“The old guy who sits in the lobby with his coffee every morning?”
I nodded and shoved the handful of popcorn into my mouth.
“I feel bad for him.”
“Why?” I asked with my mouth full.
“He seems lonely.” Ash picked at the comforter. “I talked to him a few times.”
“You did?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice.
“Yeah. He’s nice. Lives by himself. His son lives in California, and his wife died about ten years ago. He’s lived here his entire life.”
“Like in this building?”
“No, in town. He worked at the high school as a janitor until he retired. After his wife died, he moved here because being in the house they’d raised their family in was too hard on him.”
“Now I feel like shit for ignoring him every morning when I went to school.”
“You were busy. Nothing to feel bad about.”
I wasn’t so sure of that but didn’t push it.
“Ready for movie number one?” I asked instead.
“The real question is ifyou’reready.”
“Oh, I’ll never be ready.” I picked up the remote and started the movie. “Have you seen either?”
“I sawInsidiousright after it came out. I remember it was good, but not much else. Never got around toThe Conjuring.”
“I’m going to be the only one screaming and hiding, aren’t I?”
“Definitely.” Ash grinned. The movie flashed up on the screen and began playing. “But you won’t be the only one jumping. I remember the jump scares in this movie were some of the most intense I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m already regretting all my life choices.” I nuzzled into Ash’s arm in a not-so-subtle attempt to get some early cuddles.
He lifted his arm and wrapped it around my shoulders. “You sure you want to watch these?”
“Yeah.” I tried to keep my voice light and breezy, but failed miserably. “I usually stick to slasher movies on my annual scare-the-piss-out-of-myself night, but I figured I’d go with some doozies, since I have you to cling to.”
“Do you do this to get over your fears of scary movies or just because you’re a masochist who likes to torture himself?”
“Little of both.” I pulled a piece of popcorn out of the bag and rolled it between my fingers. “Do you watch a lot of scary movies?”
“Not as much as I used to.” He popped some of the peas into his mouth and chewed, the crunch loud in the darkened room.
“Too busy partying to bother with movies?”
“Too busy studying.”
The thought of Ash studying was still a bit foreign to me. For so many years I’d thought of him as a party animal who barely had to try to skate by, but that wasn’t true at all.
Ash had told me about his dyslexia and about how hard he had to work just to pass.
All these years I’d hated him for something that wasn’t even true. What else had I been wrong about?
The opening wasn’t anything shocking, but the vibe of the movie was dark, and the cinematographer had done a good job of creating an atmosphere of foreboding.