Page 40 of Demon Apathy: Sunderverse

“I-I thought you’d left without saying goodbye,” Jenna said.

“I thought so too.” I gave her a lame smile.

“What the hell?” Sage managed, still having trouble getting his mouth to remain closed.

Benjamin recovered quickly and greeted me with a friendly, “Hello, Lucia. It’s good to see you.” His chestnut eyes were warm and fringed by a mess of brown, curly hair.

“I don’t want to get my hopes up,” Jenna said, “but does this mean you’re staying?”

I gave her a knowing smile.

She squealed and clapped her hands. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!”

Wincing, I glanced around the room. Jenna’s excitement was making everyone’s curiosity worse, but I could be nothing but glad for her reaction. She made me feel truly welcome.

Benjamin smiled to see Jenna so happy while Sage just frowned, looking unsure about the news of my return. After we’d drunkenly made out before I left the LDH, I’d brushed him off in a none-too-subtle way. He was a cool enough guy and good-looking to boot, but he wasn’t my type. Really, I didn’t think I had but one type anymore: Demon a la Nephilim, to be precise. Not to mention that I’d been too busy with my resident parasite and his schemes to worry about much else.

“You’re still going to be my roommate, right?” Jenna demanded, sounding as if she was ready to fight anyone who opposed the idea.

“Of course.”

“Thank the witchlights! It has been so boring without you. No offense, guys, but sometimes only a girlfriend will do.”

“So how come you're back?” Sage asked, pushing his plate of lasagna out of the way.

“Um, things just didn’t work out back home like I thought they would.”

He nodded, considering, then said, “Which means you left without an explanation, and come back without an explanation.”

“Hey, give her a break,” Jenna chided him. “Besides, she doesn’t owe the likes of you an explanation.”

My gaze bounced between the two of them. Maybe I had gone too far in assuming they were friends, and maybe Sage had been sitting here trying to get Jenna to help him study or something.

I expected Sage to get angry and say something mean, but he just pulled his lasagna closer and resumed eating. Not that he looked too happy about being left in the dark.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back,” Benjamin said. “It’s nice to see Jenna smile.”

Jenna blushed a crimson red, which told me she’d finally noticed his romantic interest and was more than agreeable to them. I smiled inwardly, determined to find out what was going on between them as soon as I got a moment alone with my friend.

“Um, so if you guys don’t mind helping me, I’ll need to catch up on all the subjects.”

“No worries.” Jenna pulled out a notebook from her backpack and started scribbling, making notes of everything she could think of to help me get back up to speed. When she was done, whatever part of my schedule wasn’t taken up with classes, eating, and breathing was filled with cramming sessions with Jenna.

Honestly, I had no idea how I was going to fit saving the world into my packed agenda.

15

Classeswereabitchwith a capital “B”.

What was I thinking? Why didn’t I go back to St. Louis?!

That was what kept repeating inside my head as I sat at my bedroom’s desk trying to memorize my Demonology presentation. I blinked at the page as my vision went blurry. During the past three days, I’d gotten about nine hours of sleep and that was if I counted the quick catnaps I took in the shower and while halfway chewing my meals.

I’d finally talked to Mom, and she’d pleaded for me to come. Maybe she would still take me back, even if she was a little mad at me for bailing. She said she understood, and I knew she did, but that didn’t mean my change in plans hadn’t hurt her feelings.

Something hit me in the back of the head and bounced onto my desk. It was a round plush toy with huge sparkly eyes that was supposed to be a panda but looked more like a soccer ball.

“No falling asleep!” Jenna said, reclining on her bed. “We have class in twenty minutes and Wang is a hardass.”