One of the Boys

Chapter 7

“Zac?  What are you doing here?” I ask, having just opened the door to his smiling face.  “I thought we were gonna meet at the beach again today.”  Not that I was planning to go.  After we left off yesterday, I wanted to put a little space between us, so maybe things would go back to normal.  I know I said that I liked Zac, but things are different now.  I have a boyfriend and Zac’s clearly not thinking about dating me.  That hasn’t changed.  I was just about to call him and make up some excuse about how I couldn’t go out today when the doorbell rang.

“Well.” He says.  I notice his hands are held behind his back.  “I was thinking that we could stay indoors today.  Watch a couple of movies?”

I sigh.  He knows me so well.  He probably knew I wasn’t going to be showing up today.

“I brought Pirates of the Caribbean.”  He takes his hands out from behind his back and holds the DVDs up in a fan like motion, displaying all four of the glorious movies.  Yes.  The Pirates of the Caribbean are my favourite movies and he knows it.  In fact, they’re his favourite movies too, mostly because of the ‘hot mermaids and Kierra Knightly’ as he puts it.  I like it because it’s funny and totally action packed which, unlike his, are real reasons to like a movie.

Zac smiles at me.  He knows I won’t be able to resist a Pirates of the Caribbean movie marathon.

“Fine!  But you’re making the popcorn.”

He groans.  “We do not need popcorn.  Just get some of the chocolate lying on the table over there.”

“Come on Zac.  You know we need popcorn.  What’s a movie without popcorn?  It’s like football without hotdogs.”

“No.  It’s not even remotely the same.”

I just look at him expectantly.  He knows I won’t be watching the movies without popcorn.  Finally he gives in.

“Fine!”  He trudges into my house and dumps the movies down on the coffee table before heading towards the kitchen.  I smile.  It looks like things are back to normal already.

Zac and I are spread out across the couch, sitting like classic boys as we always do.  I grab the popcorn bowl and shove it onto my lap.  He leans over, grabs a handful and stuffs it into his mouth.

“Hey!  Eat slower.  Leave some for me.” I say.

Zac just grins at me and takes another handful.  “I’m not the one hogging the popcorn.” I pull the popcorn bowl away from him, out of his reach.  It doesn’t work.  When he’s done with his handful he leans over me to get more popcorn.

“Noooo!  No popcorn for you!” I yell, yanking the bowl away.

Zac laughs.  “Nice try Al.”  Then he starts tickling me, actually tickling me until I can’t stand it anymore.  I burst into a fit of laughter and let go of the popcorn bowl to clutch my stomach and pry his hands off me.  This takes Zac by surprise and the popcorn bowl goes flying everywhere, leaving a mess of popcorn all over the couch.  He stops tickling me and looks down at me, a huge grin on his face.

Suddenly I’m all too aware of the position we’re in.  He’s lying directly on top of me on the couch, only a few inches between our faces.  I stare up at him, blinking as the grin drops off his face.  Our breathing becomes shallow again, just like yesterday, exactly like yesterday.  Maybe we haven’t gone back to normal.  I clear my throat and Zac blinks a few times before getting off me.

“It looks like a popcorn bomb has gone off.” Zac jokes.

I give a half-hearted laugh.  “Yeah.  So uh, wanna put on the next movie?  It looks like this one just ended.”