A Symphony of Devotion: The Start [Demi Lovato]

[7] Pink

My thoughts are in turmoil. She confessed she likes me. She fucking confessed she likes me.

I've been screwed over ever since I overheard that conversation, and I don't know how to feel. It's messing me up so bad that even my parents have noticed.

In the past ten minutes of this meal alone, they've asked me -twice- to snap out of whatever funk I'm in. I try to fix myself and pretend to eat a little, but after a while, I get lost in my thoughts again. Now my mother and I are sitting alone at the dining table; Dad having gone out for a meeting and Zack playing football out back with the graduated seniors of the high school that he'd happened to make friends with.

Zack hasn't even been to school once since coming to America because he's applying for law school, since he graduated in Britain, and yet he still has more friends from Trinity Academy than me.

I guess that just goes to show that my dad's Y chromosomes are a whole lot better than his X chromosomes.

I haven't talked to Devonne or came into contact with her all day today. We've had classes together, but we weren't sitting at the same desk, and I wanted to avoid her until I figured out how I felt about what she'd said yesterday to Deaton. I don't have much time left, though, considering Devonne's reaching in about ten minutes to continue with our music project. She's bringing her guitar and a keyboard, which is way good for me, though.

Then, the butler walks in. "Miss Stone, you have a visitor."

I'm out of my seat and to the door instantly. She's early. As I walk out, I see a football fly past the house and land right before me. Some boy jogs out to get the ball, sweat dripping down his face in beads. He must be new, and he looks younger than most of my brother's friends. I usually recognize them by name.

"Hey, Kenzie?" Devonne calls out from her car, as she tosses her key towards the valet. "Can you help me with the keyboard? It's kinda heavy."

"I'll help," the boy from before calls out, as he runs towards us and flashes a wink at me.

I feel sort of numb on the inside, and his flirting only recieves a blank expression from me.

"Julian! Hurry up with the ball!" I identify that holler as Matt, Zack's bestfriend in the two months we've been here. See what I mean? Two months and he's already found a bestfriend.

"I'm helping hot girls!" 'Julian' yells back.

Hot girls. With an 's'. Is he serious?

Before I know it, all the guys are crowded around Devonne, each one trying to help out with the instruments as they flirt with her. I feel a pang of jealousy, unable to keep my eyes off Devonne even as Matt and another boy passes me with her guitar.

"Hey, baby," Matt greets, making flirty eyes at me as he stops in his path. "Do you know what my shirt's made of?" He touches his sweaty football vest. "Boyfriend material."

I'm too lost to acknowledge his pick up line. "Thanks?"

Matt raises an eyebrow, his face going serious, and lets the other boy, Jason, walk in with the guitar as he crosses the small space to me. "You all right there, kiddo?"

It's the best I can do to not tear up as Matt hugs me. I glance Devonne's way, where she's waylaid by all those guys trying to help, but her eyes are focused on me.

Matt catches my gaze. "Is it that girl? Did you make friends with her?"

I nod; a firm one to answer the first question, then a more unstable nod. "She's new. Her name is Devonne." Matt is like a second brother to me. He's the only one of Zack's friends that knows I'm gay, and I can trust him with anything.