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Ephemeral

Ephemeral

pterawaters

God, that smile. 

Jonathan had to look away. 

"Anyway, I should get out of your way," Steve said, standing up, looking almost bashful. "Um, what time do you want to try that experiment tomorrow?"

"After my 10 am class," Jonathan told him. "Meet here at, like noon?"

"Sure," Steve said, starting to look sad again. "I'll go watch all the movies at the theater again, or something."

Ugh, it was like he'd taken guilt-trip lessons directly from Jonathan's mother or something.

Sighing, Jonathan asked, "If you were alive, what would you be doing?"

Steve shrugged. "I dunno. Hanging out with my friends. Playing basketball. Watching TV. Those daytime soaps or something."

Jonathan judged himself very harshly in that moment, entirely for having a crush on someone with absolutely no sense of culture.

"No, okay, no," Jonathan insisted, kneeling next to his bed and pulling the long, flat box out from underneath. He opened it to reveal his collection of VHS tapes. He had more back at his mother's house, but these thirty were his favorites. "You're going to watch one of these."

"I am, huh?" 

"I'd offer you one of my books," Jonathan said, picking out a few of the tapes, "but turning the pages would be an issue." Holding up the tapes, he asked, "What are you in the mood for? Horror? Science fiction? Drama?"

Looking over Jonathan's shoulder, Steve asked, "You got any comedy?"

Shrugging, Jonathan picked up another tape and said, "Evil Dead Two is pretty funny."

"Ugh, gross," Steve said, sticking his tongue out in disgust. "I meant a normal comedy, like Risky Business or National Lampoon's Vacation."

Yeah, Jonathan had confidence in his taste in movies, but he no longer had confidence in his taste in people. Scowling at Steve, Jonathan asked, "Do you want me to put on a movie for you or not?"

Steve sighed and collapsed back onto the bed. "Yes. Sorry."

Jonathan put the other tapes back and pulled out instead "An American Werewolf in London." Showing it to Steve, Jonathan asked, "Have you seen this one?"

Steve shrugged and shook his head. "No."

"The special effects alone are going to blow your mind," Jonathan told him, pushing the box of tapes back under his bed. He took the tape out of its sleeve and had to eject "The Thing" from the VCR before he could replace it with "An American Werewolf."

"What's that one?" Steve asked, nodding at the tape in Jonathan's hand. "Porn or something?"

Jonathan rolled his eyes and said, "No," as he held out the front of the tape so Steve could read it.

"I have seen that one," Steve told him with a shiver. "It fucked me up, for like a week."

Laughing, Jonathan looked at the tape in his hand as he stood up and found the sleeve where he'd left it on his desk. "Really? I mean, I guess it's kind of creepy."