Movie Night

Terri freaked out at the movie theater when they were watching a scary movie. He grasped onto Terry's arm in fear. Terry shrugged it off and said, "Keep your hands to yourself, Terri."

Terri was uncomfortable when big dogs rattled their cages at the pet store. He grasped onto Terry's arm for protection. Terry took Terri's hand off and said, "Please don't touch me, Terri."

Terri nearly teared up when he saw a sad commercial and almost used Terry as a comforting pillow. Terry moved his head away and said, "I'm not a rag you can cry in, Terri."

Although they were twins that shared the same body, Terri and Terry obviously had their differences. Before they started college at Monsters University, these differences were obscenely apparent. Terri was a bit more shy and skittish while Terry was a bit tougher.

With these differences, it was easy for them to get into fights with each other. But, there was one thing that Terry didn't like that Terri did often. Terry did not like it when Terri touched his side of the body. For the first 18 years of his life, Terry didn't embrace the idea of kinship and refused to be pushed into it by Terri.

However, things began to develop between him and Terri when they moved out of home to go to Monsters University, something that was entirely new to both of them. It forced them to mature pretty quickly since they were officially on their own, and they had to rely on each other to remain calm about the whole situation.

A few months later, Terri and Terry were fully initialized into the fraternity system as Oozma Kappa brothers. They wanted to be able to fit in somewhere, and they both got along well with Art, Don, and Scott right away.

Don came around with a large tray of hot chocolate in his hands. He was wearing a warm red sweater and a green scarf that said OK on it. As he walked through the Oozma Kappa living room, he handed everyone a mug filled with the hot chocolate.

"Gosh, winter break couldn't have come faster," Don said as he finally sat down.

"Yeah, you said it," Scott responded, taking a sit of his hot cocoa. "How were everyone's finals?"

Don and Art answered with mixed responses, most of which were fairly positive.

"I'd say my first semester of finals wasn't all too bad," Terri said as he delicately held his mug in his hand. "Ended the semester with mostly A's."

"Yes, but I got a B in my class because Terri wouldn't allow me to study for my Monster History exam," Terry said.

Terri sighed. "Well, excuse me if I didn't want to stay up until 3 in the morning at the library. Besides, you only failed that test because you deprived yourself of sleep and you stressed-out about it that morning."

Terry rolled his eye. "Whatever… so Art. You said you're putting in a movie. What are we watching?"

"Oh, you guys are going to love it," Art said excitedly. He went searching through his backpack and pulled out a movie case. "My dad came by last week and dropped it off. It's called 'The Open Door'."

Scott immediately turned to Art with a disturbed look on his face. "Uh, Art… isn't that the horror movie where a human teenager goes through a door that a scarer left open and practically destroyed a whole city?"

"It-It's a horror movie?" Terri asked, quiet enough where only Terry could hear him.

"Well, it can't be that scary if you're going to explain the entire movie before I even put it in," Art said as he fumbled around with the VCR.

Scott nodded. "I'm sorry, but I'm just warning all of the monsters now who aren't that in to scary movies to either leave the room or close your eyes."

"No, I think I'll be fine," Don said, sipping his hot chocolate. "I'm pretty desensitized to that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, I'm good too," Terry said.

"I'm not," Terri said quietly.

Terry looked down at Terri and said, "Well, then listen to Scott and close your eye Terri. I want to watch."

"Alright," Terri shyly said. It most cases, he would be conflicted with his brother. But he knew that he had to make compromises with him, or else they would be fighting all of the time and neither of them would get what they want.

Art put on the film and sit back down on the couch eagerly. Unlike most monsters, horror films actually intrigued him more than they scared him. "Trust me, guys. This movie isn't all that scary. I didn't even wince once when I watched this my freshman year of high school."

"I'll take your word for it," Terri said, trying to calm down a little.

The movie started like any horror movie would. Except… this was a bit different. The suspense and horror started early.

Monsters dying in their beds from the touch of a human who had escaped their world. The premise engrained itself into Terri's mind and he continued to watch. He closed his eye… then opened it again… then shut it one more time.

