nearby || c.h.

3

"So do you want to watch Lady Bird or-"

I cut Amanda off, "You don't even have to give me a second option. We're watching Lady Bird."

She laughed and shrugged, "Alrighty then." She popped open the DVD and placed it into the player, the movie starting up at a theatre-level volume. All of a sudden Calum came in holding a bowl of popcorn, and plopped down on the couch beside me, "So ladies, what are we watching?"

Amanda furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head, "Oh no, no, no, no what do you think you're doing? You said you wouldn't bother us!"

He sucked his teeth before shaking his head, "Now, I never said that, I said I had barely moved from that spot since you got home. All I did was make an observation. And I brought popcorn!"

I giggled and he glanced over to me with a sly smile before Amanda shouted his name, "Just leave us alone!"

He raised his arms defensively, "Woah, hey I'm just here for a fun time. Mom said I had to watch you two, and I can't very well watch you two from another room."

I shrugged, looking at the way the blue tv light shined over the highlights of his body in the otherwise darkened room, "Amanda, just let him stay, I'm sure he won't bother us."

He jokingly leaned his head on my shoulder and looked up at me like a little puppy, "Thank youuuu!" He sat back up and looked past me to Amanda, "You never did tell me what we were watching."

She looked defeated in the angriest way, "Fine. Lady Bird. It's a deep emotional and effeminate movie, you're probably gonna hate it anyways."

"Hey! I can be emotional and deep!"

I snorted and elbowed him, "Yeah and you're just always effeminate." A slow smile crept across his face as he looked at me before reaching into the popcorn to take a bite.

Amanda shook her head, "You know for being the 'smart sibling'," she put that in air quotes, "You're a real idiot."

He just laughed to himself as the movie started, the signature A24 logo appearing onscreen.

Throughout the movie, the popcorn bowl had migrated onto my lap since I was in the middle, and it had barely anything left in it. I leaned forward to place it on the coffee table, and as I sunk back onto the couch, I felt Calum's arm casually rest on my shoulder to guide me back before he extended his full arm to rest on my shoulders behind me.

I could only focus on the warm radiating feeling that skin on skin produced. I couldn't tell if I wanted to stay in it forever, or flinch out of it immediately. I chose to stay, trying to ignore it, because truthfully, I don't even think he realized he was doing it.

He smelled perfect. Like a tasteful and masculine cologne laced with leather and smoke, and what I imagine an evergreen forest might smell like. I relished in it.

And when he laughed at the jokes, his whole body would bounce the littlest bit, just enough so anyone would know that laugh was genuine.

Then the sex scene approached. Lady Bird got on top of Kyle, straddling him as they began to love. I couldn't even hear my own breathing over the sound of silence.

I knew I was tense. Tense trying to avoid any part of my body from touching Calum's. I was suffering in my own skin, unable to push the raunchy thoughts out of my brain. I had never thought about him like this, as I'd never really been mature enough to. Until now.

But forth came the comedy, Kyle climaxing in less than two minutes flat, disappointing our red-haired protagonist in her first experience with sex. I laughed and Calum itched his nose slightly, a smug look on his face that only suggested a snarky comment was about to be said.

"Maybe I could teach him a few tips."

Amanda cringed, slapping his arm, "Eww you're so nasty!"

My mouth was practically watering at the mere idea of it all. I laughed to hide my lust, causing Calum to pat my shoulder, "Daisy thought it was funny."

Amanda rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Yeah well Daisy thinks everything you say is funny."

Calum looked at me wordlessly. I couldn't tell what his behind his eyes. What emotion he was feeling or what he was trying to convey to me. But maybe that was the very thing. Maybe he wasn't trying to convey anything at all. Maybe he was just looking at me...to look at me.

As the credits began to roll, I dabbed my eye with my fingertip, trying not to let it show that I was crying. Amanda was not hiding it as successfully, the sniffles coming from her nose being the dead give away.

And as I glanced to Calum, I noticed his eyes were glossy. He cleared his throat and stood up before I could analyze any longer and went to eject the DVD from the player, "Great movie." Amanda nodded, "Yeah it's pretty," more sniffling, "It's pretty amazing."

He picked up the bowl from the coffee table where I had set it earlier and yawned, "It's pretty late, I think I'm gonna head to bed. Night."

"Goodnight," I replied, watching him exit the room. Amanda checked her phone, "Oh geez it is pretty late, it's already 1 am."

"Then is it pretty late...or pretty early?" I joked in a poetic voice. She laughed, "Don't start with your weird deep pseudo philosophy."

We went upstairs to her room and I changed into my pajamas — a pair of gray cotton shorts and a loose blue camisole — before stealing a makeup wipe from Amanda and cleaning my face. We said our good nights and I left as she crawled in bed, making my way to the guest room.

I always stayed in the guest room when I spent the night as I was notorious for taking up the entire bed when I slept. I'm talking starfish levels of spread out.

Turning off the light, I blindly navigated my way to the bed and plugged my phone in before lying back into the plush linens. Before I even knew it, I had drifted to sleep.