The Devil Wears Black

by L.J. Shen

Layla, my childhood friend turned next-door neighbor, called him a real-life Gaston. “Easy on the eyes but begging to get thrown from a roof.”

Chase Black was the devil. My personal devil. Always clad in black, a cruel comment ready on the tip of his tongue, his intentions as tainted as his smirk. And me? I’d been dubbed Martyr Maddie for a reason. I couldn’t be mean if my life depended on it. Which, luckily, it did not.

Chase Black had ruined my life and left me to piece it back together, each shard of our broken relationship cutting me deep.

Funny, I don’t remember leaving the trash outside. Allow me to escort you back to the recycling bin, Mr. Black.

Oh, you want to apologize? Can you be specific as to why? The cheating part, the humiliating part where I had to take an STD test afterward, or simply for wasting my time?

Are you lost, sweetie? Would you like me to escort you to the brothel you are...

“What you did to me didn’t upset me, Chase. It devastated me. I don’t mind admitting it now, because I’m so over you I forgot how it even felt to be under you.”

“I can practically hear you overthinking,”

“I can practically feel your eyes on my ass,”

Fun fact: Daisies symbolize purity, fresh starts.

But if riling me up were an Olympic sport, he’d have an array of gold medals, a book deal, and a steroids scandal by now.

“Can you be any cockier?” I whipped my head around to scowl at him. “Yes, but then I’d have to wear a condom.”

“I hope Madison didn’t mind the traffic.” “She loves traffic jams. They’re her favorite hobby.” Right after trapping innocent men into relationships.

“Sweetheart, you sang your carols in the pantry, Jacuzzi, three of the bedrooms, and the pool when we stayed here last Christmas. Your virtue couldn’t find its way back to your body with a map, a compass, and a GPS.”

“Nothing,” she said, just as her stomach began to growl. It wasn’t a feminine rumble either. It sounded like her intestines were trying to pick a fight with the rest of her body.

You can play house with a girl who’s a six all you want, but I don’t for one second believe you’ll marry below ten.”

On a scale of one to Charlie Sheen, she was a solid Mel Gibson.

“If you truly want to know someone, make them mad. The way they react is a telltale sign of who they are.”

Fuck my life in the ass.

“Death is no longer an obscure idea. It is real and it is waiting, so you grab life by the balls. When you go through the horror of seeing someone you love die and still manage to wake up the next day to tie your shoelaces, to shove a tasteless breakfast down your throat, to breathe, you realize survival trumps tragedy. Always. It’s a primal instinct.”

There is a twisted, jagged beauty to the ending of life. It is a bittersweet reminder that it happened.

confidence is like a house. You build it brick by brick. Each brick may seem insignificant, but when you take a step back after a while, you realize you’ve made a lot of progress.”

That’s what happens when you muster some sympathy for the devil, I thought bitterly. He drags you to hell, and you get burned.

“Thanks for the input. I was anxious to know what a complete fucking stranger makes of my character.”

“I can’t promise you forever, but I can promise you right now, and it’s more than I’ve ever offered a woman before.”

Chase Black rejected love because he was afraid of losing it. And me? I chased it because I’d lost the greatest love of all.

But you are a real catch. Not because of your money or status but because you are funny, quick witted, smart, fun, and—yes—look like you’re the product of an orgy consisting of all the Greek gods, Chris Hemsworth, and James Dean.”

“If you care about me,” she said slowly through a ragged breath, “then you will stop pursuing me. Let me live my life. Let me get over you. You confuse and infuriate and delight me. You make me feel all those emotions that I have no business feeling, and I’m desperate to move on. I want to want Ethan. Let one of us find their happiness. Because it is so painfully clear you don’t want to ever find yours.”

I’d always wondered how you knew if you loved someone. I got my answer when he looked at me. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I loved Chase in that moment.

Every decision you make has a reason. Think about it.

That gap between reality and our dreams? That’s where life is tucked.”