"You told your friend you are a werewolf?" Michael frowned, his expression betraying that he couldn't believe (or rather, didn't want to) what he was hearing. "Are you really that stupid?"
Evan frowned as well, hearing his reaction, but decided not to make anything of it. He too knew it wasn't acceptable in the wolf world, but he hoped Michael would understand his reasons.
"I did. He already knew about the supernatural world, he just didn't know enough," he explained briefly.
"How is that possible?" Michael was obviously confused, and Evan wasn't surprised. After all, he also didn't understand how Alexander could do such a thing, especially if he was really supposed to be Rory's soulmate.
Evan sighed, wondering how to explain the whole situation without revealing too much of Rory's private life. Angie and Ryan remained silent, so it looked like it was up to him.
"Some witches were doing spells in front of him and didn't care if he saw it. He was confused and it got to the point where he wasn't himself, so I decided to step in. He already knew magic existed, so I just confirmed it for him definitively," he explained as best he could.
Michael paused for a moment as if thinking it over.
"If it helps, I'm an accomplice," Ryan finally spoke up. Michael automatically shifted his gaze to him, and Ryan took advantage of getting his attention to continue. "I knew more about witches than Evan, so I decided to help explain some things to him."
"If it helps, he doesn't know that I'm a werewolf too. Evan decided to tell him his secret, and Ryan did too. He doesn't know how packs work or how to spot a werewolf among humans. From what I understand, he knows to keep it a secret. Plus, knowing Rory, you won't find anyone smarter than him even though he's younger than us," Angie added, not giving Michael a chance to speak until he'd heard all the details. She cared about Rory as much as Evan did and she knew she could trust her friend.
"Just knowing that makes me an accomplice. You know I should report it, right?" Michael grumbled, running his palm over his face as if this conversation was mentally draining him.
Angie snorted at that. "Sure. As if you'd turn in all your friends."
Michael pierced her with his gaze after that statement but didn't say anything to contradict her words.
"We know you want to do the right thing, but in this case, this is the right thing. Actually, I think you'd get along with Rory if you gave him a chance," Ryan tried again. Meanwhile, Evan watched his mate being gentle with his cousin and couldn't help smiling.
Michael sighed, his gaze flicking from one of his friends to the other. His mind was clearly whirring, and Evan wasn't surprised, knowing how devoted Michael was to their pack although that they didn't always treat him the best. If he had to be honest, sometimes he admired him for it, not that he'd say it out loud.
"You knew what you were in for when you made friends with us," Evan remarked, shrugging his shoulders as if to make light of the situation, though inside he was still stressed. He didn't want Michael to be in a constant internal conflict between his pack and his mates.
A sigh escaped Michael again and he bowed his head for a small moment. When he lifted it back up, his face was surprisingly calm. "Fine. But if anyone asks, I didn't know about that."
A pleased grin instantly appeared on Evan's lips and the others mirrored his expression.
"You're awesome," his cousin immediately flattered him, leaning over to place a palm on his shoulder to squeeze it.
"Yeah, I know." He rolled his eyes, but it was obvious he was pleased by his cousin's words.
"Does that mean you wanna introduce yourself to him?" Angie asked, taking advantage of the situation quickly. Michael gave her a look in return that said it was a stupid question and the answer was obvious.
"I'm sure he'd love to meet you. Plus, you'll finally have someone who'll like hearing how important the pack is to the wolf," Evan added, rolling his eyes for effect at the end of the sentence.
Michael immediately pierced him with a look in response.
"You wouldn't survive a day without a pack," he argued.
"I could easily last forever," Evan countered. Michael's look turned to disbelief at that, waiting for Evan to figure out something obvious to him.
"What?" He asked when he didn't get an answer even after a few seconds.
"Seriously? You're always talking about your friends, always hanging out with us. You like being surrounded by people and you care about them. You literally follow everything that falls under pack principles, and you don't even realize it." The black-haired boy shook his head as if he couldn't believe his friend's stupidity.
"That's not the same thing," Evan protested immediately, frowning.
"Kind of is," Ryan echoed this time, his voice cautious as if he didn't want his mate to get angry.
"You, me, Kieran, Josh, Aiden, Lola, Millie, Clara, and Rory. For being the only wolves in this equation, it's pretty reminiscent of a pack. Plus, now we have two more wolves to add," Angie declared, watching the two wolves in question with amused eyes.
"I don't know half of them," Michael interjected in an annoyed tone.
