She had walked into her room after a cool refreshing shower to find the critters flitting about the light on the ceiling. It always happened in summer, bugs would fly through walls to get to light, she was sure. And that's exactly did, fly through the fly screen. Sure, they were on the ceiling but she could almost feel them on her skin and in her ears already.
Oh right, so why was she sitting in the dark? Well she figured that they's just go out if her room was dark but it was brighter outside the door. But because it was dark she couldn't quite see if it was working. She was sure she could still hear the buzzing - or was that just the buzz of all the electrical appliances about the house?
It was stinking hot, the effects of the cold shower were already wearing off. And that's what she was thinking when a silhouetted figure appeared at the door, and when the light turned on, her first thought was "Fuck! The bugs will be back!" Her second was, "Fuck. I'm naked."
He should have gone red in embarrassment, or immediately turned the light back off, or at least looked... impressed or something! But instead he just looked at her like nothing unusual was happening. He, being some strange boy that had somehow walked into the house, up the stairs and into her room - while she was naked. Naked!
"Get the fuck out!" She slammed the door and turned the light out, before pressing her back against the door. Turning the light out was unnecessary. She stared into the darkness with wide eyes. That must have been the most embarrassing thing that can possibly happen to someone.
"Ow, fuck! That hurt like shit you know. Bitch." She heard, muffled by the door.
Wait. What? "You just come prancing into my room without warning and you're calling me a bitch?"
"Would you prefer 'moron'? Because I can't think of any other reason why you would be sitting in a room naked and in the dark."
"Any decent person would just apologise!" she shouted at the door, hesitated and then cross the room to scavenge for some clothing.
"Well your slamming the door into me cancelled out the need to do that. Or shall we have a mutual grovelling for forgiveness."
Dressed, she slammed the door open again, "it's just one fucking word! 'Sorry.' You'd think I'd asked you to, I don't know, make it up to me with chocolate and flowers."
He said nothing, so she assumed victory and gave a gloating smile.
"Your tops on inside out."
"Fuck."
She slammed the door closed again.
"It is possible to close a door without making a noise you know," she heard through the door. "Oh and there's such a thing as turning the light on."
"Smart arse," she muttered under her breath. She didn't turn the light back on. For two reasons: the bugs and pride - not necessarily in that order.
When she opened the door again, he wasn't there anymore. She should have been relieved, but instead she was left with the uneasiness of knowing there was some creepy stranger somewhere in the house, and she didn't know where.
"Mum...?" She called out as she cautiously walked down the stairs.
"Honey, we're in the lounge room." Her mother did not call her honey unless they had guests.
"This is my daughter, Mienne," her mother was saying, seemingly before she even walked into the room.
"Uh, hi." There was a woman sitting beside her mother on the lounge suite.
"This is Reina. She's new at work."
Reina smiled weakly and mouthed something that would have made the sound "hi" if it had been audible.
Her mother perked up a little before executing the next introduction, "Reina has a son about your age, Lucifer. He's somewhere about the house. You should go introduce yourself to him."
She was free to leave and she took the opportunity without asking further questions.
She found him looking at the photos lined up above the piano.
"Lucifer, eh? What a fitting name."
"And I bet yours is something like Bitch From Hell."
There exist lots of brilliant comebacks to this line, but instead she said, "well... you're a... devil."
He laughed.
"It's Mienne."
"What?"
"My name."
"Your name is what?"
"Mienne."
"Who named you?"
"Who named you?"
"..."
"What?"
"Bitch."
"Devil."
"Bitch."
She stopped. Not because he had won, but because it was a stalemate. This is childish, she was thinking to herself, and perhaps she could have ended it all by laughing and forgiving, but her younger sister walked in. And with one word she destroyed any possibility of friendship.
"Boyfriend?"
"No fucking way." and "Dream on." were said at the same time.
"Mum! Can you, you know, tell me when you're going to invite people over!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I shan't invite good looking boys around without warning next time."
"Mum. It's not funny."
"Yeah, mum," her sister piped in, "Mienne will never have a boyfriend if you don't give her time to compose herself before dropping boys on her like that. She's just not a natural at it. Think about it, it'll make me look like a slut if I have a boyfriend before my older sister does."
"Sarsafine!"
"Gotta face the truth, sis."
Once their mother was out of the room, Sarsafine put on a serious face and pulled Mienne over, "so what really happened?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing."
"Pft, as if I'll swallow that. There was so much tension in the room I could hardly breathe."
"Nothing."
"I'm only more suspicious now."
"He walked in on me dressing, okay?" Technically, she hadn't been dressing.
"Oh, ouch! Sexual tension."
"No, just embarrassing."
"You were always a glass-half-empty person."
"Your glass is full of air."
"It won't be the last you see of him. Mum seems to have adopted this Reina as a special personal charity case. Apparently the woman needs 'caring supportive friends'. Whether that's willingly accepted is another matter. I suppose mum's intentions are good. "
"Just great."
"Look on the bright side, he's pretty good looking."
"Pity he's like the world's greatest jerk."
"You just don't know how to play a boy right."
"Just let it go, Sars. I consider him more like an enemy at this point than a potential boyfriend."
"Something you would say, you probably couldn't have him even if you wanted."
School started again. (The hot weather didn't abate.) Mienne did mentioned the "walking in on her dressing" once to her friends, she got the sympathy that her sister had refused to give, but she was happy to leave it at that and never have to remember the situation, or the guy, ever again.
But three weeks into the first term, Sarsafine's speculations were proven to be right on two counts. It wasn't the last she would see of Lucifer. And she couldn't have him if she wanted.
"I want you girls to meet my new boyfriend after school today!" Maggie proclaimed with just as much excitement as if this were her first or second boyfriend. (It was her twelfth.) Mienne had groaned inwardly. Of all her friends, Maggie was the only one that was really adventurous when it came to guys. The fact she was pretty, friendly, and rich, was very likely a factor.
Of all the guys she could have dated, standing at the school gate at the end of the day was the devil himself.
"His name is Lucifer, how cool is that!" Maggie proclaimed as they headed towards the gate.
While the other girls made appropriate responses, Mienne was still getting her head around it.
"Please don't tell me you're dating him."
"Why? Is he a serial killer or something?"
Mienne was about to proclaim what a jerk he was, but Maggie's expression of unsupressable excitement stopped her. "Uh... just that... he's the guy who walked in on me."
"Omg! Ha! What are the chances!"
The chances were against Mienne. Lucifer was giving her a death glare.
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