nd of my heartbeat.
Kyler closes the door and takes his shoes off before striding over to the couch with a look of concern as I’m still clutching my chest, willing my heart to slow down. However, the closer he gets, the more it speeds up. I’m starting to think my rapid heartbeat has nothing to do with the act of being scared and more about being close to the one who did the scaring.
“Are you okay?”
I nod. “I’m fine.” I wish he would stop asking me that. I know he doesn’t mean anything by it, but every time he asks, that phrase puts my head back in a bad place of memories of everyone asking me if I was okay after Emmett died.
He looks around the room. “What are you doing sitting in the dark? I thought you were going out with Zach and Haylee.”
“No, they needed some alone time, so I told them I wanted to stay home. Plus, I’m not really a fan of being the third wheel.”
Nodding, Kyler lets out a laugh. “Welcome to my world.”
I let out a low laugh too. “Yeah, now I know how my brother felt all those years ago back when…” But I refuse to finish that statement. Kyler must have assumed what I was going to say or at least that it had to do with Emmett, so he just quietly nods before getting up to grab himself a beer. Walking back from the kitchen, he takes a sip from the bottle before plopping down on the opposite end of the couch.
“So…what are you watching?” he asks, tipping his bottle toward the television.
I readjust myself on the couch after reaching for my wineglass and take a sip. When I bring the glass away from my mouth, I look over and see that he is staring at me. Does he see something interesting? I am mentally going over my appearance: leggings and a comfy top that hangs off the shoulder, no makeup, and a messy bun on top of my head. Do I maybe have pasta sauce on my face or something? He jumps a little in his seat, and I remember he asked what I was watching. Right, that must have been why he was staring in my direction. Get your shit together, Dani, I replay in my mind over and over. I look up at his face, and he raises his eyebrows at me, still waiting for my response.
“The Strangers.”
“Huh?”
“You asked me what I was watching. It’s called The Strangers. It’s probably the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.”
“Then why the fuck are you watching it, home. Alone. In the dark?” The look of confusion on his face gives it away pretty easily that he isn’t much of a horror movie fan.
“How else am I supposed to watch it? I can’t help it. I love horror movies.”
Nodding, Kyler takes a sip of his beer. “Gotcha. Horror isn’t really my cup of tea. I’m more of a comedy or action man myself.”
I roll my eyes. “Let me guess, is Die Hard your favorite movie?”
He laughs and I notice he has a nice laugh. “Nope, although it’s a classic. Office Space is actually my favorite.”
“Ugh…are you serious, Lawson?” His eyes go big at my use of his last name, and it makes me giggle on the inside. “Office Space is seriously the worst movie ever.”
Kyler places his hand over his heart in a fake dramatic way as if I have just offended him. “Are you serious now, Jacobs?” Raising his eyebrow, he shakes his head at me. “And to think we could have been friends. You break my heart saying shit like that.”
I shrug and take another sip of my wine. “Sorry, babe, not my fault you have shitty taste in movies.” I quickly cover my mouth my hand, realizing I called him “babe.” In my peripheral vision, I see that he noticed it as well. I avoid his gaze, and after staring at me for a few moments, he turns toward the television and watches the movie.
We sit in silence for a while, both not knowing what to say, and end up watching the entire movie together. I laughed during a few moments when either he jumped, I jumped, or both of us jumped. Kyler even offered to refill my glass each time he got up to get a beer. I guess he’s not so bad even though his taste in movies could use some work.
As we watch the credits go up, Ky clears his throat. “So now what?”
I turn back to him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
He nods toward the television. “I mean are we going to watch another movie?”
“Oh, well, technically I never invited you to watch the this one. You kind of just sat down and never got back up.” I shrug and try to play it cool. Luckily the room is still pretty dark so he can’t see me fighting back a smile. For once, it was nice to have quiet and not be alone. Also, knowing that this type of movie isn’t really his scene but he still sat here watching it without complaint is nice too. Whenever I forced Zach into watching a movie of my choosing, he would talk and complain during the entire thing, and I would be so frustrated by the end that I would suggest he pick one that he wanted to watch so that he would shut up during it. Thankfully, Emmett never complained about things that I wanted to watch—at least I think he knew that he would earn his reward for going along, if you know what I mean. “Ummm…do you want to watch another one?”
“Yeah, that would be cool. I mean, if you want me to? I guess I did kind of just crash your night. I can leave if you want and leave you to your horror movies,” he says as he starts to rise from the couch.
I quickly jump over to his side and reach out and touch his arm. “No, please, you can stay.” I smile at him, and he sits back down. “If you want to pick the next one, you can…I mean, don’t pick something super crappy though.”
He looks down at his arm the same time I do, and I realize that I have not removed my hand from him. I quickly pull it back and drag myself back to my side of the couch. My mind quickly travels back to a few mornings ago when I woke up on this couch with his arms surrounding me, and it was the best sleep I had gotten in a while. Shit, maybe I should just say I am going to go to bed and run back to my room.
Kyler takes the remote and searches the on-demand movies. “How about this one?” I realize it’s my brother’s favorite movie, Happy Gilmore.