May These Noises Startle You at Night

After spending time with Kai in the common room, I walk back to my room and close the door behind me. Some people in here leave their doors open, as an invitation I think. I only really hang out with Kai so I don’t need to do that; he lets himself in all the time. We have a system: if I leave a rubber band on the door handle, then I’m not in my room. He came up with it. I said to put a scrunchie on the door but he said that means something totally different that he doesn’t want people around thinking about me every time I leave the room. He won’t tell me what it means but it doesn’t matter; I just lace the rubber band around the door every time I leave.
I set the band down on my dresser and sit on my bed. Kai says I’m lucky to have one of the bedrooms in the green flowered hallway because they all have windows. I don’t think it’s all that special and I told we could trade but he said we’re in a specific order. Alphabetical I think because the girl next to me, her last name is Brown, my last name is Carson and on the other is Callum. Kai’s last name is Barker so his room isn’t too far away.
There’s a knock on my door and it makes me jump. I take a deep breath and rub my hands together as I go to open it. I don’t what I was expecting but it’s Kai. I tilt my head but before I can ask, he’s already talking.
“I’m not alone so I thought it’d be a little weird to come in with a stranger.” That would have been weird but I don’t see this person he’s talking about. Kai turns around and when he sees a clear spot behind him, he huffs like he’s lost a puppy or his skateboard rolled away. He leans away from the door and into the hall, I can still see his foot though, and then he pops back into view with a boy. I recognize him; he’s the one who was behind me in the dinner line and the one Kai was sitting with at the table.
Kai lets out a hearty cough before speaking. “Spencer, Alex. Alex, Spence—” The boys name is cut off by another cough. I walk over to my closet and push away some clothes to reveal a small cooler. I pull out a water bottle and hand it to Kai who smiles between coughs and drinks it.
“Uh. Nice to meet you.” Spencer says after finally looking away from coughing Kai and at me.
I smile. “Y-Y-You t-too.” I muster.
Kai finishes drinking and clears his throat. “Thanks.” He says. I shrug and walk over to sit on my bed. Kai walks over and sits beside me and tells Spencer to sit in the chair by my desk. He does, then Kai looks at me.
“Do you want to watch a movie tonight? No one is using the movie room.” He says, his voice going up with faith, trust and pixie dust and I can’t help but giggle at him.
“S-Sure.” I nod. I bite my lip and look over at Spencer. “Are y-you coming?” I ask him and hope that didn’t sound as rude to him as it did to me.
He looks over at Kai for a long moment and Kai finally chuckles. “Are you gunna answer her or are you expecting me to?”
The kid sputters something and chuckles, shaking his head. “Yeah. I’ll come.” He nods and smiles at me. I smile back, well sort of. My lips are pressed into a firm line so it may have looked a little smushed.
“So. What movie do you want to watch?” Kai asks after another sip from the water. I bit my lip and shrug gently. “We could go old school and watch a Disney cartoon like…” He tilts his head in thought. I open my mouth to say my preference when he speaks again. “Lion King or Hercules and not Alice in Wonderland again because I know that off by heart and not by choice.” He gives me a pointed look which I respond to by scrunching my brows together and a small and playful pout. He chuckles and extends his hand out to poke my jutted lip. “What’s your favourite movie?” Kai’s eyes drift from me to Spencer.
“Max Keeble’s Big Move.”
“What is that?”
“My favourite movie.”
Kai sighs and rolls his eyes. “Thank you Captain Duh. I meant what is it about? What kind of movie is it…cartoon, drama, comedy?”
“Comedy and Disney but not a cartoon. It’s about a kid who is going to move so he makes his last few days at his school pretty chaotic and Josh Peck is in. Like Josh from Drake and Josh. It’s pretty funny and makes me want to start a food fight every time I watch it.”
Kai looks over at me. “Sounds interesting enough. Wait,” He looks back at Spencer. “Fat Josh Peck or Not Fat Josh Peck?”
“Fat Josh Peck.”
“Good. He’s funnier.” His gaze returns to me. “You up for it?”
I nod.
“Great. We’ll watch that then. And we have to get munchies.” He nods and begins playing with his hair.
“Didn’t the common room kitchen close like…5 minutes ago after we left?” Spencer asks him.
“So?” Kai asks and shakes his head, his hair flying everywhere and out from between his fingers. “Never stops me.” He shrugs. I giggle softly again because watching Kai sneak into the kitchen is probably one of the funniest things ever and he usually always gets caught and has to deal with Keaton. “And I won’t get caught tonight.” He states, nodding as if it’s a fact, and he’s staring at me with a childish grimace at my chuckling.
“Get caught by who? This place has like, no authority.”
“Keaton Wesley. He’s like the Hall Nazi around here. He’s always making sure no one causes trouble after a certain time at night. It’s nice some nights when you just want to sleep but he kind of rags on my vibe a lot.”
Spencer makes a face that’s a little weird. It’s somewhere between an embarrassed face and amused. “W-What is that f-f-face f-for?” I pipe up.
“Nothing.” He says, almost too quickly and that gets Kai’s attention.
“Wait, you were with Keaton earlier.” He says and I can practically see the light bulb flash behind his eyes. “Do you like him?”
Spencer’s eyes widen. “What do you mean?”
