Episode 4: Horror Movies Are For Bonding

Did you sleep well?” Kai asked as he inclined his head, the questioning look on his face was punctuated by his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose.

“Exceptionally well, thanks for asking. What about you?”

“Not as well as you did, it would seem. You’re glowing, and you practically skipped down the stairs this morning,” he said.

“I’m just happy today, I suppose,” I said as a sly smile appeared on my face. I had been sleeping soundly through the night ever since Nox’s first appearance but last night’s dream had been the best by far.

“That’s an understatement, but I’m glad to hear it.”

“Did your client like the website you were working on last night? Was this a freelance project or one from work?”

Now it was Kai’s turn to smile. “It was freelance work. The client found my online portfolio and got in contact with me. This morning he called me raving about the work I did, and even paid me extra as a bonus to thank me for ‘doing such an amazing job!’”

“Congratulations!” I beamed. “I’m so proud of you! In what universe does a client ever pay extra? That’s such a huge reflection of your talent. Let’s go celebrate—my treat!”

“Okay, we can go celebrate,” he smiled, “but after that bonus I received, I don’t think I could let you treat in good conscience.”

I pouted. I knew it was childish, but if you couldn’t take a friend out on your own dollar to celebrate their accomplishment then what kind of celebration would that be? More important, what kind of friend did it make you? It simply didn’t make sense to have the person you were celebrating pay.

“Come onnnn,” I said, dragging out the second word much longer than necessary.

“Maybe we can do something affordable. Why don’t we have breakfast at a fast food restaurant and catch a matinee?” I suggested, hopeful that he’d agree to let me treat if he knew hundreds of dollars weren’t going to be spent celebrating his accomplishment.

“All right,” he conceded after he took what felt like an eternity to answer, “but I get to pick the movie.”

“Duh, we’re celebrating you after all!” I was giddy that Kai was going to let me treat. It’s not that I was excited about parting with my money, but I was happy that he was going to let me pay for our frugal celebration.

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While I brought our food to the table, Kai had pulled up an app on his phone that would show us the movies that were currently in theaters and their showtimes. I handed him his breakfast platter and fruit punch, which he set off to the side to tell me his movie pick. To my utter surprise, he picked a horror film!

I nearly choked on the coffee I was drinking, accidentally sending some shooting up my nose. It wasn’t that Kai didn’t like horror movies per se, but the genre as a whole wouldn’t have made it onto a list of his top one thousand favorite things. In fact, it tops the list of things he doesn’t like. Kai has always hated being scared, unlike me who had always lived for the thrill that came along with the emotion.

“Are you sure? No, I mean are you really sure? Like sure, sure? You got maybe eight hours of sleep the week we saw The Ring on DVD,” I asked as I held a napkin to my poor burnt-on-the-inside nose.

“I’m sure,” he affirmed. “I saw the trailer on TV last night after you went to bed and it piqued my interest.”

“Uh-huh,” I replied with more than a little bit of skepticism coloring my tone. “Are you sure this has nothing to do with the fact that I nagged you into letting me pay and the fact that I, in fact, love horror movies?”

“I wouldn’t say you nagged… more like whined,” he replied jokingly.

“Pffft! Whatever, just don’t expect me to hold your hand during the really scary parts.”

“What?!” He asked in exaggerated disbelief, while effortlessly managing to make an expression that was indignant yet wounded.

“Call it payback for making me shoot coffee out of my nose. Ugh, the inside feels like it’s been touched by molten lava from the surface of the sun,” I said as I finally removed the slightly damp napkin from my nose.

Kai went from being straight-faced to doubled-over in laughter. He laughed so hard that tears formed at the corner of his eyes. I hadn’t seen Kai laugh like that in a very long time. Our friendship was really going to be okay. If it were possible, my heart would have been smiling right then.

“I’m glad you’re taking joy in my suffering,” I said jokingly as I dabbed at my nostrils one last time.

“If your best friend can’t have a laugh at your expense then who can,” he asked through his laughter, as he lifted his glasses to wipe a tear away from his eye.

