Page 21 of Awakened
Sarah winked at me. “You’re sure to find out, roomie.”
The easy fun continued back at our apartment while we played spades and had a few more drinks. Sarah called dibs on me as a partner, and the guys grumbled but agreed as long as we made it interesting. If we won, the guys had to come over every night for the next week and cook dinner for us. If they won, we had to clean their cars. Confident with my team, we shook on the deal.
An hour and too many verbal altercations later, Sarah and I came out on top.
“In your smug little face!” I hollered at Zach as I pointed aggressively at him. Sarah danced around the living room, singing, “We won. We won. We get dinners. You get nothing.”
Michael had heard enough and grabbed Sarah, swinging her over his shoulder. “Good night, guys. I need to have a little chat with the lady about being a gracious winner.”
“Oh, you’re such a sore loser,” Sarah shouted through a curtain of red hair as she hung upside down. “Night, Les! Night, Zach! Have fun!”
After the parade of fools disappeared up the stairs, Zach and I smiled at each other.
“Do you want to put on a movie or something?” I offered, not ready for the night to be over.
“Sure.”
He gathered the bowl of popcorn and two fresh beers and followed me into the living room. Settled on the couch, we scrolled through a million options before landing onThe Howling.
“How have you never seen this movie?” I asked as I skipped through the previews.
Zach shrugged, fussing with the tassels on one of Sarah’s moreornate pillows. “Never been too into old movies. They seem kind of corny.”
“Corny?” I threw my hand over my heart. “How can you call one of the most important films in werewolf culture corny?”
“It’s about The Howlers, right?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“Yeah.”
Rolling his eyes he said, “I just don’t know how you make fairy tales cool.”
“You don’t think The Howlers existed?”
“You do?” he incredulously asked.
“I mean . . .”
“Celeste. Come on.”
I huffed. “What? It makes sense to me that werewolves formed a protective group when we were still in hiding.” I gestured to the TV. “TakeThe Howling. This movie was made in the 1940s pre The Great Reveal. Alfred Byrd, a were, employed as many weres as he could. He even kept lists to recommend them to other directors.”
Zach considered the home screen where Axel Lapusan stood in all his shirtless glory. “They’re all weres?”
“For the most part. This movie is actually the first to feature a real-time shift and not rely on practical special effects. Of course, the humans had no idea.” I playfully smiled.
“Huh. I had no idea.”
About fifteen minutes into the movie, I noticed Zach wasn’t watching the TV. He was watching me.
“Uh, the action is that way, dude,” I said, throwing a piece of popcorn at him.
He caught it in his mouth and winked.
“What’s with the winks?” In the most cartoonish way, I winked back.
He grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it in my face.
Shocked, I slowly brushed it off my chest. “Oh, you’re going to regret that.”
