Again (PUBLISHED!)

Chapter 28.

I reached the homeless shelter Devon was doing his community service at. I wanted to see him and do my bit of good work to help the less privileged.

I looked around the eating area that had round plastic tables and plastic chairs and volunteers wearing red colored apron were serving food to the poor and homeless people.

It wasn't difficult to spot Devon 'cause he was too busy serving food to a bony elderly couple.

If anybody thought Devon was doing his service just for the heck of it, they would be so wrong. I saw the compassion in his attitude, the benevolence in his eyes as he interacted with the old couple as he served them meal.

I stood there, staring at him for sometime. It really seemed like Devon was totally putting his heart and mind into doing his community service. And---

Oh shit! He saw me!!

The cat was out of the bag sooner than expected. He definitely wasn't expecting to see me there so much so that he couldn't even hide the expression of shock on his face.

I averted my gazes off him seeing him approach me.

"What are you doing here?" Devon asked in a tone of suspicion.

"I've come to do my bit of community work."

"You didn't break any law or go to prison, why would you be here? Or did you?"

"You don't need to go to jail to do community work," I said candidly. "You can do it voluntarily."

"Alright then," he said nonchalantly. "Feel at home in this homeless shelter."

Devon strode away. I rolled my eyes. Damn this boy!

I followed him to the kitchen on the backside where there was a lot of hustle and bustle. There were quite many people devoting their time to help the needy. Since there was already a lot of activity going on in there, I doubted whether any more people were required to work. I asked the manager and was grateful when I got something to do.

They handed over an apron to me. I wore it and began helping with the cleaning.

The whole experience of being there at a Homeless Shelter filled me with so much of gratitude. I'm lucky that I've a house to live in, have food and water to eat everyday, have money to buy the things I want. The next time I complain about something that I don't have or can't have, I'm gonna remind myself that there are people out there who are struggling day and night to achieve the basic means of livelihood that come to me so easily.

Devon and I were working in the same area and there were several times when our eyes met but he plainly avoided me every time. That irritated me so much.

At one point of time, I found myself alongside him. He was helping prepare the meals while I was doing the packaging work.

"I don't think you're as bad as you make yourself out to be," I said thoughtfully. "I think you're pretty much pretending to be a bad boy."

"I'm not pretending anything," he responded with a deadpanned expression. "Moreover, it's your problem entirely that your views about me keep on changing every hour of the day,"

I rolled my eyes.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he said, offended. "Few days back I had got into a huge brawl with another volunteer here."

"Oh yeah, I know about that one," I said. "That volunteer had been unethically making money by secretly selling the free packaged meals meant only for the poor and homeless. You exposed him and thus, as a reward for your good work, your community service time has been reduced by 15 hours."

"I want to get rid of this place as soon as possible. I wanted my service hours to be reduced which is the only reason why I brought that volunteer out in the open."

"No, you didn't bring that fraud to light to get your community work hours decreased. You did it because you just can't silently watch anything terribly unfair happen to the less privileged. The emotions were reflecting on your face that day," I said frankly.

Never in my wildest dream had I ever imagined after meeting him that one day I would be standing against him to defend him.

Wait, does that make sense.

This is what happens when you know someone named Devon Parker.

He opened his mouth to shoot back. "I didn't---hey wait a sec," he paused in a state of sudden realization. "How do you know about my brawl with another volunteer??"

Devon gave me a look of suspicion. Oh, well.

A couple of days back, I had been here to see Devon but after a while I had quietly left the place making sure he never knew I was there.

So yeah, I had seen him punch that volunteer's nose and give him a black eye too.

And guess my silence was giving away the truth.

"You're stalking me???" quizzed Devon, his face contorted in shock.

I was shocked hearing that freaking word. "I am n--"

"Yes, you're stalking me, stalker!" he interrupted. "How else would you know what happened that day?" he drawled.

I glared at him hard. He fucking used that word on me thrice, thrice!

I opened my mouth to fire back at him....

"I don't know what's fucking wrong with girls these days," commented Devon. "When you want to be with them, they have problems with you. And when you leave them all alone, they follow you everywhere."

Devon looked away with an annoying expression.

I rolled my eyes. This boy, I tell you!

Then we dispersed off and got busy with serving meals to the poor people. It was only when we were clearing off the tables than Devon spoke again.

"But people here are good," he said quietly. "They are selfless."

"Whoa! It's hard to believe you actually appreciated the people around you," I remarked. "Because all I hear you calling everyone is nothing except douches, scumbags, dickheads and what not."

"This is a Homeless Shelter. I can't use those words here," Devon drawled. "That would be inhuman. Since I'm born human, I should pretend to have some qualities of a human."

I raised a brow at him. He looked back at me with a deadpanned expression.

Oh Gawd.

It's official. You just can't make Devon shut up. If you thought you could silence him, he will get back to you with answers you never expected to hear out of anyone.

"Moreover, I'm a homeless too," Devon let out a dry chuckle. "Only difference is that they don't have a home to live and I live in a house that's not home." And he walked away inside the kitchen.

I let out a grim breath, wondering what sort of baggage he was carrying from the past. Because I could tell that baggages were horrible, they leave you to deal with nasty scars.

***

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