The Short Demon King

Chapter 16

"Maya, is that you? I didn't even know if you were gonna make it today! Where were you yesterday? You barely answered your phone." A girl ran over to us, waving with her free hand.

"Oh my goodness, Iris! I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you I was coming. A lot's been going on lately," Maya explained with a sigh.

"Hey, it's all good. I'm just glad you could make it. Gotta take advantage of all this free fancy food, am I right?"

Iris lifted a small pastry she held so we both could see it. She gave a goofy grin, before taking a small bite of it.

"Very true. This should be lots of fun!" Maya agreed before turning back to me to explain, "This is Iris, she's one of my closest friends from school."

You can learn a lot about someone from whom they tend to hang around, so I got a good look at Iris. She seemed like a soft girl, wearing a flowery dress with a matching flower-clip to keep her puffy hair out of her face. It was hard to tell what color her dress actually was because of the neon lights. But whatever color the dress was, it perfectly matched her eyes.

Unlike me, she seemed relaxed, and much more used to parties. She took another bite out of her pastry while waiting for my response. Iris' smile seemed genuine, so she was probably pretty nice—at least to Maya.

I waved awkwardly. "Hi, my name's Jaye."

"Jaye, huh? I don't think I've heard of you before. Are you new to our school?" Iris asked.

Maya answered so I didn't have to come up with a lie on the spot, "Yeah, he hasn't even attended his first class yet! I thought I'd invite him so he could meet some people from school first."

"Aw, that's so sweet of ya to do! Hey, do you wanna join me and the others? We were hanging out just a few rooms down. I actually came by to grab you so you could join us after I saw you walk through there. Your new friend can come too if he'd like!"

"Oh... um, I don't know... Would that be alright, Jaye?"

I took a moment to steady myself. The last thing I wanted was to keep Maya from her friends. I also didn't want to make things worse, so I took a deep breath and stood taller. It was now or never.

I tried to sound confident while answering, "Yeah, let's-"

"Oh my goodness! Didn't think you'd even show up! Is that you, Sweatpants?" The girl from last night frolicked towards us, wearing the sparkly sequin dress she promised.

Maya leaned over my shoulder to see who spoke before asking me, "How- When did you meet Alice, of all people?"

Before I could answer, Alice explained, "Oh we met last night! He just randomly trespassed on our property and was stargazing on our roof for some reason. I would've been far more creeped out if he wasn't cute." She turned to acknowledge me. "You look much better now, by the way. That horrendous outfit from earlier was not doing you any favors."

"Wait, wait, wait. I thought you meant you would wait on our roof. When did you leave?"

"You climb people's roofs?" Iris asked skeptically.

Things were getting completely out of claw. I was not prepared to deal with the girl from last night again, especially with Maya's friend here too. Everything that happened last night probably seemed super strange to normal humans. I needed to find a way to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

"Uh... I don't really know, I just kinda wanted to-" I tried explaining.

"Yo! Who's this? Never seen you before," a new guy appeared behind Alice, towering over her.

She didn't seem concerned, "Hey Travis! I was just talking to the guy I thought you invited over last night. The one with the cool contacts. See? His eyes are purple! Actually, I still haven't even gotten his name yet. So Maya, what's the name of your little purple-eyed friend over here?"

My eyes were weird? I had no clue what she was even referring to. But also, why didn't she ask me for my name? That really grossed me out. Did I seem below her or something? She didn't even have royal blood, so what made her act all high and mighty?

Maya furrowed her brow, clearly as creeped out as me. She reluctantly answered, "This is Jaye. And why didn't you just ask him?"

"Well he's clearly not doing too well. I saw his face earlier. He's not much of a party person, huh?"

Travis agreed, "Oh yeah, he looks awful. Just don't start throwing up or something. I don't wanna have to call someone to clean that up. Oh, and Alice, I get how you could mistake him for a girl, but you know I don't like guys like that. So, don't mess that up again."

That almost seemed like a threat. Weren't they siblings?

"Yeah, yeah whatever. More for me I guess." She finally addressed me, "Now you come with me. I can fix ya into a party person plenty easy. Come on!"

I didn't have a choice, her arm wrapped around mine before I could process what happened. Giggling happily to herself, Alice dragged me into another room. I turned back toward Maya, desperate not to lose sight of her, but she and her friend were already lost to the crowd. This room overflowed with people, leaving me surrounded.

I shook Alice's arm off, but it was already too late. There were no exits. Each side of me had a wall of teens blocking my escape. I turned back to my captor. She smiled brightly, completely oblivious to my panic.

"See? Isn't this better? This is how you actually enjoy a party. I'm way more fun than that Maya girl. Now, loosen up a bit and let's dance!"

She mimicked a dying animal, spinning around and wiggling her limbs randomly. Her dirty-blonde hair bounced behind her, the curls hitting her back each time she moved. Did that seem like dancing to humans? It looked completely outlandish.

As I turned around again to find an escape route, I realized the other teens were doing similar movements. Didn't she say she would be dancing? Dancing was supposed to be refined and graceful, so that couldn't be right. Her movements had no flow. She only flailed around wildly.

Growing up, my grandfather forced a ton of classes onto me, one of which were dance classes. That's how I knew her 'dancing' wasn't correct. I'd be constantly reminded to keep my head up with shoulders back, to have flawless posture while staying perfectly in rhythm. Even after all these years those lessons still stuck with me, drilled into my head.

There was no way I could match the unnatural movements of Alice, even if I did want to dance with her. So I instead refocused my attention on finding Maya. Even with the crowd, she still should've known where I went.

Why hadn't she come to save me yet? Did she abandon me to go have fun with her friends? Did I seem like that much of a lost cause to her? I wouldn't be able to escape the crowd without shoving people aside, and that would cause too much chaos. For all I knew, an entire fight would've broken out.

Alice jabbed me with her elbow. "What are you doing just standing there? This is a party! Have fun! Live a little! Come on, actually dance with me!"

I recoiled away from her touch. How did this girl not understand I wanted nothing to do with her? I thought I had made that fact very obvious. I met her by accident last night. That didn't suddenly make us friends.

I frantically scanned the area again, desperate for an easy way to avoid this annoying girl. As I began getting consumed by my panic, the control I worked so hard to gain over my senses weakened. The blaring music washed over me. How could I get out of here? Were there even any other options? Did I have to start running again? It didn't work great last time, but there had to be a way out. And if no one would come to help me, I needed to find it on my own.

I took a deep breath and slowed my thoughts. No. I would wait for Maya. She could help me out of here. Just stay calm...