Welcome to New Haven (14 page)

“Hey guys”!
 
She said as her eyes lit up.
 

“Hey Dev”
 
they chorused.
 

“Watching a movie?” Alex asked.
 
He knew they were, and his idea to watch with the guys, couldn’t have better timing if he had planned the whole thing.
 
Besides, his previous plans had turned to shit…
 

“Yeah why?”
 

“We were gonna watch too. Mind if we join you?” Alex knew Dev liked the whole gang getting together to watch movies.
 
It was the time when they got to watch together, but still had their friends with them.
 
Nobody was left out.
 

“No, not at all!” She said excitedly.
 
“It’ll be more fun.”
 

Alex took the popcorn from Dev, to carry it for her and she passed him a look that said ‘I know what you’re up to’.
 
He just smiled back.
 

“Look who I found lurking in the hallway!”
 
Dev squealed as she entered the room as Alex and the guys walked in behind her.
 

“Hey guys!” the girls said, Holly remaining quiet, a look of shock on her face as she saw him.
 
Her head turned, and she looked down at her hands.
 
Alex saw her discomfort, and he felt sad because he thought that maybe she may not like him after all.
 
He went and sat on the far left of the sofa, at the end.
 
The others took their seats and Dev handed out the popcorn before picking up the remote.
 

Holly was sitting on the far right of the sofa at the end.
 
Luckily, nobody could sit to her right and Dev already had the seat on her left, followed by Riss and then Kayla.
 
They all moved up so that the guys could sit down comfortably.
 

The sofa could easily fit ten people as it was curved and designed for a corner, but not a right angle.
 
It was set on the back wall of the room, but with a large gap to walk behind if needed,
 
so the corners curved around to the centre.
 

The large flat screen TV hung on the wall opposite, and the black coffee table was large enough that all of them could easily reach drinks and snacks.
 

“We haven’t decided what to watch yet so here are the choices…”
 
Dev said as she got herself comfortable.
 

“The Devil wears Prada”.

The guys groaned as the girls said that they’d seen it twice already.
 

“Ted or anchorman”
 

“Ted!”
 
They all agreed at the same time.
 

“Ted it is”
 

Whilst they were watching the movie, Holly could feel Alex’s presence and also his eyes, on her.
 
She felt as though she were sitting next to an electrical sub station.
 
She felt the buzzing of electricity flowing through her and it made her continually shift in her seat.
 

She made the mistake of glancing over to him, and he smiled, just a little, at her.
 
She thought her heart stopped for a second before it began thumping so hard, she could hear it.
 

Holly continued to look at the screen as the movie went on.
 
Trying to focus her attention on the stuffed bear, shouting expletives.
 

“Ew!” and “That’s gross”
 
were heard coming from beside her as the girls were disgusted at what was happening in the movie.
 
Holly just laughed.
 
She was trying to contain her laughter by putting a cushion over her face to stifle the noise.
 
The guys looked over to her with strange expressions on their faces.
 

“Hey Holly”
 
Ryan said.
 
“Doesn’t that gross you out?”
 
he asked as the other girls were retching.
 

“No.
 
It’s funny.”
 
She replied, shyly, as her face heated.
 

Well at least no stuttering there,
she thought as she managed to speak a full sentence in Alex’s presence.

Maybe because the lights were off and she couldn’t see him clearly.
 
Oh, but she could feel him alright.
 

After the movie finished, Dev switched it off and stood.
 

“Bathroom break before the next movie.”
 

“Next movie?” the guys asked.
 

“Yeah we’re doubling up.
 
A funny then a scary.”
 

Holly managed to avoid Alex by going upstairs to Dev’s bathroom.
 
The girls got back to the room before the guys and took their seats again.
 

“Ok…so we have…Child’s Play, Silent Hill, or Dawn of the Dead.”

“Dawn of the Dead.” They chorused, and Alex noticed Holly’s reaction.
 
It was a pity he wasn’t sitting by her.
 
He could ‘comfort’ her during the scary parts.
 

So cliché.
I’d end up with a fat lip.
Stop! Stop!

He willed himself to gather his sanity, but it seemed to have left.
 

Dev turned off the lights and switched on the movie.

During the movie, Alex could see Holly becoming more frightened by the minute.
 
She was hiding most of the time, and for the opposite reason as before.
 
Holly was more than frightened, she looked terrified.
 
Alex didn’t like to see her that way and he got up, walked around the back of the sofa to speak to Dev.
 

“I need to talk to you in the hall”
 
he whispered.
 
Seeing the look on his face, Dev got up and followed him out.
 

“What’s up?” she asked with a frown of worry.
 

“I think you should either turn off the movie or get Holly out of there.”
 

“Why?”
 

“Because she looks terrified, Dev.
 
That’s not just being scared. That’s being terrified. Dev, you have to get her out…now.”
 

“I’ll go turn off the movie” Dev said as she turned towards the door.
 

“She might be embarrassed if they know she’s scared.” Alex added.
 

“Ok”
 
Dev said as she went in.
 
Alex sat back down and Dev whispered to Holly, getting her up and moving out into the hallway.
 
Alex breathed a sigh of relief.
 
He wanted to spend time with her, but not like that.

“Oh my God Holly, are you ok? You look terrified!”
 
