The next day, we all meet up for a movie night so that we can celebrate Selena’s return properly. We all sit on a couch and look through a dozen DVDs.

“How about this one?” Rafael asks while pointing at a movie.

“Oh! No no no no! No horror!” I say.

“Why? Are you scared?” Selena asks mockingly.

“No!” I say and blush. “But I still won’t accept it!” I add and fold my arms.

The other two look at each other with an evil smile.

“Don’t you dare!” I say, but then they immediately put the movie in the DVD Player. “You dared.” I say defeated.

“Come on! I’ll hold your hand!” Rafael says with a warm smile.

“Oh! So, this is your plan?” I ask.

“What?! N-No!” he says, stumbling on his words.

“Yep! It is!” Selena says without even looking at us.

Rafael looks at her with an exasperated look.

“What? It is too obvious!” she says with an innocent smile.

I start to laugh while Rafael turns red. After a bit, Selena sets everything up and I put a blanket on the three of us.

“Oh! It’s so hot! I’ll stay on the floor!” Selena says and winks at Rafael, who winks back.

The movie starts and my panicking heart rate goes through the roof. I hate horror movies! Why do people want to be scared?! Suddenly, Rafael takes my hand into his. It is so warm and gentle to the touch. I blush, but I don’t retreat my hand. His presence gives me a calming effect. There is something weird about this movie though. There is no monster. I look confused at Rafael. He also looks very confused. It seems to be a drama show. I start to laugh while Raf looks astonished.

“Guess I win!” I say with a smile.

One hour passes. The show is pretty bad. The acting is terrible, but the emotion! THE EMOTIONS!

“Wow! This is pretty bad.” Raf says, then looks at me. “Wait! Are you crying?!”

“Shhh! The emotion! The emotion, Raf!” I say while crying my eyes out at the drama.

Raf starts to laugh.

“Hey! You’re destroying my moment!” I say and grab a pillow and hit him with it. But somehow that makes him laugh even harder.

“Excuse me drama king!” he says with a grin.

“Oh! That’s it!” I say and we start a full-blown pillow fight.

Selena looks back at us.

“These idiots are perfect for each other.” she says with a smile and returns to the show.

Suddenly, her smile starts to fade as she remembers why she wrote horror on the DVD. A little girl goes up to a tall man and says with an excited tone:

“Father! Father! Look at the beautiful flower I found!”

“Leave me be! I don’t have time for this!” the man says and takes the flower and throws it into the trash.

Suddenly the scene changes and now the girl hugs the man while bringing a drawing with her.

“I drew you! Look!” the little girl says.

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks! Now go!” the man says and doesn’t even look at the drawing as the girls exits the room disappointed.

The montage continues, the girl is now telling her father how much she loves him, and he answers:

“And I’ll love you when you are who I say you are!”

And with that, he shuts the door in front of the girl.

Selena suddenly rises and says something about wanting water, then leaves. I look confused at Rafael.

“Do you think she didn’t like the show?” Raf asks.

“I don’t know.” I admit.

“She seemed upset. Do you think I angered her?” Rafael asks, panicked.

“No! No. It must have brought up a bad memory.” I say.

“Do you think it was the bully that you saved her from?” Rafael asks.

“Maybe… I can still remember her face… I’ve never seen her so afraid since that day.”

I start telling Raf what happened. I close my eyes while I try to remember. It was a dark and stormy evening. I was just taking a walk while listening to some relaxing music, when, suddenly, a girl with long and dark hair passed by me. She looks terrified. She chases after a man. A tall one, dressed in a suit. When she reaches him, he knocks her back. Scared, the girl looks up and pleads for forgiveness, but no mercy is shown by the man. The girl staggers back, tears flowing from her eyes, as the man raises his hand. Immediately, I rush and grab the man’s arm before it hits the girl. Angered by my interruption, he tries to hit me as well. I dodge and then I grab the girl and run. We don’t even look back while we run as fast as we can. After a few minutes, we stop. I look at her. Her eyes are red from crying and her dress is torn apart. She also has leaves in her hair.

“Are you alright?” I ask.

“Y-Yes. Thank you!” she says.

“What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go home.” she says.

“Is your home in the direction that man was?” I ask worried.

She nods. I can see she is still in shock.

“Well, we can wait until he leaves. We can go get some tea. It always helps me when I feel down.” I say, trying to cheer her up.

“I don’t have any money.” she says.

“No worries! My treat!” I say and the two of us head towards a nearby cafe. “I’m Noah by the way!”

“Selena!” the girl replies and the two of us enter the small shop.

I open my eyes after I finish the story. Rafael looks sad.

“Do you know who…”

“No. Didn’t get a good look.” I say.

Rafael hugs me.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”

“Hey, it’s fine…”

“No, it’s not!” he says with a gleam of anger in his eyes.

“It’s not me who that guy hurt… Speaking of Selena, let’s go check on her!” I say.

“Alright.” Raf agrees but grabs my hand in a protective way.

Selena is looking out a window, tears in her eyes.

“What if he was right?! What if they only came because they pity me? What if they don’t like me? What if no one likes me?” she says and closes her eyes as the darkness of fear consumes her.

Suddenly, the door behind her opens and two people hug her. Me and Rafael embrace her happily.

“We got bored without you!” I say and Raf nods. “What are you doing here anyway?”

Selena opens her eyes and wipes her tears before turning with a fake smugness on her face.

“Contemplating on how dorky you are!” she says and then goes to the door.

“Excuse me?!” I say offended while the other two laugh.

Selena whispers something inaudible to herself while she leaves the room.

“No. He was wrong.”

After that, she adds more loudly:

“Okay! Let’s go back to that stupid old show!”

We all return to the couch and continue the evening, laughing at the bad quality of the drama show.