~ Chapter 42: Spend a normal day and watch three horror movies in a row. ~

(A/N: I can't believe this book is #43 in General Fiction, this is insane to me, thank you guys so much! I love having your feedback on it and reading your comments :) So, we're getting a little closer to the end now, just to remind you there are 51 chapters in total + an epilogue + Damon's Bucket List but I have to upload the last four chapters together because I think it's best this way so you sould have the ending in four days! Anyway thank you guys again, I'm so happy you like this book and as usual, don't forget to vote/comment! <3 

Songs for this chapter:

Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars ft. Mark Ronson

Stockholme Syndrome - One Direction

Touch and Fun - Troye Sivan

Shut Up And Dance - Walk The Moon)

                                                                         *

        Damon and I got home the next day. We slept almost the whole following day because we were exhausted from the trip and all the skiing and sport we had done. We woke up the next day in my bed, with the sunlight sneaking through the window and I cursed myself for not closing the blinds.

“Hey.” Damon whispered next to me, stretching his arms over his head. “How long did we sleep?”

I checked my phone. “I think thirteen hours.”

He laughed. “We should probably get out of bed then.”

He slipped outside of it first and took the notebook. He ticked off Drive a snowmobile and paraglide and looked at the other things.

“I guess we won’t be able to ride an elephant around here.” He stated, turning the page. “How about Spend a normal day with my girlfriend just watching reality TV while eating buttery popcorn?”

“That sounds awesome, I feel lazy as hell today.”

He smiled.

“Hey, when you wrote that, was it meant for Katie?”

I bit my lips after asking that question. What had gotten into me? Was I looking for trouble? Things were good and the mood was carefree, why did I need to bring Katie into this!?

But Damon just laughed.

“No silly, I put it on the list after we got together and did crazy and adventurous things. I thought it might come handy one day and I think today’s perfect for it.”

I let out a little sigh or relief and said ok. I got out of bed too and we went down in the kitchen. Jenny was still at college for a week then she would come back to live here and I couldn’t wait to have her home, even though it was nice to have Damon walk around half-naked. It was more than nice actually. And to have the possibility to make out or more anywhere we wanted, anytime we wanted. I was still in my pajamas, actually it was more like a tank-top and shorts but Damon didn’t seem to mind at all so I didn’t bother dressing up.

“Pancakes?” Damon asked, looking through the food we had in the fridge and closet.

“Yum. With chocolate chips?”

“Duh!”

I laughed and helped him prepare the batter then make the pancakes. We they were ready, we took them with us and sat in front of the TV to eat them. I looked at the program, trying to find something else than the Kardashians to watch because as much as I enjoyed crappy reality TV, I didn’t want to get carried into it again and I knew if I started to watch, I wouldn’t stop again. Yes, I was a crappy-reality-TV addict but admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery!

At lunch time, we ordered pizzas to continue down our carb-filled day path, then Damon grabbed the notebook and showed me what he wanted to do. Watch 3 horrors movies in a row.

“Seriously?” I asked, frowning my nose a little.

“Come on! It’ll be fun. And I’ll let you grab my arm every time you get scared.” He joined both his hands. “Please!!”

“Fine! But I want extra popcorn and you have to promise you’ll sleep with me tonight otherwise I won’t be able to.”

“Of course I’ll sleep with you tonight, why the hell wouldn’t I?”

I shrugged, laughing and picked a candy from the bowl in front of us. Damon searched for the horror movies on the computer that he branched to the TV.  He closed the curtains for full-on effect and we snuggled up on the couch with food on the table in front of us. I put my head on his shoulder and it relaxed me instantly.

The start of the first movie wasn’t that bad but the end scared the hell out of me and I dug my nails inside Damon’s arms enough to leave croissant marks on it. I apologized but he just laughed, saying it was ok and he had it coming. Then he put the second movie and when I heard a noise in the stairs, I almost jumped from my seat. I paused the film and begged Damon to go see what it was. He laughed at me and took the flashlight of his phone to show me there was nothing at all, then came sitting back and I hit him with a pillow.

“What was that for?” He asked, surprised.

“You said we’d be spending a normal day but I’m about to pee my pants and it doesn’t feel that normal!” I complained.

He brought me closer in his arms and kissed my cheek. Then he unpaused the movie and the horror started back again. I think it was safe to say I definitely wasn’t a fan of horror movies. We took a break between the second movie and the third to make eggs and eat a little (Yes, I am well aware we ate all day, thank you.) then went back on the couch and thus began the third row of horror movies.

The torture ended an hour and a half later when the credits of the third movie started rolling.

“Hallelujah!!” I exclaimed, getting up from the couch.

I didn’t go anywhere though because it was dark all around and I was scared shitless so I waited for Damon to escort me to the bedroom.

“This was terrible!” I stated, ticking off Watch 3 horrors movies in a row.

“It wasn’t that bad, it’s my arm we should be talking about! Look!”

The poor man had croissant marks all over and redden areas because of my fingers clutching them. I bit my lips.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright, I shouldn’t have said you could.”

“I would have done it anyway.”

“I know.” He laughed, joining me on the bed. “Plus, it gave me my experience of what it would have been like to assist you while you were giving birth.”

