I drove up into the usual parking slot, grabbing my booksack and slinging it over my shoulder. I was excited, nervous, anxious, and scared all at the same time. It was a lot to handle, but I knew I was ready…

But I found myself wanting to see Devon again.

I unlocked the door, opening it only to reveal Devon still curled up in her light purple comforter. I smiled, she looked fucking cute.

Did I really just think that…?

I rolled my eyes to myself, I was ridiculous, these frikkin thoughts were driving me insane. She’s cute, sure, when she sleeps, no big deal, no reason to stare at her… Thinking someone was cute when they slept was normal… people did it all the time. Right?

I heard Devon stirring, and I continued to unpack as she realized I was here.

She had amazing bed head.

I groaned to myself, and then spoke, “Well now that you’ve slept half the day away… wanna grab some lunch?

Was I… taking initiative? I never did that. Ever. When did I suddenly become so straight forward and dominant?

She rubbed her eyes, “Yea sure, just give me a minute.”

I nodded as I let my eyes follow her out into the hall, then I noticed I had been staring at her ass. You’ve got to be kidding me…

She was back after brushing her teeth and hair, and she started getting dressed without even warning me she was changing. I spoke suddenly, “Um do you want privacy or…?!”

She laughed at my immatureness and shrugged, “We’re roomies now Amanda, it’s not a big deal.”

So she was comfortable around me, but I didn’t know if I was comfortable around her. I eyed her chest for a second as she slipped a shirt over her head, then I tore my eyes away. This was going to suck… was I really falling for her? So suddenly?

I never thought I was lesbian, or bisexual for that matter… maybe I was?

I meant I am in college now…

No. I’m not gay. Period.

She grabbed her keys, “Ready? I’ll drive.”

I shrugged, “I was thinking we could walk around campus and head to the little café they had down the street. But if you wanna drive…”

She shook her head, “I like that idea better.”

I smiled, “Let’s go then.”

We headed out, falling into conversation like we had known each other for years. I even felt like I did. I was careful to steer clear about the accident I had gotten into this summer though, I knew Rachel had died in it as well. Last thing I wanted was for her to break down and cry in the middle of the street.

We made it to the café and even thought I knew I had never been here before, I felt as if I had. Devon smiled, “I love this place, they have the best potato soup.”

We sat and the waitress approached us, asking us what we would like to drink and eat. I looked at her, “I would like a pink lemonade and a hamburger but cut it in half for me.”

I never ate burgers, but I was craving one, and when I looked at Devon I knew immediately something was wrong.

I tilted my head, “You ok?”

She nodded slowly, trying to push the thought she had to the back of her head. “Y-Yea it’s just… Rachel used to order the same exact thing…”

I clenched my jaw, Shit… I hadn’t even noticed… but how was I supposed to know?

Even though I never ever ordered burgers… or pink lemonade.

We were soon eating, I had been quiet most of the time, to aggravated at myself for upsetting Devon. Even though it wasn’t my fault… I still felt guilty.

Devon looked up at me, “Where’d you get the scar on your eyebrow…?”

I looked at her, “Do you really want to know?”

She nodded, not caring about the consequences that might come if I did. “I Split my eyebrow open on the dash when we hit Trevor and Rachel head on.”

There was no use in sugar coating it anymore, she knew I was involved in the wreck. If we were going to live together, we needed to get the obvious out of the way.

“So what else happened?”

Shrugged, “I broke my arm and had some head trauma of course, my seat belt didn’t lock. It actually broke. Nelson… um…”

I was sure if I wanted to reveal to her about him just yet, but she was staring at me with those big blue eyes… I just couldn’t let her down. “Nelson… was paralyzed. From the waist down.”

She gasped, clutching her spoon in her right hand… I knew she felt horrible. I could see it, but I didn’t need her pity, besides, she had actually lost someone…

She looked down into her soup, “Rachel wasn’t wearing a seatbelt… Trenton was though… he’s in jail. Rachel… she um, flew out the windshield. Broke her neck and died instantly.”

