The Demon's Deadline (Demon's Assistant Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

night.” He tugs at the shirt and leans down to kiss me. His mouth is warm and I wrap my arms around his shoulders.
    “No. It’s okay. I could use a little normal teenage deviance.” Assuming the demon doesn’t show up again. Twice in one day is unheard of, but before this month, so was five times in one week, so I can’t be sure. “Besides, if you convince Brian to come, Melissa will owe me major best friend points.”
    “I bet if she’s willing to be his designated driver, he’ll be happy to.” Cam rubs my shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    “Fine,” I say. “Really. You worry too much.” I squeeze his hand and then let it drop from my shoulder. I go to my backpack and find my phone, which is miraculously dry and in working order. I text Mel to tell her the good news. It’s doubly good, because it’ll give her an excuse to call him and offer a ride. She owes me now.
    Done playing matchmaker, I collapse onto the sofa. Justin and Amy arrive shortly after, along with the alcohol, purchased by Amy’s older sister. Amy’s dressed in jeans and a cute orange top that hangs off one shoulder. She smiles and gives me a hug.
    “Don’t you just have the right idea,” she says, indicating my sweatpants-chic. “That’s how Saturdays should be.” She moved here from Georgia two years ago, but her accent is still heavy and it makes her words drip with sweetness.
    “I fell in a puddle on the way over,” I say.
    “Well, I think it’s great. Maybe we should start having pajama parties.”
    “I’d be down with lingerie parties,” Justin says, waggling his eyebrows.
    “You realize we’d have to wear underwear, too,” Cam says, but he’s grinning.
    “Nah. We can make it a ladies-only dress code thing.”
    “In your dreams,” Amy says, shaking her head and giving me a look that clearly says, Boys! “You guys drinking your regular?”
    They both nod. Amy goes to work, unloading the booze she brought and mixing drinks in blue plastic cups. Brian and Melissa arrive, along with Ted, another member of the basketball team, and a guy named Josh and his sister, Sandra, come in right behind them. The guys head into the living room and put on some music.
    Melissa takes one look at my clothes and pulls me upstairs. “You didn’t tell me there was a fashion emergency. I would have brought you something. I have that red dress I just finished.”
    “It’s fine,” I lie. It was at first, but now that people are here, I do feel pretty self-conscious without makeup or my own clothes, even if they’re all people who’ve known me long enough to forgive one night of sweatpants. After all, Amy and Sandra wear sweats to school sometimes during track and field months. And it’s not like I’ve never forgone makeup when running late. Besides, Cam says I’m prettier without it. And I still have my five earrings.
    “What happened?” Melissa demands.
    I repeat my puddle lie and Melissa’s expression screams disappointment. Guilt claws at me. I think of Heather’s wild, desperate expression, her panicked pleas. Faces of people to whom I’ve handed similar letters flash in my mind. I think I’m going to be sick.
    I force the images away and look at Melissa, her expression hard and teeming with unspoken anger about months of deception and disappearances. I’ve lied so much recently that she knows something isn’t right, but she can’t possibly know I’m lying about the puddle. Why else would I be in Cam’s clothes, sans makeup?
    “You should talk to me,” she says. She crosses her arms over her Victorian-style blouse. Her black curls are up in a hairstyle that Lizzy Bennet would appreciate, and somehow, the old-fashioned attire makes her seem more severe.
    “I am talking to you.”
    “You know what I mean. Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine.” Sorry and fine : Two words I’m getting very sick of saying.
    She averts her eyes. “Are you pregnant?”
    “What? No.” I shake my head to emphasize the point.