Page 10 of Demon's Desire
“I went on dates with a few Business majors in college.” Bella rolled her eyes. “They were the worst.”
“Bella?” Ashton raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, you turned out fine, but most of your friends sucked.” She shrugged.
Everyone laughed at that, and I smiled. Torie squeezed my arm. I looked over at her, and she gave me an encouraging smile before wandering off to mingle some more. I felt okay for now, like I was off to a good start.
“Do any of you guys have any Halloween plans yet?” Megan asked the group.
“Ashton has to work.” Bella rolled her eyes.
“Well, what are you going to do then?” I asked her.
“Bella doesn’t go out without me,” Ashton said firmly, putting his arm around her shoulders. “So she’s staying home that night.”
“Oh! Cool.” I nodded slowly like that wasn’t a weird rule to set for your partner. “Well, what about everyone else?”
Ben shrugged. “My roommate’s girlfriend wants to do some… Halloween ritual or something. It has something to do with the moon and crystals. So if I can get out of that, I’ll probably just come smoke with Mica.”
“There’s that club having a big Halloween blowout over the weekend,” Alice pointed out to Megan. “You still want to go to that?”
“Yeah, I figured.” Megan shrugged. “What about you, Mia?”
“Well, I don’t really know what’s going on where, so… not sure yet!” I shrugged. “What club is it?”
“Oh!” Alice smiled. “It’s a bar near Oak Park that I love! It’s called Chaos. If you give me your number, I can tell you the address!”
“That sounds great!” I grinned and pulled out my cell phone, opening up a new contact. “Here. Put your number in.”
Alice nodded and added her number to my phone, then I sent her a text with my name.
“My roommate and I were saying we want to go out more now that we live here, so I’m sure she’d love to go,” I added.
“Oh!” Bella gasped as the music changed and the song “Levitating” by Dua Lipa came on. “I love this song! Let’s go dance!”
She reached out and grabbed Alice’s hand as well as mine. I smiled and nodded at her. Alice grabbed Megan’s hand, and we all followed Bella to the living room where we joined a crowd of about a dozen people who were dancing. She let go of our hands and started jumping around to the music. I grinned and started singing along to the words, swaying along.
Eventually, I saw the door down the hall open as Mica and Kelly came out. She looked over at me and waved before lingering in the hall, speaking with him. I hoped they were having a serious, important conversation, but from the casual looks on their faces, I guessed not. Still, I focused on dancing and having a good time for now.
After a few songs, I finished all of my wine. I smiled at Bella and tapped her arm. “I’ll be right back!”
She nodded and waved at me as I turned to walk out of the crowd of dancers. It had grown a little as more and more people arrived. I smiled at Torie as I headed back to the kitchen, fanning myself with my hand.
“Damn.” I laughed to myself when I saw that the bottle of wine I liked was empty.
I hummed softly as I looked for something else worth drinking. There was no more wine, but there were some High Noons. I wasn’t a huge fan of those, but they would do. Before grabbing one, I grabbed the bottle of fireball and one of the plastic shot cups.
In the back of my mind, I thought about being back home. At home, I’d never be able to do something like this. If I wanted to go to a party, my parents would text me every ten minutes asking when I’d be home, and there was no way in hell I could drink. Despite literally working in a bar for the past year, my parents were incredibly strict about what I drank. If they even suspected that I’d had a beer, I got a half-hour lecture at least.
With that in mind, there was something cathartic about pouring my own drink at a party and knowing that I could get drunk and stay out as late as I wanted. It was a freedom I’d only ever had a taste of in college, and now, it was mine permanently.
“Can I get one of those?” a masculine voice asked behind me.
“Yeah!” I started pouring a second one without turning around. “Wanna take ‘em together?”
“I’d love to.” He agreed.
I picked up the shot and turned around to hand it to whoever was behind me. I paused when I saw him. I hadn’t seen him any time before then. I would have remembered because he was possibly one of the most attractive men I’d ever seen. He stood about half a foot taller than me, with medium brown skin that looked softer than anything. He had a tight head of curls and dangerous dark eyes that only made his smirk look ten times more attractive.