Page 83 of My Roommate from Hell
The sadness lifts from him like a fog. “I appreciate you saying that.”
“No problem.”
“I wish I knew how to not care. Or for the positive voices to be asloud as the negative ones? I know a lot of people like me, but when someone doesn’t it eats at me.”
“I think you’re describing how every human feels.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“In that case,” he says, standing up. “I’m going to stop thinking about them.”
“Good call.”
“Thanks, roomie. You made me feel better.”
“I’m glad.”
“Would you mind if I posted that photo?” he asks. “I think it’s time the internet knows we’re together.”
“Go ahead,” I say, hoping he doesn’t notice the quiver in my voice. I’m still not used to the increased attention I’ve gotten on campus, and I’m sure if he announces to the entire internet that we’re dating it’ll get even more intense. I remember the person filming us at the bowling alley, and wonder if the news is already out. Our work might already be done.
“You sure?” he asks.
“I am,” I say, more confidently this time.
He takes out his phone and shows me the picture. We’re standing side by side. He’s smiling and has his arm slung over my shoulder. It has a caption:my guy?.
With the picture and the caption, we truly look like boyfriends. A strange, fluttering jolt races through my chest.
Outside, rain smashes against the window. Inside, the room is toasty and warm, probably because of his demonic magic.
His eyes meet mine as he hits Post.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
My Instagram app just crashed, and it’s easy to know why.
Ever since Zarmenus posted that picture of us, I’ve been gaining followers at an absurd rate. When I got to ten thousand followers and my inbox overflowed with messages, I decided to put my account on private, but it didn’t stop either the follow requests or the messages from flooding in at an alarming rate.
I’m sitting in the discussion section for Introduction to Computer Science. I’m near the back of the classroom, and I’ve still caught a few people staring, but nobody has been brave or impolite enough to talk to me. I check my phone, and my inbox instantly fills to ninety-nine-plus.
Most of them are positive, but a scarily large number are from members of the Golden Sun. Most of them call me “demon lover” or include a huge rant about how me being in a relationship with him is dooming humanity for the rest of existence.
I turn off my phone and slide it into my bag. All that can wait until after class.
As I leave the classroom, I turn my phone back on. I have so many new notifications it takes the app a moment to load them all. I also have a missed call and text from Ashley, as well as a text from Dean Leeke.
I open the one from Ashley first.
So you’re public now! How does that feel?
It’s moved so fast that I don’t think I’ve given myself time to truly think. All this attention is certainly abnormal for me, but in the back of my mind I know Zarmenus is right. This will die down eventually. Knowing that, people treating me like I’m a huge deal is kind of enjoyable. I could never tell that to Ashley, though, she’d probably fly all the way over here to give me a stern talking-to about the dangers of external validation.
Weird, but okay!
“Hey, look!” calls a guy that was in my class. “It’s the demon lover.”
