To Be Alone With You

5. movie night

warning: very brief mention of eating disorders.

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CHAPTER FIVE

MOVIE NIGHT

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North's parents were probably the best parents Kaspian had ever met.

Back when he had first met them, he was fourteen, and he was unfortunately already growing facial hair. It was growing in patches, something that Kaspian was extremely insecure about, and he didn't know what exactly to do about it.

So, North's father taught him how to shave correctly, and their mother even taught him how to cook for himself when his own mom was busy with work. And while he was extremely thankful for his mom, he was just as thankful for North's parents.

"Kaspian! My boy! I've missed you complimenting my cooking. North never has anything to say about it," North's mom said as Kaspian walked through the door. She gave him a light kiss on the forehead, and Kaspian's insides warmed.

"Because Kaspian is a suck-up! And also, he lies about everything. Don't believe a word he says about your cooking," North yelled, hearing the conversation from their room.

"Shush, child." She patted Kaspian's cheek, before ruffling his hair. "They're just jealous. Now, go on upstairs, everyone else is here already. We'll talk later."

Kaspian beamed at her, and went up to North's room, momentarily forgetting that Rowan and Atreya were also supposed to be there. Atreya was sitting on the floor, playing some video game with Zahra, and Stella was painting Phoenix's nails a dark shade of pink. Rowan was on North's bed, and North was showing him something they saw on Twitter.

This is so fucking chaotic, holy shit.

"No. I refuse to believe that you didn't cheat. I was literally winning!" Atreya insisted, pointing at the screen.

"Zahra's a fucking beast at video games. She lets you think you've got the upper hand, and then she fucks you over," Stella commented, adding dots of white nail polish to Phoenix's nails.

Phoenix snorted. "She does that in bed too."

"Oh my god, shut up. Literally no one cares about your sex lives!" North cried out, just as their mom walked into the room.

She gave them a dry smile. "Lovely. Just came in to let you know that all of you can stay for dinner if you want. I'll order pizza."

Kaspian felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He knew that it was unreasonable, considering North's mom literally offered, but he hated spending other people's money. He never let anyone else pay on dates (mostly because of his own guilt), he even felt awkward while receiving gifts, because he knew that people had spent money on him. Even though it was harder to pay for people now, considering Kaspian had to stop working three months ago (the restaurant shut down), he still refused to let other people pay or buy things for him.

"They'll stay!"

Zahra shot them a half-hearted glare. "Think we can answer for ourselves," she told them, before turning to North's mom. "We'll stay, Mrs. Sinclair."

She smiled warmly, and shut the door behind her.

"Wanna watch a movie?" North asked, standing up to switch on the fan.

"Ooh, can I pick?" Atreya asked, already grabbing the remote from the bedside table.

"Fine. But only because you lost the game with Zahra, and we feel bad for you," Stella said, blowing lightly on Phoenix's nails.