Page 9

NOEL

“Where were you today?” I ask over the song when Alex picks me up.

“Watching anime.”

“You just skip school whenever?”

“It was a mental health day,” he jokes, but it feels honest.

I don't say anything else, and only a couple minutes later we pull up a long, windy, paved road. I'm expecting a small theater with broken windows and boarded-up doors. What I see is a building as big as Alex's house.

What used to be MOVIECROWN is now just CROWN, where the letters are torn down. It doesn't look all that old, and the grass is overgrown, which is the biggest tell that it's vacant. There's a bunch of other cars parked in the old lot and students my age talking or smoking right outside the building.

I look at Alex, who's watching me with a growing grin.

“Not what you were imagining?”

“This place is huge. Who owns it?”

“No idea. For now, it's our hangout spot.”

I open up my door. “If the cops show up for trespassing, I'm using your name.”

Alex meets me around the car. A few people say hello to him, and he nods, not really giving them attention.

When we walk inside, I'm greeted with an open, bright area. The main lobby. Up ahead is a circular countertop that sits in the middle of the lobby, with large letters spelling out CONCESSION high above the space. There are old menus with pricing on drinks, hotdogs, and candy. The color scheme is loud, with this area being turquoise and deep red, matching the spiral carpet that is surprisingly clean for such a rundown building. Behind the concession, I see old cash registers with computer screens and busted-up popcorn machines. All around the walls of the main lobby are movie posters still in the glass casings, although they're shattered, scratched, and smudged.

It’s dystopian, in a way.

“I'll show you the rest of the place, c'mon.” Alex takes my hand and pulls me further back, where we pass bathrooms and an old arcade. There's only one machine set up—something with broken buttons now. It's a little creepy. There's a sheen of dust over it, but the more we walk, the darker it gets. It looks like there's five or so auditoriums with doors propped open.

There are a couple people smoking by the door leading into the biggest theater room.

He doesn't take me to any of the auditoriums but goes to the door labeled basement.

I hesitate. “Uhh… no, thanks.”

Alex turns his head to face me. “What are you afraid of?”

“The creepy, dark basement in an abandoned movie theater,” I reply, seriously.

He laughs, putting a hand to my shirt. “You think I'd let anything happen to you?” His voice takes on a sultry, deep tone that I think is teasing? He's smiling like a demon, so he must be joking.

“Alex...”

“Noel, give me some credit. Don't you trust me even a little bit?”

His demeanor doesn't show any signs of deceit. Just those deep blue eyes that shine with mirth. I sigh, walking down into the pit of hell with Alex laughing behind me. “There ya go! What a brave boy you are,” he croons sweetly, and I ignore what it does to my insides.

When I descend into the darkness, I walk into chaos. The room is spacious and looks like hundreds of glow sticks were tossed into a blender, and this is the inside of the blender. There are no actual overhead lights, except for the neon paint-splattered walls of glowing greens, blues, purples, and yellows. Even the floors are glowing. There's some sort of black light making everything stand out and graffiti on the walls of various words, most notably the wall that is covered with big, bubbly letters: KVA

Off to the back of the room is a projector set up where a few people are playing a video game, using a white sheet as the screen. Couches are set up in various spots around the room, along with theater chairs, too. It's a lot to take in.

Two people rush past me while fencing, without proper protection or with adequate lighting.

I turn to Alex with wide eyes. “That's incredibly dangerous.”

“Yes, it is,” he says, nodding.

The two people are beating at their foils and not going for any body parts, so there's that at least.

“Why is this a thing?”

“I have no idea. Ace probably brought in some extra masks and foils one day, and some kids thought it'd be fun to try it.”

“With the lights off?”

“I didn't say it was a smart idea. Ace is kind of an adrenaline addict, so he probably started it. He does enjoy playing with all sorts of blades.” He bumps my shoulder. “Levi's is his favorite,” he whispers with a wink.

“Levi's foil? Why, is it special or something?”

He shifts back, looking confused at my question for a long minute before he realizes something and laughs loudly. He sticks a finger up. “His blade. Get it?” He flexes it a few times before placing it under his lips. “His dick, Noel.”

“Oh.” I blink and clear my throat.

He chuckles at my reaction. “Shall we?” He tilts his head to the side with a raised brow, motioning for me to go ahead of him.

