The wind's breeze ran through the pair's hair as the motorcycle rushed down Mark's neighborhood in the heart of rich Florida, the city of Boca Raton. Perfectly painted houses all lined up, side by side, with clean white fences protected the front and backyards. The homes had only one floor and were built in the 90's, but still held up the test against time. Many families furnished their houses to a modern design with large windows and minimal furniture styles. The people who lived here were high middle class workers with brand new Porsches that promoted the bold announcement, "We have money and we like to show it off."

            Mark's household, unlike others, struggled to get into this community. When his parents got married, they didn't have a dollar to their name. They devoted themselves to their work, climbing up the business ladder to receive promotions and raises. After saving up money for the first three years of their marriage, they moved into the neighborhood's smallest home. Life was good for the Reed's; the couple gave birth to Mark in the winter of 2000. His sister, Amy, was born a year later in the humid summer. Their parents conflicted between their family and business lives. They tried to balance both out, unfortunately, this lead to the family's demise. The stress and tension in the household became unbearable for the two adults to live with. They argued every night behind closed doors during Mark and Amy's childhood. After the tiresome years of bumping heads against each other, they decided the best thing for the family to do was to separate.

Their mother, Laura Reed, stayed with the children in Florida to pursue her career as a flight attendant. While their father, Kieran Reed, moved to Canada to work as an Executive Head for a finance company. Their father regularly came to visit his children during the holidays but stopped when the siblings were in middle school. From then on, it was Mark's responsibility as the 'Man of the House' to take care and provide for his mother and sister.

            The two teenagers arrived to his house, Luke parked his bike next to the mailbox. He stepped off the bike and removed his sunglasses, "So, how was your first time riding on a motorcycle?"

            "I think I'm going to puke." Mark covered his mouth, holding back the need to vomit for as long as possible. Luke's reckless driving caused him to get nauseous and dazed. During the ride back home, he yelled at Luke to go slower and obey the speed limit. For Luke, that was just encouragement to drive faster, going 90 MPH on a 45 MPH street. 

            "Oh, you big baby. You're fine." Luke smirked at Mark's misery. They walked up to the front door as Mark got out his keys. He unlocked the door and stepped into the living room. Before Mark could tell him anything, Luke ran through the house in wonder of all the new human items he's never seen before. The demon touched everything in the house asking "What's this?" and "What does this do?".

As Mark attempted to keep up with him, he scolded him with phrases like, "Luke, don't touch that.", "Please stop making a mess.", and "Luke, I swear to God. Do. Not. Lick. The. Lamp."

The taller teenager jumped on the couch, sighing in pleasure. "Dude, this is the comfiest thing, I have laid on in my life."

"Don't they have couches in Hell?"

"Yeah, but they're made out of stone and have flames on them."

"Oh." Mark imagined what it would feel like to sit on one of those couches. He shuddered at how much pain that much be for someone. He walked over to the dining table to take a seat. The dirty blonde dropped down his backpack on the floor, unzipping it to pull out a history textbook. "Well, thanks for driving me home, Luke. I really need to get started with some of my homework, so you should probably head home."

"Home?" Luke got up from the couch and strolled over to Mark. "Mark, hate to tell you this buddy but...." He took the textbook away from Mark and threw it over his shoulder. "I'm gonna crash at your place for a bit, and when I say 'a bit' I mean forever."

Mark's eyes widened, "No. Absolutely not. I have a family here. I can't bring someone in all of the sudden to live here forever. Also, my mom doesn't allow guests into the house when she gets back from work. Even if, I wanted you to stay, you could only stay until Friday, that's when she gets back." He stated, getting up from his chair to retrieve the textbook that ending up on the floor.

Luke stopped Mark by standing in front of the textbook, arms crossed in front of his chest. "You really are so forgetful." The demon once again snapped his finger. Mark's cellphone vibrated in his jean pocket. He pulled it out and discovered that his mother was calling him, "Mom?"

"Hi Mark, I just called to tell you that I'm going to stay a little longer for work. I got booked on so many flights, I won't be able to make it back on Friday. Maybe, I'll be back next week if I'm lucky. Make sure to tell your sister and don't let her do anything foolish while I'm away. I'll call you back soon, take care."

The phone call ended, Mark couldn't believe it. Immediately after, a text came from his sister,

            "I'm gonna stay over at friend's house for the week. I already have my stuff. Don't snitch me out to Mom again like you did last time."

Mark was left dumbfounded, he had the whole house to himself for a week. "Don't let this guy play with you, stand your ground.", his thought echoed in his mind. He did not want to spend the whole week having a sleepover with Lucifer.

"Luke, I don't care what you do. This doesn't change anything. You are not staying here."

   ********************************************

            "Mark, do you have any threes?"

            "Go fish." Mark sighed unenthusiastically, causing him to wonder how can a demon be so interested in a children's card game.

            Luke pulled out a card from the deck in-between them, he showed his hand of cards to Mark. "I got a book! I win!" He raised his fists high in the air to celebrate his victory.

            "That's great, Luke...You won........Again......For the 30th time." Mark was beginning to lose his patience. The two have been playing for nearly 5 hours, his eyes started to get bags underneath because of sleep loss.

            "Let's play again! One more round!" The demon proclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

            "It's always one more round." The human thought to himself. "Luke, I'm exhausted. It's 1:30 AM, can we please go to sleep?"

            Luke groans, "Fine." He started to collect the cards and shoved them in the box.

            "Thank you." Mark gives a slight smile and stands up to stretch.

            The other glares at him, "Party-pooper."

            Mark's smile disappeared as Luke said that, but he was far too tired to argue back with him. He made his way to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. "Finally." He mumbled softly to himself. The teenager checked his cell phone for any messages from his sister or mother. He was shocked when he found out that Tyson texted him three hours ago,

            "Hey Mark, it's getting late and you didn't text me like you said you would. Are you sure we're good?"

            Mark typed,

            "Tyson, we're good. I promise. I just had a rough day today."

            He was surprised to find out that Tyson was typing, Mark thought he would be asleep by now. Tyson responded back with a one word answer,

            "Call?"

            "I can't, sorry. I'm too tired. Talk to you tomorrow."

            "Goodnight man."

            Mark turned off his phone and placed it on his nightstand. He flopped down on the bed, too tired to change out of his clothes. He desperately wanted to get some sleep but as his mind reflected back on the mess of a day he had, he doubted that he would get any.