Chapter Twenty-Nine
Starshow Cinemas looked like a regular movie theatre, but it wasn’t.
Everything in it was charmed for an immersive experience.
If you were watching a thriller, you would be hanging off that airplane with the main character; a romcom meant you had front-row seats to a love confession; and a horror?
Well, let’s just say the jump scares were more than just your regular frights.
But my favourite time was mortal week, when we watched a genre of mortal films every month. This time we were going to watch something called The Pumpkin Massacre.
‘You’re not afraid of horror movies?’ Silas asked, as we stood in line for popcorn.
‘Nope,’ I said, smiling. ‘My sister and I are big horror movie fans.’
Silas’s smile was a little strained at the edges. ‘Fun! That’s … fun.’
I nodded excitedly, but Silas didn’t quite match my enthusiasm. Instead, he went straight to ordering the snacks and waved me off when I suggested paying. Afterwards, we were directed to the other side by a bored-looking pixie, who was filing her nails while taking our orders at the same time.
‘So, how were your mid-term results?’ I asked Silas, as we headed over to our screening.
Silas winced a little. ‘Not great, at all. I spent two hours being grilled by my mother about my potions grade.’
I sucked my teeth sympathetically. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t a better study partner.’
Silas shook his head quickly. ‘Please, those study sessions were just my excuse to hang out. You know that right?’
I grinned, feeling all pleased inside. ‘I kind of guessed after we didn’t get past chapter one of our textbook.’
‘Hey, but we did have a riveting debate about whether I would look more attractive with my hair dyed brown.’
‘And here you were saying all our conversations were about complimenting me,’ I teased, and his laugh made the tension in his shoulders loosen. I wanted to keep it going, so I segued into a topic I knew he loved. ‘Are you excited for the game on Friday?’
Silas’s eyes lit up, and he launched into his game strategy almost immediately, beginning with how important this game was, and how he wanted it to be a reward for his teammates.
And while I didn’t find rugby to be interesting in the slightest, I did like watching the way Silas became animated when talking about it.
‘Plus,’ Silas added, a little breathless now, ‘we’ve got a coach coming from one of the big-league towns. Hopefully he’s going to be scouting for new talent.’
‘Really?’ I asked, suddenly painfully aware that I’d never considered if Silas wanted to leave Maple Falls once we graduated school.
‘Yeah,’ Silas continued, eagerness coating his every word. ‘That’s why you have to be there – I don’t think I can physically play without my lucky charm.’
‘Well, that’s a lot of pressure – you’re saying you winning all depends on me?’ I smiled, cheekily.
Silas shrugged exaggeratedly. ‘I mean, if the shoe fits?’
‘Now, Silas, a good captain wouldn’t pin his mistakes on a spectator in the crowd,’ I said, putting on my best stern voice.
‘I would if she was pretty enough to distract me,’ Silas said, and his eyes glimmered with amusement.
I felt my cheeks go hot. ‘Well, seems only fair given how much you’ve distracted me in potions.’
His smile turned a little wicked at the edges. ‘You saying you were watching me, Maya?’
‘Only as much you were watching me,’ I retorted, because there was no way I was actually going to tell him how hard I’d been crushing on him.
In the speech I’d planned for later, I wasn’t going to tell Silas I’d liked him for years.
I was going to tell him I’d started having feelings for him at the start of the year, and I cast the soulmate spell to see if there was any truth to those feelings, because I’d been hurt before.
He could be mad that I’d done it, that I cursed the town – I could only hope five days would be enough to get over it.
But in the happier version of this day that I envisioned, Silas was reciprocating. Understanding. And vowing to help me. It ended with Silas seeing me and not leaving.
As we found our seats, Silas became suspiciously quiet – maybe he was one of those serious theatregoers. One of those who couldn’t handle even the slightest of noises. Note to self: do not crunch your popcorn loudly.
The lights dimmed, casting us all into darkness, and the trailers began. I felt myself being swayed on a boat as a trailer for some siren and pirate movie rolled on to our screens. I glanced over at Silas and saw he was looking queasy. I quickly looked forward again, unsure of what to do.
Midway into wondering if I should offer for Silas to hold my hand, or whether that would seem like I was trying too hard – someone caught my eye.
It was a flash of familiarity. But it couldn’t be.
Yet there he was. Orion Hawthorne.
The sight of him alone would’ve been enough to alarm me.
