The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney (16 page)

“Oh, okay.” Relief floods my body. If Kim liked Luke, Lexi would know about it, right? I mean, they’re friends.

“Why?” Lexi asks. “Do you like Luke?” She looks at me excitedly. “Maybe you should just ask her.”

“Uh, I don’t know if I like him. I’m definitely not going to go after him,” I say, hoping by telling Lexi it will get back to Kim. “I don’t know if I’m ready to start liking someone else.”

Lexi pats me again. “I totally understand.” Matt O’Connor comes up behind Lexi and pulls her hair. She squeals in delight and turns around. “Matt, stop!” she says, but you can tell she’s totally loving it. He grins at her and heads toward the lunch table.

“What’s going on with you two?” I ask.

“I dunno,” she says, flushing. “We went to play DDR this weekend, and it was really fun. He wouldn’t let me pay for any games, and he kept trying to win me stuffed animals.”

Lexi still has her head turned, watching Matt walk through the lunchtime crowd to our table. She turns back to me. “Devi, I’m so sorry, here I am going on and on about Matt and how cool he is, and you’re totally having a romantic crisis.” She squeezes my arm. “So do you want me to ask Kim if she likes Luke?” she asks. She twirls a strand of her hair around her finger and looks at it critically. “I totally need a haircut. I’m
definitely going to get mine like yours.”

“Yeah, that would be cool,” I say. “You talking to Kim, I mean. And getting your hair like mine too.” I nod. “Just make sure that Kim doesn’t know you’re asking for me.”

“Of course, Devi,” Lexi says, nodding seriously. “You can trust me.” I don’t point out that the last time she promised I could trust her, she ended up leaking the secret. Of course, that was a made-up secret, but still.

“Great.”

“Devi, can I talk to you for a second?” Jared asks, walking up to us.

“No, you cannot,” Lexi says, putting her arm around me. “She doesn’t want to talk to you.” She glares at him. Jared looks confused.

“It’s okay, Lexi,” I say, detangling myself from her grasp. “I’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I say, trying to sound forceful.

She heads back to the lunch table, but not before she throws Jared a mean look over her shoulder.

“Dude, that girl is seriously hostile,” he says, shaking his head.

“So what’s up?” I ask, giving him my brightest
smile. I wonder what Jared would think if he knew he’d just broken up with me.

“I just wanted to talk to you about this Lexi thing.”

“Yes?”

“The thing is, I think she likes Matt.”

“Why do you think that?” I ask, frowning.

“Because they’re always flirting and talking,” Jared says. “And they went to the mall together this weekend, alone. And Matt said, ‘I like Lexi, and I’m pretty sure she likes me.’”

“I don’t know if that’s quite true,” I say, looking over Jared’s shoulder to where Lexi is sitting next to Matt. She takes the hat he’s wearing off his head and puts it on her own. Matt starts tickling her, and she giggles.

“Yeah, well, that’s what it seems like. So I think maybe I should just tell her I like her.”

“No!” I practically scream. Oh, God. Can this day get any more complicated? How is it that one lie has spiraled out of control into all these little subplots? Is it like quantum physics or something? If you lie once, it will reverberate through your universe, screwing everything else up?

“Why not?” Jared asks, frowning. “I don’t want her
to start going out with Matt. And being mean to her obviously isn’t working. She acts like she hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” I say. “Listen, um, just give it some time.”

He looks at me skeptically. “Why?”

“I mean, um, give me some time. To talk to her. I’ll find out what’s going on between her and Matt, and I’ll ask her what she thinks about you.”

“You will?” Jared beams. “Thanks, Devi.” I’m starting to worry a little bit about Jared’s mental state. Being mean to Lexi is obviously not working, and yet even though I’m the one who gave him that obviously horrible advice, he’s willing to trust me again.

“No prob,” I say, grinning back shakily. Now what?

That night, in an effort to distract myself from the impending doom that is my life, I let Katie convince me to watch
The Cutting Edge
with her. Not that I really have a choice. My parents are seeing their counselor, so I’m stuck babysitting. As Olympics movies go,
The Cutting Edge
is one of my favorites. Skating, cute costumes, romance, and drama. Plus the whole overcoming obstacles to achieve your dreams thing. I mean, what’s not to like?

“This is gonna be so fun, right, Devon?” Katie asks. She pulls the DVD out of its case and throws the case on the floor.

