Sympathy for the Devil by Billy London Read Free Book Online Page A

really, no!” I insisted. I explained that he was giving my bezzie grief and I was trying to get him back. She accepted my version, for which I was relieved. Despite there being over a thousand students in this college of the university, we gossiped better than the 3am girls.
           I found Fiona Gray through a guy I knew on my course. She was studying Ancient Greek History and just so she didn’t miss a deadline for an essay, I agreed to meet her on a Wednesday afternoon at her campus coffee shop.
           “Pierce Callun.” Her green eyes narrowed immediately, and had I been standing up, I’d have backed off by a few countries. “I’ve known warmer deep freezers. Don’t go near him, however much you want to help out a friend. He’ll chew you up and spit you out.”
           “So when did you go out with him?” I asked bluntly, resenting her preconception that I couldn’t handle myself.
           Fiona obviously hadn’t counted on my shrewdness. How frustrating. I just wanted an impartial opinion, and here was yet another rejectee. “Two months ago,” she admitted with a sigh. “I thought everything was great. We were friends for ages first, and it was so good being with him. Until he introduced me to some bint as his new girlfriend.”
           Ouch. I could see him doing it as well, a sly malicious gleam in those frost-blue eyes. “Fee,” he’d have drawled lightly. “Have you met Tamara? My new girlfriend? Tamara, meet Fiona, my ex-girlfriend. I expect you have plenty in common. God, Fee, you don’t look well.”
           I hid my shudder of revulsion. Now wasn’t the time to mention my minor obsession with him. “He’s evil through and through,” Fiona was telling me. I eyed the carrot cake she had vacuumed at the speed of light. I wanted to tell her comfort eating would not make things better, but didn’t fancy being punched. “He bleeds you dry emotionally, then he starts on your mates.”
           Ha! I’d love to see Pierce try to start on me. Well he kind of had already… Fiona’s eyes narrowed instantly. “Did you find that funny?”
           “No,” I said hastily. “I was just thinking of something else.”
           Hell, what was I doing? He was Satan on earth. All I really wanted someone to do was to tell me that what I was feeling was entirely natural. That he could be a decent guy when he wasn’t dumping girls for not kneeling at the right time, or upsetting my best mate, or hung over. I mean, someone loved Hitler, right? I justified it, like I did most of my obsessions, by my minor brush with death at the age of sixteen. Meningitis nearly got the better of me and after nearly a month in hospital, I took the option of not feeling sorry for myself, but if I wanted something to go and get it. How I’d translated that philosophy to a bloke… Such a bloke… I should be ashamed.
           The good thing about university had to be the gossip. Everyone knew everyone else’s business, even when they weren’t supposed to know anything of the sort. There was a book for all sorts —pregnancies, break-ups, random hook-ups. Our resident bookie was called Phil. For instance, I knew that a total idiot called Michael Pratt (honest to God, that’s his name) had a tenner on getting it on with the rather beauteous Phoebe Marschall. Phoebe was my roommate, and I had a twenty that she’d kick his head in before she’d let his knob anywhere near her.
           Fiona looked at me oddly. “You know Phil’s started on Toni and West. He thinks they’ll be done by the end of the year.”
           “Phil knows zero,” I said furiously. “Toni and West are Mr. and Mrs. Charlton Heston. He’s convinced I’m a lesbian, for one.” It should have been a honking great sign that Phil was utterly obtuse. At college, I was called Cari Man-Trap. So I’ve had a few lovers. Told you. Life. Short. Want. Get. Done. Is that really a huge