Except, he wasn’t alone.
Clutching on to the sleeve of Orion’s leather jacket as he walked to his seat was none other than Celine.
They were sitting right in front of us – Orion’s seat lined up to mine, and Celine’s to Silas’s.
Orion hadn’t noticed and neither had Celine because of the darkness of the cinema.
Though, I’d be surprised if the siren noticed anything beyond Orion, given the way she was leaning into him, bringing her head closer to whisper in his ear.
I tried to remember if he had mentioned taking Celine on a date, but my mind was filled with the day we had spent at the Treasure Trove, mapping out new recipes and learning new spells. Not a mention of Celine.
And I’m not sure why but I felt a pinch of hurt in my chest, like someone had pressed their thumb against a bruise on my heart. I shouldn’t have cared; I had told Orion my feelings for him were long gone. That jealousy should’ve also been gone now.
But it wasn’t.
My envy was louder than any sound in my head.
It was filling my veins like poison. When I saw Celine reaching up to touch his face, a sense of possessiveness ran through my body like a live wire, and I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t handle that feeling. I was never this possessive over Silas, even knowing that a lot of other girls at school liked him. But with Orion, it was different.
And it was just as her fingers were about to touch his skin that I decided to kick the back of Orion’s chair, hard enough that he jolted away from her oncoming touch and shot an incredulous look over his shoulder. Directly at me.
Our eyes met, and he didn’t look startled. He didn’t even bat an eyelash. A smirk curved around Orion’s mouth, and, without a second thought, he turned right back around.
I saw red.
Violent. Red.
I wanted to do something, like yank at his hair. But I couldn’t. Not with Silas sitting next to me, stiller than a statue. Or Celine, sitting further away now, and giving me small glances over her shoulder.
Instead, I had to sit through the whole movie, staring at the back of Orion’s head. My gaze burning a hole into his skull. I couldn’t believe he was here, and, more importantly, I couldn’t understand why.
Why was he here with Celine?
Why did he come here at all?
Was it about me – or was I just being vain?
Not even Silas could distract me from the questions swirling in my head.
Usually, I would’ve been paying attention to every detail of Silas, trying to figure out what he liked and didn’t like.
But today, that was impossible. So much so that when the credits finally rolled on to the screen, I stood up, and, in the process, kicked Orion’s seat again.
I heard a little grunt but refused to apologize.
‘Hey,’ I said to Silas, who shot me a quizzical look. ‘I’m just going to head to the bathroom really quick. Meet outside?’
The werewolf nodded, giving me a wan smile that didn’t match his usual mood, and I was scooching past cinemagoers without a second thought. I made a beeline straight out of the cinema and considered pulling out my phone to text Orion to meet me outside.
But I didn’t have to. Moments later, he was strutting out of the cinema himself, hands tucked into his pockets, an easy look on his face.
‘You know, I could have you arrested for assault,’ Orion said as a greeting, a smile ticking at his mouth.
It wasn’t what I expected him to say, and just the sound of his easy cadence made my blood boil.
‘Why are you here with Celine?’ I asked, seething.
Orion didn’t flinch or call out my hypocrisy of asking him any questions. If he was on a date with someone, who was I to care?
‘Last time I checked you and wolfie don’t own the cinema,’ Orion countered, still too relaxed for my liking.
‘You knew I was coming here, so why did you choose to bring Celine here?’ I demanded.
‘She wanted to see a movie,’ Orion said, but then his tell became so obvious.
‘Lies! You forget Hawthorne, I know when you’re lying. That little twitch on the side of your mouth, yeah, I know about it.’ I strode towards him, practically poking the side of his mouth of my fingertip. ‘You’re sabotaging what was supposed to be an amazing date with Silas!’
‘If it was meant to be amazing, my presence shouldn’t have ruined it,’ he shot back, and there was that heat to his voice that I was looking for. ‘Is it bothering you that I’m here with Celine?’
I made an affronted noise that sounded too loud in the quiet street. I hated that he was right by even a fraction. Orion being here shouldn’t have bothered me so much; the sight of him being with Celine shouldn’t have made me envious. And yet, it did.
Orion watched my face, his gaze dragging across its every contour, like I was a map he was studying. Invisible fingers traced over my frown lines and the obvious signs of my anger. I couldn’t let him see that those feelings I had buried were so close to the surface.