“We said we would.” Sebastian turns around in the passenger seat again to give me a questioning look. “Unless you changed your mind about coming over to watch a movie.”
Felix brushes a strand of hair off my forehead. “Are you feeling okay? You’re all flushed.”
“I’m fine.” A tingle spreads through me at his touch. “I live in The Towers, on Bay State, but actually, um.” Would it be terrible to change my mind when they’re already practically at my dorm? “We could go back to your place and have a movie night.” Just a movie night. This is me taking the leap. Letting myself have a small taste of what Ronnie and all those other girls get to experience. One movie night won’t derail my entire future.
“Yes!” Elliot pumps his fist in the air. It’s the most emotion I’ve seen any of them show about anything. “Movie night! Let’s go!”
“Okay, wait,” I say, laughing and tugging his arm down. “Just to be clear, this isn’t a date. I don’t date.”
“You don’t?” Felix looks surprised, and I think disappointed.
I shake my head. “I’m focused on school and work, I don’t really have time for dating. But hanging out tonight, that I can do.”
“Sure,” Lukas says smoothly. “We’ll just hang out and get to know each other.”
“Did you have a specific movie you’d like to watch tonight?” asks Felix.
I’m glad they aren’t going to push back on the not-a-date thing. “Not really. I’m good with just about anything so long as it’s not scary.”
Elliot’s face in the rearview is very serious as he asks, “How do you feel about superhero movies?”
“Good?” I don’t have an opinion on superhero movies, because I haven’t watched any, but maybe it will turn out that I like them.
“Good, good.” Sebastian looks back over his shoulder at me again. “We’re making our way through the MCU right now.”
“That’s a bad idea,” says Lukas, shaking his head. “It’ll be too confusing for her. We should start again from the beginning.”
“Then our watch numbers will be uneven,” Sebastian protests.
Lukas purses his lips. “Good point. We could give her some other options from our collection to pick from, how does that sound?”
The guys chorus their agreement with this plan.
“That works for me,” I say.
“Okay, now that that’s settled, we have the real question,” says Elliot. “Rebecca, what is your must-have snack for movie watching?”
“Anything salty. I usually eat pretzels when I watch movies in my dorm. My favorite is microwave popcorn, but people kept burning it and setting off the smoke alarms in the dorms so we’re not allowed to have it anymore. And pre-popped popcorn just isn’t the same.” If I can’t have my favorite food, I’d rather have something else altogether than a subpar version of what I really want.
“Okay.” At the next stop sign, Elliot looks to Sebastian, who nods. Elliot flicks on the turn signal and the car turns right.
A moment later we’re pulling into a grocery store parking lot. Felix turns to me. “I’ll be right back.”
He climbs out of the car as Elliot pauses in front of the store. As soon as Felix’s door closes, Elliot pulls out of the loading zone and finds a parking spot close by.
Lukas shifts in his seat next to me, his thigh pressing against mine. “Our preferred movie snacks are nachos.”
“Oh, okay.” The heat of his leg against mine is doing things to me. I am keenly aware of my inexperience with guys in this moment. A boy’s leg touching mine should not be making my pulse throb between my legs and my brain go fuzzy.
“Here he comes,” says Sebastian a minute later, pointing at the store.
Elliot pulls back up to the front to pick up Felix, who is not carrying the makings for nachos. Instead, he’s holding a bag of pretzels and a box of microwave popcorn.
Chapter Six
“You didn’t have to do that,” I say as Felix buckles himself back in. “But thank you. It’s very sweet.” The fact that they made an entire stop just to get me snacks, really is incredibly nice of them.
“The correct snacks are important for the full movie night experience,” explains Elliot as if it was a given that they’d go out of their way to get popcorn for me.
