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Jonathan sat down, almost spilling the tub of popcorn.
“Careful, dummy. I spent almost ten bucks on that,” Luke said from the seat next to him.
“Sorry,” Jonathan said with a grin. He showed just how sorry he was by flicking a particularly buttery piece at him.
“Really?” Luke grumbled, wiping oil off his face. “Can’t you just behave this one time? For me?”
“Fine.” Jonathan tossed a few pieces of popcorn in his mouth, leaning back. He checked his phone, ignoring Luke whining about the light. “The trailers should start any minute.”
“I still don’t understand why that’s your favorite part,” Luke said, reaching over to grab a handful of popcorn.
“They’re cool,” Jonathan said, poking Luke’s hand. “I like seeing what’s coming out soon.”
“This movie is going to freak you the fuck out, you know that right?” Luke said after a few moments of silence as the lights dimmed even more.
Jonathan shot him a look. “That’s kinda the point. It’s a horror movie.”
“Ok, ok, you know what I mean. If you need to hold someone’s hand, I’m here.”
Jonathan blushed, clutching his knees to his chin. “I’ll be fine.”
Luke only hummed, as the first movie trailer was starting and he knew that Jonathan would be captivated. By the fourth however, he couldn’t help but mutter, “Another Marvel movie? Fuck dude.”
The look Jonathan gave him could have melted steel.
Thankfully there were only five trailers and Luke breathed a sigh of relief when the movie’s logo came up on the screen.
Next to him, Jonathan was trying not to show how freaked out he already was. When Luke had invited him out for a movie, he had told him that he didn’t care what they saw and that had been a mistake. Of course it was a horror movie since Halloween was just around the corner. Jonathan generally liked scary things, but he still got really creeped out by them and could never sleep afterwards. He had shit to do tomorrow, and he knew that he wasn’t getting a lick of sleep that night.
Of course he still hadn’t been able to say no to Luke. He never could.
“You good?” Luke’s hushed voice startled him as creepy, flowing music began playing.
Jonathan looked over, frowning at Luke’s huge grin that practically glowed in the dark.
“Fuck you, man.”
Luke stopped grinning, but his eyes still twinkled. “I was serious, you know. About holding my hand.”
“Not gonna happen,” Jonathan muttered, turning his attention back to the screen. He should have known that Luke had only picked this movie so he could tease him about it.
He settled back further into the seat, curling up and keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead. As long as he looked like he was paying attention Luke wouldn’t hassle him too much.
Or so he thought.
The beginning wasn’t even scary, but Jonathan could feel Luke looking at him enough that it was getting annoying. He kept a straight face and tried to look like he didn’t notice, but it quickly got hard to ignore. Soon, Luke began bumping his leg against Jonathan’s, and fidgeting like he was trying to get his attention. Jonathan still stared straight forward, determined not to let Luke’s joshing get to him.
After twenty minutes of this that felt like an hour to Jonathan, he had had enough. He was just turning to Luke to give him a piece of his mind when a jump scare popped up on the screen out of nowhere and Jonathan fairly shrieked and fell out of his seat. The people around him jumped too, but he could tell that a few of them were laughing at him as he looked around, heart pounding. Embarrassed, Jonathan looked up at Luke. He expected his friend to be laughing too, but he was only looking at Jonathan with an expression that could only be described as fond.
“Here,” Luke whispered, leaning down and gripping him by his forearm. “Get back into your seat, pussy.” His words were mocking, but his voice was kind, and Jonathan was even more confused.
“Thanks,” he muttered, standing with Luke’s help before settling back down, his knees pulled up to his chin again.
He could still feel Luke looking at him, but Jonathan had given up trying to figure out what was going through his friend’s mind. Somehow this didn’t feel like a normal movie outing anymore.
“Can I have the popcorn?” Luke asked after a minute, except he had leaned in so close to Jonathan to ask, that Jonathan could feel his breath on his ear.
“Uhhh, sure.” He grabbed the half empty tub off of the floor and handed it to Luke without looking at him. What the fuck was he doing?
For the next half hour quiet crunching noises came from Jonathan’s left, until Luke apparently finished the tub. By this point, Jonathan had to admit that he was kind of into the movie. Besides the first jump scare nothing had happened that he couldn’t handle. He was just thinking that he might be able to get some sleep after all when the slasher appeared behind one of the characters out of nowhere.
Jonathan held his breath, silently praying that the guy would notice and get away, but suddenly, the slasher swung his axe and took his head clean off.
Jonathan gasped, covering his mouth. He had liked that character.
“Shit!” He heard Luke mutter under his breath from beside him.
Jonathan looked over at him, his eyes still as wide as saucers. Luke smiled at him. “Scary enough for you yet?”
“Shut up,” Jonathan grumbled, but for some reason he wasn’t annoyed anymore. Suddenly he remembered Luke’s offer of holding his hand. Somehow it didn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore. But had Luke really been serious about it? Sometimes it was hard to tell with him.
Jonathan turned back and continued watching nervously. The other characters had no idea what had happened and were wandering around aimlessly. Jonathan couldn’t help but feel like the slasher was going to attack again at any second.
His heart was pounding and he was pretty sure that he was actually sweating with fear. The music was getting tenser and tenser and Jonathan didn’t think he could handle it much longer.
