Jaded

[12] Devins and Monsters

His head instantly snaps up. Atty tries to hide it, but a small chuckle escapes him anyways. He clears his throat and in his most deadpan voice says, "ha. Funny."

The sarcastic effect is lost though because he was giggling like a lil princess just a while ago. Its almost adorable.

"C'mon, let's get the introductions out of the way," Atty says. Right, there's an actual ball currently taking place beyond those doors at the end of the hall. Once I pass those, it's girlfriend time.

And also, grand plan time. Innocent scheming and all.

It takes us a full two minutes to cross the entirety of the hallway, but eventually we've passed the second set of doors. We enter what I presume is the actual ballroom. I mean it has to be, it's too pretty to be anything else.

I gasp as my gaze jumps from corner to corner. A marble floor so freshly waxed I can see the individual eyelashes of my own reflection, ceilings so high it's as if this room was made to fly in.

All the tables are arranged to form a clearing in the middle, probably for dancing. Surrounding the space are various round tables with light blue satin coverings and matching flowers. But even all that pales in comparison to the rainbow of gorgeous dresses dotting the room.

There are women wearing shades I didn't even know existed. I have to talk to them, all of them. I want all the dresses.

Holy crap, I've never felt so greedy.

A woman gets up from the table to our left and strides over. She's an older slender lady in a deep plum piece and arching eyebrows. When she approaches, she smiles wide and gestures to me. "Atticus. Care to introduce us?"

Atty grins. "No chance Marge, you'll steal her away." This really gets 'Marge' going. A thunderous laugh erupts from somewhere within this small framed woman. She brings us over to her table and I get a chance to meet the rest of the people Atty works with daily. The people on his team.

There's Charles with the naturally long face who's tired of horse jokes, Ant who is not a small guy at all and has a very misleading name, Coco who's a wildly sexual dude (mostly towards Atty), Genie, the chick with the coolest lip piercings I've ever seen, and Roger who is very, very, normal.

So obviously Roger is probably the one with the craziest past.

"There's only Alice left, but I haven't seen her around yet," Atty explains. He's busy searching the room for her when we hear someone clear their throat, a very pretentious 'ahem' sort of noise.

I feel the stiffness in Atty's arm before I even get a glimpse of the sour look on his face. As if he's swallowed two lemons whole, not just one. "Devin," he grumbles.

Ohh. This is Devin Devin. As in most-annoying-asshole-on-the-planet Devin. Atty's unofficial arch nemesis.

Ha ha. This should be interesting. I'm so excited I can feel my elbow tingling in rhythm to my toes.

The entire table jests and jives as Devin settles into a seat directly across from Atty. I can't wait to get a good look at his face. This is the man Atty has spent a lot of time complaining and whining about.

When I look, all I see are narrow hazel eyes and a square face framed by short blonde hair. He's pretty average looking, not at all nemesis material.

Geez, even Roger would be a better fit. Now I want to fight Devin too, for being a disappointing enemy.

I lean close to Atty and quietly huff, "I hate him."

Atty turns to me, dramatically mouthing 'right?'