“Like, was he nice to you and stuff?”
The lanky kid shrugs. “Yeah. He showed me around and how to work the washer and dryer.” Then a light bulb went off in his head too. “And my clothes are still in the washer and sitting there soaking wet…I should probably go switch them and I’m probably hogging the washer…shit.” He mutters and he’s ranting to himself I think but Kai chuckles.
“I think you’re okay, no one cares that much about laundry around here.” I don’t feel like getting up and going with him to the laundry room so I don’t tell them that if you leave the clothes in the washer or water too long they’ll start to smell all mouldy. I simply stay silent.
“Okay.” Spencer only says that before a long moment of silence slips itself between the three of us. For Kai and I it’s normal to be quiet because sometimes Kai talks himself out and I don’t talk as it is because of my stupid stutter and sometimes I don’t have anything to say so we just sit in the quiet for a bit. Usually, Kai will start up again or we’ll go do something. Rarely, he’ll curl up on my bed and I’ll lay with him and we just sit there, but that’s happened once or twice.
“So why is Keaton so mean to you?” It’s Spencer who breaks this silence.
Kai shrugs. “Because I’m awesome and he’s not? According to him, I’m a trouble maker, I guess. It’s like the principal and the kid who put a tack on the teacher’s chair kind of thing between us.” The reality of that comparison makes me laugh a little.
“Oh.” Spencer nods.
“Why the interest in Keaton?” Kai asks and when I look up at him from my fiddling fingers, I see his eyebrows dancing and he’s wearing a small smirk.
“No reason.” Spencer shakes his head frantically and shrugs about three times.
“No reason my ass. Pft.” He rolls his eyes.
“I just want to know the people around here that’s all.” He says and looks down at his hands like I was just doing.
“More like you want to do him.” Kai snickers.
Spencer looks like someone just jumped out at him in a dark alley. “What?”
“Don’t play deaf, you heard me.” He grins.
Spencer shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Nope to Keaton or liking guys?” He questions, leaning in as he inquires.
“Both.” The boy stands up from the chair and moves to lean against the wall. He looks like he was about to pace but decided against it.
“Please, my gaydar went through the roof the moment you walked through the door. You can’t lie to me.” Spencer’s cheeks are bright red and he’s started chewing on his thumbnail. Kai chuckles. “Alright, deny it all you want, but I know what I know.” Kai says and shrugs. “Now, let’s go get munchies before Spencer explodes like a cherry gusher.” And with that, he hops off the bed and steps toward the door.
I swipe the elastic band off the dresser out of habit and flick it onto the door handle before I shut the door behind us. I make sure to remember to grab my black back pack before I leave too. We walk toward the common room and I stop in the hallway before the main double doors like I always do when Kai goes for late night snacks. I reach over to hesitantly tap Spencer’s shoulder to silently tell him to stop walking and Kai keeps going. He slips through the dark hall like a serpent through tall grass and I can hear him fiddling with the doors that lead outside. This is what he does instead of picking the lock of the main doors; he goes outside and around the long window wall to the doors where the cooks come in and fiddles with that lock that way it looks like someone broke in from outside, and not someone from the inside. And he’s less of a suspect, not that anyone really catches the scratch marks on the key holes anymore. He started doing this after getting caught by Keaton four times by trying to get in through the main double doors at the front of the auditorium.
I hear footsteps. I look over but Spencer hasn’t moved away from my side and there’s only one other person who comes by this way at night. Knowing it’s Keaton, I nibble on my lip and try to think of something quick. There’s nowhere for Spencer and I to hide and Keaton will know Kai’s around if I’m here so I need to figure something out. I look at Spencer and light bulb. I quickly push him out toward the hall way in which Keaton walks as a distraction. Judging by the grunts I get, I may have pushed him into Keaton. Oops?
“Motion detector, I’m telling you.” I hear Keaton say. His voice is so much deeper than Spencer’s so it’s easy to tell them apart.
“Yeah. My bad. Again.” Spencer chuckles.
“What are you doing out here?” Keaton asks.
Please don’t say something stupid, I think. Please don’t say something stupid. “Uh…The movie room.” He sputters out.
“What about it?” The older asks.
“I’m supposed to hang out with some people there…and I can’t find it. Where is it?” He asks.
Keaton chuckles but it’s different from his usual chuckles. This one is more…hearty and deep. “C’mon kid, I’ll show you.” And then their footsteps disappear away from me. I let out a sigh of relief and lean my head against the wall. Point one for Spencer.
A few seconds later, Kai returns with a few chip bags in his arms and three cans of brown pop. I chuckle and unzip my pack so Kai can slip the treats inside; the cans first so they don’t crush the chips. I zip it back up and sling it over my shoulder.
“Where’s Spencer?” He asks.
“K-Keaton came b-b-by and he g-got him to l-leave.”
“Oh no, he sacrificed himself? Well it was nice knowing him.” He says and hangs his head with a heavy sigh as we start walking.
I chuckle softly and shake my head. “He p-pretended to b-be lost and K-K-Keaton sh-showed him to the m-movie room.”
Kai lifts his head again and purses his lip as he nods. “Well done, Spencer. Alright, he passed initiation.” He chuckles. I nod in agreement and we make our way to the movie room.