Meeting Shubhra

The ride was quiet, neither Julia nor I spoke a word as I drove towards the Waffle House. My mind was still pretty frazzled, and now that I had some time to think things over, I was more nervous than ever. If even half of the things that Julia had told me were true, I was in deep, deep shit.

I arrived at the Waffle House about 45 minutes after I set out, and stepped out of the car, shivering slightly in the cold of the night. Even though it was summer, it was still pretty chilly out. The parking lot was empty, the shining golden light of the road sign lighting up the darkness around the restaurant. I stepped into it, and scanned the inside for my best friend, catching her sitting in a booth at the back near a window. I walked towards her, sliding into the booth opposite to her, causing her to look up from her phone at me. “Hey, I ordered waffles and coffee for us,” She said as she put the phone down on the side of the table, “Figured that if we came to ‘Waffle House’, it’d be a travesty to leave without trying one.”

I just nodded, taking a quick look at her. Shubhra was wearing a black leather jacket with a white top underneath, and somehow, the annoyed expression on her face made her look even better. Julia whistled in my head, “Any reason why she isn’t your girlfriend?” She asked.

Well, there was a reason, a pretty big one. Shubhra was easily one of the hottest people I knew. She wasn’t too tall, but she wasn’t short either and if I had to guess she would be around 5’5 or 5’6. She had gorgeous caramel skin and was ridiculously pretty. She was slim and athletic, with breasts that fit perfectly on her lithe frame and an ass to die for. Yeah, I’d date her in a heartbeat, I’d always had a huge crush on her anyways.

The only problem was, Shubhra was a lesbian.

She had told me one night in a sleepover that she thought that she was gay in tenth grade, and in a matter of minutes, all of my teenage hopes and fantasies were crushed. Of course, that didn’t break our friendship, instead we somehow got even closer, but the crush I had was relegated to a deep corner of my mind.

Julia cackled in my head as she read my thoughts, something that I was still really creeped out by. “Yeah whatever.” I mumbled, only for Shubhra to look weirdly at me.

“Andreas, who the fuck are you talking to?” She asked, putting her phone down on the side and placing her hands on the table. Shubhra’s eyes were narrowed slightly, her lips pressed as she tilted her head slightly.

The absurdity of the situation finally set in. Here I was, about to tell my best friend that I had a sex-demon trapped inside my head because of a birthday gift that she gave me. Shubhra just raised her eyebrows as I let out a wry chuckle, before shaking my head.

“Look, it sounds ridiculous,” I started, “Quite frankly I can’t believe it myself.”

Shubhra rolled her eyes, “Oh come on, we’ve been through so much. At this point, dude, nothing can faze me. Remember that one time in Lou’s?”

“What happened in Lou’s?” Julia asked in my head.

“We’re not talking about what happened in Lou’s,” I replied to her quickly in my head, before continuing the conversation with Shubhra so that Julia wouldn’t ask more questions about it.

My attention then shifted back to Shubhra, who still had her eyes narrowed at me. “Well,” I said, trying to find a combination of words that wouldn’t make me sound like a complete lunatic, “Remember that book you gave me for my birthday, the one about summoning demons and whatnot?”

Shubhra chuckled, “Yeah, what about it?” She asked, leaning back against the seat with a smug smile on her face, “Pretty good one, right? I totally bet you tried to summon something. Probably some kind of fucked demon, right? It was probably for sex, wasn’t it?”

“She’s sharp,” Julia quipped.

“Oh shut up,” I replied to her in my head again. Ugh, Shubhra knew me better than anyone. Usually it was a good thing, but sometimes, it was a pain in the ass.

I shook my head with a sigh, “You’re right,” I said, groaning as she beamed with satisfaction. “But,” I continued, “It worked, it actually fucking worked.”