Chapter 9

Once we got to my house, I guided poor Bella to my room to get away from my unusually over attentive mom. She sat her bag down on the floor and sank down into a freshly filled bean bag chair.

"Sorry about her." I sighed and sat down in one as well.

"It's fine. She's really nice." Bella assured.

Pfft, only when we have company.

"If you say so." I laughed, "So, you wanna watch a movie or something? Board game?"

"A movie sounds good." Bella agreed with the first suggestion.

"Okay, your choice." I handed her a stack of DVDs that I bought when my mom and I got the TV.

She seemed uncomfortable with being the one to make all the decisions, but eventually picked out a horror movie about werewolves. I only picked it out from the store because it was advertised everywhere on TV when it first hit theaters.

I never pegged Bella for a horror lover, but I guess everyone has a dark side.

About a third of the way through the movie, my mom decided to butt into my room and ask how we were doing. Luckily, there was no gore yet for her to witness us watch. The main character had just started to suspect that her new reclusive neighbor was the cause of all the mysterious murders and disappearances in her town. I was about to get up and slam the door in her face, but she had two bowls of microwave popcorn in her hands. I instantly forgave her and passed Bella her bowl. The popcorn was exceptionally buttery and I approved. I yelled a thank-you to my mom when she finally closed my door.

The movie continued with the main character killing her neighbor, only to find out that he was actually a werewolf hunter and had been seeking out a cure. She destroyed the one hope the world had against the growing werewolf plague. After a failed attempt at resuming her neighbor's research, the werewolves tore her apart. It was unnecessarily gory. The end showed other similarly violent scenes as the werewolves mauled people, spreading the virus and taking over the entire town and, possibly, the world.

As the credits began to roll, I noticed Bella staring down at her popcorn. She looked a little grossed out and I didn't blame her. The CGI was really good.

"Well, I'm glad that it had more plot than gore." I got up to turn off the TV.

"Same here." Bella agreed, "I couldn't watch the ending, though."

"Yeah, it was just murder porn at that point." I snorted and put the DVD back into its case.

After laughing at the clichés of scary movies, we decided to play a board game. I suggested Clue, but Bella had enough of murderous themes I guess. She chose Checkers, and who was I to deny my guest? I won the first time, but Bella won the next two. I conceded on our fourth game. Bella learned all my tricks and I was mentally outmatched. After my three defeats, Bella took pity on me and agreed to play Clue. Believe it or not, she won again.

"You don't have to keep letting me win, Ali." Bella laughed.

"I'm not, honestly! You're too smart." I grumbled.

Bella rolled her eyes, not believing me, "Alright, how about a rematch?"

That time I won, but I was pretty sure she let me. Still, she was the board game master. I made her a "gold medal" that stated so out of red yarn and yellow construction paper when I pretended to go to the bathroom, and she laughed and tried to refuse it when I presented it to her. Eventually, she did accept her title of Board Game Master.

We started talking about crazy text conversations we've had. Then we decided to exchange phone numbers after that, and then she started eyeing the computer on my nightstand.

"Is that a laptop?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah." I flipped it open and started it up.

"Oh, neat! I have an old desktop at home but I'm fairly sure it was used by dinosaurs."

"Ah man, that sucks. I bet it's slow." I sympathized.

"Yep. It takes an hour for it to boot up, and another hour to connect to the internet." Bella complained.

"Well, mine's already on." I laughed and turned the computer around for her to see.

"That's pretty nice."

"Aw, thanks. You can play around on it if you want." I offered.

"No thanks, I'm too clumsy to handle nice things." Bella shrugged awkwardly.

"Bella, really, it's fine. I barely use it anyway. My mom gave it to me before we moved as an apology present. We can play chess on it or read dumb fanfictions on it or something."

I immediately regretted suggesting chess, because of course the Board Game Master agreed to it. And of course she totally annihilated me. Sick of classic board games, I challenged her to a game of Pocket Tanks. The great thing about that game is that neither of us had any idea what any of the moves did, so there was a fifty-fifty chance either of us could win. Some of the attacks were ridiculously powerful and others were just plain stupid. I can't count how many rounds we played of that, nor could I remember the exact amount of wins and losses. That game was one of the best parts of the night.

