Be Mine (11 page)

After Lisa came inside and paid her for watching Bonnie, Natalie slipped into her coat. From the living room, she could hear Leo talking along with Frosty while Bonnie giggled.

As she walked out the front door, Natalie suddenly felt sad and found herself wishing she could stay behind. The only place she wanted to be was sitting on the couch with Leo and Bonnie.

“But I don't want to see a horror movie!” Jennifer wailed. “I hate horror movies!”

It was Friday night, and Jennifer and Will were at the movie theater. That day Will had gotten detention for talking in Art class and Jennifer had had to work again, so they hadn't been able to get together after school. To make up for the lost time, Will had suggested they go to a movie and then hang out afterward.

Jennifer had come straight to the movie theater from DeVille's, so she hadn't had an opportunity to fix herself up. Not that she would have gone to a lot of effort if she'd come straight from home. After all, this wasn't a date. They were doing research!

She was wearing the same jeans and emerald green pullover sweater she'd had on all day and her hair was in a ponytail. But before leaving DeVille's, she had popped into the cosmetics department to add a little lipstick and mascara and give herself a spritz of perfume. That's what free samples were for, right?

“How can you hate horror movies?” Will asked.

Jennifer began counting off on her fingers. “Blood. Guts. Gore. Screaming. Dead bodies. Creepy music. Crazy killers.”

“Yeah! All the good stuff.”

Jennifer shuddered. “Horror movies give me nightmares.”

“Do you sleep with the light on after you've seen one?”

“If you want to know the truth, yes, I do,” Jennifer admitted.

“Jennifer's afraid of the Boogeyman!” Will laughed. “Jennifer's afraid of the Boogeyman!”

Jennifer swatted him on the arm. “Shut up!” She pointed to the list of movies that were playing. “Why don't we see a nice romantic comedy?
Romancing Rachel
is supposed to be good.”

Will stuck a finger down his throat. “Blech! I hate romantic comedies.”

“Why? Afraid you might pick up some pointers?”

“Har. Har.”

Jennifer checked the movie times. “We have to make a decision. The movies are going to start soon.”

“Let's flip a coin,” Will suggested. “Heads we see
The Next To Die
and tails we see
Romancing Rachel
. Deal?”

“Deal,” Jennifer said, thinking that was fair.

Will reached into his pocket for a quarter. Then he tossed it in the air, caught it, and flipped it on the back of his hand.

“Yesss!” Will triumphantly exclaimed as he looked to see how the coin had landed. “We're going to see
The Next To Die
.”

“Fine,” Jennifer grumbled. “But here's a warning. I'm going to be clutching your arm throughout the entire movie.”

Will stepped up to the ticket window. “Not a problem.”

“Here's my money,” Jennifer said, handing him some bills.

Will waved her money away. “Keep it. It's my treat.”

“Thanks,” she said. “But the munchies are on me.”

At the refreshment stand, there was another round of arguing. “Let's get nachos,” Will said.

Jennifer made a face. “Nachos? Who eats nachos at the movies?”

Will pointed to moviegoers who were heading back to their seats with nachos. “They do.”

“Nachos aren't movie food!”

“Uh, look around. We're in a movie theater,” Will pointed out. “And it's food.”

“But it's not
movie
food!” Jennifer repeated.

“What's movie food?”

“Popcorn! It's been eaten at the movies for decades! Nachos haven't.”

“But I like nachos,” Will said.

“Those aren't
real
nachos like you'd get in a Mexican restaurant. The cheese here is made with some sort of artificial gunk.” Jennifer shuddered. “Do you really want to be putting that in your stomach?”

“And the butter they put on the popcorn is real?” Will skeptically asked.

“I don't put butter on my popcorn,” Jennifer shot back.

“Okay, forget the nachos. We'll have a bucket of popcorn.”

“And some licorice,” Jennifer told the girl behind the counter. “Red, please.”

“Red? I like black.”

Jennifer made a face. “I hate black licorice.”

“I hate red licorice.”

“Let's get M&M's instead,” Jennifer said.

“What kind?” the girl behind the counter asked.

“Peanut,” Jennifer said.

“Plain,” Will said.

Jennifer turned to Will. “How can you not like peanut M&M's?”

“I like my chocolate to be pure.”

“So you don't like Snickers bars?”

“Hate 'em.”

“What's it going to be?” the girl asked in a bored voice.

“We'll take a box of each,” Jennifer said.

The girl started ringing up their items. “Anything to drink?”

“I'll have a Pepsi,” Will said.

“We don't sell Pepsi. Only Coke.”

“I'll have a Coke,” Jennifer said.

“Nothing for me,” Will told the girl.

“Why won't you get a Coke?” Jennifer asked. “It's the same thing.”

“No, it isn't.”

“Now you're a soda connoisseur?”

“I can taste the difference,” Will insisted.

“Whatever,” Jennifer said as she paid the cashier.

Once they had their order, they headed into the movie theater. Most of the seats were taken, although they were a few empty spots scattered around. Will started walking to the front row.

“Where are you going?” Jennifer asked.

“To get our seats.”

Jennifer shook her head. “I don't want to sit that close.” She pointed to a row in the back. “Let's sit there.”

“But it's so far away. We're hardly going to be able to see anything.”

“Exactly! I don't need to be that close.”

“How about in the middle?”

The lights in the theater were starting to go down and latecomers were starting to grab the few remaining seats. “Fine.”

They hurried to their seats and Will placed the container of popcorn between their seats. As soon as the movie started, Jennifer closed her eyes. Every horror movie started with a murder and this one was no exception.