“Haha, very funny, Kai. Come on, let’s eat breakfast so that we can start heading over to the mall so that we can grab good seats at the theater.”

“By ‘good seats’ you mean right up front, just to torment me, right?”

I grinned at his observation. “Of course,” I said, “What else are best friends for?” I stuck my tongue out at him playfully, and as I did I realized how much I had missed our friendly banter.

“Haha,” he said dryly as he opened up the platter and picked up his fork. “Itadakimasu.”

I held up my breakfast sandwich as though I were toasting him with it. “Itadakimasu.”

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The drive to the mall was short, and despite it being late in the morning on a Sunday it wasn’t very busy. The theater was so slow they kept all of their staff inside, instead of selling tickets from the box office.

“This is a new experience, huh,” Kai observed, “paying for our snacks and tickets at the same time.”

“I thought you were going to say, ‘This is a new experience...you paying.’”

Kai rolled his eyes as he snickered at my sarcastic remark. “I would never!” He exclaimed in mock horror.

“Sure you wouldn’t,” I said, elbowing him playfully as we made our way up to the cashier. “I’m paying for everything,” I told the cashier so that we wouldn’t get rung up separately.

“That’s nice,” she said before turning to look at Kai, her eyes widening in recognition. “Hey!” she exclaimed a little too excitedly.

Kai, who had taken a sudden interest in his snacks, had been looking down when he lolled his head lazily in her direction.

“Oh, hey,” he said, sounding about as interested in interacting with her as he would be about watching a potato sprout in real time.

I looked back and forth between our cashier and Kai and wondered if this was the mystery girl he was interested in? She had blue eyes and long dark blond hair. I thought that she was very pretty.

“Did you finish the assignment for Japanese class? I had some trouble with it,” she said. It was obvious that she was trying to engage him in conversation as she totaled everything up.

“Yeah, I did. It wasn’t that hard, maybe you should try using the book's companion CD? I’ve heard that helps.”

Isn’t he just being a ray of sunshine? Maybe he was one of those guys who reverted to the childish if-I-like-a-girl-I-should-be-mean-to-her mentality because he didn’t know how to deal with his feelings otherwise. As I handed the cashier—her name tag identified her as Ann—the money I owed, I rolled my eyes internally at how asinine this whole situation was.

If Kai liked her he should really just tell her instead of being aloof in person and going home to do an Internet search for advice on how to confess his feelings. Since he wouldn’t tell me who it is that he likes I shouldn’t interfere and risk making a mess of things, I told myself. I’d never seen him act so cold toward anyone, so he must have felt something for her—one way or another.

After Ann gave me my change and the tickets, Kai brusquely grabbed our snacks and walked away, a look of hurt and shock crossed her face. I gave her an apologetic smile before I ran to catch up with him. I’ve never seen this side of him before. I didn’t know he was even capable of being so short with someone.

“You don’t even know what theater we’re in,” I said when I caught up to him.

“I was just going to wait for you here,” he said. He gestured with his free arm toward the open area where the benches and cardboard standees were—out of the line of sight of the concession stand and Ann.

“Is there any particular reason for that?” I raised an eyebrow, perplexed by his strange behavior.

“Now isn’t a good time to talk about this,” he said. His eyes darted in the direction of the concession.

Oh. Something was up.

“For now, let’s leave it at that I don’t like her very much.” His glasses slid down his nose and he gave me an unhappy look that said, ‘Drop it.’

My brow furrowed as I tried to understand Kai’s sudden change in attitude but he implied that he would tell me more later on so I decided to let it go—for now. In an attempt to lighten the mood I said, “I know what it is.”

He frowned slightly. “What?”

“You’re nervous about watching a scary movie and you’re still upset that I said I wouldn’t hold your hand for emotional support!” I stuck my tongue out at him and scurried off in the direction of theater number eight, where the movie of our choice was playing.

I looked back over my shoulder to see Kai was momentarily caught in a stupor as his mouth hung open. Before he caught himself he looked down and smiled, shaking his head before he jogged after me, snacks still in hand.

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