Trigger

nineteen • awkwardness

The boy looks sheepish.

He looks our age, maybe even a bit younger. He sort of has a baby face, and if it weren't for the fact that he had so quickly picked up on Levi's name, I would have mistaken him for perhaps a couple of years younger than us. He stands quite tall, looming over our booth with his lanky form, his short blonde hair contrasting a bit strangely with his dark brown eyes, almost like chocolate, a combination I'm not sure how to feel about.

"Yes... we're talking about Levi Collins," Hannah confirms slowly, eyes narrowing on the boy standing near our table. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering," he mutters, shuffling his feet. "I heard about his suicide. I went to school with him, actually. His cousin is one of my good friends."

I sit up at this. "Finn Allen?"

The boy's eyebrows furrow. He looks surprised that I know Finn. "Yeah, Finn. Did you know them? They went to the cottage for the summer so I only recently found out about... what happened."

"Do you know... why?" I ask hesitantly.

The boy chews nervously on the inside of his cheek, rubbing his collarbone where he has a 'x' tattooed. "Yeah, Finn told me that he wasn't... stable after the accident."

"You know about the accident?"

"Of course. Finn was actually at my house the night of the accident."

Alarms set off in my head at that piece of information. I think back to the articles I read, and the small information I had gathered from them. Finn had been picked up from a friend's house. "Did Levi's parents pick him from your place?"

"Yeah, they did." The boy continues to shuffle his feet, looking uncomfortable. "Um, anyway, sorry for bothering you. I was just wondering if- you know- you knew him or whatever. It's really sad."

"Yeah," Hannah agrees, looking suspicious as she stares calculatingly at the boy. "It is."

The boy nods. "Okay. Well, bye, I suppose."

The boy begins to awkwardly walk away when Hannah shouts, "Wait!" She gains a couple of people in the ice cream parlour's attention, but luckily one of those people is the boy. He turns back around, looking skittish. "What's your name?"

"...Devon," the boy says. "Are you going to see Finn this summer?"

"My family cottage owns the one next to his," I say.

Devon purses his lips. "Oh. Well, tell him I say hi, I guess. He didn't come back with Katherine and Jeffery."

"We know," Hannah says.

"I will," I add.

Devon, looking painfully awkward and out of place, just nods before hurrying out of the shop.

"That was weird," Hannah mutters before going back to her ice cream. I sit there silently, agreeing with her. Not just that conversation, but just the fact that Finn Allen- the confident, head-held-up-high Finn Allen- is friends with such a skittish and awkward guy. I just can't see them ever getting along. Finn likes to tease, he likes to joke and pick fun at stuff that Devon looks like he would get hurt feelings over. I just don't understand it.

The other thing I don't understand is Devon's extreme interest as to where Finn is. Why does he care so much? Especially, why does he care so much whether or not we're going to see Finn or not? Something is off, and I'm not going to let it just go.

So ignoring Hannah's questions, I make a quick decision to jump out of the booth and practically run out of the store. My head snaps around, looking for the head of short, blond hair, but Devon is already gone.