Page 36 of Halluci-Dating A Demon
We walk a short trail, indulging in some snow cones, Arien squealing in excitement when they have a flavor called cotton candy blast.
Shoving the partially eaten ice in my face, he licks his luscious purple lips. “Have a taste. I think you’ll like it too.”
“How about I try it from your mouth instead?” I press a gentle kiss to his soft mouth, licking at his lips a little. “Yummy.”
His cheeks brighten and he laughs. “You sure you got enough?”
“No, I’m not, but if I keep eating snow cones from your mouth, we might get some dirty looks and be kicked off base.”
He flushes, bringing his cup to his chest. “Yeah, you’re probably right. We’ll save that for later, for when we’re eating sweet treats at home.”
My tongue goes dry. “Yeah, later.” Tossing my empty cup in the trash, I press my hand to the hilt of his back and steer him toward the theater. After digging in my pocket, I show the lady at the ticket booth my phone and she prints out two tickets.
Arien is practically bouncing beside me, pointing toward the concession stand. “Do we have time to get popcorn and candy?”
Looking down at my watch, I nod. “A whole ten minutes.”
“Cool.” He skips ahead of me and I follow behind him chuckling. Beating me to the line, he eyes the candy on the rack and picks up three different boxes before deciding on Sour Skittles.
“Good choice.” I wrap an arm around him and we step forward, and he orders our popcorn before the lady can even finish asking what we’d like.
“Can I get a cherry Slurpee too?” He lifts himself up on his toes and the man with two tails and spikes on his neck nods.
“Of course. Will that be all?”
“Make that two cherry Slurpees,” I add. “And that will be all.”
Leaning down, the guy grabs two cups and says something to the girl behind him. She gets our popcorn, and I pay before Arien can finish fishing out his card.
The theater is packed as we search for our seats, and Arien sits beside me and lifts up the armrest between us so he can lean his head on my shoulder. When the movie starts, he looks at me with blinking eyes and smiles with his gaze falling back to the screen.
“I don’t think I’ve heard of this one.” His hand slides beside mine as he reaches for popcorn at the same time I do. Eyes on the big screen, he shoves a handful into his mouth, and I wrap my arm around his shoulder, throwing back some Skittles to keep myself from seeing whether the cherry Slurpee tastes better on him.
Paying attention to what’s playing in front of me is hard when Arien is making cute faces and lighting up the whole room. I didn’t know what movie to take him to at first, and then I saw a preview for this one, thinking silly and fun sounded perfect. It was Valentine’s themed, which is a holiday I’d been trying hard to forget until now. Would he want to spend it with me? Brody hated everything about it and always wanted to pretend the day never happened.
Arien laughs, rubbing his face into my shoulder while stomping his feet. Yeah, definitely hard to look at anything else. He’s more interesting than anything in this whole entire room.
Setting the popcorn to the side, I wrap his fingers in mine, and he laughs again, pointing at the screen. “Oh, I’m totally suffering from secondhand embarrassment.” He shields his eyes and peeks between his spread fingers.
His light sounds are contagious, and I laugh too, yanking his hand down. “It’s not like it’s happening to you,” I whisper.
Waving me away, he smirks and snatches the Skittles from me. As he’s tossing three into his mouth, I lick between his lips and use my tongue to collect the candy from his. “I guess I couldn’t wait until later after all.”
His breaths catch and he licks his lips, turning back to watch the people dancing. More whispers about all the bad decision making fills my ears the rest of the movie. So does more laughter and the popcorn crunching between his teeth. When the credits roll, he stands up first, collecting our trash, and shares his thoughts about the movie as we exit the theater.
“Did you like it?” He glances back at me, squinting his eyes under the bright light.
“I liked watching it with you. Does that count?” Grabbing his hand, I swing our arms forward and we head back to his place, the walk being shorter than I remember.
“Do you get around everywhere on foot here?”
“Not everywhere. Only the places that are super close.” He picks up his steps and I walk faster with him as he rushes across the street to the base houses. “Do you drive?”
“No.” My stomach clenches. “Not in a while.”
“Oh.” His eyes fill with sympathy. “I really do say the wrong things sometimes.”
My body stiffens when I remember those same exact words being said by Brody the day before he went to stay with his parents. Not again. I don’t want Arien to find it too hard to be around me like Brody did, or stop talking because he’s worried he’ll keep upsetting me with his words. He’s not asking me the same questions, though, or pushing ideas on me about moving forward.
