Page 6 of Devanté
CHAPTER TWO
The smell of my mother’s Chanel perfume pulled my spine straight and tugged my shoulders back. It was purely a Pavlovian response. Her voice was stitched into my thoughts.
“Back straight, shoulders back, smile on.”
At this point in my life, she didn’t have to say another word to me. I did it automatically in her presence.
When I saw her, I smiled, not because I was happy to see her though. I reached out and hugged her, robotic movements from a lifetime of training. Same for the quick kiss to the cheek and the contrived greeting.
I wished my father didn’t have to work. Things always went smoother when he was around. Hell, they went smoother when Devanté was around. Mom loved him. He could do no wrong in her eyes. Whenever he was around all I had to do was sit silently and let her lather him with compliments about how handsome he was and how he should continue modeling. That way he could be just like her.
“You look…nice,” Mom said pulling her words tight as the skin on a drum. Her tone came out in measured beats like she was reading from a script.
“Thanks,” I smoothed my hands over the gray sweatshirt and jeans I’d chosen to wear. I mean it was just dinner with my mother. It wasn’t like we were going to a Michelin star restaurant.
“I wish you’d wear a dress or something, Blake. I know it’s tough finding things that fit a…curvy figure like yours but…”
“Mom, can we not? I made dinner. Let’s sit down and eat.”
“You don’t have to be rude about it. I came here to spend time with you, not get my head bitten off.” She sat her purse down on the couch then moved into the kitchen where I was fixing her a plate of food. I knew my mother wouldn’t want anything heavy so I didn’t make steak and potatoes. I stuck with broiled fish, salad, and glazed carrots.
“You know, if you found a good exercise plan, you’d probably stop being so frustrated and angry.” She pulled out a chair and sat down, examining the food closely.
“And when am I supposed to find time to work out when I have classes?”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, pumpkin. Now, tell me what you made for dinner. Hopefully, you didn’t smother it in butter and salt.” She gave a lighthearted laugh that sank through my chest and into the pit of my stomach. I swallowed the stony taste in my mouth and tried to smile to stave off the tears.
“Um…I made fish and carrots with a salad,” I told her, sitting at the table. The knot in my stomach grew in size, suffocating my appetite.
“Aww, thank you for thinking of me. I know you hate eating stuff like this.” Her sugary words left a bitter aftertaste. I should have been used to it. She’d been spoon-feeding me internalized hatred my entire life but it still tasted sour. “How’s Devanté?” She looked up from her pate, a pleasant smile on her pretty face.
“He’s fine. He’s at a basketball game tonight so he couldn’t stop by.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t imagine he’d break his date to have dinner with us.”
A frown broke the evenness of my face. “A date? I never said he was on a date.”
“He’s too handsome not to be out on a date.”
My throat was too tight to swallow the forkful of fish tucked in my cheek. I guess in a way, he was courting Gabi but I never thought about him being on an impromptu date with her.
“He’s going to talk to this girl, Gabi. Her mom is an agent at Imperial Modeling Agency and he’s trying to get represented by them.” I said absently while chewing my food.
Mom’s fork scraped against the plate, shattering the kitchen into a million shards at my feet. “That’s my boy,” she chuckled. “He knows he has to leverage those good looks. I always thought Eliza should have been more serious about his modeling career. I told her I knew some people.”
“Miss Liza lets him make his own choices.”
Mom made a disproving noise and shook her head. “If he were my child, he’d be in all the commercials and on everyone’s runway. The boy is gorgeous. See, that just goes to show, Eliza takes for granted having a beautiful child.” Glass burrowed into my skin, sinking into my heart. I tried to lift my lips in a smile but my mouth felt too heavy. Suddenly, I didn’t want my food anymore.
“I guess she looks at him like he’s her son and not a trophy. Nothing wrong with that. Besides,” I said, clearing my throat. “He wants to break into acting and is using modeling as a springboard.”
“Whatever he wants to do, he’ll succeed. That’s how he is. Such a bright young man. I swear the woman who nabs him is going to be lucky.” My brain was a jumbled mess of words with no home. I had no idea what I was feeling or why or how everything managed to rush through my veins at once.
The woman who nabbed Devanté?
Once he was nabbed…then what place would I have in his life? The thought made the crown of my head throb. I was his best friend. He was mine. We were the world to each other but what happened when he created a new world with someone else? What if that someone else was a Gabi or a Maggie?
My eyebrows started to burn like my brain was working too fast. Maybe I should go to the basketball game and meet Devanté there.
