CHAPTER TWO: MISTRESS

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil... 
-Anne Rice

The fact that Emma was right about Jessamine wanting to drag her to a party kinda pissed her off.

People at parties liked to drink and dance and listen to ear-shattering music and play games and act like they're in love. It was annoying. A lot of them weren't even having fun, they weren't actually in love.

And to pretend otherwise just to impress someone who might not even remember you on Monday, let alone in a year was just bullshit.

Emma never bothered with it.

But Jessie did.

Jessie 'falls in love' a lot and Emma doesn't tells her she's wrong for it, the crazy girl is a teenager, it's what teenagers do. If she was being honest, Emma wants someone to pretend to love too. She knows love isn't found. It's built, over time, with work, even if it doesn't feel like work, it is.

How many perfectly decorated temples did their ancestors stumble upon? None.

They found a good spot, cleared the ground and decided there. There they were going to build something, and it was going to be grand. It reminded her that she had to look for a clearing in a forest, not a hidden city of gold.

And it frustrated her endlessly that when thinking of that, Xavier fucking Wolf's face came to mind.

Yet she decided long ago that loving her was a task that was too fucking hard and she doesn't want to put anyone through the attempt of trying when all she knows can be summed up into one thing—

She'll die alone.

For now though, Emma was surrounded by people.

The party she's at is hosted by a boy named Chandler, who's parents were so rich it was stupid. He had a giant house that was big enough that it made Emma question whether or not she should call it a mansion.

Chandler went all out, beer at every corner, speakers in every room, great lighting, a pool with countless floaties and security guards around so if something goes wrong, at least he couldn't get sued.

Rich people were stupid, Emma decided.

Jessie's hand is wrapped around her wrist, pulling her through the crowd as the blonde expertly made her way through the party without stumbling in her five inch heels.

It was like her best friend had a mental compass labeled Boy Toy that was able to send her giggling straight into the already shirtless Calum Hilton. Cal was talking excitedly to his best friend, smelling like beer and something strangely fruity as they stood in the doorway to the second floor living room.

The Devil looked like he could care less.

Honestly, he looked the same as every day—jeans, combat boots, classical black hair tousled and hanging a bit in his ultramarine blue eyes, leather jacket snug on his massive frame, a tight-lipped scowl on his face.

He didn't try at all—and didn't even change for the party—and he still looked like the sexiest person there (that was including the shirtless, six foot two, grinning Angel at his side, who's green eyes lit up as they landed on Jessamine).

"Hey, Jess!" Cal kisses her, arms wrapping around her waist. "You ready to play this game?"

Jessie giggles, "Of course, babe. But what game is it?"

Emma could only sigh at her best friend, turning as she noticed the Wolf boy move his arms behind his head as he leaned back against the door frame, ankles crossed.

"Princess." Xavier says, blue eyes seeming to twinkle with mischief as he stared at her.

She rolls her eyes in reply, "Devil."

Her outfit wasn't anything special either, her normal tank top covered by a loose shirt that hung off one shoulder, jeans not so baggy but definitely not tight. The main different, however, was the black flat sandals that showed the chipped blue nail polish on her toes.

The cocky smirk stayed as the Devil bit his lip, eyebrow raised. "Aren't you dressed up."

Something about Xavier was... completely off to Emma and it took her a few moments to figure out what it was. He was staring at her -just simply maintaining eye contact. He never looked away, glanced down. Not even a peek.

Xavier acted as though she was nothing more than a floating head, and honestly?

It was more respect than she'd been given in a while.

Before anything more could be shared between the two, Chandler was calling his 'select group' into the giant living room and shutting the door behind them, announcing that the game of Spinning Murder was going to be starting soon.

Spinning Murder was the perfect party game.

It started out with the group—which could be as little as four with an endless limit but right now, was being played by seventeen—rolling a set of dice to see what order they would sit in. The players with the highest roll ever round would sit down first, then the next round the next one with the highest would sit next to them and so on until the last person with the lowest number sat on the other side of the first down.

Nobody was surprised when the devil, with two even six's, was the first to sit down. The universe was helping him do these things, Emma was sure of it.

Calum and Jessie ended up side by side, which didn't really surprise Emma either, and though she wasn't the last person, she did land in the solid middle on the Lower's Side.

