Page 95 of Shadow

“He said he’s impressed,” I murmured.

Asylum clapped me on the shoulder. “You’re as good as in.”

* * *

Church stayedwith us all day. Eventually, we all returned to our dorm, where he joined us.

“Hope you like scary movies,” Asylum said, flopping down onto the bed with a bowl of popcorn.

“He should rephrase that toI hope you like shitty B movies,” I said, taking the bowl of popcorn from him.

“Oh, you hated it? Sure, you did. Still sat through all that alien squid. The plot was trash. The script was worse. But you smiled through every cheesy verse. Don’t lie, bro, I saw your pride. Just because a pretty firefly was by your side,”Asylum sang out.

I rolled my eyes at him. Church simply sat, looking amused. Or I assumed he was amused since it was rare to ever see the guy smile.

“Want some?” I offered him some popcorn.

I was surprised when he took a handful and settled back on the mattress we had shoved together. It was definitely a tight fit now.

Sirena cuddled up between me and Church. I tensed as she kissed my cheek and dug into the popcorn bowl. Church raised a brow at me before turning her attention to him to kiss.

I breathed out, and Asylum winked at me before grabbing another bowl of popcorn from the microwave.

He came back and pressed play on the TV.

“You’re going to love this one. It’s about this giant bug army from the planet Zefax-176. They heal by fucking humans. It’s great.”

I groaned at his description. Even Church looked at him funny. Not Sirena, though. She snuggled up, pulled me closer, and glued her focus to the TV. I loved how she gave everyone’s hobby a chance.

At least I figured she did. She loved my cupcakes. She encouraged Asylum’s shitty movies. Mirage’s odd forest behavior and mask. Church’s taxidermy. Ashes’s pyrotechnics. I was sure she talked up whatever Sin and Stitches were into as well.

She really was perfect in my eyes.

* * *

She slepton my chest after we’d practically thrown an entire bowl of popcorn at the TV amid Asylum’s protests of giving the movie a chance and arguing bugs really could fuck humans if given the right perimeters.

“Absolutely not,” Church muttered. “Never invite me to movie night again.”

“What about if I ever meet alien bugs who can fuck humans? You want an invite to that?” Asylum asked. “Because let me tell you, Dante, if I could fuck a bug, I’d give it the old college effort. Not many people can say they’ve fucked alien bugs that are sentient.”

“How could that even be a turn-on?” Church demanded. “Huh? How the fuck can you get your dick hard over bugs?”

Asylum grabbed his crotch, his very hard, very large cock outlined beneath his hand. “Trust me. I can get hard over just about anything I can tear the wings off of.”

Church snorted. “You’re a weirdo. My statement stands. Don’t invite me over for the next movie night.”

“Suit yourself. Shadow will just have to watch me jerk it to to obscure bug porn.”

“Shadow won’t,” I muttered, pushing Sirena’s hair away from her face. “Seeing bad alien bug porn was getting a little too close to your kinks. I’m tapping out too.”

“Amateurs,” Asylum mumbled.

I looked up from Sirena to see Church watching me.

“She’s so peaceful when she sleeps,” Church murmured. “My little ghost.”

“She has bad dreams sometimes,” I said softly.

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