And Then There Was Vince

Chapter 17: Movie Night

I was out of school for most of the week and made my grand reappearance on Friday. I smiled brightly when Vincent walked into creative writing, returning to his world as well.

We mostly only got to exchange the usual pleasantries before Alex forced his way in.

"Where have you two been all week?" He inquired. "Couples getaway in the mountains or something?"

"Something like that," I replied, rolling my eyes at the immaturity as I readied my supplies.

"I'm curious," Eric picked up. "Does the freak cry when you're finished? Is he a one or a two pump chump?"

They were talking about Vince as if he wasn't right there.

"Not as much as Ainsley does, and no," I retorted. "Once again you're confusing him with Alex."

To my surprise, they actually laughed at the joke.

"That's odd," Alex said, scrunching his face up in mock confusion. "Considering you wouldn't know."

I saw Ashley turn around in her seat and prepared myself for the onslaught.

"You're pretty ballsy, V," she threw out. "Everyone knows we made that whole story up. You must be pretty shameless to still be acting like it happened."

As if I had ever actually pretended it had at all.

I rolled my eyes and started scribbling doodles onto an empty piece of notebook paper.

"She's probably not any good at it anyway," Eric concluded.

I glanced up momentarily and caught a glimpse of something between Alex and Ashley. It was a wink here and a wink there. Something quick but obvious, and definitely not as icy as the distance between them had once been.

"There aren't a lot of girls who are," Alex confirmed with a smoldering look in Ashley's direction. I wasn't sure if he was hinting at the fact that she did possess the aforementioned talent or if she truly didn't understand the technique.

I finally refocused on Vincent, who had a book open to its beginning pages with eyes darting rapidly across the text. I avoided conversation for the rest of our free time, not entirely certain that I hadn't offended him by using our imaginary sex life as ammo.

By the time study hall rolled around, I was practically starving for some interaction.

As expected, he sat next to me at the table.

We passed the period catching up on missed classwork and helping each other as needed. It was a welcome return to normalcy after an interrupted week.

When the ball rang and dismissed us, he seemed to be taking an unusually long amount of time packing his things. I'd gotten into the habit of waiting for him so we could walk at least a partial stretch of the distance home together. After a minute or so he was ready, and we started to make our way to the doors.

"So anyway," he began, albeit a little awkwardly. "Kelsey and some other people are all going to come over tonight for this horror movie thing. It's something she's planned every year since 9th grade for every Friday in October. It starts at 7 if you wanna come."

He was avoiding my gaze as we shuffled down the stairway.

"Sure," I replied a little too eagerly. I had always wanted to do something like that but had never had an enthusiastic group of friends to involve in it. "I mean, I'll have to ask my mom but I'm almost positive she won't say no."

"Nice," he agreed. "We're going to watch Paranormal Activity and maybe a slasher. Something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I bet."

"Can't wait," I said, sounding slightly uninterested.

I actually couldn't wait, though. I was practically cursing the clock as I waited for my mom to get home.

When she finally walked through the door at shortly after five, I more or less lunged at her.

"Mom, can I go to a friend's house tonight at 7?" I blurted.

"A friend's?" She inquired, wondering why I had phrased it so vaguely. "Do you mean like Mandy's or Ashley's?"

"Yes," I tried before remembering I'm a horrible liar. "Well no actually."

I thought my next words over for a minute.

"Kelsey's," I finally lied. "I just met her last month in creative writing and she invited us all over for a movie night."

My mom had since relocated to the kitchen and was starting to pick at dinner ingredients. I could tell she was mulling over whether or not to actually cook anything considering the fact that I was trying to leave and my father wouldn't be home until 11.

"Are her parents going to be there?" She asked, throwing the most annoying question possible at my hopeful heart.

"I...don't know," I admitted, figuring it was best for my case to remain honest.

"And who's all going to be there?" She continued.

"Kelsey, Ashley, Mandy, Corrine," I rattled off. "No one out of the usual."

"Any boys?" She prodded, equating the words"movie night" with "premarital sex".

"No mom," I protested. "It's a girl thing."

"When will you get home?" She continued.

I honestly didn't have the answers to any of her questions, so I made something up on the fly.

"Well if you could pick me up at like 11:30...," I attempted.

"11 firm," My mother decided. "And if you smell like alcohol I'm dropping you off at the fire station 17 years too late."

I scoffed at her horrible joke, gave her Vince's address, and then practically ran up to my bedroom to get ready.