I looked at him a few seconds without saying anything then we both laughed. It was easier to laugh about it rather than have another awkward moment thinking “If I ever have children, who will never be yours”.

He opened his laptop and looked for something on it while I took mine to write a little. It was nice, to just do normal stuff next to each other. I could see him glancing towards the screen sometimes but never for more than three seconds so I knew he wasn’t really reading.

I realized an hour later that I hadn’t stopped writing once and had filled a lot of pages of Word, almost reaching the end of my story, but not quite yet. I had parts of the epilogue written out already but I still needed to link them together. I turned my head and saw that Damon had fallen asleep. I smiled at the sight of his peaceful, beautiful face and my eyes stayed fixed on his lips for a few seconds before I could get myself to move. I was already in my pajamas but I wanted to take a shower before going to bed.

I let the water run on me for a long time, a little lost in my thoughts. I couldn’t wait to have Jenny back to talk to her about everything that was going on in my head, and to hear about her a little too. I also wanted news of my college friends that I hadn’t seen for a while now. They weren’t close friends of mine but I still liked them so I wanted to know how they were doing.

I also realized I really had to call my parents. I hadn’t talked to my dad in forever. He and I didn’t have the closest relationship ever but we used to be pretty close nonetheless back when I was living at home. We had the same kind of character, both reserved at first, and we both enjoyed reading and doing quiet activities more than sports or going to parties for me.

I got out of the shower, got dressed then looked at the time on my phone. It wasn’t too late to call now, my mother was probably watching TV talking with one of her friends on the phone about the plot of the series she was watching and I could just as easily imagine my dad reading in his big armchair, his glasses on the bridge of his nose. It had been so long since I came back home to see them! I knew Seth had a few weeks ago but with all of my trips and everything going on ever since Damon moved in the house next to mine, the idea of going back home for days hadn’t even crossed my mind. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Damon and I knew I would go back home for a long time once he would… be gone. Staying here would be too painful and would be bringing back too many memories. Everywhere would make me think of something we would have done together and I didn’t want to put myself through this kind of pain right from the start of my grief. I would come back eventually of course, but not until a while.

I went downstairs and sat in the couch then pressed the button to call my mom’s phone. I knew my dad wouldn’t be answering, or wouldn’t even know where his phone was to begin with so calling my mom meant having more chance to have them on the phone. Proving me right, my mom answered at the third ring.

“Leah honey!! I’m so happy to have you on the phone!”

“Hey mom!” I smiled widely; glad to talk to her too. I hadn’t realized how much I missed my parents until I was actually talking to one of them now.

“How have you been? I feel like it’s been ages since we haven’t talked! I miss you!”

“I miss you too. And I’m doing great, I saw Seth last week and Jenny and Damon and I went skiing.”

“Really? Skiing? That’s a funny idea. Was it nice?”

I knew she wanted to ask questions on why the hell we had gone skiing in the middle of the year and I mentally thanked her for not asking them. I wouldn’t have known what to answer, apart from the truth and that would have been hard and horrible to explain over the phone.

“It was awesome, we even went dog sledding, we drove a snowmobile and we went paragliding in the end.”

I told her everything abut our trip and the things we had done, leaving out of course everything PG-13 and I could almost hear her smile through the phone. I really had missed talking to her. She asked about Seth too so I told her about how happy he seemed to be with Jenny, how the two of them were perfect for each other even if I had taken ages to realize it and we talked for what seemed like hours.

Then she passed me my dad and I talked to him too, but we also exchanged about the books we had been reading, about my story, how it was advancing and everything. I loved that he cared about it but I didn’t say much because I didn’t like to talk about my story, it felt too personal for some odd reason even if it wasn’t the story of my life at all.

“We really miss you, and Seth too, you guys should come visit soon.” My dad said, a little while later.

“I promise I will soon, but I can’t right now, I have to finish something first.”

The something being Damon’s bucket list because there was no way I was leaving him for a whole week I wouldn’t get back. We were so close to his deadline now and I wanted to spend every second he had left with him. In a total non-psychotic and stalkerish way, I promise. It sounds worse than it is.

“Alright. You’ll have to warn me before you come though because I’ll have to start cooking the famous lasagna the day before.”

My dad always cooked his awesome lasagna for the big occasions and I guess his children coming home after so long was one.

“Oh how I miss your lasagna!” I sighted dramatically and he laughed.

“I bet you do more than your own folks!”

“Oh come on dad, you know me, I would choose food all the way!” I joked and he laughed again.

I realized it was very late now and I was probably keeping him up.

“I should go to sleep, I have a big day tomorrow.” I said, even though I had no idea what I was going to do tomorrow, I just needed an excuse and it wasn’t technically a lie, Damon and I could actually go bungee jumping tomorrow for all I knew!

“Alright kid, sweet dreams and say hi to Damon and Jenny for me ok?”

“I will.”

“I miss you Leah, I hope you’ll come soon.” He added.

“I promise.”

“Good night. Love you.”

“Good night dad. I love you too. Say good night to mom.” 

We hung up and I stayed on the couch with my phone in my hand, smiling to myself. I had really needed that conversation and I felt much better now. I went back in the bedroom, sneaked up between the sheets and lay my head on Damon’s chest before falling asleep.