Horror Movie

It took me a while to realize that my eyes were squeezed shut. I forced them open slowly and blinked owlishly.

I processed the scene in front of me with a hazy mind.

Soul stood at the counter staring at me like I was crazy. In his hand was a spoon – not a knife – and a bowl of strawberry pudding that I had bought from the supermarket a couple of days ago.

I stood there with my head tilted to the right and regarded the white-haired boy with a puzzled expression.

“You’re not a zombie.” I stated stupidly.

Soul looked at me like I had seriously lost my marbles.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he said disgruntledly, “Have you gone insane?”

“No, I’m just paranoid.” I mumbled truthfully as I slowly realized how retarded I looked.

Soul scoffed and muttered irritably, “You’re so uncool.”

I pretended not to hear what he said and quickly changed the topic.

“Where’s Maka?” I asked curiously.

Soul shrugged and said, “Probably still out on her date.”

I sighed and said compassionately, “Wow, I feel bad for her. Knowing her dad, he probably dragged her of to some hostess club and seeing as how Blair’s not back from Chupa Kyapras1 yet, I have good feeling they’d be there.”

“Well, that’s her problem for actually agreeing to go on a date with her perverted dad.” Soul said indifferently.

“Yeah, Maka can be quite stubborn at times.” I said while I made my way over to the fridge and grabbed a mango pudding.

“What are you doing up so late, anyway?” Soul asked suddenly.

“Isn’t it obvious? I can’t sleep.” I said remorsefully as I grabbed a spoon and joined the albino at the kitchen counter.

“Don’t tell me it’s because of that stupid horror movie we watched.” The weapon groaned.

“What else would it be?” I said as I plopped a spoonful of the dessert in my mouth, savouring the taste of the tropical fruit.

Soul sighed exasperatedly and said, “What the hell am I going to do with you?”

That threw me off guard. The way he said it made me feel like a helpless little kid, and trust me, I am SO DONE with being helpless.

“Who said you had to do anything in the first place?” I said defensively, “It’s not like I’m your responsibility or anything. Speaking of which, shouldn’t you be worrying about Maka instead?”

“What do you mean you’re not my responsibility? And what does Maka have to do with this?” Soul questioned, loudly.

Shit. I said too much.

“Never mind,” I said softly, “Just drop it.”

“No,” Soul said firmly. “You’ve been acting strange this entire week and that is really uncool. You’re going to tell me what’s up now, whether you like it or not.”

Crap. How am I going to get out of this one? I racked my brain for anything useful to say but came up empty handed.

“Ugh!” I groaned agitatedly, “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t decided to come down for a midnight snack then all this wouldn’t have happened.”

“What do you mean all this wouldn’t have happened? What the hell happened anyway? And how is this, my fault?” Soul exploded.

“If you didn’t treat me like a helpless, little kid than I would’ve never gotten all defensive!” I shouted.

“Yeah well if you didn’t act like a child, then I would’ve never treated you like one.” He yelled right back.

“Ok, well if you hadn’t shown me that stupid horror movie, I would’ve never had to act so scared and childish.” I retorted.

“Alright, well if you hadn’t chosen a sob story in the first place, I would’ve never had to choose a horror movie.” The albino countered.

“Yeah well if Maka hadn’t gone on a date today then we would’ve never had to choose any movie and I would’ve never had to be stuck with you. Therefore, I would’ve never had to try so hard to hide my feelings from you. Hence, I would’ve never had to act so weird around you, so in the end, it’s all Maka’s fault!” I screamed at him.

Soul was silent as he tried to process what I had just vented. I breathed heavily, as I tried to calm my anger and nerves.

‘Great, now look what happened. My worst fear came true. I just destroyed my friendship with Soul and I didn’t even have to admit that I liked him to do it. Way to go, Saya.’ I thought dryly as I shovelled mouthfuls of pudding in an attempt to ignore the pain.

For some reason the pudding didn’t taste as sweet as it was a couple minutes ago.

I tried desperately to hold back the hot tears that were building in my eyes. Could this night get any worse?

“What do you mean by feelings?” Soul asked. Oh, well scratch that, it just did.

“What a mess.” I said quietly as I looked over at the albino. I pondered on how I should approach this situation without creating even more mayhem.

“Alright, look,” I said slowly, carefully choosing my words. “For the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling kind of… weird around you. Nothing really much has changed, I can still joke around and talk about pointless things, and you know just basically be myself around you. The only thing that’s different is my reaction towards you.”

Soul looked at me confusion evident in his features.

“When I see you,” I elaborated, “my heart beats a mile a minute. When I hear your voice, I get this really strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. At first, I thought I was just going through a phase, but now… I’m not so sure anymore…”

I trailed off and fixed my gaze on my half eaten pudding. What I said next completely threw me off guard and I’m sure it had the weapons totally shocked as well.

“Soul,” I said quietly, “I think I might be falling in love with you.”

I knew that, with that one sentence, I had just risked my entire relationship with Soul. But, he was the one who wanted to know what was happening and I would rather tell him the truth than lie to him.

Silence followed the confession as I continued to stare at my tropical dessert.

I had nothing else to say. All the questions he had should be answered with that one proclamation: Why I’ve been acting weird, why I brought Maka into it, and of course why it was all his fault.

“You’re an idiot.” Soul said finally.

“Why?” I grimaced, “Because I said I love you? Because I admitted it, when you clearly like Maka instead? Because I ruined our friendship?”

“No,” He answered softly, “you’re an idiot for not saying you loved me sooner, you’re an idiot for thinking I’d like Maka instead of you, and you’re an idiot for taking such a reckless risk with our friendship. But to be honest, I think it’s pretty cool that you did all that.”

It took me a while to process what he said and when I did, I cursed myself for being delusional at a time like this.

“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, disbelieving what I just heard. “But I thought… Didn’t you… Maka… wait what?”

“Maka may be my partner, and my job may be to protect her but that doesn’t mean I love her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an amazing friend, but she’s not you.”

I stared up at the albino, trying desperately to make sense of his words.

“You like me?” I asked slowly and hesitantly.

“No,” Soul said as my heart dropped and I mentally slapped myself for misunderstanding his words.

“Oh…” I said dejectedly as I looked away embarrassingly.

Soul sighed and gently grabbed my chin tilting it towards him.

“No,” Soul repeated, “I don’t like you,” he said slowly as he leaned in towards my face, “I love you,” he stated against my lips and then his mouth was covering mine in a gentle but longing kiss.

He tasted like strawberries and I couldn’t help but pull him closer. He licked my lower lip, begging for entrance which I gladly granted. Our tongues intertwined in a complicated yet heated dance. His scent was intoxicating and I found myself weaving my hands into his soft snowy locks. His arms circled around my waist bringing me towards him. In that moment, I felt the whole world fall away – literally.