I didn’t know why but I felt the need to comfort her in some way. I grabbed her left hand with my right, squeezing it, “Hey you don’t have to talk about this…”

She shrugged, “To be honest, I haven’t really talked to anyone about it since it happened… but I feel like I need to talk about it with you. Like I need to apologize… for what Trenton did to Nelson… it was his fault.”

“Devon… it was an accident, sure I blamed Trenton at first but… it’s over. It’s happened. And blaming someone won’t bring my boyfriends legs back.”

She nodded, “Or my best friend…”

I felt a twitch in my heart, it hurt, the pain… she was so upset, still not over what had happened. I felt horrible, talking about it now, but it was better to just get it out of the way.

“You and Rachel… were close?”

She nodded, it was a stupid question, because they were obviously best friends, but I wanted to know more about Rachel for some reason. Like I needed to know why she had such an impact on Devon’s life.

Devon spoke, “We were inseparable, we did everything together. I miss her so much it kills me… and then graduation night came… losing her… it was like losing a parent, a sister... I can never see her again… her smile… God she had such a pretty smile… but before she died we had fight.”

I tilted my head, “A fight?”

She nodded, “Well it wasn’t really a fight… we just had a falling out I guess but, that was then…”

She didn’t want to tell me what they had fought about, but it was a sensitive subject and I didn’t want to push her. I knew it was hard for her to talk about this, about Rachel, so I gave her space to breathe and think about it.

We finished up and started heading back to the campus, it was already getting late. How long had we stayed at the café?

We passed next to a bar, someone was playing a guitar outside, and it was my favorite song. It was a new song, Every Storm Runs Out Of Rain by Gary Allan. I smiled, “I love this song…”

Devon sighed, “Rachel played this song for me on her guitar… I fell in love with it.” I threw a dollar into his guitar case and we continued to walk. “You remind me of her… a lot.”

I glanced at her, “Why?”

“Because, the way to talk, the way you like that song… how you ordered at the café… even your eyes are similar.”

My eyes?

That was true! In the hospital… I had realized our eyes were identical. It was impossible, my eyes used to be dark green… now they were hazel, a light green with brown flecks.

Devon had even noticed that.

“Is that a good thing? That I remind you of her…?”

She shrugged, “Good and bad… I miss her, so when I look at you I see her, and it hurts me… but then it’s like having her back… even though I know you’re not her.”

We made it back into the dorm, I opened the door and we walked in. It was late, the sun was no longer out, and I was ready to crash, but I had to shower.

The dorm house I was in was small, so there weren’t that many people. I grabbed clothes, and then I noticed Devon was as well, “Going shower?”

She nodded, “Yea, before everyone decides to go at the same time.”

I smiled, following next to her into the shower room, “I feel like I’ve known you for years Amanda… but I’ve known you for two days.”

I nodded, “I feel that way to, to be honest.”

She walked into a shower, closing the door, and I did the same, stripping and turning on the water.

I wet myself and then I realized I had forgotten the soap in the dorm. I cursed, “Shit, hey Devon do you have soap?”

“Yea, one second.”

I waited, she was probably using it herself, and I hummed to myself. Then all of a sudden my door flung open, revealing a naked Devon, and she locked eyes with me, handing me the soap, “Here you go.”

I gasped, wanting to cover myself, and then not wanting to. My eyes traveled to her chest quickly and then back up to her face where there was an uneasy smirk, “What? Never seen a girl naked before?”

I shrugged, trying to play off my weirdness, I laughed, “I just didn’t expect you to be so… open.”

She shrugged, “I’m not insecure over my body.”

I laughed, “Obviously.”

We stood there, and then I realized what we were doing, so I started to close to door. I smiled, “See you when I’m done.”

She realized that we had been staring at each other for thirty seconds and agreed quickly, “Y-Yea, right.”

After that encounter I couldn’t stop thinking about Devon… and Devon’s perfect naked body.