Page 9 of Demon's Desire

It took us a few more minutes of driving slowly to find a spot that would fit her huge truck. We had to make a U-turn, but eventually, we found a spot a block away. That wasn’t too bad of a walk, and we both had sharp stabby things on our keychains.

Torie and Mica lived in a cool duplex, and luckily, they lived on the first floor, so it was easy to get to. They left the door locked, but when we rang the doorbell, Torie came to the door immediately.

“Ahh!” she squealed, pulling us both into a hug. “There you guys are! You look amazing!”

She was wearing a tight pink dress and heels that made me feel more comfortable about not being overdressed. I smiled and hugged her back. “Thank you for inviting us!”

“Of course!” She pulled back, and I could see at least a dozen or so people throughout the apartment. “All right, we have beer and wine and shots in the kitchen. There are some snacks on the table. Bathroom is right there. Mica has people smoking in his room right over there, but mine is off limits. Aaaand you guys can mingle! I can introduce you to some friends! We have a few more people coming in a bit.”

“This is awesome.” Kelly nodded as we stepped inside. “I’m gonna head to Mica’s room for a bit. You want to come?”

“No, I’m fine.” I shook my head. “I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Kelly headed to the door down the hall, and I decided to take a look around. Their apartment was fairly standard—wood floors, off-white walls—but they had decorated it with lights and plants everywhere. There was a TV with a screensaver of some jellyfish next to a huge set of speakers playing popular music. I didn’t actually see anyone that I recognized, which made sense. The other people we knew from school didn’t know Torie or Mica. It just meant I needed to bite the bullet and start making friends.

“Here!” Torie took my hand and smiled at me, clearly aware of how lost I must have looked. “Let’s go get you something to drink.”

I nodded at her and smiled back as she led me to the kitchen. “Your apartment is seriously incredible. I’m so jealous.”

“We got so lucky,” she sighed as we walked into the kitchen. There were about five people hanging out in there as well, so she pulled me through toward the counter. “What do you want?”

“Can I do a shot of Fireball?” I asked.

“Girl, you can do whatever you want!” She smiled, grabbing a plastic shot cup and pouring an overfull shot for me. “Here, I’ll do one too.”

When we both had a shot in our hands, I looked at her and smiled. “One, two, three.” We tapped our cups on the counter and downed them. I shuddered as the cinnamon whisky hit me. I hadn’t had anything to drink since graduating college over five months ago. That was another thing my parents didn’t approve of.

“Ugh, that’s so good!” I tossed the cup in the trash and went to grab some wine so I had something to sip on. “Okay, give me some guidance. Who should I talk to first?”

“Right!” Torie nodded and looked around, then grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the group in the kitchen. “Hey, guys! This is my friend Mia! We went to college together. She and her roommate literally moved here yesterday.”

“No way!” A girl in the group smiled. “Welcome to Chicago! Do you like it so far?”

“I think so?” I nodded. “The first thirty-two hours have been great.”

“I’m Bella.” The same girl reached out her hand to shake mine. She was short with long black hair. “This is my boyfriend, Ashton.”

Ashton reached out to shake my hand and nodded at me. He was built like a brick house and looked like he spent a lot of time outside. After him, another guy who looked like he exclusively listened to 2010s pop punk shook my hand as well.

“I’m Ben,” he said.

“Alice,” another girl, this time with pink hair, introduced herself. “This is Meg.”

“Nice to meet everyone!” I smiled. “How do you guys all know Torie and Mica?”

Everyone went around the circle. Most of them had worked with Torie, but Ben and Mica had actually known each other since elementary school.

“So were you a History major too?” Alice asked. “Is that how you met Torie?”

“No, actually!” I shook my head. “Torie was my RA my Freshman year, and I just loved her. I met Mica through her. I was Undecided for my first year, then I ended up getting a Psychology degree.”

“Holy shit!” Bella gasped. “So you can diagnose people, right?”

“Nope.” I shrugged. “I get that a lot, though. You have to be a certified Psychologist to diagnose people.”

“I always thought I’d be really good at Psychology,” Megan added thoughtfully.

I just smiled at her and nodded. I got that a lot too. “I enjoyed it. I was really just trying to pick something that would help with a long-term career without majoring in Business.”

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