In Spinning Murder, the Lower's Side was the group of people who, when you split the group in half, got the lowest points. These were the people who couldn't decide what part of the game they were going to play, and were the group's selective rag dolls.

There were nine Lowers in this game and eight Uppers.

The Uppers went from the first player down the line spinning a beer bottle on the floor, and whoever the Upper the end was pointed to would get to choose between six games to play with the Lower on the other side.

The games were Truth or Dare, Seven Minutes in Heaven, Would You Rather, Beer Pong, Strip Poker and Never Have I Ever and the loser of every game had their consequence decided by the winner.

To lose Truth or Dare one of the players had to either refuse to do the dare—that was given by the group—or have the less embarrassing truth. Meanwhile, Would You Rather was played by doing whatever you'd rather do and whoever did it faster, won. 

You couldn't lose Seven Minutes in Heaven but hickies were often counted as a way to end it, and whoever had more lost and usually, the punishment was just the embarrassment that came from doing something with a drunk stranger. 

The winners of Beer Pong, Strip Poker and Never Have I Ever were obvious.

Whoever lost would become, or stay, the Lower and the opposite would happen for the winner. Usually the game lasted three rounds and whoever stayed an Upper the longer won, and was automatically the first Upper next game.

Though, for a group of drunken teenagers, trying to remember who won and not fighting about it was a harder task than any, so many didn't bother with it and took their chances with the dice.

The first round, Emma switched spots with an Upper named Stephen Macklin who lost Beer Pong before she was even drunk but the second round she became a Lower again by losing to Shelby Andres when playing Never Have I Ever.

Emma didn't think that the two fingers she had to put down for suicide and self-harm were fair, as the bandages on her wrists were visible and the barely-dressed brunette didn't have any scars she could see.

But she didn't argue.

Calum lost Strip Poker to James Palms and didn't look bothered as he sat on the ground with just his boxers and socks on the Lower Side as the completely naked boy (sans his hat) sat opposite of him with a wild grin.

This could be due to Jessie sitting across from him, checking him out because she continually won every Truth or Dare game she played.

Which Emma knew she only won because her best friend couldn't remember all the dumb embarrassing shit she did when drunk, and as she's already drunk, was willing to do the stupid dares she was given.

Jessie's mental state at a party was something Emma related closely to a double-edged sword.

Xavier won every round easily, the game he said shifted depending on what person was on the other end of the bottle, and she knew that wasn't just because everyone that challenged him had to be drunk.

Emma didn't like to get drunk even if she enjoyed the freedom in the moment, because when she was the level of trust she had in herself wasn't any more than what she had for the people around her.

And that level was lower than average.

It was the last round of the night and it was the Wolf boy's turn to spin. She watched as he grabbed the rim, gave the group a cocky, fanged grin and spun the beer bottle on it's side. Then it stopped.

On one end of the bottle, of course, was the Devil and on the other? Emma Carter.

The tense girl froze, pearl-grey eyes wide as they locked with his blue ones, that looked all too smug for the things going through his mind to be anything good. It felt like the group around them took one collective breath in before they exploded in suggestions like—

"Strip Poker!"

"Would You Rather!"

All while Jessamine Thatch's voice carried over them all in a shout, "Seven Minutes in Heaven!"

That comment spawned a snappy comment from a lean red-headed girl who had been eyeing Xavier all night—knowing the Devil wasn't one to shy away from a one night stand if you managed to catch his attention, whether you were a girl or a guy, which helped any adult's "You're going to hell." comment—and a wolf whistle from a brown haired guy that had, for whatever reason, a inflatable flamingo on his head.

"What the everlasting fuck." Emma could only let these words with a heavy breath, instantly overwhelmed by it all.

Bah! She thinks, I hate parties and this fuckery is why.

Xavier, who's decision it really was, hummed thoughtfully before meeting Emma's eye, smirking full force and saying, "Seven Minutes in Heaven seems like it'd be... hmm, fun."

Chandler laughs, grabbing the beer bottle and points it at Emma, who flinches at the sharp moment—thankful when the drunk people don't process that.

"The Devil and his mistress, how classic." The drunk, and high-on-ecstasy boy, motions for them to follow him. "Let's get you two a room, God knows you'll need it."

Standing up first, Xavier bows in front of Emma, the act anything but chivalrous as he holds out a hand to her.

"Coming?"