The two people fencing are crap at it, mostly laughing and kicking at each other while students look elsewhere. The masks glow a bright purple and the other a bright green. The vests are also paint splattered, glowing under the black lights. Even the foils they're using were dipped in the special paint.

It looks kind of cool. Not something a real fencer would ever do, but under the circumstances, I can appreciate it.

“Let's go find the musketeers,” Alex takes my hand and leads me further in the dark.

Oh, he's holding my hand. No big deal, no big deal, I chant over in my head. My heart races, breath shaky and uneven as I feel that soft palm in mine.

Remembering…

No!

I will not do this here. I'll freak out over this when I get home.

The huge projector with the video game supplies enough light for us to see ahead.

“Do you ever fence down here?” I ask him, my voice thankfully not betraying me.

He snorts. “It's a disgrace to say what they do down here as fencing, but no, I don't. I either watch idiots fumble around with a foil or I provide commentary during drunken ‘bouts’ ” He uses air quotes with the hand not holding mine.

“What do you mean, commentary?”

He leads us to a group of people that are eating pizza in a circle, and he steals a slice out of a girl's hand, right before she's about to bite a chunk off. “There's this game they play.” He waves his pizza hand around as he starts to explain.

“Damnit, Alex!” The girl yells who had her pizza stolen.

“The one who calls out “touché” loses—” he continues on. “—no rules except you have to wear a mask, and no actually stabbing your opponent. You can fence around the room, free reign.” He bites into the cheese. “No one ever wants to go against the fencing team for obvious reasons,” he says around a glob of cheese he's chewing.

It sounds dumb and kind of dangerous. I hope no one's been seriously injured before.

I'm sure most people just watch on as two people playfully smack their foils together.

Alex still has my hand in his, so I discreetly pull away, not abruptly. Alex doesn't show any indication that there's an issue. He spots our team first, by the gaming area where Ace has a controller on hand, wearing an oversized black T-shirt under his cropped, hot pink puffer jacket.

Grady waves at us to come sit by him, and Alex rushes over, plopping down on the one available spot left, but he does something that shocks the hell out of me.

He pulls me into his lap to sit.

On his fucking lap.

First the hand holding, and now this?!

“Chill out, just watch Ace play,” he whispers in my ear, and I jerk back. His lips touch my ear.

My face flames like I really am in hell.

“I'm not sitting on your stupid lap!” I whisper-yell so I don't mess up Ace's racing. Alex is staring into my eyes so intensely with a sly smirk that I lose my next breath. His hand snakes up my waist, over my shirt, and grips my hip, shifting me to sit sideways. I give in.

“So, you can listen,” Alex chuckles.

Beside us, Grady nudges his elbow into me to get my attention. “First time here?”

I nod, embarrassed to be sitting on Alex, but glad to have Grady here. “Yeah.”

“You'll get used to the smell.”

“You mean the black mold?”

Grady snorts. “Probably. This place is disgusting.”

“Why does everyone hang here if it's so gross?”

“Rich kids at Knight’s Valor all have one thing in common.”

“Yeah, being rich,” I guess, but Grady just barks a laugh.

“Two things then.”

“He means that they either want to rebel or just get the fuck away from their parents,” Alex cuts in.

“This abandoned movie theater is—”

“—an escape,” Alex finishes for me. “They like to pretend to be rough and edgy by coming here. Also, have you seen how small this town is? Where else would we hang out without adults watching over us?”

Ace ends up getting second place with an applause from a couple girls who cheer for him. He passes the controller to another boy and comes running over to us, sitting on Grady's lap. “Noel! Alex! You made it!” He pulls both of us into a side hug. Alex rolls his eyes but lets it happen, while I flush in embarrassment. “What do you think about the place?” He reaches into Grady’s hoodie pocket and pulls out a sucker, ripping it open and shoving it in his mouth.

“It's… uh… big?”

“That's what he said,” Ace says around the green candy before continuing to talk. “I think it was shut down, like twenty years ago. I can't believe this is your first time here.”

“Yeah, well, Alex begged me to come with him.” I shrug, glancing sideways at him. Alex pulls a cigarette from his pants pocket and sticks it between his lips. I sigh. “Seriously?”

“What?” He asks around the stick.

“We're in a basement.”

“Good observation skills.” He lights up, inhaling a long puff of smoke before blowing it out on my face. I swat at it while he smiles.

“Noel?”

I turn my head at hearing my name and see a student from astronomy class, Max, walking over to me. He's someone I've talked to before for a class assignment, so I know him well enough to say hello back.

