"You don't have to tell me, if you really don't want to. I'm just curious." He quickly added when his question met silence.
But Ester was thinking about how to sum it up the fastest and without shedding tears. Then she sighed and looked at Devon for a few seconds, thinking about the question she asked him before.
"If I tell you that, will there be a chance for me to hear the story about your different type of scared?"
Devon clenched his jaw at that. He knew she wouldn't let that one slip. He shouldn't have said anything. But he didn't think she'd care enough to ask about it.
"Ester, I don't know." He finally said before making the u-turn.
"It's okay. I won't force you." She said before taking a deep breath.
"Well, in my case." She started as she looked down at her fingers that were fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. She let out a deep breath and looked at the road in front of them.
"My dad died on a plane on his way to Russia. And the witnesses said they saw the plane's nose head towards the ground with such a speed they couldn't even see the shape of a plane anymore." She felt her eyes sting with tears after remembering the hectic phone calls they showed on the news.
"It's just horrible. I was like ten when I found the old news on the internet and tried to understand how my father felt that moment. How it would feel to be on that plane. That's when I developed that fear, I guess." She shrugged and gulped her choking voice down.
"Fuck." Devon whispered, looking at Ester for quite some time before realizing he had to drive and looked back at the road in front of him.
"I'm so sorry, Ester." He continued.
"It's fine. I just- I don't know. It's fine Devon, really." She shook her head.
"No, I had no idea. If I knew-"
"You would've never sped with me in the car. No one's that cruel. I know." Ester tried to smile at him but a tear escaped her eyes. She quickly wiped it away.
"God, I'm an ignorant idiot." He said upon seeing her watery eyes. Ester let out a breath.
"You used to be. Towards me anyways." She told him, which made Devon sigh again. He could hit himself right now. But even a good punch in the guts would probably not even make him feel better.
"You can kick me in the shin if you want to." He said seriously.
"Oh, now you're being ridiculous." Ester laughed as she shook her head. At least, he made her laugh, but Devon was still upset.
"Oh, don't look so grim. You didn't know. I'm fine." Ester told him honestly. She was surprised that he took it that way. She wouldn't have expected him to not care, of course. But he seemed to really regret what he did.
"I won't do it ever again, trust me." He eventually said once they stopped in front of her building. Ester stared at him, many questions on her tongue but she couldn't bring herself to ask him. She was overthinking again. Everybody would feel bad in his position. He had every right. So she just smiled.
"Thanks for the ride, Devon. And don't get too worked up about it." She turned to undo her seat belt, but a hand shot up to stop her. Ester looked back at Devon who opened his mouth to say something, but closed it soon after. She was about to say some more assuring words, but he already started talking.
"About the scared thing." He started before looking down.
"You don't have to-" Ester interrupted, not wanting him to feel forced to say it only because she almost cried. But Devon shook his head.
"I never told anybody except mom and Sierra. And I want you to understand if that's what you want." He told her and Ester nodded before patiently waiting for him to continue. And with another deep breath, he did.
"Four years ago, I lost my license. And people in our society turned their back towards me because of the reason I lost it. And I can't really blame them. Just know that they don't like me and I don't like them either. I'm a monster to them and I couldn't care less, really. I just don't want them to ruin my mother's wedding." He finally said, making Ester nod slowly, before she realized something.
"Wait, but you have your license back now, right? I mean, you haven't been driving all this time without a license?" She frowned. For some reason, Devon started chuckling which only intensified Ester's worries.
"No, Ester. I lost my doctor's license." He stopped chuckling when he said that and watched Ester's reaction carefully. He almost laughed when her face dropped.
"Excuse me?" She asked in disbelief.
"You're a doctor?" She continued when he didn't say anything. But Devon clenched his jaw at her question and looked away.
"Was. I was a doctor." He muttered.
"Well, you still have the skills of a doctor, don't you? Your license isn't the only thing that makes you a doctor." She said and Devon looked at her in surprise. His mother told him the same thing when he first told her what happened.
"I guess. But it's been four years." He shook his head, looking back into Ester's eyes. They were big and full of awe. Before he could help himself, he opened his mouth.