Bella got tired at around midnight, so I let her go to bed in the guest room after one last round of computer chess. I still lost, even though she was sleep deprived.

"I should have known better than to challenge the Board Game Master." I sighed.

Bella just shrugged with a tired smile, and I let her to go to sleep. I was drifting off in my own bed when I realized I left my laptop in Bella's room.

Oh, well. She'll take good care of it. Maybe she'll have some fun with it and look up dumb fanfictions before she goes to bed.


I woke up the next day to smell of bacon and maple syrup. I checked the time. It was almost 11am. I shuffled tiredly to the kitchen and saw my mom frantically cooking breakfast. There were eggs, bacon, and pancakes. There were plates on the counter next to the stove filled with burnt food. The food that was actually edible-looking was on the table.

"Morning, Ali babe!" my mom sang.

This feels weird. I am I dreaming? She never cooks.

I sat down, feeling ravenous from smelling at all this food. But of course, fuckin' mom had to bitch at me, "Don't eat yet, babe! Wake Bella up first, please."

Bella? What…? Oh right, sleepover.

"Fine." I grumbled and walked to the guest room door.

I flung it open with more force than necessary because I didn't realize it was so easy to open. Still, I made it look like I did it to be theatrical, then started waving my arms through the air to waft the scent inside her room.

"Wake up and smell the bacon!" I urged her awake.

Bella stirred and sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. She looked adorable and sleepy.

"Food?" She mumbled. She was probably as hungry as I was. We didn't eat dinner.

She peeled the covers off herself and that action told me she was getting up. Before I walked out of the doorway, I noticed my laptop sitting on her bedside stand. It looked unharmed. Satisfied, I pranced back to the kitchen table and popped a strip of bacon in my mouth. Mom gave me a dirty look for eating without her, but my mom could suck a dick. I was starved. Bella joined us after a minute or so and my mom told her good morning. Bella returned the greeting and we all ate in silence for a bit.

"My dad's getting me at, uh, three. I think." Bella scrunched up her eyebrows, trying to remember.

"Oh, so soon?" My mom frowned sadly. I don't know why the hell she cared. That was four hours from now.

"Yeah, sorry." Bella gave a sheepish smile.

"No worries. We can watch another movie before you leave, if you want." I offered.

"Sound good." Bella agreed, shoveling a fork full of eggs in her mouth.

As promised, we watched movie after breakfast. It was my choice this time, since I didn't trust Bella to not choose another horror movie. I hoped the werewolf one didn't give her nightmares. I chose a comedy. It had some crude jokes in it, but we mostly chatted through it. I asked her if she wanted to date Edward.

"Well, maybe." She shrugged.

"If you do… be careful. Something about him seems off to me."

Bella just nodded and went back to watching the movie. The credits were rolling when my mom walked in and told us Bella's dad, Charlie, was here to pick her up. She packed up her stuff, we hugged goodbye, and she left. I started helping my mom wash dishes from breakfast, but then she started going on about how much of a "stud" Bella's dad was.

Gross. I'm gonna go barf now. I huffed and walked back to my room. No way was I listening to my mom go on about how much she wants to screw an old guy.

I realized I left my laptop in Bella's room, so I quietly retrieved it before relaxing on my bed. I hoped Bella had a good time. Suddenly, I wondered if Bella used my laptop at all last night. I decided to snoop on the search history. Lo and behold, I found her googling vampires.

So she does secretly love horror movies.


Annnnd that's the sleepover! I really hope it was enjoyable. This was a headache to write, tbh.

Ali is maybe slightly gay for Bella. I am all about girl crushes, yo.

Has anyone ever played Pocket Tanks before? I've only played it once with my brother. It went exactly as I described. XD

The next chapters are gonna be hella depressing, btw. Just a warning.

Reviews inspire me to write! I write 1 paragraph per review to get me in the writing mood. So, review, please?