"Me neither, but we can fix that sometime." His cousin didn't make a big deal of it and shrugged.
"Starting with Rory," Evan added.
"Starting with Rory," Ryan agreed, directing his words to his cousin.
...
Since it was their first official sleepover (New Year's doesn't count, since no one was ready for it, except for the bucket) they decided to spend the night in the living room. Ryan and Michael took their mattresses off the beds and put them on the floor in front of the couch. The plan was that the boys would sleep on the floor while Angie would have the whole couch to herself. She didn't protest when they told her that. Michael, on the other hand, protested for a moment when he realized that he would be sleeping next to the two mates and only calmed down when they promised him that he didn't have to worry about any jump scares. Evan thought it was funny and since it made him laugh, according to Michael, he lost his privileges in picking out the movie.
In the end, the film was chosen by Michael himself, and Evan commented loudly from the start.
His remarks went something like this: "Really? 1954? You couldn't have picked an even older movie?" To which Michael replied that it's not the year the movie was made, but the year in which the scene takes place.
His next comment pissed him off even more, though. "Is that a pot on his tie?" To which Michael just rolled his eyes, not even bothering to explain that it was a simple plant print.
His comment assessing that the lead actor was hot was this time replied by the second of the cousins. Well, replied was a strong word as he just murmured in agreement and didn't take his eyes off the screen.
"You should have seen him when he was young. Even when it looked like he had frostbite and was drowning he looked divine," Angie added, nodding. Michael looked like he'd rather be anywhere else at that moment, and it honestly looked like he was beginning to question his own choice of film.
"Oh, he's got a cute wife too," Evan remarked as a blonde appeared on screen handing the main character a tie.
"So you like both girls and guys?" Michael asked, turning his head to Evan. The latter returned his gaze and replied with a shrug: "Yeah, I'm bi."
"Nice," was all the black-haired boy replied, and they went back to watching the movie again.
Another few minutes passed, and everyone watched the screen without another word. Angie was on the couch munching on popcorn they'd found in a cupboard somewhere, and Ryan managed to rest his head on Evan's shoulder.
The silence didn't last long, though.
"When is something interesting going to happen?" Although only a few minutes of the movie had passed, Evan couldn't help himself. This whole detective movie thing wasn't his style, and the handsome actor couldn't keep him captivated forever. Plus, the brown hues of the movie made him feel depressed and he felt like he should have been expecting something, but it irritated him that he didn't know what.
Michael sighed loudly, followed immediately by a grunt. "If you don't watch this closely, you'll miss all the details."
"What details?" He asked in confusion, turning his head back to the screen with a grimace.
Michael almost burned his cousin with his gaze, hoping he'd understand what he wanted from him and not even trying to answer Evan.
"Love," Ryan turned to his mate with a tender tone. "Wait until this gets to the plot twist, okay?"
"Have you already seen it?" Evan asked confused.
The ink-haired boy immediately nodded. "Uh-huh, it's Michael's favourite movie."
Evan's eyebrows shot up to his forehead in surprise, and with a silent nod, he leaned back against the couch again. This time he decided to be quiet and let Ryan snuggle up to him again. Although he liked to comment on movies, he didn't like to spoil anyone's favourite things, so he decided to subdue himself for now.
And with how determined he was, he was able to not disturb anyone for quite a long time. That is until they got to the greatest plot twist he'd ever seen.
"What the fuc-" He remained staring at the screen, mouth agape, and only now did Michael's comment about watching the details sink in. It suddenly made sense why the main character's partner didn't know how to hold a gun, even though he was an investigator. Plus, all the supernatural aspects of the movie were suddenly not supernatural at all, but part of a mental illness - something Evan hadn't expected at all, even though he knew that the genres of this movie didn't include fantasy or science fiction.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Michael uttered, not taking his eyes off the screen, and Evan couldn't manage more than a nod.
By the end of the film, Evan felt he had to act like the most awkward type of people he thought existed - the ones who applauded after the plane landed. He felt like applauding the director for coming up with such an idea, and he honestly understood why it was Michael's favourite movie. To say he was enchanted by the story was an understatement.
"I don't know if I've ever seen a better movie," he admitted aloud, and Michael gave him a look that said, "I told you so."
"It's really good," Ryan agreed out loud. "The first time you see it, it has the most charm. Not that it's not worth seeing again, but that first experience is unrepeatable," he explained.
"I get what you mean," Angie agreed immediately.
"You still think his wife is cute?" Michael finally spoke up, directing his question at Evan and not even trying to hide his amusement.
