A Symphony of Devotion: The Start [Demi Lovato]

[20] Tacenda

When I finally pull away and turn around, I make it just in time to see the door closing behind Devonne, and a pang of pain hits me before I push it away. There's a lone flower on the doorway; it probably fell out of that bundle when she rushed out.

"Who was that?" Julian asks, as I go over and pick that flower up. It's clearly naturally yellow, but Devonne must have glued a whole pile of gold glitter to it, so it appears to be a shimmering golden.

In the center of the biggest petal is a single word written in Devonne's neat handwriting in black. My name.

"Kenzie?" Julian repeats, reaching a hand out to touch me. "Who was-"

He cuts himself off when I angrily throw the flower to the ground and stomp one foot down on it, rubbing it against the ground until the petals fall off and breaks into pieces. Tears start to stream down my cheeks before I realize what I'm doing, and Julian grabs hold of my hands and pulls me to him before I can continue with my violent actions.

"Kenzie." When I don't answer, he raises his voice. "Kenzie! Look at me."

I finally raise my head, and Julian lifts my chin, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. "Kenzie, are you okay?"

I'm already pushing away from the boy, from the way his movements remind me so much of Devonne. "I'm fine." One look at the clock on the wall tells me that it's hardly been twenty minutes into the period, but I ignore that fact as I grab my bag and rush out of the room.

I head the exact opposite direction of where Devonne would probably go next. I'm guessing she would leave the school compound, so I go for the bathroom at the far end of the corridor.

But, just as I near it, I hear Devonne's voice, and slow.

"Stupid, good for nothing bitch," she mutters. "Wasted all my fucking effort." There's the sound of something ripping. "Bitch."

I stop right outside the entrance, and peek in. Devonne, with tears streaming down her cheeks, is standing before the sinks, a basket full of torn up flowers beside her. My eyes widen, and I stand still in shock, until Devonne suddenly turns her head in my direction and I dart back.

"I can see you, you know," She says from behind me.

I bite down on my lower lip, squeezing my eyes shut in the turn of events before opening them again to see Devonne walking past me and down the corridor.

"Devonne, wait!" I find myself calling down the hallway as I run after her. Devonne doesn't turn around, so I grab her shoulder.

She instantly whips to face me after that, her face a cold mask. "Don't touch me."

I drop my hand, dread seeping into my veins. "Please, can we talk? Why weren't you in school today?"

Devonne's eyes narrow, cold now, but I see the redness in them; the signs that show she's been crying. "Well, I wasn't going to come at all, but then I remembered about that promise I made about two weeks ago to meet you here for music. I don't break promises..." Her eyes soften, but they do so with pain. "...but I guess you do."

She turns and starts down the hallway again, but I don't go after her. I rush into the restroom instead, and pick up the basket of destroyed petals. All of them, although in varying colours, have glitter glued on.

The first thing that catches my attention is half a black word on a pink petal. I quickly take it up, staring at the letting. 'ase'.

It's a message.

I quickly start to search for more of those black words, and eventually come up with:
'love', 'but', 'you', 'so', 'rry' -which I've concluded to be one word, sorry- 'I', 'I'm', 'will', 'and', as well as 'ple', which I've decided should be joined to the original 'ase' to form please.

After a little arranging, I come up with, 'I love you and I'm sorry but please.' It ends there. I search through the basket again, just in case I missed out some petals, but there aren't any left. I start to look through with a more panicked hand, urged on by a burning desire to find out the last few words, curiosity getting the best of me.

When I eventually discover nothing, I glance back towards the row of worded petals and try to rearrange them again, but nothing works.
I run a hand through my hair and groan in frustration, turning away from the petals to take in a deep breath.

It's then that I notice one more petal on the ground. White, but with black lettering. Hope grows in me as I reach towards it, but a breeze comes in from the open window above me and blows it into the hallway. Nothing daunted, I run after it, and see it lying in the middle of the corridor, the word on it too small to be visible from where I'm standing.

I almost have the petal in my grasp when the wind moves it a little more down, as if playing games with me. I give a sigh as I step forward and bend down to get it, only to have the wind blow it even further. I curse under my breath at the wind, and run forward to retrieve the petal before the breeze can take it from me.

But just as my fingers are about to close around the petal, I watch helplessly as the wind sweeps it right out of my grasp and through the bars of the railing beside me.

I give a strangled yelp as I scramble to my feet and my eyes follow the petal's journey down to the koi pond and the stone tables that line it on the first floor. As luck will have it, the petal floats down to the ground at Devonne's feet as she exits the staircase right at the pond's side.

I hold my breath in dismay as I watch Devonne stop and stare at the petal, then gingerly reach down and pick it up between her fingertips. Her eyes scan that word that I haven't yet been able to read, and then she lifts her head to look up at me.

I give the girl a half-smile and a small wave, but her indifferent expression doesn't change. I'm hoping she would just drop the petal and leave so I can run down and grab it, but then, as horror fills my expression, Devonne rips the petal into pieces, her facial features still not changing as she throws the tiny fragments into the nearest trash can.

The next moment, she's gone, the last I see of her is her back disappearing down the steps of the school entrance, towards her car.

Fuck you, I feel like screaming into the air. I was so close!

So close to finding out what she wanted to tell me.

Well, correction, what she wanted to tell me before she saw me kissing Julian. Before she saw how I blocked her out. Before she saw that I've moved on.

I give a sigh as the sound of the school bell going off echoes around me, and start for the staircase just as Julian catches up to me.

"Hey."

I smile up at him, guilt written across my face. "Hey."

Julian looks relieved as he asks, "So, is the date still on?"

A surge of rebellion rises in me. If Devonne thinks she can act all sweet and prepare to give me flowers, just to rip them into shreds right before my eyes, she's got another thing coming. "Of course. Golfing and dinner sounds great."

Julian glances down at his phone when it beeps, and a smile spreads over his face. "Actually, I have something else planned that's a lot better than bowling and dinner. We're going to a concert."

I laugh, just because he looks so elated that I'm going to be happy, even though the news doesn't seem that big to me. Despite how I'm only going out with him to pacify my cousin, he really is a sweet boy. "What?"

"You heard me, a concert. And not just any concert. We're going to see..."

Then Julian pauses, as if wanting to create a dramatic effect, before he finishes his sentence.

"... Demi Lovato."

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OKAY CLIFFHANGER BUT ALSO GUYS COMMENT AND GUESS WHAT THE ENDING OF DEVONNES NOTE COULD POSSIBLY BE OKAY IF YOU GET IT RIGHT ILL DEDICATE THE NEXT CHAPTER TO YOU THANKS FOR READING AND HOLA IM FINALLY BRINGING THE RL DEMI INTO THE FANFIC HOLLAAAA