Page 78 of Untouchable Player

“Oh, what if your mom comes up?”

“She won’t.”

I take my jeans off and Nate arranges pillows and cushions on the bed for us to sit against. He turns the lights off, except alamp on his bedside table, and we settle in with the laptop on a cushion between us.

“What’s your favourite movie?” he asks.

The one that springs to mind makes me laugh.

“What?”

“Have you heard ofMermaids?”

“No, who’s in it?”

“Cher.”

Nate presses his lips together, but the laugh comes out anyway.

“You really love Cher don’t you?”

“No, it’s just a good movie, Sam used to watch it like ten times a day when we were growing up, and the music’s good.”

“Okay,Mermaids.”

Nate finds it on one of the streaming services and sets it up.

“What do you tell your hockey buddies your favourite movie is?”

“Welcome to the Punch.”

“Is that real?”

“Yup.”

“Who’s in it?”

“James McAvoy.”

He Googles it.

“I can’t believe you don’t believe me.”

“It is real, wow.”

“it’s actually really good.”

“It only has a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.”

“Don’t listen to them, they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Do you just have a crush on James McAvoy?”

“No, he’s not my type.”

Nate smiles and blushes before pressing play on the movie.

As soon as it starts, it takes me back to sitting on the living room floor with Sam eating those miniature candy bars they’d have on sale at Walmart after Halloween. Sam would always get up to dothe dance when they sangThe Shoop Shoop Song,and the one time my dad caught me doing it, he slapped me round the head and told me to never let him catch me doing anything like that again.

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