Body Surfing

Michaela’s, but the tone, the knowingness, the snide insinuation—these were completely alien to the girl he had known and loved.
    The demon’s eyes were slitted and sharp, as if he were reading Jasper’s thoughts.
    “Yup. It’s me.” Leo did a Vanna White, offered Michaela’s body up for inspection. He had dressed his host in a pair of Daisy Dukes and a tight pink tanktop. One of the straps had fallen off her shoulder, and the pale top of her left breast swelled above the fabric. She was braless, and her nipples were visible, and Jasper could have sworn her breasts were bigger too. Could Leo do that? He hadn’t been in a woman yet. He didn’t know how that worked.
    Hadn’t been in a woman yet . What the hell was he thinking?
    The demon held a huge sandwich in Michaela’s right hand. Two slices of bread had been placed more or less symbolically around a stack of meat as thick as Larry Bishop’s wrist.
    Mrs. Szarko—a nice lady, but a bit on the prim side—glanced at her daughter’s cleavage.
    “Honey?”
    “Not now, Madelaine.” Michaela bit down on a chunk of meat, jerked her head to rip it off the sandwich like a crocodile tearing flesh from a carcass. “I’m busy.”
    “Don’t you want to—”
    “I said not now.”
    Bits of meat sprayed from her mouth, and Mrs. Szarko visibly winced.
    “I’ll be in the—”
    But Michaela had already elbowed her mother out of the way. She pushed the screen door open, let it slam behind her, then stood there a moment to allow Jasper to experience the full effect. It wasn’t just the shorts, the tanktop. The swollen breasts. Jasper’s nose could smell the pheromones pouring from every square inch of his girlfriend’s immaculate skin. The hairs on his forearms could feel the heat radiating from her body. Her eyes twinkled, her cheeks were rosy, her upper lip ever so slightly damp (although that might’ve just been grease from her sandwich). She oozed sexual energy. Sexual prowess. Sexual conquest. Not even the wad of food in her mouth could diminish her triumph. She bit, chewed, swallowed, threw in a burp for good measure. Leo gloated in his girlfriend’s flesh, flaunted her control over it, and over him.
    “Bet you wish you’d hit this when you had the chance. Don’t you, Larry?”
    Her eyes glowed like diamonds. No, Jasper reminded himself. Leo made her eyes glow: dilated the pupils, released the tiniest bit of saline from the tear ducts. Just enough to make them glisten. Jasper had to keep reminding himself that it wasn’t Michaela he faced. Wasn’t just Michaela.
    Leo nodded, as if he understood exactly what had gone through Jasper’s mind. He grabbed Jasper’s arm, steered him off the porch. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”
    Jasper let himself be led. Though part of him wanted to rip the demon’s head from its shoulders, he was paralyzed by the fact that it was Michaela’s head, Michaela’s shoulders.
    “Tough choice, ain’t it?” Leo’s voice was muffled by another mouthful of meat. “You’re thinking, I wanna kill this motherfucker, but how can I do it without hurting my dear sweet precious Michaela? News flash, Jasper: you can’t.”
    They passed a pair of teenaged boys on the sidewalk. The boys gawked at Michaela openly, and Leo returned their stare with obvious pleasure.
    “Hey, babies.” Leo arched Michaela’s back and her tits strained at the fabric of her tanktop.
    One of the boys made a gesture like he was being stabbed in the heart, while the other just stared open-mouthed. Jasper had to resist the urge to pound their heads together.
    They came to a silver Pontiac. Leo pulled open the driver’s side door. The tinkle of a bell announced that the keys had been left in the ignition.
    Jasper finally managed to speak. “This isn’t your—isn’t Michaela’s car. Michaela—”
    “Doesn’t have a car,” Leo said. “I know. Her parents have already promised her one for graduation but that’s not for another month. This is the neighbor’s.”
    “How’d you know the keys were in it?” Jasper said as he climbed inside. It seemed quite possibly the most irrelevant thing he could have said, but nothing else came to mind.
    “I heard the alert bell when they parked a half hour ago.” The demon turned the ignition, dropped the vehicle in gear.
    Jasper looked back at the Szarkos’ house. It was half a block away. Michaela’s bedroom faced the back.
    “Yup,” Leo said when Jasper turned back to him,