A YEAR LATER
"I'm going to miss you, darling." Mom hugged me very tightly as she cried.
"I'm going to miss you more, Mama." I hugged her back as a tear escaped my eye. I got admitted to MSU, Michigan State University. Mum liked it because it wasn't too far. It had been a year already, a year since I got 'exorcised' by my grandmother. A year since I last heard or felt the devil. The exorcism did work actually. I didn't have to lie or pretend.
"Call me when you get there." Mom repeated for the umpteenth time since we got to the airport.
"Yeah. I gotta go. My flight will soon be called." As if they had heard my words, the flight indeed was called.
"All passengers for Michigan 12pm, please have your boarding pass and identification ready for boarding."
"Bye mama." I pulled away from her, and after giving her one last smile, I tightened my hold on my bags and walked further into the airport. I didn't look back, not even once.
I was a woman of myself now. With no mom to tell me what to do, and no devil in my head, I was going to live the life just fine.
**
With my bags in my hand, I walked away from the plane which I had just exited, and out of the airport. Maybe I was too concentrated on quickly reaching my roommate who I had contacted, and she had agreed to come pick me because it was her second year here, and she was well versed with the place, maybe that's why I didn't look at where I was going until I bumped into someone. A he. The wide expanse of his chest was enough to tell me that.
The hairs at the back of my neck stood at attention, and my skin formed goosebumps as that feeling overcame me. The familiar yet foreign feeling. The feeling that a presence was with me. The one I always felt when he, the devil was around.
I took a step back from whoever I had bumped into, not daring to look up to see who it was. Could it really be the devil? It wasn't possible. The devil surely didn't smell this nice. He should smell of burned flesh because he lived in hell. The scent of his cologne lingered in my nostrils.
"Sorry." I muttered, and walked around him, only that I didn't get to, before he gripped my arm. My eyes snapped down to stare at his hand holding my arm. I expected to see long black claws but instead I was met with clean long nails, slender fingers and a big but tender looking but veiny hand. This couldn't be the devil.
I looked up slowly. My eyes trailed slowly up from his arm to his chest and then to his neck before I finally met his eyes. My eyes widened instantly and my throat grew dry.
WTF! How!? How could someone look like that that!? I saw a corner of his full dreamy lips tilt in a smirk. He got the look I was giving him from every woman he came across, I could bet, and that made him cocky.
His light as sea blue eyes gazed upon me with a glint in them. Short raven curls matted his forehead, forming a curtain in front of his eyes. His pointed nose was cute, and his lips pouty and full. His skin was clear, and I would have called him an angel if not for the one long scar that ran down the left side of his face from the top of his brow down across his eye and it only stopped halfway down his cheek. Probably a knife cut or something else. He looked like an angel, but the scar and that glint in his eyes would make you think twice before you conclude.
I was lost, I couldn't seem to look away. I felt oddly connected to him.
"You dropped this." That snapped me out from my thoughts, and I turned to look at what he held in his other hand.
It was a key. My key. Did I drop that? It had been in my purse, hadn't it?
"Oh." I managed a forced smile at him.
I moved to take it once I released my grip on my luggage, but he lifted it way above my reach. It was either I was way too short, or he was goddamn tall.
"A thank you for picking my key would be nice." He whispered in my hear after leaning in, making goosebumps form on my skin, and I swallowed hard.
"Thank you." I swallowed, trying to moisten my parched throat.
"Good girl." He handed the key to me, and I held my luggage once again.
"See you soon, Leticia."
My hold on my luggage tightened and my heart thumped in my chest. I knew that presence and voice was too familiar to ignore. How did he know my name if he wasn't the devil?
"Who are you?" I asked after gathering enough courage to.
"Someone. Nice shirt by the way."
He gestured to the shirt I had on and let go of my arm. I looked down at my shirt which had the words 'happy resumption, Leticia' written on it. Mom had made the shirt and forced me to wear it today. So that's how he knew my name, he wasn't the devil after all.
"My mum ma-"
I stopped talking once I looked up and found no one. He was just…gone. I looked around, but I didn't get any sight of him. One minute he was there and the next he was gone.
Okay, that was one way to lose a crush. I was beginning to like him.
Shaking off the feeling which was now gone together with him, I decided not to give it too much thought, and I headed out of the airport, hoping that Anya, my room mate and guide in this strange state, was still waiting outside for me.
TWO WEEKS LATER
My resumption of the state university had been awesome so far. It was great. Classes were hectic, but great. Turns out studying physiotherapy wasn't so easy. I made friends like normal people do, and I was living like a normal person. I hoped that it continued. I had been paranoid for a while now since I met that strange man at the airport. For one year, I didn't feel the devil, but suddenly, I felt him like he was right there next to me. And now, I felt nothing once again. I had a bad feeling about it all.
"Cia," Anya's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up from the romance novel that I had been reading, and directed my gaze at her. She had her headphone in her hands as she eyed me suspiciously. She was the first person apart from my dad who called me Leti, that gave me a nickname.
I liked Cia just as much as I liked Leti.
She pronounced Cia as See-ahh.
"Are you reading or staring into space like you usually do?" she sat up in her bed, and I smiled at her.
"I'm reading. Just picturing what it would be like to have a love life like in the romance books."
She chuckled and I joined in.
"Dream on, Cia. Men are mean. That is a book, but this is reality, get that. I wouldn't have you dreaming too big and ending up hurt. And since we're on the men topic, when are you getting yourself a boyfriend? You've been here two weeks." This topic again?
"I don't want a boyfriend. Men are mean." I laughed nervously.
"Men are mean yeah, but not all of them. Tristan for example."
She hinted. I should have known earlier that this was where the discussion was leading.
"Don't go there." I shook my head.
"Come on, Cia. The poor guy likes you, give him a chance. He's been trying for a week now."
"Not long enough."
Tristan was an 'IT' guy who I met in one of my classes. Since the first day, he wouldn't let me be. He wanted me to be his girlfriend and he was forthcoming about it, but I didn't like him like that. I saw him as just a friend, but he wouldn't take that. Flowers got delivered to my room two times everyday, but they ended up in the garbage. I mean, I don't sell flowers, do I?
Anya sighed and then shrugged.
"Your choice."
I smiled at her and she smiled back.
"What are you doing?" I asked when she stood from her bed and started bringing out different outfits.
"Finding the perfect outfit."
"For what?"
"I and the girls are going to the club in forth avenue here in East Lancing."
"You didn't tell me."
"Like you did go." I could imagine her roll her eyes although I couldn't see her face.
"I want to go." I blurted and stood from my bed immediately, pushing my novel aside.
"Really?" she turned to give me a surprised look.
"Yeah." I shrugged and bent to get my luggage from under my bed.
"So, what changed? You suddenly want to go to a club with me and the girls? I thought you were holier than thou Cia." She snorted.
"Oh fuck that! I'm tired of running round a circle. I want to go out, I want see the city, I want to LIVE. That was one of the reasons I chose to go to a university, because I want to live my life. I no longer want to be stuck in my own head or in one place. I simply just want to LIVE. I hope that's not too much to ask of life?" I flayed my arms as I talked for added effect.
"No. You're just one step from living. Wait until you get to the club, you're gonna love it."