Page 78 of Stay for Me
The spotlights around the parking lot go off, and the screen glows white. Fuck this. If she wants to see the movie, then that’s what will happen. I move the car, keeping the lights off and hoping it won’t draw attention to the car, and grab the best spot open I can find.
Brenna’s hand finds mine, and she squeezes. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah I did.”
She rests her head on my shoulder, and my heart thumps loudly. This feeling that she stirs inside me is growing stronger each day. Brenna is the girl who could make it all so easy to give it up.
The previews start, and there is my face.
Her head lifts, and I watch her watching the screen. I know this scene by heart because it’s where everything shifts for my character. I could close my eyes and see it all. We must’ve reshot this one part a hundred times from different angles. I’m proud of this part. I dug deep, remembered all the fear of being a small boy and wishing there was someone to save me. Seeing it through Brenna’s eyes has me on the edge of my seat.
There’s a slight lift to her lips as my voice comes through the car speakers.
“I won’t let you die!”I yell as I’m unable to get the wings on my suit to work.“You hear me, kid? I won’t let anything happen. Do you trust me?”
The boy nods.
“Give me your hand, and I’ll pull you up.”
He tries to let go but slips.“I can’t!”I try once more to get the button to initiate the suit, but it fails again.
“You can. You have to believe that you’re strong enough. You have to remember that no one other than yourself is capable of telling you that you can’t. I’m here, and I won’t let you fall, but you have to reach for me.”
I hear Brenna’s breath catch as she watches.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
The boy steels himself at the same time as I do. I’m on the side of the building, reaching my hand out to him.“Trust me.”
He extends his hand once more and when our fingers touch, I lose him.
“No!” Brenna gasps quietly.
It’s a crushing scene, one that shifts the entire plot of the movie. The rest of the preview is only a few seconds, showing a small casket and Navigator watching the funeral from the side, unable to show his face. I feel her eyes on me.
“He dies?”
“Fictionally.”
“How horrible.”
“It is. He doesn’t take it well.”
“Who?” she asks.
“My character.”
Brenna nods. “I would think not. You just promised him that he’d be okay and then watched him fall to his death. Gosh, you had to be crushed. I’m so sorry.”
I laugh at how emotional she’s getting. “You know it’s a movie andFlight Planis only the start of the Navigator’s storyline?”
“Of course, I’m just saying.”
I lean over, pulling her face closer. “I like it when you feel for my character.”
Her fingers rise, touching my cheek. “I guess my heart doesn’t like to see even you fake being hurt.”
