After a long afternoon playing board games and talking with 18-year-old Devyn Lorett, her boyfriend of more than two years, she decided it was best if she left his house. It was too difficult for her to be around him; they had been broken up for almost a month.
“I just wanted to tell him how much I missed him, how much I loved him, and that I didn’t want us to be apart anymore,” said Cynthia Wick, 18.
But as much as she wanted to say this, and as right as it felt, Wick knew she couldn’t be with him.
She met Lorett while trying out for a cheerleading squad her freshman year. At first sight, he told her she was beautiful, displayed clear interest and instantly pursued her. Initially, it was to no avail, but Lorett was determined. Though he couldn’t get her attention in person, he managed to track her number down through mutual friends and began texting her.
Wick was thrown off by his inexplicable perseverance.
“I thought it was weird, and I totally wasn’t interested,” Wick said.
She was under the impression that he was a player. Plus, the fact that she had a boyfriend at the time didn’t really help Lorett’s chances. But his persistence paid off when Wick became single; it wasn’t long before Lorett finally got an opportunity to hang out with her.
They met at a mutual friend’s house to see each other for the first time. Things went well.
So well, that Wick said that after just their first time spending time together, they were “pretty much inseparable.” The two made it official on Nov. 6, 2007.
She recalled the long days on the beach, the countless trips to La Carreta (their favorite Mexican restaurant), and most importantly, how amazing being embraced by him was.
“He gave the best hugs in the entire world!” she said. “If you gave him one arm, he would get so upset … he was very particular about that.”
In Lorett’s world, hugging was serious business.
Though they ran into several road blocks and trust issues, all the hardship only seemed to bring them closer — until Lorett hurt his back and was prescribed strong painkillers, eventually leading him to take them recreationally. Wick said it was never a full-on addiction, and he only did it occasionally.
This obviously was concerning to her; when Wick first met Lorett, he was like her — never using hard drugs. And now, he was taking his painkillers when he didn’t need them.
His troubles with drugs grew bad enough to be the end of their relationship — Wick found Oxycontin in his possession. He had been doing it with some people she went to school with.
“That’s not the kind of person he was … he had so many goals,” Wick said. Lorett hoped to attend Oregon State University and study architecture.
They continued to talk every day, but they didn’t see one another for almost a month, during which Wick said he was on the right track and beginning to get his abuse problems in check.
She didn’t see him until that same February 3 she remembers so well…
Now outside, sitting by her car and talking to Lorett, they shared one last (literally) breath-taking embrace and parted ways. He texted her as soon as she left the driveway asking her to come back — but she didn’t. Instead, she headed home crying, reading a typed love letter he had written to her.
That was the last time Wick ever saw Lorett. Just three days later, his family found him dead.
He overdosed on opiates.
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part series on Cynthia Wick. Read next week’s “In These Eyes” for part two.
[email protected]