"Hell no." He frowned instantly, trying to banish the image of what she'd done to her children from his mind. "Although the part where she looked like a phoenix was pretty cool."
"That part was great. It reminded me of that movie with the mother where the woman always starts burning up," Angie commented, and suddenly the rest of the cast turned on her.
"Don't say you didn't see it." She looked horrified when no one corrected her and so it was immediately decided what they were going to watch next.
Finding the movie in question was easy, especially since it was the only movie Evan had ever seen that only had lowercase letters in the title and an exclamation point at the end.
Unlike Michael's choice of movie, this one caught his eye right away. Especially because the movie started with a woman on fire. Immediately afterwards, there was a shot of the burnt house repairing itself, and he suspected that in this case he would also have to "follow the details" as Michael would say.
And this time he really tried not to miss a single detail. That is until people started eating the baby. He honestly felt like throwing up.
"Angie," he whimpered, covering his eyes with his forearm. Ryan automatically leaned to the side as well, so he could curl up against him and they sought support in each other, trying not to look at the screen.
"You're softies," Michael said, and Evan responded by kicking him in the knee. He was more than pleased to hear Michael hiss, knowing he'd hit him.
"You are," Angie affirmed, and Michael immediately reached out to fist-bump her. The two of them were an unpredictable combination, but it made sense why they got along so well. Evan was discovering more and more that they were more alike than he'd ever anticipated.
"You're the one with a weird taste in movies," Evan countered, watching the rest of the movie through his fingers.
"It's an educational movie, so hush and watch," Angie admonished him. Evan was left confused as he didn't understand where the educational part was. All he'd seen so far were annoying guests who wouldn't leave the house, cannibalism, a desperate mother, and something he was sure was a cult.
"Fine," he agreed grumpily, nonetheless.
"Next time, we pick the movie," Ryan whispered in his ear and Evan laughed softly. This instantly made his mate feel even better, and he decided to return the favour with a kiss on the cheek.
"There's no way," escaped Evan as he saw the mother begin to burn. Again, the same scene as the beginning repeated itself and Evan didn't even realize he had straightened up, leaving Ryan's arms to get a better view of the screen.
"I told you." Angie chuckled, but Evan wasn't paying attention to her, too fascinated by the action on the screen.
A few more scenes and the movie ended. Angie was still smiling contentedly, seeing the effect it had left on her friends, and the others just watched the closing credits in silence, lost in their thoughts.
"I'm missing something," Michael muttered, breaking the silence.
"Yup," Angie confirmed it for him but didn't say more.
"Is this supposed to be some huge metaphor?" Ryan asked, turning his head to look at her.
"Yeah," she confirmed, but again added nothing more, leaving her friend to figure it out on his own.
"Can we get a hint?" Evan asked, his whole body turning to the couch, leaving the TV playing behind his back.
"The point of the movie is how people destroy the world," she replied, and Evan frowned. What else were they supposed to guess when she told them the whole point?
Michael suddenly drew in a loud breath, and his eyes betrayed that he had made an important discovery.
"Is that mother the Mother Earth?" He asked, and judging by Angie's grin, he guessed correctly.
"She is. Her husband is God and the creator, so the world can always be reborn. The rest of the characters you can just figure out from the Bible," she explained, and Evan was mind blown.
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Okay, hear me out. I've used movies in this story before and I liked it when you guys guessed them so I decided to do it again. I hope you don't mind the spoilers of the movies too much, as I used real movies and tried to describe them as little as possible, but I just couldn't do it with the second one. Either way, I still think it's worth a watch if you're interested.
Fun fact, for not being able to figure out some of the important details about the characters, I know exactly who likes which movies. Angie likes movies with a badass female protagonist. Evan likes movies that are fantasy. Ryan tends to prefer scifi, and of course if there's a cat in it, that's a bonus. Michael likes mystery movies that make him think. Josh likes action movies with secret agents or cops. (If they ever watched a movie with Evan, the only movie they'd probably agree on would be Men in Black) Kieran tends to prefer movies based on true events, something wholesome like The Upside. Lola needs something that grabs her attention and makes her not take her eyes off the screen, but at the same time, she likes it when there's romance. Clara likes typical teen movies like The Kissing Booth. Aiden is a Marvel fan, but he doesn't mind Star Wars either. Millie likes old movies and somehow I'm sure her favorite is The Breakfast Club. And then there's Rory, who likes historical movies, especially war movies like Saving Private Ryan.