The Seven Deadly Sinners

14

"It's this one. Just park in the driveway," I said, pointing through the windshield.

"That's your house? How many people do you live with?" Kat asked, leaning up from the back seat of Colby's shitty Toyota. Why would he choose this car when he could literally Urge someone into just giving him a better one for free? He'd done it to Axel.

"None," I said. He parked the car and we got out.

"How does the state not have any questions about this?" Sam asked.

"Got a deal worked out with a coffee shop. I'm a manager there on paper. Also technically share the house with three people. Except those people don't even know what the house looks like. They just didn't want to say no to me when I asked them if I could use their names," I said.

"She doesn't even need to learn how to Urge. She's figured out her own way," said Sam.

"Not like we have. She can't go into a Starbucks and get coffee for free without raising anyone's suspicions. She can do big things like hold a gun to someone's head or threaten them. It's the small things that will make her the most powerful," Colby said. Hm. That was an interesting concept. But he was right.

We made our way inside and I dropped my heels onto the floor. I hadn't bothered to ever put them back on.

"What am I doing? Just getting ready to go do whatever?" I asked.

"Yeah, just get ready like a normal day," Colby said.

"I don't have normal days. I have gang days, shooting days, drug days, and payment days," I said.

"Okay, then I will be helping you get ready," Kat said. I smiled. I don't think anyone had ever even been in my house before, nonetheless a girl who wanted to be my friend. Even though it was sort of her literal purpose in life. She didn't have to be nice to me, didn't have to like me. But she did.

I led her down the hall to my bedroom but stopped outside of the door when I realized Sam and Colby were right behind us.

"Are you literally going to follow me everywhere?" I asked.

"Mike's orders," Sam said.

"And is Mike in charge?" I asked. Colby clenched his jaw. He didn't like that I was challenging the order of things, but he also knew I wasn't wrong.

"Fine. We'll be in the living room. No funny business," Colby said shortly, turning back around with Sam. I waited until they were out of earshot.

"Okay, full disclosure, my room does not match my personality at all. I started out only having the furniture I had in my dorm room. And a girl's dorm room vibe doesn't exactly mirror me as a person. I don't have people over here. I didn't bother changing the theme to adjust to who I am now. But I did decorate it. To match said furniture," I said to Kat. God, this was going to be so embarrassing.

"I don't care what your room looks like, girl," Kat said. I sighed. Colby definitely wasn't going to let me be completely alone. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"Oh my—," Kat started.

"Zip it. I told you," I said. I felt my face heating up.

"No, dude, I love this. It's like my fucking dream room in here," Kat said. I turned to see a giant smile on her face. She liked it? I mean, I liked it too. But I wouldn't admit to that just yet. I stared around.

It was the master bedroom, and a pretty damn big one at that. The walls were pale pink. In fact, basically everything was pale pink. Which was why it was so fucking embarrassing.

My bed had a pink comforter on it with white and pink throw pillows. There were white fairy lights lining the entire ceiling. I had a white desk on one side of the room and a white make up vanity on the other with a fluffy pink stool to sit on in front of it.

"You're right, this really doesn't match your personality. Well, except for those," she said, pointing at the three tapestries on my wall. We looked at each other and burst out laughing.

One of them was white that said 'don't be a cunt' on it in cursive black handwriting. Another one was white with Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob in it that said 'aRe YoU fEeLiNg It NoW, mR. kRaBs?". The last one was either the worst or best thing to ever exist. It was green with Shrek laying on his side in the middle of it, his head propped up on his arm. It said 'this is MY swamp, now.'

"Oh my fucking god," Kat wheezed. We stood there laughing for forever, until our sides hurt and we weren't standing up straight.

"I'm literally crying!" I shrieked while still laughing. Kat was, too, but she was laughing too hard to agree with me. The door burst open and Sam and Colby came in. It probably sounded like we were screaming or loudly crying or something from down the hall.

Kat and I stopped for a second, frozen in place, until Sam saw the Shrek tapestry and lost his shit, too.

"Oh my god," Colby said when he finally saw it. He pinched the bridge of his nose in disappointment. "We are demons. Literal demons. Two of you are sins. Literal sins. Jupiter, you are the legitimate queen of hell. And you're all crying from laughing over a Shrek tapestry."

"I'm laughing at the Mr. Krabs one," Kat countered.

"How do you not find this funny, bro?" Sam asked. We all kept laughing for a while, Colby staring at us, unimpressed.

"Why the fuck does your room look like this?" Colby asked. "Aside from those godawful tapestries."

Sam and Kat were still laughing, but I'd stopped I walked over next to Colby.

"What are you asking?" I asked.

"Pink. So much pink. You're a crime lord," he replied.

"What, don't like a little color?" I asked. Other than the blue in his hair, I had yet to see any color on Colby that wasn't black or white.

"Me? No, I'm fine with some color. But it astounds me that you are, too, especially this much," he said, looking around. "This is such, like, an innocent room."

"What, I can't be innocent?" I asked. He didn't technically know all of the bad stuff I'd done.

"Not even a little bit, princess," he said. It felt weird when he called me that. Physically weird. It made my chest, like, tingle or something. But I didn't want him to know he had such a big effect on me.

"Well, maybe not. Can I get ready now?" I asked.

"I'm not stopping you," he said. I guess he was already in here, which was what I had been trying to avoid in the first place, so I might as well just get ready. Except where were we going? Who would we be seeing? It was like I'd forgotten how to exist as a normal person.

"Kat," I said. She was still giggling with Sam but looked up. "What am I wearing? I don't know what we're about to go do."

"Oh, right. Is this your closet?" she asked, pointing to a shut door.

"Yeah, go for it," I said. She walked in and flicked on the light.