Page 37 of Damaged Boys Don't Fall For Bubbly Girls
I smile, too. “Yeah. It annoyed the crap out of me.”
Lexi laughs again.
Finn glances from her to me. “Seems like you don’t really want to be here,” he says to me.
“Finn,” Lexi hisses.
Finn holds up his hands. “Sorry, man. I don’t mean to offend you. It’s just that it doesn’t feel like you’re here. Mentally, I mean.”
Lexi turns to me, squinting like she’s studying me. “Is everything okay, Brock?”
I don’t know. It’s been a few days since I’ve been back and while everyone has been including me, I still feel like an outsider.
And why in the world does it bother me that Finn is sitting close to her? Lexi is free to be close to whoever she wants.
Gael places his hand on my shoulder. “Brock?”
I shove my thoughts away. “I’m good. Just have a lot on my mind. Look, I don’t care what movie we watch. The point is that we’re all together again, right?”
Lexi beams at me. “Right.”
Finn gives me an apologetic look. “I’m really sorry I said that. It’s just…” He puffs out his cheeks. “We used to be able to say whatever we wanted to each other. Good or bad, it was all fair game. But now…”
“I told you I’m not made of porcelain. You can call me out when I’m doing something wrong. It’s cool.”
Finn shakes his head. “You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re just really quiet. But I should shut up. If you think yoursea creature movie is better, maybe we should go with that. It actually sounds pretty cool.”
“Superheroes!” Theo insists.
All six of them start arguing. Lexi and I exchange a look and she laughs lightly.
I bend behind Gael to ask her, “They’re still like this after all these years?”
“Pretty much. I think they need girlfriends.”
I chuckle. “You might be right.”
Lexi stands up. “Okay, boys. I’m the queen and I decide what we’re watching.” She turns to me as everyone quiets down. “Since Brock is back and we’re super, super happy, I give him the honor of choosing.”
Theo widens his eyes, begging. I think the guys would enjoySea Nightmare, but since this means so much to Theo, I pick the superhero one.
“Yes!”
Lexi puts it on and we start watching. The opening scenes are okay, but the second the villain is introduced, I wonder if we’re watching a professional movie or something silly produced by people who have no clue what they were doing.
“What the heck?!” Cooper grumbles. “You call those superhero uniforms? Geez.”
Dean says, “The reviews weren’t lying. This movie sucks.”
Theo motions for everyone to quiet down. “It’s decent so far.”
We manage to make it through the movie, but no one, not even Theo, has anything good to say about it.
“What a waste of time,” Nate complains. “Movie nights at Lexi’s are supposed to be awesome. But it got messed up.”
Lexi rolls her shoulders. “We’ve watched sucky movies before.”
“Not like this,” Gael says. “Feels like we need to watch another to make up for it.”
