Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter ten. house of movies

"Alfie, no offense, but I don't care," I interrupt after looking at my palm. What is it about these little hearts? Alfie looks taken aback and Jerome raises an eyebrow. "Not right now. I just—I want two hours with my boyfriend without getting interrupted and it feels like all you've been doing is interrupting us. I love you, but for the love of Sibuna, please give us two hours. All I want, just two hours."

"What she said," Jerome agrees after a moment. "Alfie, I swear, we're all yours tomorrow but just leave us alone tonight."

Alfie looks at us and nods. "Okay. I'll leave you guys alone. See you tomorrow." On his way out, he stops and grabs something from Amber's nightstand, but I can't tell what from my angle, and I don't really care right now.

As Alfie leaves the room and closes the door behind him, Jerome comments, "Well, that was easier than I thought it'd be."

Yeah, tell me about it. What exactly did we say this time that Alfie actually listened to us and left us alone?

I turn to face Jerome, saying, "You know what we need? A place that no one else knows about and no one would be able to interrupt us."

"Like where? We're at boarding school."

"I don't know."

"Well, you're the one who keeps finding all these secret spaces in and underneath the house," Jerome says, shrugging.

"The secret spaces that have almost killed us more than once," I retort.

"I'm just saying."

"And I'm just saying that you should kiss me again."

He leans forward and kisses me not a second after I finish my sentence.

—

We did eventually get back to watching the movie—if by watching the movie, you mean 'being confused because we spent half of it making out and now we're just hoping a character gives a quick recap or something.' There was a point when we just completely gave up on that and we didn't actually finish it, stopped it with about half an hour left in it to leave for another date.

After the date ended, Jerome went back to his room, and I considered going downstairs to Fabian's to see if he and Joy had made any further progress on translating the hieroglyphs. Then I heard Mara's voice in my ear saying, She's trying to be assertive! so I didn't, and considering Mara had the confidence to yell at her super-hot bad-boy boyfriend, I'm not too keen on being on the receiving end.

So, for a while, I sat in my room alone, trying to see if I could figure out any more symbols and remember where I've seen that crescent moon before. I mean, of course I've seen a crescent moon before, but the one that appears over and over on the parchment is just so familiar. It's not like the actual moon. I managed to translate one or two, but they're just... words. Plain, transitive word.

Finally, I decide to go downstairs to get something to drink. As I grab a glass from the cupboard and fill it up with water, I notice Alfie sitting by his lonesome at the table, eating a sandwich. When he sees me, he says, "Your boyfriend gives great advice."

"Let me guess," I say. "You're gonna do the opposite of whatever he told you?"

"Yep."

I chuckle lightly, sitting down in my usual chair. Amber, Joy, and Patricia walk in, the former saying, "This is very strange. First, I lose my phone, now my charger. Search."