some pamphlets. One of them caught Devon’s eye. Pregnant? You Have Options.
Devon froze. Did this mean that Raven was the one Hutch stole the pregnancy test for? Had her brother gotten Hutch off the hook for shoplifting because Hutch was stealing for his sister? Devon’s mind raced with questions. She had to ask Raven about this, but how?
“Found it?” Raven called from the outside.
Devon looked below the pamphlet and found a round hockey puck-sized mound of wax. Sex Wax, the label read. Sex Wax under the pregnancy pamphlet. Jesus. If that wasn’t irony, Devon didn’t know what was.
“Got it,” she called back. She tossed the puck to Raven over the top of the car.
“Thanks.” Raven started scraping the wax against her board. “Oh dude, I forgot to ask. What’s up with you and that lacrosse guy?”
“Grant.” Devon couldn’t make eye contact with Raven. Not now.
“Yeah, Grant. I wouldn’t have called that one. He doesn’t strike me as your type. But you never know about people, huh?” Raven tossed back the wax. “See ya in a bit.”
She strapped the surfboard leash to her ankle and ran down to the beach, over the rocks, and skidded into the surf like a rock skipping over water.
“Yeah, you never know,” Devon said as she watched Raven duck under a wave.
DEVON DUG A TALE of Two Cities out of her backpack, but there was no way she was going to get any reading done today. Instead she stuck her bare feet into the warm sand and watched the surfers out on the water. They sat in a cluster behind the breaking waves, straddling their boards and bobbing along with the tide. In their full-body black wetsuits, they looked like a family of ducks out for a swim. Devon couldn’t tell anyone apart, except for Raven’s signature nest of hair atop her head. Devon watched as Raven paddled next to a blond dreaded surfer. Bodhi, no doubt.
So. Raven knew about Devon and Grant. Was it public knowledge? Were they officially a couple now? She was going to have to remember to make peace with Grant if this “official” label was going to stick. That is, if she wanted it to stick. Why didn’t Raven think he was her type? She hadn’t exactly had enough boyfriends to identify a type at this point.
Off to the side of the group of surfers a figure bobbed alone. He ducked under a wave and when he came up he shook his head, sending water flying from his blond shaggy hair. Was that Matt? Devon smiled. It was another chance to see a side of Matt most people didn’t get to see at Keaton. He spent so much time surfing and now she got to see him in his element. She envied him his surfing. To have something that he craved every day, something that he loved that much. Although he would probably never admit it, Matt must get that buzz that surfers talk about. The idea of battling roaring waves on a piece of foam; the chance to be a part of the water, to bring everything you are and throw it into the ocean, and to come out cleansed by it.… Before her days at Keaton were over, Devon promised herself she’d at least give surfing a try.
A wave approached the group and Devon watched Raven pop up on her board and weave expertly up and down the wave, while other surfers paddled out of her way. Before she got too close to the rocks near the shore, Raven dropped down to her board and paddled back out for another wave. She was graceful, and she clearly had the respect of the other locals. Having an older brother at the center of the surfing community didn’t hurt either.
The pamphlet in her car, though. Devon wished she had grabbed it. She wasn’t jumping to conclusions, was she? Okay, what do you actually know? She had to get her thoughts straight before talking to Raven. Hutch definitely stole a pregnancy test for someone. And she knew that someone was not Isla. She also knew that Raven bonded over peanut butter products with Hutch over the summer—while he was broken up with Isla, so the opportunity for them to hook up was definitely there. She cried more often than not at the mention of Hutch’s name.
Was this a bunch of coincidences, or was this a time where her mother would say, “There are no coincidences?” If Raven was pregnant with Hutch’s baby,