Page 4 of Demon's Desire

Still… As much as I believed that was true, I was just freaked out enough to give up on drinking for the rest of the night. Instead, Kelly and I turned on Real Housewives, ate our tacos, and both tried to forget about the conversation we’d just had.

2

It was hard to get to sleep that night, but I managed. The next morning, we got up and took Kelly’s truck to some second-hand stores. We had standards, of course. We wanted things that looked clean and gently used, but unfortunately, since we were far from being able to afford brand new furniture, we were going to have to make some sacrifices.

The plan was to get some stuff, stop through a drive-through on the way back to the apartment, then we would go grocery shopping sometime this afternoon and do some more unpacking. I was feeling better than I had the night before. After a good sleep, I’d started to realize that Kelly was right. Helen was just trying to mess with us. She’d succeeded, but we were going to be fine.

By twelve thirty, we had been to three different second-hand stores. We ended up finding a small table that would fit our TV perfectly, and a glass coffee table that I fell in love with too. Aside from that, we found one of those shelving units that was basically just a bunch of cubbies, and Kelly found a nightstand that she loved and would fit perfectly in her room. We also found these large full-body mirrors that were majorly discounted because the frames were cracked, but we decided that would be easy to fix and each got one for our rooms. With all of that safely strapped into the back of the truck, we headed to a Panera near the apartment.

“I’ll take a large bowl of mac and cheese,” I said to her as we pulled up.

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” Kelly grinned. “Their mac and cheese is so good.”

“Do you remember when we went Junior year?” I laughed as my phone started buzzing in my pocket. “I literally ate so much, I made myself sick.”

“Oh, shit!” she gasped. “Yes! You ordered three bowls, didn’t you?”

“I did,” I confirmed as I looked at my screen. “Oh! It’s Torie! Okay, order me a Coke to go with it.”

I quickly answered my phone and smiled as Kelly started talking into the speaker. “Hi!”

“Hey, gorgeous!” Torie squealed on the other end. “What are you guys doing?”

“We just bought some furniture for our new apartment!” I was really proud of being able to say that. “Now we’re at Panera before we go home and unload.”

“Oh!” Torie started saying something to someone else, so I couldn’t hear her until she moved back to the phone. “Well! Do you want some help?”

“Are you serious?” I gasped. “Yes! We would love to see you guys!”

Kelly looked over at me and smiled. She mouthed the words, ‘Is Mica coming?’

‘I think so,’ I mouthed back. “Will Mica be with you?”

“Of course!” Torie assured me. I gave a thumbs up to Kelly. “We have been so excited to see you, but we figured you guys would be dealing with a lot yesterday.”

“You have no idea.” I rolled my eyes. “Well, hey, since we’re in the drive-through, do you guys want anything from Panera?”

“We actually just ate,” she said, “but we’ll head over and meet you guys there!”

“Sounds great!” I beamed. “I can’t wait to see y’all! Kelly can’t either!”

“All right, see you soon!” I could literally hear the smile in her voice as she hung up. Torie was one of those people that just always made you feel special to be around, like you were her favorite person in the world.

Kelly started to pull up, so I grabbed my bag to give her my card. She looked at me and smiled. “They’re coming?”

“Yes! Torie and Mica.” I smirked and nudged her. Torie and Mica had been two years ahead of us at college. Mica was from Chicago, and Torie moved up with him after they graduated. The two of them had been best friends as long as we’d known them. I think they’d tried to date once, but decided they were both happier as best friends, so when they graduated, they jumped at the chance to be roommates. We’d kept in touch over the last few years, and they actually didn’t live too far from our new place. And, coincidentally, Kelly’d had a crush on Mica since we were freshman. Every time I asked her about it recently, she just said she was ‘open to it,’ which I took as code for ‘I still like him but I don’t want to make it a thing.’

“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes as she gave my card to the person at the window. “I’m just glad to see them and force them to help us move furniture.”

I laughed and nodded. “You know they won’t mind.”

We got our food and made it back to the apartment. As Kelly pulled into the parking spot, my phone buzzed again.

“Ah! They’re parking in front of the apartment.” I smiled. “Let’s go meet them.”

We both hopped out of the truck and walked around to the other side of the alley. We couldn’t actually go through the building since there was no through hallway, but as soon as we stepped out of the alley and onto the grass, they saw us.

“There you are!” Torie beamed as she started running toward us. She ran to me first and pulled me into a big hug.

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