Pottheads
The next day and a half went by slowly, and I knew it was because I dreaded movie night. I kept trying to come up with some reason to cancel it, but I had nothing. After how seriously we had taken Molly’s absence the week before, I knew there was no getting out of our Wednesday night plans, whether they were a movie or a game. Besides, it was something I had to do for class. Even if I didn’t want to do it, I knew that I had no other choice. Classwork was, no matter how much it sucked, not optional.
Zac brought the DVD back to me during lunch, so I could see no way around having to watch it. I didn’t even have the excuse that the movie was missing. With no other options available to me, I went back to the suite that night and broke out the new popcorn maker Molly had bought for us all to share. Harry Potter was a big deal to us, so I was going to do the best I could to make this an enjoyable night, even if Bella did have to be there. Just as I began pouring the popcorn out into a huge bowl, there was a knock on the door. It wasn’t locked, so whoever had knocked opened it shortly after.
“Pizza delivery!” Taylor called out. “If you don’t have any cash to pay, I’m sure we can work something out, if ya know what I mean.”
“Well, there goes my appetite,” I replied, sticking my finger in my mouth as if to gag myself.
“Mine too,” Zac said, following behind Taylor with a few more boxes of pizza in his arms.
“Just put them on the coffee table,” I said, picking up the bowl of popcorn and walking to the living room with it.
While we got things situated on the coffee table, Bella’s door opened and she walked out into the common area. She paused in her steps when she realized who was with me. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were coming, too, Taylor.”
He shrugged. “Didn’t have any better plans.”
“I just didn’t think you would be into something so nerdy,” she replied, delicately sitting down in the chair and propping her feet up. I noticed then that she had a nail file and polish with her. I should have figured she wasn’t going to pay much attention to the movie.
“Who isn’t into Harry Potter?” Taylor asked, flopping down on the couch.
Bella giggled, as though Taylor had said something hilarious. “Well, I’ve never seen the movies or read the books, so I guess it’s a good thing I’m surrounded by geeks.”
We all chose to ignore the geek comments, and before Bella could say something else offensive, the suite door opened and Peyton walked in.
“You guys haven’t started without me, have you?” She asked.
“Nope,” I replied. “But we’re still missing Molly and Elijah.”
“Elijah should be here soon,” Zac said. “He was just getting in the shower when we left to pick up the pizzas. Doesn’t Molly have her TA thing again?”
I frowned. “Does she? Are we going to have to move this to another night? No more Wednesdays?”
“Maybe,” Zac said. “But right now, all I care about is that pizza. I am starving.”
I chuckled. “Okay, okay. Let’s go ahead and start eating. By the time we get through the previews and a couple slices, maybe Elijah will be here.”
Sure enough, as soon as I went to the kitchen to get some paper plates, the door was flung open again and Elijah walked in.
“Alright, Pottheads! Let’s do this thing,” he said.
“Pottheads?” Bella asked.
“Like, with two t’s?” I replied, sheepishly. “Harry Pottheads. It’s a thing, I guess.”
“Oh,” she replied, giggling very fakely. “Cute.”
I cleared my throat and looked away from her, not wanting to draw any more attention to how geeky I was. “Okay, so let’s go ahead and start the movie, since I guess everyone who is gonna be here is here.”
Everyone settled into seats around the living room as I switched on the television and started the movie. By the time I had done that, there was just one spot left–right between Zac and Taylor on the couch. Somehow, I had a feeling they had all arranged it that way. I didn’t really mind, even though sitting next to Taylor wasn’t my idea of fun. But the opportunity to be close to Zac without it seeming like I had planned it that way was one I always appreciated. Sometimes I worried that I was so obvious about my crush, but every time he said something that implied I was just one of the guys, I knew I wasn’t.
Once the movie was underway, I didn’t think any more about my crush. I lost myself in the movie and just enjoyed it. After I finished my pizza, I curled up closer to Zac, hoping he wouldn’t mind. He gave me a quick glance, which I pretended not to notice. When I felt his arm wrap around my shoulder, I tensed up and I hoped and prayed Zac didn’t interpret that as a bad thing. What if he thought I didn’t want him to touch me? And why was he touching me?
“Cold?” He asked, his voice low. I could feel his breath tickling my ear as he leaned down to whisper to me.
“A little bit,” I replied.
