Our little secret | Jev

7. The subtle truth

Lev's pov

The day had passed better than I had hoped, with me and Jentzen spending every second of it laughing and having fun together. Since it was nearly Halloween, we had even carved pumpkins - Jentzen called mine 'ugly in a cute way', which I didn't mind, as I had called his pumpkin 'ugly in an ugly way'.

Now, the two of us were sitting on the couch once again, watching a horror movie with a large blanket covering the two of us. The lights were off, and the scariest parts of the movie were finally showing up on screen.

"I'm just saying" Jentzen began, pausing to shove a handful of popcorn in his mouth. "That's the biggest knife I've ever seen, how does the killer manage to carry it around everywhere with him?" Jentzen mumbled out, his mouth now full with food. I shrugged in response. "Don't ask me, ask him!" I protested, pointing at the screen.

Jentzen jumped in shock, spilling some of the popcorn as he watched the cloaked figure swing his knife at one of the victims. I laughed, taking the bowl away from him and placing it down on the ground. "Don't get scared, it's just a movie" I teased. He frowned his eyebrows at me in response.

"Wow, thanks Sherlock, I didn't know that! Suddenly I'm not scared at all!" He retorted sarcastically. I laughed at his level of sass. "Well, if you get scared, you can hold my hand" I joked, still laughing at him. Jentzen didn't laugh back. "It's not funny, I don't care if you're joking, I might actually have to take you up on that offer with the rate this movie is going!" He argued.

I swallowed harshly, silently patting myself on the back. Even though I'd intended it as a joke, I'd managed to buy myself an opportunity to possibly hold his hand. From that point, I was praying for something scary to happen. Soon enough, the killer in the movie was back at it again chasing people around.

Jentzen flinched, turning away from the screen and burying his head into my shoulder as he grabbed one of my hands with his. My head felt like it was spinning, even though I half expected this to happen.

I raised my free hand and gently patted his head to comfort him, knowing he sometimes had a hard time watching scary movies. I almost wanted to ask if he'd like me to turn it off, but it was almost over anyways so I decided against it.

A few moments had passed with us like this, unmoving from our position as Jentzen refused to look at the screen. Finally I tapped his shoulder, urging him to watch the last few minutes of the movie. "Look, you'll want to see the ending, she survived! She made it out safely" I spoke softly.

He watched as the ending unfolded, seemingly satisfied with the conclusion. The ending credits were now rolling, and I stretched out my arms, sadly letting go of Jentzen's hand. "Wow, what time is it?" I asked. Jentzen checked his phone screen, and I saw the time of 8:45pm displayed on it.

Jentzen looked over at me nervously. Without saying a word, I knew exactly what was on his mind. He was afraid of going back home alone in the dark, especially since it was a while away from mine. Immediately I felt the urge to do or say something that would ease his anxiety about the situation.

"Hey, it's really late and I don't want you going home alone at this time of night, why don't you spend the night again?" I offered sweetly. Jentzen's face immediately relaxed. "You don't mind?" H mumbled. "Of course not!" I assured, shooting him s comforting smile. He smiled back, thanking me.

"I'm just going to call Liana and let her know" he explained as he got up off of the sofa and walked into another room. He had texted her earlier to let her know he would be spending the day here, yet he wanted to update her that he'd stay over so that she wouldn't wait up and worry.