Slowly, almost automatically, his left hand began to edge towards Luke’s right hand. It stopped halfway as Jonathan’s nerves got the better of him. No matter how frightening the movie was making him, he didn’t want to risk Luke thinking he was weird, or lame.
He was about to pull his hand back when something warm and rough covered it. Jonathan looked down at Luke’s hand over his, then up at him in surprise. Luke was staring ahead at the screen, apparently engrossed, but a pink glow covered his cheekbones.
Jonathan swallowed as Luke entwined their fingers together, squeezing gently.
“Your hands are cold, Jonny,” he said softly, eyes still on the movie. Jonathan didn’t know how to answer that, so he stayed silent, trying to act like this was normal. Like he and his best friend always saw scary movies together and held hands like were twelve and on a date.
Jonathan and Luke’s hands stayed clasped for the rest of the movie, which somehow didn’t seem so scary anymore. Jonathan’s heart was still pounding, but it was for a different reason now.
As the lights began to come on, Luke slipped his hand out of Jonathan’s. He immediately missed the solid warmth, but just stood up and stretched, pulling his hoodie down when it rode up. He turned to Luke who was staring at him again.
“It really wasn’t that scary. The ending was cheesy as fuck.”
“Yeah”, Luke nodded absently, “I guess it was.”
Delirious checked his phone, ignoring the fact that Luke had been acting weird all evening. Maybe he wasn’t feeling well.
“Damn, it’s late. And you still have to drop me off at home. Sure you don’t mind?”
“Of course not,” Luke said, finally standing up. He picked up the empty popcorn tub and gave Jonathan a friendly nudge. “It’s not like I’m going to leave you stranded here.”
They left the theater in silence, walking through the cold, almost empty parking lot to Luke’s car. Jonathan shivered and hopped around a little as Luke unlocked it.
When the car was finally warm enough to talk, Luke pulled out of the parking space. He glanced over at Jonathan who was trying to cocoon himself in his hoodie.
“Do you want me to turn the heat up?”
Jonathan shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s getting warmer.”
“Ok,” Luke said, not sounding convinced. “Whatever you say, Jonny.”
Jonathan smiled into his hand at the nickname. Luke used it sparingly, but when he did, it made Jonathan irrationally happy.
“So. Did you like the movie?” Jonathan asked, trying to cover up his childish giddiness.
Luke didn’t take his eyes off the road, but he smiled, his eyes crinkling.
“Uh, yes. I did. I really, really did.”
“Really?” Jonathan asked critically. “Besides a few parts, I thought it was kind of shit.” Too late, he realized that Luke hadn’t been talking about the movie. “Oh.”
Luke glanced over at him. “What’s, ‘Oh’?”
Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He had to know, even if it made things weird. He had to know.
“Luke? Was this a date?”
There was silence for a moment, then Luke said mildly, “Why would you ask that?”
Cautiously, Jonathan said, “Because you picked me up, you paid for the tickets and the popcorn, and you held my hand. Also, you only picked a horror movie so you would have an excuse to hold my hand, and I can’t believe I just realized that. God, you are fucking cheesy.”
“Sounds like you have it all figured out,” Luke said, glancing at him again. His expression was amused, but Jonathan thought that he could detect a hint of nervousness as well. “Is…is that ok?”
“What, the fact that this was a date and you didn’t bother to tell me?” Jonathan asked, feeling slightly hysterical.
“Um, yeah. Sorry about that. I thought, I dunno, that we could try it out without making a big deal about it. If you want we can forget that it ever happened. You’re right, it was cheesy as fuck. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Jonathan was starting to get slightly concerned about Luke’s driving as he seemed to be paying less and less attention to the road, so he cut off his friend’s babbling with a laugh, long and loud.
“I didn’t answer your question right. Yes, it’s fucking ok. It’s really, really ok.”
“Oh.” Luke looked genuinely surprised, then happier than Jonathan had ever seen him before. “Okay. Good.”
He seemed unable to speak in complete sentences anymore, and Jonathan was afraid that he’d broken him. Fortunately, they were just pulling up in front of his house.
After Luke parked, he turned completely in his seat to look at Jonathan. “We’re here,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Obviously,” Jonathan said softly.
“Can I walk you to your front door?” Luke asked, turning off the car. He was really smiling now.
“Why not?” Jonathan laughed. He got out of the car, and walked with Luke up to his door. Their shoulders brushing ever so slightly gave Jonathan goosebumps even more than the cold night air.
When they got there, Luke turned to face him. He wasn’t smiling anymore, instead the look on his face made Jonathan’s heart race again. Luke stepped in closer, his hot breath ghosting against Jonathan’s cool cheeks.
“This was the best date I’ve ever been on,” he murmured, his warm hands slipping into Jonathan’s cold ones. He leaned forwards like he was going to bump their foreheads together and Jonathan held his breath. “Thank you.”
“What for?” Jonathan asked, realizing for the first time that Luke was a little bit taller than him. He had never felt so safe and warm than he did here, standing in front of his door at midnight.
“For being you,” Luke said simply, before leaning down and kissing Jonathan. It was short, but hot and sweet, and when he pulled away, Jonathan only wanted more.
“You know,” he said, fiddling with one of the buttons on Luke’s jacket. “I can never sleep after horror movies anyway.”
“Is that so?” Luke said, his voice rough, quavering just the slightest bit.
“It is,” Jonathan said. He turned around the unlock the door, before taking hold of Luke’s collar and pulling him inside. “Oh well.”