“Here,” Zac said, stretching his arm out and grabbing the blanket off the back of the couch. He spread it out over our bodies and tucked it in around us. “Is that better?”
I nodded. It was better. So, so much better. With his arm back around my shoulder and our bodies under the blanket, I had no excuse not to cuddle up next to him. It wasn’t the first time we had cuddled; in fact, we had a tendency to be physically closer than most friends. I didn’t think it really meant anything, though, at least not to Zac. What it meant to me was a different story entirely.
As Zac and I cuddled, I could feel eyes on us. At first it was just Taylor, who gave me a wink and a slight nudge–thankfully not enough of a nudge for Zac to notice. Then it was Peyton and Elijah, smirking up at me from their seats on the floor. Then it was the pair of eyes I really didn’t want to notice us. Bella. She glanced up from painting her toenails, the brush still suspended in the air, and shot me the briefest of scowls. I almost didn’t believe my eyes. Was I imagining it? A second later, she composed herself and spoke.
“You know, we could make this really fun if we did pedicures too,” Bella said. “What color do you girls want?”
Peyton just made a face, leaving me to reply, “I don’t really wanna… let’s just watch the movie, okay?”
“Have it your way,” Bella replied with a snotty little shrug. “I just thought we could keep going with that little makeover I gave you the other day. Wasn’t that fun?”
No. No, it wasn’t. I didn’t want to be that mean to her, though. There was no point in pissing her off even more than it seemed I already had. I nodded toward the tv screen and said, “Can we just focus on the movie? We have to watch this for class, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bella replied dismissively waving her hand. “I’m sure we’ll have to rewatch it a bunch of times before we finish this project anyway. No big deal.”
It was a big deal, though, and I hoped that Zac could see how impossible Bella was being. I didn’t understand how he could defend her. Even if she was pretty, her personality clearly left a lot to be desired. Couldn’t he see that? As Bella finally went back to painting her nails, Zac gave my shoulders a little squeeze. I glanced at him and he gave me a tiny little smile. Maybe he did understand. Maybe he did finally see Bella the way that I saw her.
When I was just beginning to think she couldn’t get any worse, Bella picked up her phone and began texting. She wasn’t even paying attention to the movie anymore. I couldn’t have even begun to guess who she was texting, but her phone seemed to be constantly beeping to alert her to a new one, and she typed her replies with lightening speed. I couldn’t help noticing that she kept looking over at me and Zac the whole time. Even though it still seemed ridiculous, I wondered yet again if she was actually jealous of our friendship, a friendship that it seemed she might be interpreting as something more than that.
She continued texting during the rest of the movie, and finally, when the trio had started to play the giant game of wizard chess, the door opened and Molly walked in. At least that gave me a distraction from Bella, even if Molly had missed nearly the entire movie.
“Look who finally decided to join us,” Taylor remarked. “I saved you a spot right here.”
He patted his lap as he sad it, and Molly looked absolutely mortified. I knew the feeling. I wasn’t the only target of his shameless flirtation, even though it never seemed to bother Zac when Taylor flirted with anyone else.
“I think I’ll pass,” Molly replied. “But I will take a slice of pizza, if there’s any left. I know how you guys are.”
“We might have a few slices,” Taylor said, opening a box and passing it to Molly, an evil smirk on his face. “How do you feel about extra meat?”
“When you offer it to me? It makes me consider becoming a vegetarian.”
“I suppose I could have a slice now that my nails are dry,” Bella piped up.
Taylor passed the pizza box to her and she gave him a sickeningly flirtatious smile. It was obvious that she got his implications and was throwing them right back at him. I just couldn’t understand her at all. Did she want Zac or Taylor? Or both? She could have Taylor; I really didn’t care. But Zac was–
Who was I kidding? He wasn’t mine. If Bella wanted Zac, she could have him, too. He might have been cuddling with me, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t staring at her in a way that made my body feel like it was on fire.
“Can we rewind a little bit and rewatch the last part since Molly walked in?” Peyton asked. “Sorry, I know we’ve all–well, almost all–seen it before, but I’d like to see the ending without anybody talking over it.”
Everyone agreed and I grudgingly pressed rewind and found the spot where we had been before Molly finally joined us. I didn’t want to do it, but I couldn’t argue with the rest of them. All I wanted right then was to be anywhere but sandwiched in between the two boys Bella seemed to be trying to seduce.