→ A horror movie called my life

→ Meh, Horror movies make me laugh

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prickly dress?" I cried begging, mustering up the best pouty face I could.

"Angel, come on, it's not that bad. It even looks like a butterfly, see?" daddy sighed, almost out of ideas and at the end of his patience line.

But I wouldn't, I couldn't put on that prickly gem filled thing made by the evil queen herself called a dress. The dress was baby pink and had a lace neckline, flowery designs filling the top half with net cloth. Another layer of fabric lay below, the same color pink hiding the proof of the separate cloths. Gems stuck along the fluttery dress near the no sleeved top section. The bottom flowed, puffing out from the nets placed underneath and had dark pink flowers, more visibly designed across the bottom layer of the dress.

But most importantly, it was pokey. Super prickly and pokey and uncomfortable and I refused to put such monstrosity on.

"Daddy if it's not that bad then why can't you wear it?" I frowned, not understanding why I had to wear that pokiness and daddy was just wearing a simple striped shirt.

"You want me to wear that?!" Daddy emphasized the 'me', his eyebrows shooting up almost reaching his hairline. I giggled, nodding over excited so my chin hit my neck before looking up at the sky. "Okay, let me try then." And that's what daddy did. He picked up the tiny dress, holding it over his top and tapped his chin, questioningly.

"Daddy! That looks ri-di-cu-lus!" I screeched, almost doubling over in laughter.

"Exactly angel! This dress is for little girls and I'm not a little girl am I?" He asks, placing the dress on the bed.

"I'm a big girl too!"

"I know you are, angel, this is for big girls too." I think this new piece of information over for a moment.

"Pinky promise?" I ask a minute of thought later.

Daddy stuck his pinky finger out to me and I latched mine onto his, taking his promise. "Okay daddy! I'll wear it!"

"Thank you princess," he sighed, content with my answer. I place a sloppy kiss on his cheek and grab the dress from the bed, deciding I would deal with the evil dress just if it would make daddy happy.

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I lay peacefully in my new room, headphones plugged into my phone blasting music into my ears, exhausted from the events of that day. The boys were all at work or their respective sport practices and Eli was the only one home in the mansion. I hadn't heard from him since after the boys left so I assume he's doing his own thing.

Right after entering the mansion after school, I made my way up to the room I would soon learn to call my room. For the first time in forever, I wouldn't have to worry about work or watching over my mother to make sure she didn't break anything.

The question Caden asked me today morning before school circles through my head. Do you want to go to your mother's funeral? My mother never acted as one towards me due to her never being sober enough to even realize that she had a daughter. But she was still my mother wasn't she?

Lost in the tunes playing off the speakers, I don't notice the door creek open and the tall boy stick his head inside the room sneakily, watching me hum along with the song. Closing my eyes, I swayed along with the music and the tune replicated by my voice. The song ended with a beat of a drum and strum of a guitar, dragging me back to reality. I finally lifted my head to see Eli standing quietly in a corner, his intense gaze directed towards me.

When he knew he had been caught, he gave me a sheepish tiny wave. I stared expectantly at him, not expecting an audience to my pitchy humming.

"Oh yeah," he cleared his throat. "Okay first, you have a beautiful voice and second do you wanna watch a movie with me?"

"A movie?"

"Yeah a movie, you know those things that play videos to make a story?"

"No duh," I reply, my sarcastic side seeping through the quiet frontier I had hoped to put up. "That would be nice."

"Okay so come on." Giving up the warmth of my bed, I pull the comforter off and skip behind Eli. After the events of the previous night followed by my break down, I had somehow let my own personality stick out in cracks and as much as I tried to push that part of me, the once jolly girl I used to be, back down, it somehow kept finding its way up. Maybe it was something about these boys that reminded me so much of my dad and that at least one person, no four, still cared about me.

Eli led me through the maze of a mansion and finally to a large cream painted room, one that doubled the size of my entire house back in New York. The room had a flat screen TV and a long couch that stretched across two walls in the room. A white rug, that seemed the closest thing you would see to a cloud, lay on top of the soft carpet flooring.

Eli plopped down on the very end of the couch and I consciously sat a few feet away.

"You wanna come closer? I promise I don't bite," Eli said jokingly, but I caught onto the hurt tone of his voice. Did I do something wrong already?

I nodded and scooched in a bit so I was more or less a few inches away from Eli. He leaned off the couch, towards the coffee table and picked up a remote with only four buttons lining its smooth surface.

"So, what do you want to watch?" He asks as he leans back onto the couch comfortably, positioning himself.

The question caught me by surprise for two reasons. I didn't expect my opinion to be valued but the look Eli was giving me showed me it wasn't a sarcastic. And the second-

"I don't... I never... I didn't..." I start, already screwing up my words. "I don't know any shows. I've never really watched TV in a long time," I finished, embarrassed. Long time would be an understatement. The last time I had even touched a remote was when I was four, watching Tom and Jerry and laughing out loud with my dad.

"Oh," Eli replied, scrunching his face up, dwelling on my revelation, before swallowing. "That's alright, don't worry." A sudden mischievous smile appeared on his face. "How would you feel about watching a horror movie?"

I didn't mind watching a horror movie. Living with my mother was similar to taking part in a horror film. Out loud, I only replied, "Sure."

Eli gave me a quick nod before experiencedly scrolling through multiple squares with different movie names written on them, finally landing on a movie.

The movie had a picture of a young boy sitting on a gray bench in a hollow looking room, staring in front of him with a terrified look on his face. A mist seemed to fall in the background and the title read 'Psycho' in bold letters. Eli clicked one last time on the remote and a autumn setting filled the screen before all the lights shut off.

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Multiple screams and a box of popcorn later, Eli, Mason, and I squish together on the couch, holding onto each other for dear life. My 'horror movies won't be bad' theory was crushed the moment a crazy haired woman with blood all over appeared on the screen, holding a knife. Mason joined in half way through the movie, his hair wet from a shower, and had sat on the couch inches away from me. By the time the film rolled its credits though, we were all basically sitting on top of each other, horror stricken looks on our faces.

"I- I didn't know it would be that bad," Eli shivered.

"So much for manliness," Mason added, still clutching my arm tightly.

"I don't think I like horror movies," I decided, finally taking my head, that I had somehow managed to bury on Eli's shoulder through the movie, to look up.

A second switch came on in the dark room and Mason looked ready to scream once again. In the doorway stood Aiden, watching us with curiosity circling his blue eyes. "What happened to you guys," he finally snorted, before falling into a fit of laughter.

"Shut up, it was a scary horror movie."

"A horror movie?! All this for a horror movie," he finally managed to choke out.

This time it was me to talk, "If you're so sure, you wanna try watching it?" Aiden looked at me, amusement in his eyes before laughing yet again. He fell onto the floor, gasping with laughter. Eli chuckled as well, Aiden's contagious laughing catching up with him. Seconds later, we all lay on the floor shaking after doubling over with laughter.

Caden walked inside the room next, taking one look at us before turning back around on his heels. "I'm not even going to ask."

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