I felt my heart thud against the inside of my chest. How could he possibly have known that?

I stiffly got on my bike and started off, deciding to ignore the last minute like it hadn’t happened. “Well to the mall we go, right?”

I asked Devon where he was from because he was obviously new here.

“Right. I just moved from California a couple weeks ago.” The breeze rippled his sandy brown hair as he rode, not looking at me but concentrating ahead of him.

“That would explain the tan.” I said, dryly. He didn’t seem to notice that my timing was a bit off. I was still off balance from what he said before.

Maybe I’m not as good at hiding things as I thought.

“You have one too.” Devon teased.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “Being black would do that to you.”

“Anyway, what you’re referring to as tan,” He started as we came up to the mall. “Is good old fashioned Cali sunburn.”

I laughed.

Suddenly he was serious.“Come on, I’ll buy you an ice cream to make up for what I said.”

I was surprised. “But why? I asked for it.”