Chapter 11

Chapter 10- Lights Out • • • At about 5, my doorbell rang. I ran downstairs and opened it, seeing an excited Scarlett beaming with the beautiful smile that she always wore. Savanah was going to come to my house about 10 minutes before we had to leave. "Let's do this thing," she started digging through my closet, only to receive an eye roll from me. "It's freaking pizza and a movie... Like I said before- you're lucky I'm wearing a bra," I said. "I'm wearing comfy clothes." Scarlett sighed, "Fine. But at least change out of that. Put a little bit of effort in." I was wearing black leggings with a grey sweatshirt. I had planned on ending my random sweatshirt phase the following week, and getting back into actual clothes. "Ugh... fine," I said and pulled out the biggest, softest, comfiest sweater that I had. It was grey, and it was my favorite thing in the whole world. I held it up suggestively, and Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Sure, why not?" She approved and I smiled. I took off my sweatshirt and threw on the sweater, immediately feeling cozy enough to just curl up in a little ball on my bed and fall asleep. After I finished reapplying my makeup and fixing my hair, we went downstairs and plopped on the couch. "Netflix?" She suggested, which I gladly agreed to. As I was opening it up on my TV, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Scarlett said. "Hey!!" I heard Savanah exclaim when Scarlett opened the door. I smiled to myself as I heard them coming into the room. "So we have some options... One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Stran-" "Gossip Girl!" Savanah squealed. Scarlett and I looked at her in confusion. Realizing that squealing like that was totally unlike her, she recollected herself. "I mean, um, I haven't seen Gossip Girl in so long... We should watch it." Scarlett and I started laughing as I put on Gossip Girl. We were about 10 minutes into it when Savanah chimed in, "We should probably get going actually." Scarlett and I agreed, and I hesitantly turned off my TV. • • • "Jesus," Savanah said, staring up at his house. Scarlett got out of the car, and Savanah and I followed her out. When we got to the door, I barely knocked twice before the door swung open, and I was engulfed in a huge bear hug. I quickly identified my hug-attacker as Kevin. I hugged him back a little bit and then pulled away, his strong arms letting me slide out of his big embrace. He gave Scarlett and Savanah a group hug, then welcomed us inside. He brought us into a room with a couch, carpet, a love chair, a couch, and a huge flat screen TV. Ashton, Eli, and George were sitting on the couch. When we walked in, the three of them had different emotions flash across their faces. Eli's face, of course, held joy and excitement. George grinned and an almost creepy look deepened in his eyes. I was caught a little off guard when I realized that he was eerily grinning at me. I shook off the chill in my spine and took in Ashton's expression. His face was stoic, not showing any emotion whatsoever. His eyes, however, showed a mixture of annoyance, fury, aggravation, and even disappointment. I felt a tiny sink in my stomach after I took in his pained expression. Weird... "Hey Crystal!" Eli said and stood up from the couch. He walked over to me and gave me a big, comfy hug. It wasn't as over-exaggerated as Kevin's hug from earlier, but it was still big enough that I couldn't get out of it even if I tried. I awkwardly hugged him back, then he stepped away to greet Scarlett and Savanah. When Eli stepped away, I saw Ashton glaring at the TV trying to find a movie. "You guys haven't even picked out a movie yet?" I asked Eli. "Well, the three of us have picked out about 10 that we found interesting, but Mr. Picky over here..." He trailed off and gestured to Ashton, who responded by rolling his eyes. "I apologize if I didn't feel like watching Fifty Shades of Grey with a bunch of my friends," Ashton sarcastically defended, directing it towards Kevin, who shrugged. "Anyway," Eli shot them a quick glare, "to answer your question... No. We haven't picked a movie yet." "We should watch a horror movie!" Scarlett exclaimed and Savanah's face lit up. "Yeah!" Savanah added. Like FUCK we were watching a horror movie... "Oh hell no." I chimed in. Suddenly they all laughed, besides Ashton of course. "Awe... Is Chwysie afwaid of a wittle scawy movie??" Kevin asked me in a mocking baby voice. Suddenly I became super defensive, but calmed down before I decided to respond. "What? No! I just..." I started. "Just what?" "Don't feel like it," I attempted to play it off. Key word... Attempted. Eli laughed again, reaching over to take the controller from Ashton. "We're watching a horror movie. I actually wasn't in the mood for one anyway, but now I just want to see your reactions." Eli said. "Dude what the fuck?" Ashton said in reaction to Eli taking the remote. Eli just dismissed him without even thinking about his reaction. My heart sunk all the way down to my pelvis when I saw what movie he stopped on... Lights Out. Kevin obviously saw my reaction, and chuckled to himself. Eli looked up from the couch to the three of us, who were the only people still standing. "You guys can sit, you know that right?" He told us. The three of us headed for the loveseat that was next to the couch. When we got there, Scarlett and Savanah sat down before me. I found myself looking at Scarlett and Savanah, who were taking up the whole loveseat and smirking at me. Eventually I turned around to face the testosterone-filled couch, after mentally flipping my friends off, that is. Kevin smiled at me and made a space next to him. As I was walking over to him I realized who the empty spot was also next to... Ashton. He noticed me walking over to the couch, and then noticed the empty seat next to him. He rolled his eyes and returned his disinterested gaze to the screen. I sat down tenderly and avoided looking at Ashton. Suddenly I felt someone's arm wrap around me and pull me backwards so that I was leaning onto the back of the couch. "Kevin!" I squealed as I tried to push his arm off of me, while listening to him chuckle to himself. He removed his arm from my waist and waited for Eli to play the movie. "Is it, like, gory?" I asked them. The last thing I wanted was to get triggered in front of them all. "Like bloody and kill-y and stuff?" "As far as I know it's just a bunch of scary demon shit," Eli told me, not finding my question weird. I guess if it was all pretty unrealistic it would be fine. I usually only ever got triggered by slashers or things like that. I could smell the faint scent of Ashton's cologne as I was sitting next to him. I honestly never thought that I would be sitting next to him other than in Bio... When Eli played the movie, I suddenly felt my heart rate surge. I leaned back even further into the back of the couch, resisting the urge to snuggle into Kevin and hide. Basically the entire movie consisted of jump scares, which was my worst weakness when it came to horror movies. One particular jump scare though, REALLY got to me... When that creepy "Diana" chick popped up, I let out a quick shriek and dove into the nearest person's chest. Thinking it was Kevin, I stayed there for about 10 seconds before I smelt it... The pleasant cologne I had accidently become so fond of. I dove into Ashton. I quickly backed away, and looked up. He looked more confused and violated than I had ever seen anybody look before in my life. "Oh my god I'm so sorry," I muttered over the intense laughter of everyone else in the room. He didn't respond to me. He just readjusted his position and looked back at the TV, his expression remaining confused. I scooted a little bit closer to Kevin, so that incase I got that scared again, I would jump into him instead of Ashton. A couple times during the movie when something would pop up, Kevin would throw himself onto Eli in panic. At least that made the movie a little bit less terrifying. The night seemed so innocent and full of potential. I had no clue what it was going to become...