rambling, laid-back on the sofa with a dopey grin on his freckled face. His slurred words suddenly caught her attention, eyeing him with a suspicious glance. "Devon, chill out, God." Nick sighed.
"Why are you talking like that?" the room was quiet. "What?" Nick chuckled, anxiety laced within his words.
Devon slowly strived towards him, grabbing his chin within her fingers. "Look at me," Nick didn't look up from his lap, instead his hands snaked around her waist. "Goddammit Nick, look at me!" Devon finally yelled.
Slowly, his eyes met hers. His pupils were fully dilated, eyes slightly red. Nick's entire eye nearly covered black as his face stayed emotionless. She couldn't read him, he was completely numb and in another world, not even through his eys could she see how he truly felt.
"You liar," she spat, "You fuckin' liar."
"Dev, it was just a few quick lines! Nothing more to it!" Nick retorted, trying to excuse himself.
"You told me you were clean, for five fucking months you told me you were clean! I took time out of competing to help your sorry ass get clean, I sacrificed a lot for your dumbass and you do this to me, right now? Half an hour before competing?" Devon was furious. Nick was her boyfriend, she loved him, she liked to think, but she didn't really know what love was when she wasn't around him.
Nick had been there since the beginning of the season. Originally, he was just a member of the team, someone to help - then he soon started helping Devon in her own personal, sexual ways, which led to feelings being caught and kisses with much more than sexual need laid within. She soon learnt about his problem, his addiction. It started with Opioids, he told her, which then quickly dived into heroin and his personal favourite being coke. She promised to help in whatever way she could, and he swore he wanted to get clean - for her.
"Dev, I promise it was nothing! A few lines don't hurt-" Nick was cut off by her furious words, "Bullshit! It hurts more than you think. It's - It's gonna drive you back into old habits and its gonna be a never ending cycle, just like it was before!"
"You have no faith in me? I can stay clean, it was just a line or two to keep the nerves down. And now, you're jumping to conclusions again and being fucking cruel." Nick said venomously.
"I don't fucking care!" Devon suddenly yelled, "Nick, I don't care! I have to be fucking cruel or you'll never get yourself together, you can't go around thinking everything you do isn't hurting yourself and everybody fucking around you!"
A knock on the hotel door interrupted their argument, "Miss Howard, we have to get going now."
Nick looked at her, his eyes cold. "If you leave this room right now, after everything we've just talked about, I won't be here when you return."
At this point, Devon couldn't fucking care less. Any love she had ever received was a painful lie, an act. A show put on by cruel fuckers, low-lifes who get joy out of Devon's trauma and vulnerability. So now, this far into the season, she wasn't going to let a liar dictate her future, not again.
Walking out the door, she didn't glance back.
"I heard screaming, Miss Howard, are you okay?" Penelope asked carefully. Thing is, Penelope gossiped, so whatever her ears absorbed her mouth would spout out. So naturally, Devon told her to;
"Fuck off, Penny."
Arriving at the rink, Devon sat on a wooden bench as she tied her figure skates up tightly. This dance, the final competition, it had a lot of meaning to it, to her. The dress she was wearing was hand-crafted specially from a small boutique owner in Central London. Devon had heard of them all over social media and decided to ask for a personal request for the show, of course, they agreed. The dress was stunning, a light pink with slighter darker shade of pink and white sequins decorating all around, long sleeves with a slight flare on display too. Devon had specially wanted this dress, she'd shown the woman the sketch and she laughed claiming it "looked like a four year old drawing", main reason was because it was.
Little Cassie and Devon sat on the sofa of the living room, both of them had been in figure skating for around a year now and they were drawing their dream dresses they'd love to wear whilst preforming. 'Wicked Games' by Chris Isaak was playing in the background, Lexi flicking through all the channels, "Leave this song on, Lex, please." Lexi nodded towards her sister and skipped over, intrigued by their designs.
Cassie had drew a beautiful dress, sparkling pink with darker pink and white sequins covering the fabric, sleeves were flared yet still styled perfectly. Her little messy character had her hair done into a braided bun, a joyful smile plastered across her rosy cheeks. The skater's makeup was light, still matching with the shades of the dress with a light pink eyeshadow and white and pink rhinestones placed perfectly across her eyeliner and inner corner of her eyes, her lip shade was slightest darker than the rest, a casual nude.
On the other hand, Devon's dress was coloured in a feathered blue crayon. Her sketched skater wore a sequenced blue costume with peacock feathers sewn just above the fabricated breast area, a grand dark blue jewel place adorning the middle of the feathers. For her skater's makeup, Devon had drew a dramatic blue and green eye look matching the colors of her dress, copying Cassie with the rhinestone-studded face look.
"Wow!" Lexi clapped giddily at the two drawings.
Once the dress was finished, Devon could've cried. It was the exact dress Cassie drew, each sequin placed exactly on point, down to the flares with the same odd lines.
Devon's name was called, and the ice that covered the rink wasn't the thing making her bones chill, yet the nerves was making her shudder. Her mind was plagued, something she really didn't need, with thoughts of Nick. Where was he right now? Did he really leave? He lied before, so he'd lie again, right?
Before she even knew it, Devon was subconsciously in her starting position, and then, 'Wicked Games' by Chris Isaak rang through the stadium.
Devon was lost in the moment.