“I didn't think you came here; it doesn't seem like your kind of scene.”

“It's not. I'm just here with my team,” I gesture to them, noticing Alex is tense under my thighs. His posture may look relaxed, but I can feel that he isn't.

I watch him give Max his best stare down.

"Well, since you're here, mind if I grab you for a sec? I actually have a question about our project coming up and—”

“He's busy,” Alex interrupts him.

Max blinks, raising his eyebrows. I turn to Alex, curious at his rude attitude change. “It's not a big deal…” I mutter. Alex doesn't look at me. His eyes are on Max. I turn my attention back to him.

“Uh. Okay, never mind, I'll see you in class, dude.” Max shakes his head in disbelief and walks away.

Grady snorts. “You're such a dick, man.”

The hand at my waist twitches. “What was that?” I ask roughly. Alex takes his time smoking before blowing it away from my face so I don't breathe any in.

“Max is an asshole.”

“No, he's not; you are.”

Alex looks at me, seemingly pissed that I called him out for his actions. “ I'm the asshole?”

I nod swiftly.

His grin is slow, taunting. “Don’t tell me that. You might hurt my feelings.”

“Do you even have any feelings?” I grumble and immediately regret it.

Alex doesn't say anything, but he takes his cigarette out and throws it to the floor, stepping on it with a little crunch sound. He nudges me off him, and I stand.

“I didn't mean—”

“Drink?” he asks me, already walking down the strip of occupied seats. At the end of the line, there's a cooler on the floor.

I don't follow him. I turn to Ace and Grady, who are talking about something in low, hushed voices.

I sit down and wait for him to come back so I can apologize.

Grady taps my shoulder with a fist to get my attention. “Don't worry about Alex, man; he's hot and cold. Just wait for him to come back, guarantee he'll be cracking jokes.”

“I was a little harsh.”

His eyebrows scrunch together, the metal in his left brow glinting in the projector light. “You think his feelings are hurt? Nah, he's just thirsty.”

Maybe. But Alex isn't really as cold as they think he is. Alex is just… complicated.

When I look over at him again, he's back against the paint splatter wall, where he grabs a used fencing mask and starts to disinfect the inside with hand sanitizer. There's a squirt bottle beside the equipment. He forgoes wearing the vest.

He told me he doesn't play down here. Was he lying?

Alex puts the mask on and grabs a foil, pointing it right at me.

Oh.

The music that's playing suddenly gets turned down, and I see a guy from my history class grab a microphone used for Karaoke since it's set up beside a lit-up speaker box. "Oooh, we got a challenge for a bout! Player one, what's your name?” He yells loudly into the mic.

Everyone knows it's Alex under the purple paint splatter mask, but choosing a fighter name is too hard to pass up, I guess. The group of people that weren't paying attention before suddenly turned their heads and gathered on the sofas and chairs, or stand to watch in amusement at the spot where Alex is standing.

“Call me Deathblow,” Alex says easily, and it feels like he's smirking.

What the hell is he doing?

The guy turns the music to something upbeat and speaks into the battery-operated microphone, turning the attention to me. “Player number two has been called out! Will you accept? Or will you turn it down like a pussyyyyyy?!” He drags the word out for effect, making people laugh.

I roll my eyes, standing up.

Grady grabs my wrist, so I look down at him. “We're rooting for you.” He grins.

“Alex hasn't done this before!” Ace jumps in Grady's lap, excited.

I walk over to him, smiling. Alex nods his head in acknowledgement, spreading his hands out in a welcoming gesture that feels a little bit mocking.

Whatever. I disinfectant my mask quickly and put it on, inhaling the sharp medical scent of a hospital.

“Player two accepts! What do we call you?”

I think it over before responding confidently, “Demon Assassin.” I look at Alex and shrug.

“Hell yeah! We have Deathblow vs Demon Assassin, and I don't know about you folks, but those are badass player names! Let's give a round of applause to these two opponents!”

I laugh under my mask when we get whoops and cheers. This entire situation seems ridiculous. But yet... I'm laughing.

I notice Alex doesn't have the protective gear on, so I don't put mine on either.

Probably a stupid choice, but I'll deal with the repercussions of that later.

Which will be lots of bruising.