“Right,” I say, not really meaning it. The problem with watching a movie with Katie is that since she watches her DVDs over and over, she usually has the movie memorized. And she quotes it. Like, actually says the lines along with the actors as they’re saying them. Which is really annoying.

“Fun, fun, fun,” Katie sings, dancing over to the DVD player and popping in the disc. “Say it, Devon,” she instructs. “Fun, fun, fun.”

“Fun, fun, fun,” I recite, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. I’m sprawled on the floor wearing my favorite pair of pajama pants (they’re pink and say
SLEEPYTIME
on the butt—they’re my favorite because my mom bought them for me right before I went to stay with my grandma for the summer, and even though they were new, for some reason they smelled like her, so I wore them every night), and a big T-shirt of my dad’s that says CORNELL on it. I have my math book open in front of me because I have a ton of homework, but I plan on using it as an excuse for why I’m not paying exact attention to the movie.

“You didn’t say it right,” Katie admonishes. She grabs the DVD remote and settles into the couch. “And don’t pretend you’re doing your homework so you don’t have to watch the movie. It is a very good flick.” She expertly scrolls through the title menu. “And after this movie is over, we will watch it with the director’s commentary.”

Great.

The opening sequence starts.

“When I become an ice skater I’m going to have a pink costume, very flowing, with no sequins,” she says. “I watched them make one just like it on
Project Runway.”
She frowns. “But I forget the name of the person who made it.” She looks upset for a second, but then shakes her head. “But by then, I’ll be famous, so it won’t matter, I can find out.”

The doorbell rings, saving me from having to hear more.

I scramble up from the floor. “Devon!” Katie screams. “You know we’re not supposed to answer the door when Mom and Dad aren’t home!”

“I’m not,” I say. “I’m just going to look out the peephole.” Not like it would matter. With the way Katie just screamed, anyone who’s at the door definitely knows someone’s home and that whoever it is
isn’t supposed to answer the door when their parents aren’t home.

I step up on my toes in the front hallway and look out the peephole. Oh my God. It’s Luke.

“Ohmigod,” I say. “It’s Luke.” Why is Luke here? And who does that? Just shows up at someone’s house like this? Without calling or anything?

“Oh,” Katie says, looking annoyed. “Just your boyfriend. Don’t answer it, we’re watching a movie.’

“Um, I have to,” I say. Katie starts to protest, so I rush on. “It’s about school.” I put my hands on her shoulders and steer her back toward the living room. “Now go watch the movie and I’ll be back in a second.”

She stomps off.

“Luke!” I say, opening the door. “What are you doing here?”

“I was hanging out with Jared for a while and I just thought I’d stop by and drop this off.” He holds up a piece of paper with drawings on it. “It’s a scene-by-scene drawing of our project. Kind of like a storyboard.”

“Luke, that’s amazing!” I exclaim, looking at the paper. He has little drawings of all of us, saying our lines, and what should happen from scene to scene, complete with camera angles.

“Yeah, well, Matt gave me the idea, and I had some
time in study hall.” He shrugs, and I think I see him blush. Is Luke blushing? Did I make Luke blush? How cute! He runs his fingers through his hair and looks at the ground.

“Do you want to come in for a little while?” I ask before thinking. “So we can work on the project,” I add quickly. Even though there’s really nothing left to do on the project. Except film it, which we’re not doing until the weekend.

“Sure,” Luke says, moving past me and into the hallway. He’s wearing a puffy dark green vest over a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans. The sleeve of his shirt brushes against my bare arm as he moves by, and I’m reminded of the time he held my hand. I’m also reminded that I’m wearing a pair of pants that say SLEEPYTIME on the butt, and an old T-shirt. Great.

“Um, I actually just got out of the shower,” I lie. “And I was about to get dressed.”

He frowns. “You were about to get dressed?” He checks his watch. “It’s almost eight o’clock.”

“I know, but I don’t like to lounge around too much in my pajamas. It makes me unproductive.” He looks at me skeptically. “And,” I rush on, just in case he’s
wondering, “my hair isn’t wet because I just dried it.”

“Okay.” He thinks I’m a freak.

“So you wait here,” I say, “and I’ll run upstairs and get dressed.”

“Okay,” he says again, sounding doubtful.

