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“Meds kicking in at all yet?”
“No,” I admitted, trying to situate myself upward so I could drink the tea without spilling it all over myself and the bed.
“Maybe I can get—” Valen started, only to be cut off when the door opened, and Brooks was walking in. Holding a TV.
“Figure you earned some distraction,” he said, bringing a small, appreciative smile to my lips. “Stick it on the table for now,” he added, doing just that, then plugging it in and checking to make sure it was signed in to all of the streaming apps before bringing me the remote. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “I’ll be better once the pain pill kicks in,” I told him.
“Until then, try to distract yourself,” he said, motioning toward the TV.
“Thanks, Brooks,” I called as he walked out. I didn’t get a response. I didn’t expect one.
“That was the most human I think I’ve ever seen him be,” Valen admitted when we were alone.
“He’s a hardass, but he’s a nice guy,” I told him. “He just wants to make sure everyone is doing their fair share.”
“Or in your case, more than,” Valen said.
“I do that willingly. I like being busy. I’m not good at sitting around and doing nothing.”
“Except when you’re watching movies,” he said even as I clicked past all the series sections and went right to the movies.
Because he knew me.
Because he knew that movies were something that my father had always shared with me, instilling a love for them in me since I was tiny.
So while I enjoyed going out, being active, hitting the gym, or hanging with friends, I always found time at least once a week to catch a new movie in the theatre with my dad, or watch one of his many favorites, one that I likely never would have seen otherwise.
“They’ll always be a comfort thing for me,” I admitted. Even when I was overseas and staying somewhere that I didn’t speak the language, I would look for something on the TV that was either dubbed or had English subtitles, and get lost for a few hours.
For my father, movies had always sort of been about things he wouldn’t let himself see or do, places he wouldn’t go, people he wouldn’t meet.
For me, it was more of a way to escape all of the adventure my life had to offer, to settle into something simpler.
Action and suspense movies had never really been my thing. I liked classics or comedies or even the occasional romance. Though, admittedly, I swore off romances right around the time Valen swore off me.
“Are we going black and white or classic eighties comedy?”
Damn him.
He knew too much, remembered too much.
Why couldn’t he be one of those dickhead boyfriends who forgot everything about you while they werewithyou, let alone after it was all over?
“Summer School,” I decided, having been debating between that andReal GeniusandClue.
Cluehad the murder aspect that I wasn’t in the mood for. AndReal Geniuswas a bit over-the-top for my mood.Summer Schoolwas a nice, easy, sometimes funny, sometimes heartwarming, with just a hint of romance, good time.
“If I had a teacher more like Mr. Shoop, maybe I would have liked school more,” Valen said, and I tried not to be charmed about his recall of the movie.
“It’s strange to see Mark Harmon so young,” I added. “Also, Kirstie Alley was such a babe. I always wanted to be her since I saw her in—“
“Look Who’s Talking. And thenIt Takes Two.”
Could he get just one thing wrong?
“If you’re still awake after this, maybe we should put onLittle Giants,” he said. “Your other hero. BeckyIceboxO’Shea. And your second crush is in that one too. Junior. Who was second only to—“
