𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋 ● 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐬

𝟑. 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐘, 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐘

𝟑. 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐘, 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐘

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"It's my right to be hellish. I still get jealous." ~Excerpt from Jealous, Nick Jonas

"I wanna be you so bad, and I don't even know you!" ~ Excerpt from Jelalously, Jelalously, Olivia Rodrigo.

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Hello, everyone. Welcome to the third chapter of DANCING WITH THE DEVIL. This chapter is mostly going to be a chapter that'll lead up to a bigger part of the story, so please don't hate me. I'll try to get through these chapters as best as I can, but with school getting out today, and my mother wanting to make random hiking trips, it's going to be tough. But I'm fairly certain that I will pull through. enjoy. p.s this chapter can be read while listening to Olivia Rodrigo's Jealously, Jealously- it doesn't have lyrics, but you can still listen to it.

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Evie wasn't one to be jealous—okay, that wasn't fully true. Once, this girl had on these fabulous leather boots that Evie adored—but that was different. But this time, Evie had a right—to a degree—to be jealous. Of a girl. Who wasn't even a girl, which made Evie even more jealous. Because that girl had a connection with Evie's boyfriend, Zac Blakely. That girl was none other than Lyla.

Lyla was a mermaid, and Zac was a merman. They had ocean connections, but Evie knew it in her gut that Lyla had a real, genuine connection with Zac. And sure, even if Evie was trying to display less hostility and antagonism towards Lyla, it was so hard. Like now. Because Lyla was sitting very, very close to Zac, murmuring comforting words to Evie's boyfriend. My boyfriend, Evie thought through gritted teeth.

And Zac didn't even notice that Evie was gazing at him.

It made the situation that much worse. Zac was giving Lyla his undivided attention while he was blatantly ignoring Evie. It didn't seem fair that Zac was regarding Lyla as his go-to-confidant—which Lyla was, but that didn't matter right now—while he was treating Evie as scum (well, he wasn't exactly treating her like scum because he wasn't really talking to her at all). He hadn't spoken to her in the last few days except for a polite greeting or two, and he was spending all of his free time with Lyla. That was not how a boyfriend was supposed to act.

Evie forced herself to breathe. Calm down, Evie. You're overreacting. Zac is just good friends with Lyla, nothing more. It doesn't matter that Zac told you that he trusted Lyla irrevocably. Just breathe. If Zac wanted to break up with you, he would've. Evie began to panic. What if Zac was building up the courage to break up with her? What if he harboured romantic feelings for Lyla? What if Zac distancing himself from Evie was preparation for that? Oh. My. God.

Time froze.

Evie took a deep breath. She definitely needed to talk to Zac about this. But she wasn't prepared... or was she? Had she been prepared for a while now? All that time seeing Zac with Lyla..? Evie swallowed hard and jumped when a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned around and let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "Hey, Carly. You startled me."