I race up the stairs to my room, stubbing my toe on my doorframe in the process. A searing pain shoots from my toe all the way up my leg. Ow. I pick up a pair of jeans off my floor and slide them on. I hope Luke doesn’t realize that these are the same pants I wore to school today. He might think I’m a slob if I’m putting dirty clothes on right after I just got out of the shower. I pull my new pink-and-maroon striped sweater out of my closet and slide it on, then smear some lip gloss onto my lips.

I hobble back downstairs, but when I get to the hallway, Luke’s not there. I find him in the living room, sitting next to Katie on the couch.

“Do you think they’re going to fall in love or not?” Katie asks him.

“Who?” Luke asks.

“Those two!” Katie says, pointing at the TV and looking exasperated. “Even though they hate each other now, do you think they’re going to fall in love or not?”

“Hello! “I say brightly.

“Devon, you left Luke standing in the hallway. That wasn’t very nice,” Katie says. “And why are you limping?”

“I’m not,” I say, limping over to the chair in the corner and plopping myself into it. My toe is killing me.

“Let me check,” Katie says, hopping off the couch. “Let me check your legs!”

“No, I’m fine,” I say. Luke smiles uncomfortably.

“Katie, Luke and I are going to go work in the kitchen,” I say, figuring it’s better to get away from her than it is to stay in here, where she’s obviously feels it’s appropriate to act like the ultimate embarrassment. “You stay in here and watch the movie.”

I hobble into the kitchen. Luke follows me. I wonder if my toe is broken. That would be horrible. Although maybe they’d give me crutches and everyone would feel sorry for me and I’d get to leave class five minutes early in order to get to my next one on time.

“So,” I say, not sure what’s supposed to happen now. “Do you want something to drink?”

“Sure,” he says. I pull the grape juice out of the refrigerator and take two glasses down from the cupboard. My toe is throbbing. I never realized how many steps it takes to get around the kitchen. I wonder if
Luke would notice if I started hopping on one foot.

“Here you go,” I say, sitting his glass down in front of him.

“Thanks.” He takes a sip of his juice, and then sits the glass down on the table. He licks a stray drop of juice off his lips, then starts pulling his puffy vest off. Luke is practically undressing at my kitchen table. I take another sip of my drink and try not to stare. In the living room, I can hear Katie reciting the lines to
The Cutting Edge
along with the actors.

“Listen, Devon, I didn’t come here to talk about the project.”

“Oh,” I say, acting cool.

“The other day, when I asked you to hang out, I just … I wanted to know if you said no because you really had to babysit, or if you said no because you just didn’t want to hang out.” He rushes on. “I’m cool either way, I just kind of need to know.”

“Why?” I ask, stalling.

“Because if it was really because you just had to babysit, I’m going to ask you out again.” He smiles.

“Oh.” I quickly run through the options in my mind. I really do like Luke. But if I go out with him, Kirn’s going to tell everyone that I made up the fact that Jared is my boyfriend. And then it’s not going to
matter if I’m going out with Luke, because he’ll dump me, anyway.

The phone rings then, saving me from having to come up with an answer. I leap to the phone in the kitchen, hoping it’s one of those survey people who makes you answer three million questions about what radio station you listen to or what kind of cereal you eat.

“Hello?” I say, trying to sound friendly and like the type of person who has unlimited amounts of time to spend on the phone, answering questions for strangers.

“Hey.” It’s Mel.

“Hi, Mel,” I say. “What’s up?”

“Working on the math homework. What are you doing?”

“Um, nothing really. Having some grape juice. Luke’s over.”

“Luke’s there?” she asks, sounding confused. “I thought you had to babysit Katie tonight.”

“I did have to babysit Katie,” I say. “I mean, I do have to babysit her. I AM babysitting her.” I wonder if my sprained toe is somehow compromising my ability to talk. “But Luke’s here. We’re having grape juice.” We’re having grape juice? I did not just say that. Luke holds up his glass and smiles uncertainly. Maybe this
thing with Luke will just resolve itself. I mean, obviously he won’t want to date a crazy person.

“But you have a friend over,” Mel says, sounding almost mad.

“It was kind of unexpected.”

“Fine,” Mel says. “Call me when you’re done dealing with things that are unexpected.” And then she hangs up on me. I stare at the receiver in shock. Mel has never hung up on me, ever. In fact, if you asked me, “Who is the person least likely to ever hang up on you?”, I would have answered Mel.