My heart stung, and I was glad he couldn’t see my face. What kind of loser cried after sex? I refused to wipe my wet eyes in case he realized why. I screwed them shut instead to keep the rest of the water in.
I’d always thought Ace was cool. He was aloof and cold and only really interested in the crowd that ran around making films together. Whenever we all hung out, I knew he was only there for Keaton – but that didn’t stop me from finding him fascinating. I’d always wanted to get to know him. To find out what it was he had inside his head that made him so much better than the rest of us.
Well, now I’d found out.
And I almost wished I hadn’t, because he was everything I had thought he would be and more.
Exactly the opposite of what my lonely heart needed, because I was (unsurprisingly) falling fast – and he didn’t want to know me at all.
Even so, I knew: if all he wanted was my body, I would give him that for as long as I could stay close to him.
I fell asleep praying for the next day to go fast so I could find myself here in bed with him again.
Ace
“So this is the schedule for today?” I asked, although I was mostly thinking out loud. The indie movie theater Keaton had found for his day – the opposite of Olly’s testosterone-fueled day of war and sports – had a huge pegboard in the entrance with an old-fashioned listing display.
“Right,” Keaton said, pointing to the movie he’d picked out. “Seven Ways to Hell.It starts in half an hour, so we’ve got enough time for us all to grab tickets and snacks.”
I hummed under my breath. “I don’t know.”
“What?” Keaton asked, turning to me. His eyes widened for a moment but then relaxed into a knowing smile. “Oh, I see. You think you’ve got better taste in movies than I have.”
I shrugged, half self-conscious and half to play it off cool. “Well, I just heard really good things aboutLast Girl Lost.”
“Maybe we can hit them both,” Keaton said, turning to the pegboard again. “Oh… they’re screening at the same time. If we watchLast Girl Lost, the nextSeven Ways to Hellwill already have started – and if we watchSeven Ways to Hell, we’ll miss today’s only screening ofLast Girl Lost.”
“Do we have to all see the same film?” Olly asked.
Everyone looked at him. He shrugged.
“I guess not,” Keaton said, looking around our group for approval. “It’s not like we’re all going to be able to sit in a circle and chat while we watch it. What do you guys think?”
“We can split up,” Xavi shrugged. Little brat. He probably didn’t even want to watch a movie at all. I bit my tongue and pretended I wasn’t still annoyed at him, given he was on my side.
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem,” one of Olly’s friends added. “So long as we all get back together afterward.”
“I was going to suggest we hit this food court for lunch and then hang around the mall until dinner,” Keaton said. He grinned. “I bet some of you still need to get a nice suit and a gift for the wedding.”
There was a general shuffling – myself included – which betrayed the truth in Keaton’s words. “It sounds like a plan,” I said. “We can meet in the food court. SinceLast Girl Lostends latest, I’ll bring my group to you guys.”
Keaton nodded. “Okay, then it’s settled,” he said. “If you’re seeingSeven Ways, looks like it’s the screen off to the right.Last Girl Lostis to the left.”
He moved to line up for the tickets with his last words and we followed him in a big group. I could hear everyone else discussing which film they wanted to see as we moved closer to the front. Someone brought up the synopsis for both and read them out loud.
There were a lot of interested murmurs after the synopsis forSeven Ways.
I swallowed as I handed over my cash for the ticket, wondering if I was going to end up being the only person sitting in an empty theater. Was this a stupid point of contention? Should I have just gone to see what Keaton wanted to see?
I knew he would understand – we were both in the business of film, right? So… why did it feel like my stomach was dropping into my boots?
I grabbed a small popcorn with a drink and then stood on the left side of the lobby past the ticket counter, watching as everyone else moved to the right one by one. Xavi, Taeho, Cade and Aiden… all of them, even Olly’s football bros, moved to the other side. It made sense. None of them were super into film like Keaton and I were. They probably just wanted to hang out together rather than choose a specific movie.
I was going to be watching it on my own.
I swallowed hard…
And Brody, the last one to get his ticket, stepped away from the counter and walked to my side.