Then he finally opened his eye again… at a poor time. The girl had entered the room of an unsuspecting monster. Monsters, actually. Terri got a good look into the eyes of the monster, and saw four staring back at him. It was a two-headed monster, each with two eyes. Despite the distinct differences, Terri thought that they looked incredibly similar to him and Terry.

The girl got closer and closer to them. Terri softly mimicked their words when they told the girl to stay back. "No…" he softly said. "Stay away from me."

Terry looked down to his brother and saw legitimate fear in his eye. He saw the similarities between them and the monsters in the movie and started to feel the fear himself. He didn't tell Terri to stop whispering to himself.

Inch-by-inch, the girl made her way towards the monster, holding out her hand as she attempted to touch them. Eventually, the camera panned away from the scene and looked towards the wall of the room.

All that was left afterwards was… screams, lots of screams. When the blood splattered onto the wall of the bedroom, Terri shrieked.

"No!" he yelled. He closed his eye one last time and began to tear up a lot. He instinctively grabbed onto Terry's arm. "No! Terry, I can't take it anymore. I don't want to watch anymore."

Terry looked down at his crying brother and almost wanted to shove off his hand. But… this time was a bit different. Terri was extremely scared. He had never heard him scream that loud or ask to leave a place that scared him.

"Wo, dude," Art said as he looked away from the movie. "I didn't know that the movie was going to scare you that much, Terri. Would you like me to turn it off or something?"

Terry looked up at Art and shook his head. "No. We'll go into our room and I'll take care of him."

"Alright," Art said, slightly concerned. "Sorry about that, Terri."

Terri and Terry stood up and walked over to their. Terry closed the door and they sat on their bed.

Terry stroked the back of Terri's head, just the way he liked it. "Are you alright, Terri? I've never seen you quite like this before."

Terri nodded. He opened his eye, revealing it to be already bloodshot from all of the tears. "Yeah, I'll be alright. Though, I probably won't be able to sleep for about a week."

"You don't sound alright," Terry said.

"As if you care," Terri said as he wiped away another tear. "If you still want to watch the movie, I'm not going to stop you."

Terry sighed. He thought about what he had been doing for the past couple of days to Terri. "I've been kind of a jerk to you for the past couple of days, haven't I?"

Terri nodded. "Yeah…" he admitted.

Terry frowned. "O-okay," he said, upset by Terri's sudden bluntness. "I… need to stop doing that, then. You're my brother and you don't that kind of treatment from me. I mean… you're never a jerk to me."

Terri shook his head. "No, it's okay Terry. Really."

Terry shook his head. "No, it's not. I know when you're lying to me in order to save my feelings. You've been doing it for 19 years, it was only a matter of time until I caught on."

"Well…" Terri started, wiping away another tear. "What are you going to do about it?"

Terry kissed the top of his brother's head and grabbed onto Terri's upper hand. "Well… the only thing I can really say is that I'm going to be nicer to you from now on. I mean, we're conjoined twins and we should stick together."

"Wouldn't you rather be alone?" Terri asked. "Be separated from me."

"With you as a brother?" Terry asked. "Not a chance."

Terri smiled, the tears stopping. "Thanks, Terry. You may not know it, but I've been waiting to hear that for a long time."

"Well, I mean it," Terry said. "So get used to hearing it. Just… don't get too clingy, alright? Especially if we're out in public."

Terri nodded, wiping away one final tear. "You got yourself a deal." Terri leaned up and kissed his brother on the lower cheek, causing them both to blush. "Can I at least do that?"

Terry chuckled. "Sure, that's fine."

"Alright, then. Do you want to go back outside and watch the rest of the movie," Terri asked. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

Terry shook his head. "Are you kidding? I'm GLAD that you started crying. I was going to make a mess on Ms. Squibbles' couch if we kept on watching."

"Ew!" Terri exclaimed.

"What? You would've done the same thing, too."

"No I wouldn't have!"

The two kept arguing, but this time it was a bit different. It was more playful. In the end, Terry treated his twin brother the way all families should. With love and friendship.