Dev said as they stopped in the hallway, away from the hangout room.
 

“I’m ok.
 
I…just…I get scared of zombies.” Holly said as her heart rate began to drop.
 
She thought she was going to have a panic attack right there in the room before Dev whispered to her to go out into the hall with her.
 

The last time she had seen that movie was the day her Dad had died.
 

They’d gone to see Shrek 2 when she’d run ahead and mistakenly went into the wrong auditorium.
 
As she ran inside, she saw, in full graphic horror, a zombie devouring a living person.
 
Holly had frozen with fear and her Dad had come in to get her out.
 

By the time he had calmed her down, the trailers for their move where already over.
 
What she saw that day stayed with her.
 
The movie was a reminder of what had happened that day.
 

“You should have said, earlier.”
 
Dev said as she hugged her.
 

“I didn’t want to spoil it for anyone.
 
They all wanted to watch it.”
 

“Oh honey, you wouldn’t have. I’m so sorry.”
 
Dev hugged her again.
 

“I don’t want to go back in there, but I don’t want you to stop the move for me.
 
I’m tired anyway so I think I’ll just go.”
 

“Are you sure?
 
They won’t mind…”
 
Dev began but Holly stopped her, shaking her head.
 

“No, I’ll just go home.
 
It’s ok.”
 
Holly could see that Dev felt bad for not knowing she was scared.
 
It was evident in her expression.
 
Her eyes were full of worry, and they were misty as if she were about to cry.
 

“Don’t feel bad.”
 
Holly reassured her. “I could have said something, but I didn’t.
 
Don’t you feel bad for my mistake.”
 

“You are such a good person.”
 
Said Dev.
 
“Text me when you get home, Ok?”
 

“I will.” Holly said as she turned to leave. “Oh, Dev, please don’t tell them…just tell them I was tired from all of the driving…please?”
 

“No worries.”
 
Said Dev and Holly knew that she could trust her.

As Dev walked back into the room, Alex looked for Holly.
 
She didn’t appear.
 

“Gone home” Dev mouthed to him.
 

He felt sad that she’d gone, but it was better than her being scared of the movie.
 
He couldn’t believe that nobody else had noticed.
 
Well, maybe because he was the only one with the fixation on her, that he had noticed.
 
Even Dev who was sitting next to her, hadn’t.

When the movie ended and the lights turned on.
 
The rest of the group turned to Dev to ask where Holly had gone.
 

“She went home.
 
She was super tired from driving around, and the lights being off were making her sleepy.
 
She texted me when she got home.”
 

“Oh”
 
they said.
 

“She’s got an awesome sense of humor.” Said Ryan.
 

“Yeah I thought she was going to bust a lung at one point” laughed Kyle.
 

Alex just smiled.
 
He’d loved seeing her laugh, he couldn’t hear her as she’d covered her face with the cushion.
 

“You didn’t hear her though” Dev turned to Kyle.
 
“That girl has one infectious laugh.”
 

“Yeah!” agreed Riss and Kayla.
 
We couldn’t help but laugh when she did earlier.
 
I swear, other people were too.
 
It kind of makes you feel happy, and you can’t help but join in.”
 

Dev beamed and the girls started giggling as they remembered.
 
Alex felt a little jealous because he wanted to hear her laugh.
 
He wanted to see her smile, at him, because of him.
 

His dreams, the night before, had her waiting for him.
 
In the hallway where they’d met.
 
She was smiling, wanting him to go to her.
 
He didn’t know how, but he could sense she did.
 
The closer he got the more he felt it, but as he finally reached her…he woke up.
 
He’d looked down the bed and saw it.
 
The painful tent pole he was sporting from his dreams.
 
“Oh no.” He’d groaned.

It was a while later before everybody left to go home.
 
They’d ordered Chinese, played some video games and talked about the new schedule coming up for Monday.
 
Alex was happy that he had more classes with Ben, Dev wasn’t.
 
It meant her being in the same room with Ben for more than she’d liked.
 

They hadn’t bickered that day, which was good, but he could tell an argument was brewing.
 
They hadn’t talked much and, he knew that, if Ben so much as opened his mouth to Dev, she would make a snarky comeback.
 
He didn’t get what was going on.
 
Sometimes, they would be civil, when it came to looking out for him, and when Alex had the fight last year, Ben had wanted to hurt the guy just as much as Alex did.
 
He shook his head and put it down to one of those things that he wouldn’t understand.
 
Well, right now at least.
 

The next morning, Alex came downstairs to see Dev already at the breakfast table, phone in hand, talking.
 

“The guys think you’re awesome.”
 
He heard her say. “See? You didn’t need to worry so much.
 
They’re all great and you’ll get along with them just fine.”
 
Dev paused for a moment as she was listening to, who he assumed was Holly.
 

“Alex told me…He saw you and told me…No he won’t say anything at all, don’t worry.
 
I’m sorry again honey…Well if you’re sure, I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”
 

Alex sat next to Dev, and she looked up at him as she continued with her breakfast.
 

“Is Holly ok?”
 
he asked as he poured some juice.
 

“Yeah, she seems fine, actually” Dev replied.
 

“Did she say anything about me?”
 
he asked and Dev looked at him in disbelief.
 

“Wow…Just…wow.” She said with wide eyes.