after dinner.
“Don’t you dare try to serve me pie now. I am stuffed, I tel you, stuffed!” I yel ed.
“Quiet, it’s just cooling,” he scolded, coming around the corner from the kitchen. “You’re gonna have to scooch over, sister. It’s movie time,” he
instructed, pushing me with his big toe as I struggled to sit up straight.
“What is it that we’re watching?”
“The Exorcist,” he whispered, turning off the light on the end table and leaving the room quite dark.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” I screeched, leaning over him to turn it back on.
“Don’t be a wuss. You’re watching it,” he hissed, turning it back off.
“I’m not a wuss, but there is stupid and not stupid, and stupid is watching a movie like The Exorcist with the lights off! That’s just asking for
trouble!” I hissed back, turning it back on.
It was starting to look like a disco in here…
“Okay, I’l make a deal with you. Lights off, but—” he shushed me with is finger as he saw me begin to interrupt “—if you get too scared, lights
go back on. Deal?”
I was stil leaning across him on my way to turn the light back on again when I noticed how close I was to his face. And how I was angled across
him like a girl waiting to get a spanking. And I knew he was capable of delivering one…
“Fine,” I huffed as the opening credits came on. I returned to a normal, seated position.
He smiled triumphantly and gave me a thumbs up.
“If you show me that thumb one more time I’l bite it off,” I growled, pul ing an afghan off the back of the couch and curling it protectively around
me. One minute into the movie, and I was already spooked.
I was tense from that moment on, and any idea I might have had about girls being ridiculous around guys when they watched scary movies
went by the wayside when Regan peed herself at the dinner party.
By the time the priest came for a little visit, I was practical y sitting on Simon’s lap, my right hand had a death grip on his thigh, and I was
viewing the movie through the holes in the afghan, which I had draped entirely over my head.
“I actual y, literal y, hate you for making me watch this movie,” I whispered in his ear, which was right in my face as I refused to leave any space
between us. I’d even accompanied him to the bathroom earlier when we took a break. He insisted I stay out in the hal way, but I stood just outside
the door, eyes glancing around furtively, stil with the afghan over my head.
“Do you want me to stop? I don’t want you to have nightmares,” he whispered back, his eyes on the screen.
“Just no banging on the wal s for a few nights, please. I won’t be able to take it,” I said, looking at him through one of my eyeholes.
“Have you heard any banging lately?” he asked, rol ing his eyes as he did every time he looked at me with the ridiculous afghan on my head.
“No, I haven’t actual y. Why is that?” I asked.
He took a breath. “Wel , I—” he started, and then the most maniacal scary noises started coming from the TV, and we both jumped.
“Okay, maybe this movie is a little scary. You wanna sit closer?” he asked, pressing pause on the remote.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I cried, launching myself ful y into his lap and settling between his thighs. “Do you want some afghan?” I offered, and
he laughed.
“No, I can take it like a man. You stay under there, though,” he teased.
I narrowed my eyes at him through the eyeholes and poked one finger through the weave. “Guess which finger this is,” I said, waving it at him.
“Shhh, movie,” he answered, wrapping his arms around me and pul ing me back against his chest.
He was warm and strong and powerful, but absolutely no match for terror that was The Exorcist. What had we been talking about? Now I
couldn’t think about any wal s banging except the one Regan was currently banging the shit out of and spraying down with pea soup. We watched
the rest of that damn movie wound around each other like pretzels, and he final y succumbed to the false security that an afghan eyehole can
provide.
Click. Click. Click.
What the hel was that?
Click. Click. Click.
Oh no.
I lay paralyzed in my bed, every light in my entire apartment blazing.
Click. Click. Click.
I pul ed the covers up higher, covering my face up to my eyes, which kept a constant vigil around the bedroom. Brain knew we were safe and
secure, but also kept replaying scenes from that terrible, terrible movie, making it impossible to shut off for the night and go to sleep. Nerves had
everything on lockdown, blazing a trail of fiery adrenaline throughout my body. I hated Simon with every fiber of my being in that moment. I also