TEEN VOGUE

yo im devon

[neondevon-blog]

Devon curled into a ball on the ground, letting out a low groan of frustration. She was feeling way cramped in her tiny dorm; the walls, wallpapered with bright pages from magazines, seemed to be closing in on her, and the only thing Devon could think about was running out, far, far away, to the other side of the country. 

Staying in was making Devon stircrazy, but with the lockdown going on, leaving campus was not an option. Devon couldn’t even leave her room. She had to be invited into buildings, and trying to get someone to play doorman so she could eventually get back inside to a warm bed seemed like a bad idea. Trying to talk to anyone seemed like a bad idea right now. The veil was thin, and tensions were high...

and right now, her influence was so strong she could make even the calmest crawl out of their skin. 

With nowhere to go, and no one to waste away the time with, Devon straightened up and opened Buzzfeed on her phone for probably the hundredth time that day.

It was gonna be a long season.

[tianween]

table for two

Why was Benji even standing in line at Moonpies right now. Freddie wasn’t here! No Freddie means no freebies, and no freebies means a pizza-sized dent in his wallet. Man. His moms were nice (and over-protective) enough to still be giving him an allowance, even if he was across the country, but paying for pizza sucked. That money could be going to, uh… Other food! Like cheetos and shit. And, and, stuff like beer and parties, y'know. Hashtag-college-life. Life with a ‘y.’ Stuff that he couldn’t be getting for free any other day! Sometimes cravings mixed with bad grocery shopping timing made for a really bad situation, and by 'some’ he meant 'now’. Nowtimes.

Benji made his way through the line, retrieving his too-expensive veggie 'zza with teary eyes. Life was so unfair. Life was a nightmare. His middle school emo days were rushing back with every unfortunate event, including the fact that there were no open tables. Oh, woe is Benji. Woe is life! Luckily enough, there was an open chair at a table with a not-too-mean looking occupant - if anyone was to judge a book by their spooky cover, it was the prey animal with hair trigger instincts.

“Hey, man! You mind if I share the table?” It was, in fact, a little late to say yes or no, as he had already planted his butt into the painted metal chair opposite his new 'friend’. “Shiiit, it’s hella packed in here, huh? Must be that new semester rush. I haven’t seen it like this since, uh…” He paused for a moment, shoving pizza in his mouth with one bandaged hand and tapping against the table with the other. “I think last semester’s start. Guess I was right!” He grinned, unaware of the huge chunk of spinach stuck in his front teeth. He’d never been the best at first impressions. “You new here, my dude?”

[neondevon-blog]

Devon’s heart skipped a beat when someone sat down next to her. She eyed her new tablemate as he tucked into a slice of pizza so coated in veggies that she nearly mistook it as a salad. He chattered away, nearly shouting to be heard over the crowd. Devon went over the pre-prepared conversations she had practiced in her mirror the night before. Had any of them mentioned pizza? Or crowds? Or anything relevant? No amount of practice could have prepared Devon for the real deal.

But prepared or not, here she was, face-to-face with a real person. A real person with a goofy grin and spinach in his teeth. A real person who was looking at her, talking to her, and asking her a question.

Oh shit, he asked me something! Devon’s eyes widened for a moment as she struggled to find words. “Uh, yeah I’m new, uh, really new.” 

Damn, Devon, how lame can you even sound? You practiced this! Devon looked at the boy in front of her nervously. He didn’t seem too put off by her awful reply; in fact, he was so enamored with the pizza in front of him that she didn’t know if he was capable of negative emotion. He looked so cool, though. She could only hope he’d consider her a friend.

“I’m not really good at this,” Devon admitted out loud. “I mean, all of this. College. Talking. Pizza. I never really got a lot of experience with it before now, y’know what I mean?” She looked towards her hands, which were nervously drumming the kinda-gross pizzeria table. “So, uh... Thanks for sitting with me. You’re pretty cool.” 

And for the first time probably ever, Devon genuinely smiled.