"What colour are your eyes?" That made her blink at the randomness of his question. It was as if he didn't just tell her that he was a doctor and lost his license. But she answered anyways.
"I believe they are grey, but do have a hint of green." She told him. Devon nodded, his gaze boring into her eyes.
"They're beautiful." He muttered and Ester blushed and looked away.
They're beautiful? How fucking creepy, Devon silently scowled at himself again. Today wasn't his day. So he decided to let her go before he said something even more stupid. He cleared his throat.
"Well, we're here." He stated.
"Yeah." Ester said before looking at him again. She looked as if she wanted to say more, but she refrained from it.
"Thanks again. See you tomorrow." She said before opening the door.
"I'll be here." Devon responded before she closed the door after climbing out. He watched Ester walk towards the door and wondered how many more things he could discover about her. He now knew she had grey eyes with a hint of green, her dad died on a plane and she wasn't so bad after all.
Well, he knew the last point already. But that point just made him realize that he really wanted to get to know her better. And he will.
Ester, once she got home safely, fell onto her bed face first. Then she sighed loudly and sat up. She quickly walked towards her window and went to see if his car was still there. To her surprise, it was.
She wondered what he was thinking right now as a strong urge to walk back downstairs and continue talking to him, overcame her. She still couldn't believe he was a doctor.
"A bloody doctor." She whispered to herself as she looked at his Bentley. That would at least explain why he had so much money.
"What's all that noise about?" Ester suddenly heard and jumped away from the window as if it would burn her. She turned to see her roommate making her way over.
"Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" Ester tried to distract her as she walked over towards her bed.
"Yeah, but I needed to pee and heard you moan. I was hoping I'd catch you and Mister admirer together." Olivia yawned as she sat down next to her friend.
"Remind me to lock the door in the future." Ester shook her head.
"Why? Is there something you want to tell me? For example why his car is still parked outside even though you're already here for a few minutes? He never stays this long." Olivia said, making Ester gape at her.
She knew, of course she did. Ester should've known better. It was Olivia she was talking about, after all. Her roommate was like a ninja at times. But Ester shook her head anyways and stood up to look outside the window again. He was gone now and she sighed before turning towards Olivia again.
"I'm so confused about him. He's so different." Ester told her.
"I know. You keep telling me this ever since he apologized." She responded. Ester sighed and sat down on her bed again.
"Yes, but he told me that he was a doctor. Can you believe that?" Ester told her friend, whose eyes widened.
"No way. Of all the jobs, I wouldn't have picked doctor." Olivia said.
"He told me he lost his license four years ago." That made her roommate frown.
"Seriously? That could mean a lot." Olivia told her.
"What do you mean?" Ester was frowning too now.
"Think about the things he did in order to lose a damn doctor's license. Like illegal stuff. Oh my God! What if he sold organs on the black market?" Olivia's eyes widened.
"No way." Ester quickly shook her head. That was not Devon at all.
"Think about it. He's rich, he could've easily bailed himself out." Her roommate shrugged.
"Is that even possible when you sell organs? I never got that bail thing. I mean, why arrest someone if they could just buy themselves out?" Ester asked.
"That's not the point here. What I'm trying to say is that you should be careful. I know he's hot and all, but that's some serious stuff." For once, Olivia was wary of the man that just recently stepped into Ester's life.
"I will, trust me. But also trust me when I say he couldn't have done something like this." Ester was sure of that. But her friend's words made her think. What did he do that was this bad? If she was being honest, Ester would've never thought Devon was capable of doing something really bad in order to loose his license. Yes, they disliked each other at first and he was an asshole. But could he be this dangerous?
"Anyways, I'll leave you to it now. Got a big test tomorrow. Good night." Olivia left and minutes later, Ester found herself laying in bed and still thinking about Devon.
And then her phone binged and she looked at the text without having to look at the name.
How was your day?
Normally, at this time of the day. Her secret admirer and Ester would exchange their daily happenings and chat about random stuff.
But she wasn't really feeling it today, so she decided to ignore his text.
A/N: Thoughts about Devon? Did he really change or is it just part of his plan to crush her?
What would you do if you were in Ester's skin?
Xoxo.