Oops! I Caught a Genie!

Chapter 4

I opened the door and cheerfully greeted Liana.

"Hey!"

"So, what do you want to do?" I asked.

"Hmmm... I was thinking we could make some popcorn and watch some scary movies later tonight, but now, I brought the stuff for brownies!"

"Yay!"

I led her further into the house, into the living room. That was when I finally remembered, Fritz was on the couch!

"Hey, who's that?" Liana giggled. "Secret boyfriend of yours?"

"No! He's-" Crap! I couldn't think of a lie fast enough!

"My father was a friend of her father when they were young, we just moved back here." Fritz said in a monotone from the couch.

"A family friend." I finished.

"Still doesn't explain why you are here, sleeping on the couch." Liana said, sticking her tongue out.

"Pops hurt his back moving boxes and is in the emergency room, staying here is the fastest way to get updates."

"Ah, ok." Liana said, satisfied.

I quirked an eyebrow at Fritz, he shrugged it off with a grin.

"He'll be starting at our school this semester, i'm also getting him caught up." I said, glaring in his direction. The grin melted off his face and was replaced by one of horror.

"So, who's up for brownies?" Liana asked cheerfully.

"I'm going to leave you girls to it, catch you later." Fritz said and walked out the front door.

"I'll preheat the oven and you pull out the ingredients!" I said, walking to the oven.

"What was that about school?" Fritz asked from his watch. He did not sound happy.

"Not now." I whispered.

"What was that?" Liana asked, looking up from the refrigerator drawer.

"Nothing, the oven is being a bit difficult. It's fine now, I fixed it."

The brownies went into the oven and we went to the DVD cabinet to pick out a movie. I wasn't particularly fond of the horror genre, but I would watch it if I had someone with me. I get sucked in and I want to watch more, but if it gets turned off before the end I get nightmares even worse than if we finish it. Liana loves horror movies, she's the one who makes me watch them. She picked out one called The Bloody Labyrinth, popped it in the player and joined me on the couch.

After the initial introduction, it started getting a bit creepy. Blood and guts on a table, mass murders and stuff. I was getting shivers up my spine as bloody writing appeared on the walls in the TV.

Liana was really into it, squealing as one of the investigators was discovered to be missing. I just knew she was going to turn up dead, movies are predictable.

After they resolved the problem by burning the house to the ground (I would do that first, honestly) we rushed to my room and shut the door. No matter how much Liana loves the horror genre, she still gets scared out of her pants sometimes.

Thus we spent the rest of the night in my room eating brownies and chatting.

We finally went to bed around 4am.

Liana decided to be mean and bring up the fact that several people in the movie were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night.

So, we went to bed thinking of blood and gore.

We woke around twelve to the smell of waffles. I looked at the clock, confused. My mother left for work at ten. And, we didn't have waffle mix.

After we got to the kitchen, we found the source of the smell was Fritz making waffles.

"Oh hey, The guy from yesterday." Liana said.

"Fritz," He said.

"Parents had a sense of humor did they?"

"You could say that." He said, chuckling.

I walked to our large white refrigerator and pulled out our plastic bottle of maple syrup for the waffles. I had always liked them with just a little bit of syrup, Liana liked to drown hers.

While Liana wasn't looking, I saw Fritz click his fingers over the waffle maker and open it, to perfectly browned waffles. I gave him a look and he shrugged, unapologetic.

'You think I know how to make waffles with this thing?' He mouthed.

I snorted while trying to choke back a giggle.

"What is it?" Liana asked.

"Just a little sinus blockage."

She handed me a tissue and walked to the couch.

"Use it, I don't need to be getting sick! School is hard enough!" She said, jokingly.

"You're so thoughtful," I drawled.

"I know I am," she said with a grin.

"Does your thoughtfulness extend to getting up to pick out a movie?" I asked, sitting on the couch. Fritz sat in the maroon recliner, also facing the television.

Liana groaned and trudged to the movie cabinet and came back with a title called Attack of the Space Zombie Pirates from Venus. I didn't remember getting that one...

We put it in and watched as the weirdness ensued. I found Fritz's reactions hysterical. At first, it looked like someone had put an ice cube down his shirt. It switched to a look of confusion. Something told me that this wouldn't happen often and I took a mental image of that.

While I was paying attention to Fritz, the movie continued. It made absolutely no sense. This Brunette was chasing an alien with a blonde wig and hooker heels around the cargo bay of a spaceship, and I had absolutely no clue as to why this was happening. It cut to a clip of a young man being chased by more aliens dressed as hookers, we all watched in silent horror as the aliens proceeded to beat him to death with their stilettos.

The conclusion was the annihilation of the aliens by a kid that clearly had parents that didn't give a hoot what their child did as long as it didn't affect them.

After staring through the ending credits in silent shock, I picked up the remote and clicked off the television.

"Well.... That was something..." I said awkwardly.

"Interesting..." Fritz commented.

"Quite..." Liana added.

"Who the heck bought that? Let alone wrote it!" I asked.

"Maybe it was one of your cousins?" Liana asked.

"Maybe...."

"Anyway... Woah! That was a three hour movie‽" Liana yelped.

"Three hours of that‽" Fritz and I exclaimed.

"I had probably better be going..." Liana said sheepishly, "I promised I would look after my brother today."

"Alright, Cya later."

"Bya! It was nice to meet you, Fritz!" Liana called as I walked her to the door.

"Bye!" Fritz said.

As I closed the door behind her, I turned slowly to face Fritz.

"Explanation time." I said.