“And I have the perfect song for these two badass dudes; let's go!” The announcer turns the music up, and it's a different song than before—something fast with a buildup to a drop. “This one's called Foul Tarnished. On the count of three, you can start. Remember, here at the crown, we are not liable for any injuries that may occur!” That gets people to laugh. I hear someone mention the announcer’s name is Jake.

Ace and Grady are on the couch cheering for us to do our best. Well, Grady is. Ace is screaming, “Slaughter him, Demon Assassin! Rip his guts apart! Make him bleeeeeed!”

“Jesus, Ace,” I mutter and almost miss the start of the match.

Jake screams, “Three!” and Alex is slicing his foil at mine, knocking the thing so hard it reverberates through my arm, which is so not how we do things in foil fencing.

“Fuck!” I yell, stepping back. Alex rushes forward again, hitting my foil. He's avoiding actually going for my body, thankfully. I'd be seriously injured by now if he fought against me for real.

“And Deathblow starts off strong with an attack to the heart, making Demon Assassin almost lose his weapon!”

Alex is ruthless with his strikes.

It's almost like he's angry with me.

“What the hell, Alex? I thought we were playing,” I pant, trying my best to parry his attacks. This is unlike any bout we've had before. It's not even fencing at this point; it's like, what people do with fucking swords or something.

Next thing I know, I'm backing up, having to look behind me so I don't fall over as I'm pushed to the couch where two random people sit.

“And the fight moves to the audience, where two spectators who were making out seem to be held down by Demon Assassin!”

I'm on my back, swiping at his foil as I try to stand back up, the two people on the couch helping me with their hands as they push me up.

“Alex, what the fuck is wrong with you?” I try to yell from behind my mask.

“What isn’t wrong with me?” He retorts, half crazed with adrenaline.

“You’re being a fucking asshole!”

We make our way across the room, beating at the blades roughly, my adrenaline pumping hard at focusing on where I'm backing up and not hurting Alex with the foil.

It's a bout that doesn't end, the dark, glowing room making it a million times harder to see what I'm doing. The song is fun, but it's loud and distracting.

Alex swipes at my arm, and I gasp at the pain, staggering backwards.

Did he just...?

I rush forward and jab my foil at his arm, too, catching him off guard.

He flinches at the pain, and I instantly feel awful.

“Alex, I'm—”

He drops his foil, takes his mask off, and is on me in a second. He grabs my throat, pushing me down to the floor, and I fall back while he climbs over me, straddling my chest, one knee pinning down my left arm.

“Oh-ho! Keep it G-rated, guys, damn—”

“What the hell are you doing?” I yell up at him, taking my mask off with my right hand. He shifts, pinning that arm with his other knee, and my mask rolls out of my hand. His fingers curl against my throat.

“Deathblow, let's chill out, dude!”

“That’s right, I’m the asshole. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day he’s having.” He tilts his head with a chuckle.

What the… is he out of mind right now?

He's not actually using any pressure on my neck, but the act of it pisses me off. I raise my head, trying to get loose from the strong, gripping hold he has on me. “Get off me.”

He pretends to think it over. “Make me.”

I sneer up at him, blowing air through my teeth in a gust. “I don’t want to hit you, Alex.”

“As if you could, Noel,” he challenges with a smirk.

We stare each other down, at a stalemate, clearly no winner in this spat that he absolutely started for no fucking reason.

He can feel me swallow, the way my throat works over his palm. His thumb rubs over it once, slowly, like a caress. My breath catches and I suppress a shiver.

He leans down, lips grazing my right ear. “Touché,” he whispers before leaning back.

Staring up at him now, he looks dejected, troubled, and vulnerable.

My breath hitches.

Grady and Levi are suddenly there behind Alex, hesitant to do anything because it could trigger Alex. I shake my head at them in a clear dismissal.

I think it enrages Alex all the more. He lets my throat go, standing up swiftly. No one says anything. Alex seems to decide not to comment on what just happened and walks away, up the staircase and gone from my sight.

“Deathblow walks away, which means Demon Assassin wins!” Jake finishes the commentary, but it's only background noise to me.

“What the hell is up with you guys?” Grady asks, helping me up. “Was he really upset over that comment?”

I want to go after him, but I don't. I don't know what happened.

“Should I go after him?” Ace suggests.

“No. I think he just needs to be alone right now.”

“That went way too far,” Grady comments.

I rub over my throat, fingers barely touching where he pinned me.

Not understanding what the hell that was.

And feeling like maybe there's things I won't ever understand about Alex.