N♂RMAL

15 | Reality

"You are the best," I grinned as Hunter walked in. He was holding a large meat lover's pizza and a two-liter bottle of Coke. He chuckled at me and set the pizza box on his desk. I stood up and stretched. I had been sitting in bed, figuring out social media stuff, while Hunter was out for the afternoon. He had work stuff to do for RA and then he met the delivery guy for our pizza.

"Whose bed are we sitting on?"

"Either is fine with me."

"How about mine then? I have more blankets."

"More blankets for you to hide under?" he teased. I laughed.

"How did you know?"

He laughed along with me as I cleared off a portion of my desk to fit the pizza for now. We grabbed our own cups that we had. I arranged the blankets to make a perfect blanket cocoon for two, and Hunter grabbed his laptop from his bag.

We settled into my bed, leaning against pillows collected from both of our beds. He pulled up Netflix on his laptop. I grabbed one of the napkins and a slice of pizza. Once he had everything loaded, I handed him the slice before serving myself. He played the movie, and I relaxed, ready for some good scares.

Probably forty-five minutes later, I was tense all over again, waiting anxiously for the next jumpscare. I didn't even know what this movie was, but it was terrifying. I wasn't scared of what was happening on screen. I was more scared by the horrible, sudden seconds of loud sound.

I jumped as another bang rang out from the supposedly haunted house. Hunter was chuckling at me. I smacked him for laughing at me.

"I'm not scared," I protested.

"I'm sure," he humored.

"I'm not!"

He just chuckled once more before focusing on the movie again. After a few more jumps and squeaks from me, the movie ended on a rather terrible end. I felt like the end was predictable, but I didn't care. I had survived my first horror movie.

"The story sucked," I commented as the credits began rolling.

"Yeah, kind of. It's hard to find good stories in movies when you're a book person like yourself though."

"The book will always win. You get to feel like you're experiencing things for yourself if you get really into it!"

"Some movie fans would say the same thing."

I huffed and picked up my cup. I poured more soda into it and sipped from it. I offered some more to Hunter, who readily accepted the sugary concoction. After getting situated once more, Hunter found another movie for us to watch. This once wasn't as scary; I think it was more of a suspense movie. I think it was aiming more for a psychological scare, but it was also kind of predictable. Maybe all of my reading has made me cynical.

I just snuggled up next to Hunter, sipping at my soda every so often. He kissed the top of my head once I was comfortable, and I smiled. Once in a while, we would reach over and grab another slice of pizza or pour ourselves more soda. By eleven, the food that Hunter had brought in just four hours before was completely gone.

"I think you ate more pizza than me," Hunter said, pushing his laptop over to stretch out his legs over the edge of my bed.

"I think you drank more soda than me, so we're even."

"There's a difference between food and drinks."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

I smiled. "I don't think so. They tend to go together. I mean, you've seen drinks on the food pyramid thing before, haven't you?"

"No."

"You liar," I laughed. "There totally is!"

"It's all a lie. A conspiracy to feed big companies."

I continued to laugh, and soon, Hunter broke and began chuckling alongside me. Seeing him smiling at me, I had the sudden thought that he wasn't really here. I was just dreaming, and I would wake up soon to see that this terribly attractive man in front of me was really just my roommate, a simple friend.

Fueled by my irrational fear, I grabbed his hand and sighed in relief when I could feel his warm hand in mine.

"You okay there, Carson?"

"I just wanted to make sure you're real," I told him honestly. I heard that honesty was really good in relationships, and I didn't want to risk ruining this one with him.

He squeezed my hand, further reassuring me of his presence. Surely, I wouldn't be able to feel these things in a dream. I never had before.

"I'm definitely real."

"Good."

I wrapped his arm around my shoulders and snuggled into his side again. He smelled like Axe deodorant, laundry detergent, and testosterone. I had always liked the way that guys smelled like testosterone. Females didn't have that kind of unique body odor; they just smelled like sweat. I guess it was a good thing sometimes, but I had always thought that the smell was comforting.

"Are you cold?" he asked when I tried to nearly bury myself underneath him.

"No," I answered, "I just think you smell good."

"I'm glad you enjoy the smell of a day's worth of sweat and BO."

"You smell like a guy. It's just comforting to me."

I think my words made him think that I was loathing my body again—which was somewhat true—but it wasn't the case, necessarily. I just liked the smell he gave off. He chose to go with a more peanut gallery trivia piece than commenting on my statement.

"I read on Facebook that people you think smell better are more likely to be a good mate for you, as the post put it."

"So why do people use deodorant again?"

He chuckled, "Because other people think we smell bad."

"Deodorant. Ruining my chances of finding a mate since 1997."

He laughed at my lame joke before asking me about my birthday.

"November second," I answered offhandedly. "When's yours?"

"Not in two days."

I looked at him strangely before I understood what he meant. "Oh."

That sent us into another bout of chuckles. "We'll have to do something special for your birthday."

I shook my head at him. "Nope, nope. Don't even try. Just treat it like any other day."

"At least let me get you something."

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Carson."

"Hunter."

We glowered at each other for a moment.

"How about a card?"

"If it's handmade."

"Really, now."

"Yup."

"You're impossible," he groaned.

I laughed as he fell onto his side in defeat. I rested my arm across his upward facing ribs and laid my chin on top of my arm. "Hey, you never told me your birthday."

His eyes snuck to the corner to look at me. He looked amused and overall happy. I couldn't help but feel prideful that I did that—I made him happy.

"March thirtieth."

AN{