Page 64 of The Suite Life
‘And beggars can’t be choosers,’ I remind him.
Donnie laughs.
‘So, what’s on the agenda for our sleepover?’ he asks.
‘Pillow fights and swapping secrets?’ I tease.
He looks around the room, his eyes eventually landing on the large wall-mounted TV.
‘Wow, that is a TV,’ he says. ‘It must be at least 75 inches.’
‘Oh, of course, I expect no less,’ I joke. ‘Apparently, there are thousands of movies and TV shows on there. I’ve not even turned it on yet.’
‘That’s a crime against big TVs,’ he tells me. ‘Do you want to watch something? I’m wide awake now.’
It may not be a private cinema, but I’m not as fancy as this suite makes me seem.
‘Yeah, okay,’ I agree, settling onto the sofa beside him. The softness of the seat causes a gentle shift, and suddenly we’re sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Donnie leans in slowly.
‘What is your favourite horror movie?’ he asks in a creepy voice. ‘It looks like they’ve got everything – oh, here it is,The Shining, your favourite. Shall I stick it on?’
My eyes light up with excitement.
‘Go for it,’ I say, always happy to watch it. ‘It’s not even that late – not by my standards, anyway. I’m a night owl.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ he replies as he hits play. ‘I’m definitely a night owl too. Love late nights, hate early mornings.’
I smile as I grab the remote and turn down the lights.
The room is bathed in the eerie glow of the TV screen asThe Shiningbegins to play. The suspenseful music echoes through the suite, and even though I’ve seen this movie a thousand times, I still feel nerves and anticipation building inside me.
Donnie and I sit side by side, our shoulders touching, as we watch the movie in the silence it deserves.
As the camera pans across the vast, snow-covered landscape of the Overlook Hotel, I steal a glance at Donnie. It’s strange, considering we only met a matter of days ago, but things between us just feel so natural. I’m so comfortable next to him, so at ease, and whatever we find ourselves doing, it always seems to be fun.
He said it was a bad break-up that brought him here, alone, to clear his head. It’s hard to imagine anyone breaking up with him, if he’s always this fun and easy-going. I’m not sure I would have let Nathan go so easily, if he was such a catch. Okay, so Donnie isn’t flashy, or as romantically theatrical as Jeff, but relationships are about more than that. He isn’t only a lot of fun, he’s pretty good-looking too, he always smells nice, he’s kind – I don’t know if there’s a label on his back somewhere but, if there is, it almost certainly says: ‘boyfriend material’.
As the movie progresses, I can’t help but inch a bit closer to Donnie. I guess that’s what you do, when you’re watching a horror flick, but I don’t know. Something about doing so justfeels right. His closeness is comforting, and as Jack Torrance descends into madness, I feel like, on the flip side, things are becoming clearer for me.
What am I doing? Why does this feel romantic?The Shiningis not a romantic movie. I think I’m just being bewitched, by the soft lighting, and the fact we’re sitting so closely together, and because I’m thinking about what a great guy he is.
Is he moving closer to me? I feel like he is? I feel like he’s going to…
The sudden appearance of a shadowy male figure outside the bifold doors, at the exact same time Danny first sees the creepy twins in the movie, startles us both. With a collective jump, we cling to each other, like Scooby-Doo and Shaggy when they see a ghost.
The intruder isn’t a crazed murderer or a man in a mask, oh no, it’s much worse than that. It’s Nathan.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I ask, my surprise (and annoyance) evident in my voice.
‘I was on my way to see you and I thought I could hear screaming,’ Nathan explains, his gaze drifting between Donnie and me.
‘It’s just the TV,’ I tell him.
‘Hello,’ Nathan says directly to Donnie.
‘Hi,’ Donnie replies.
