The School Idol's Roommate [BL]

Sleepover (4)

Liam recovered quickly and pretended to be interested in Zy's list so no one really noticed. Except for Aki.

"Aki, do you remember this?" Zy turned to Aki, pointing at an eerie movie cover.

Of course, he remembered. He watched it with Zy when the film first came out in the cinemas. Watching horror films used to be one of their bonding moments. It was an integral part of their sleepovers. When they became friends with Drew, Zy tried reeling him in too but failed. Drew loved action flicks preferably with lots of cars as it was closer to his interests.

"I remember you liking this and thought we could watch it again."

Aki heard the silent 'so today's the best chance!' It was a movie about a haunted house based on the accounts of paranormal investigators. He liked the scare so he returned Zy's hopeful look with a wide grin.

But his grin faltered when Aki noticed Liam fiddling with the cords and the remote, looking confused about which was which even though Aki knew too well that Liam had memorized his gadgets. When Zy asked Liam if he was okay with their choice, his lips quivered as he replied in an unenergetic tone a short 'yeah'.

Aki chewed his lower lip as he browsed through the titles, looking for a lesser horrifying film, preferably a horrible one so they could all just laugh at the absurdity of it. "How about this?" He pointed at the one in which he remembered to have a rather tame ending.

One look and Aki knew that Zy was still fixated on the first movie he recommended. "How about we let Liam pick what he wanted to watch?" Zy suggested.

Liam made himself look small and unobtrusive, this appearance as loud as a sign hanging on his neck, saying "let me disappear." It took a moment before Liam's usual smile returned. "I'm not well-verse to horror films, so I'll leave it up to you."

Zy gave Aki a triumphant smile and pressed play.

"Wait! This one! Let's watch this!" Aki caught Zy's wrist and pointed a different film.

Zy leered. "Aki... I didn't know you're into this."

"I!" Aki stumbled with his words. He could feel the heat on his face. The cover of the movie he picked had a woman wearing her nighties and chained to the bedposts while a half-naked man was sprawled beside her. Despite being listed as a horror, it looked less scary with that cover.

Zy shook his head, suppressing his smile as he played Aki's chosen film.

Aki chugged his drink and joined Liam who scuttled at the far corner of the sofa. His roommate was playing it cool and indifferent but his shaky breath betrayed him. Aki considered saying something, either divulge Liam's secret to the other two or console Liam. The first option would embarrass Liam considering his desperate attempt to hide the fact that he was scared. The latter seemed appealing but Aki did not know what he should say. It might hurt more than it would help since Aki seemed to be in a habit of saying the wrong things lately.

Instead of paying attention to the movie, Aki focused all of his attention on the bottle in his hand and downed his drink. He started feeling woozy so he decided to rest his head on the back of the couch. The moment he laid his head, that feeling of comfort instantly spread all over him as if he was leaning on a pillow.

'This is so nice.' He thought as he shifted his head to get more comfortable and letting out a satisfied groan. He tried concentrating in the movie but with too much drink and the comfortable position he had was enough to make him sleepy. No one talked either when they started watching. The living room was quiet save for the sounds coming from the TV.