change of pace

tapes

chapter sixteen

"Jessieeeeeee..." Eddie says with his face stuffed in pillow. We made our way to my bedroom after he came home from school.
"Eddieeeeeee..." I mimicked while putting clothes away
"I'm so BORED!" he says throwing his hands to his side.
"What do you wanna do?" I say making my over and sitting on top of him. His smirk grows wide as he stares at me.
"Well, I was sorta thinkin..." his hands go underneath my sweater I just changed into. I smack his hands.
"What about a movie night?" I say now a few inches above his face.
"Okay, but I pick the genre." he says grabbing my face.

We clamored into his van and made our way to the video store. I loved movies and I couldn't wait to see what Eddie chose to watch. I practically skipped inside once the car was parked, which Eddie ran after me. My calculated steps made it towards the sci-fi aisle. I carefully picked up each tape I was interested in and scanned it over.

"Oh, Jess, we're getting this one." Eddie's smile grows wide. He's holding Raiders of the Lost Ark.
"Really? I was thinkin more this," I pull out Alien, "but I don't mind a double feature." I say smiling at him.
"This is why I love you." Eddie squishes my cheeks and I push him off.
"I'll go rent the tapes, you wanna go next door and grab a pizza?" I say pulling out my wallet.
"Sounds good, sweetheart." he says handing me the tape and heading out the door.
"Eddie, wait!" I hand him cash and he dodges me out the door so I physically cannot step outside with the tapes in hand.

I make my way up to the counter and place the tapes down. No one is there so I tap the bell a few times waiting. Finally, a girl with short hair and a green vest pops out from under the counter.

"Sorry about that!" her raspy voice says. "Just these will do?" she says examining the tapes.
"Yes, please!" I say smiling.
"Ugh, I love Sigourney Weaver in this film. Especially when she's in the little pod and the xenomorph comes out, god, she looks so..." she stops and her eyes go wide. "Oh, I'm going to need you to fill this paper out." she slides over a sheet of paper asking for my name, phone, and address information.
"Oh, for sure." I grab the pen and start filling it out. "And I agree, Ripley's so badass, and hot." I say focused on the paper.
"Y-yeah." the short haired girl stumbles with her words.
"Thanks..." I glance at her name tag. "...Robin." I say.

Robin slides over a black plastic bag with the tapes inside, as well as a receipt. "Have a good movie night! See you next week." she smiles big at me. I smile back and make my way to the car to wait for Eddie. He runs out with a huge smile holding the pizzas above his head.

"Let's get this show on the road!" he hands me the boxes which I set in my lap.

Eddie plugged the composite cable into the VCR and I anxiously waited for it to turn on. The low vibrating noise coming from the TV told me all I needed and I pressed the buttons to adjust to AV and shove the tape into it. I turned around to Eddie and gave him the biggest smile. I loved movie nights so much. We use to go to the theater with Mom every Friday night. I was practically raised in the movie theater.

My excited steps leaped to the couch as the tape adjusted itself. Eddie grabbed the pizza box and placed it on his lap and I snuggled up against him. He wrapped his arm around me and we watched as Raiders of the Lost Ark began on the small TV screen.

Eddie's face lit up watching it. He's so adorable when he gets excited. Of course, noticing me looking at him resulted in him yelling that I had to watch the movie. We had devoured the pizzas by the time the tape had been rewinded and placed back into the sheet case. Eddie did the honors of pressing eject and placing Alien in. I laid down on the couch and Eddie laid on top of me with his head on my chest. I played with his hair with my full attention on the screen. Suddenly, I heard snoring. I rolled my eyes and continued to pay close attention. The chest burster scene came around and I excitedly waited for the outcome. The screams were very loud through the speaker and Eddie jumped himself awake.

"I'm sorry." his sleepy raspy voice says adjusting himself up.
"It's okay, baby. How about we call it a night?" I say fixing his bangs out of his face. He nods.

I watch as his tired steps drag into my room. He takes off his shirt and slips on some pajama pants he had tucked in a bag in the corner of my room and collapses himself onto my bed. A smile grows on my face as I grab his dirty clothes and make my way to the wash machine in the garage. Tomorrow is the first Hellfire meeting and I'm nervous as hell. My bruises are almost gone besides small marks that just look like intense dark circles. The scar on my lip is still really tender but almost healed. Hopefully everyone has cleared off campus by the time I get there.