“Tell me when it's over,” Jennifer whispered.

“Okay.”

Jennifer listened to the creepy music build. Then she heard a scream.

“It's over,” Will said.

Jennifer opened her eyes just as a guy wearing a clown mask jumped out from behind a bedroom door, lunging with a chain saw. The girl in the bedroom started to scream as the screen turned blood-red and the opening credits began.

Jennifer shrieked in fright and smacked Will on the arm. “You creep! You lied to me!”

Will was laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach. “You should have seen the way you jumped out of your seat! You jumped so high, I thought your head was going to hit the ceiling!”

“That wasn't very nice,” Jennifer grumbled.

Will snickered. “No, but you have to admit it was funny.”

Jennifer watched most of the movie through squinted eyes. Sometimes she looked away from the screen. More than once, she gripped Will's arm, burying her face in his shoulder. Finally, the movie ended. But not before the usual twist ending where the supposedly dead killer came back to life so everyone in the movie theater could jump out of their seats one last time.

“That was awful!” Jennifer exclaimed as they walked out of the theater.

Will stared at his shirt sleeve. “You were really scared. I think you almost shredded my shirt.”

“I told you I didn't like horror movies!”

“Next time we'll see what you want.”

“There's going to be a next time?” Jennifer asked, wondering what Will meant by his comment.

“I owe you for that trick I pulled when the movie started.”

Jennifer tried not to feel let down. What was she expecting? For Will to fall for her and want to take her on a
real
date? Not that she was interested in him as boyfriend material. This wasn't one of those romantic comedies where the bickering main characters wound up together by the end of the movie.

“I have that list you asked for,” Will said, reaching into the inside pocket of his motorcycle jacket. “Want to go over it together?”

“Sure.”

“I don't know about you, but I'm kind of hungry.”

“Me too.”

“Let's grab a bite at The Burger Hut.”

Jennifer knew that The Burger Hut was where everyone went after their Friday-night dates. This wasn't a date, but it couldn't hurt to be seen there together. Of course, they were going to be surrounded by real couples, which would only remind her that she didn't have a boyfriend.

Suddenly, Jennifer was no longer hungry.

“Are you going to give me the silent treatment the entire night?” Tom asked Natalie as they walked out of the movie theater.

“Why not? Don't you think you deserve it?”

“I said I was sorry for what happened last night.”

Natalie thought back to the night before. When she'd gotten home, she'd told Tom their study date was off. Then she'd avoided him all day at school. When he showed up that night to take her on their date, she had walked out to his car without a word. He had tried making chitchat during the drive — he'd even tuned the radio to her favorite station — but she hadn't answered him. Only when they got to the movie theater did he apologize for his behavior the night before. Natalie hadn't said anything. She'd just taken her ticket from Tom and found herself a seat.

“You said it but I don't believe you meant it,” Natalie said as they walked to Tom's car. “I still can't understand why you were so horrible to Leo.”

“I was jealous,” he admitted as he unlocked the car doors.

“Jealous?”

“What? I can't be jealous?” he asked as they got into the car and he turned on the heat. “I hate the idea of you being alone with another guy.”

Natalie stared at Tom in disbelief. “Did you think I was going to cheat on you?”

“No! But I'm sure Leo was getting ideas. You're a knockout, Nat. I'm sure he's never spent so much time alone with a pretty girl.”

“Leo wasn't going to make a move on me!”

“You don't know that. I wanted to make sure he knew you were my girlfriend and not to mess with me.”

Natalie rolled her eyes as she buckled her seat belt. “Spare me the caveman routine!”

Tom leaned across his seat and gave Natalie a kiss. “I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me last night. It'll never happen again,” he promised. “Am I forgiven?”

His apology did seem more genuine this time. It didn't feel like he was just saying what she wanted to hear. “Forgiven.”

“How about we go to The Burger Hut?” he asked as he pulled the car out into the street.

“Okay.”

Natalie knew that she should be flattered over Tom's jealousy. Being jealous meant he had feelings for her, didn't it?

Wasn't that supposed to make her happy?

But she didn't feel happy.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't forget the look of hurt on Leo's face.

Because she could remember feeling that same hurt years ago.

The Burger Hut was packed. Jennifer and Will gave their names to the hostess, who told them there would be a twenty-minute wait. They had just sat down in the waiting area when Natalie Bauer and Tom Marland walked in.

“Uh-oh,” Jennifer said, nervously chewing on her lower lip.

“What?” Will asked.

“Here come Natalie Bauer and Tom Marland.”

“So?”

“Natalie is Claudia's best friend.”

Will rubbed his hands together. “Test run! If we can fool her, we can fool the Evil One! Are you ready to be a couple?”

Jennifer gulped. “As ready as I'll ever be.”

The first person Natalie saw when she walked into The Burger Hut was Jennifer Harris. And she wasn't alone. She was sitting with a guy who had his arms wrapped around her, whispering in her ear. Natalie took a closer look at him. She couldn't believe her eyes. It was Will Sinclair.

From the way it looked, Will was Jennifer's new boyfriend.

Natalie was glad to see Jennifer hadn't been lying and she really did have a boyfriend.

If she hadn't . . .

Natalie shuddered.

She hated to imagine what Claudia would have done.

“I'm going to give my name to the hostess,” Tom said, unbuttoning his coat.

As Tom walked away, Natalie went over to Jennifer and Will. “Hey!” she said.

A startled Jennifer pulled away from Will. “Hi, Natalie.”

“Been waiting long?”

“We just got here.”