All the Devils are Here

Real Friends

Fallon

Sam has been gone for a week now. That means it's been a whole week I've been staying at his place and going to work from there. The first and second day maybe felt really weird because a got a few stares from people who I don’t even recognize. I doubt if Sa, relates with anyone in this building, but I guess the tenants can sense when someone doesn’t actually belong in the building.

The distance between Sam’s place and White Rabbit can also be pretty annoying especially when I’m leaving work but, all of that is irrelevant when I consider how great living in a Penthouse is. Even if it’s just for a week or two. I think Sam has cleaners who come in at already designated hours because every time I return back at dawn, key places in the apartment have been cleaned.

It’s so spacious and beautiful but, devoid of any personality. Yes, it looks like a bachelor’s pad but, the extra space makes it look empty. I’ve never considered myself a domestic goddess or anything remotely close but, I actually feel tempted to liven up the place with some interior decoration. I suppose it’s because I haven’t had a chance to decorate a place of my own because I’ve been living in motels for two months now.

Also, the apartment has several rooms. Only two of them are open; his bedroom where we had s*x for the first time and the other room that he, Asher, and Lex went into then they showed up the other day. The other rooms are locked. Not manually with keys but, digitally. I didn’t notice the first two nights I was there but, by the third I did. But, I ignored it. By the fourth night, I couldn’t resist the curiosity any longer and I actually tried to pick the lock and get in. That’s when I found out that it was locked digitally and I certainly didn’t have the code for it. I hope Sam won’t know that I tried to do that by the time he’s back. I wonder what he’s hiding behind those doors. But then again if he had anything to hide, he won’t let me be in his apartment unsupervised.

No one from White Rabbit really knew where I was staying before although Trinity knew that it was somewhere close by because she and Dothan tried to give me a ride once but, I told them I walk just a few blocks. Although I haven’t been walking and I’ve been driving to Sam’s, no one has noticed yet. And if they have, no one has mentioned it.

Trinity has asked me to go out with her and some of the other girls a handful of times and sometimes I do but, eventually regret it. I get tired of the small talk and the shallowness of it all and it drains me rather than gives me a social release. Trinity and I have had a few conversations that were a little less shallow. Like she had asked me where I was from and I told her I was from Uptown - the truth. She told me that she was born and brought up here in the center and Dothanhad saved her life - whatever that meant. One time, she had even asked me if I had any family left. Again, I told her the truth - just my parents. She told me Dothan was her family. These important conversations were thrown in with a plethora of random, relatively insignificant conversations and I’m grateful for them.

I know that ultimately I prefer it this way that most of the conversations are light because it helps me feel safer. Knowing that no one knows too much about me. No one cares that much. Tonight, however, it’s not Trinity that walks up to invite me for something after work. It’s Danny.

“Have any plans after closing hours?”, he asks casually.

“Yeah. Sleep”, more like an attempt to sleep. I keep thinking of how I cried in my sleep in Sam’s bed with him there and I never want it to happen again.

“Yeah. No. Change of plans. You’re coming to see Blade Bleed’s live performance with me”, he shakes his head at my plans as he imposes his own.

“Blade who?”,

“Blade Bleed? The band? Alternative rock group? Northview’s finest?”, he throws all these words hoping they’d ring a bell but, they do not. Never heard of this band before in my life.

“You’re so uncultured Hera. This is why you have to come.”, he’s being super dramatic right now and also a little suspicious. I mean Danny and I are pretty okay work buddies but, he has never invited me for anything before and I’m wondering why he’s doing so now with so much intensity.

“I think I’d pass on that”,

His demeanor changes from trying to casually ask me to join him to kinda desperate. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he’s trying to ask me out;

“Ugh please, Hear. I already asked everyone and none of them wants to go. I don’t want to be at this thing by myself looking like I have no friends”, he all but whines;

“You asked everyone? Who did you ask?”,

“Okay by everyone I mean Russo and Sera. I asked Russo and Sera”, he confesses;

“You see? Ask Rick. He seems like he’d be totally into uhm….. Bleed whatever rock band things”, I’m trying so hard to be helpful.

“I’m looking for a wingman, honey not someone that’s going to intimidate my potential date”, I say oh because now I realize what this is all about. It’s not about the show or about the band or about him wanting to invite me out. It’s about some guy.

“So your date is not going to be intimidated by me?”, I tease;

“No offense but, you’re built like a little boy so - no”, what the f**k does that mean. I’m so bamboozled, I can’t even take offense to that.

“Wow Danny thanks. That’s what every 24 year old woman wants to hear”, I say sarcastically and then add; “Have fun at your show all by yourself”, he catches on to the game I’m playing and he takes the bait;

“Did I say built like a little boy? I meant built like a…an athletic, modelesque goddess. You know, endless legs and the facial bone structure of a coke addict”,

“Holy s**t Danny”, I’m cracking up in laughter at this point. This dude does not know how to give a compliment. I guess he might really need a wing man afterall.

“Please. Don’t make me beg’, he pouts. I never want to see Danny pout again in my whole life.

“Fine”, I give in. He does a little yay and dances away from my booth. He doesn’t even tell me where this place is and what time we’re leaving. I guess he’d be back.

As the night proceeds, it randomly crosses my mind that I haven't seen any of Sam's friends since he's been gone. I wonder if they went on this trip together. Not even Dothan. In this moment I realize that I actually kinda miss their presence. Especially Sam.