The Watch - Part 22

After we browsed HMV, we didn’t know what to do next.

‘Well, considering we do have a couple of bags of stuff each, should we head home. We can drop this stuff off then do something else, or we could have a look through what we got,’ Tom suggested.

‘I wouldn’t mind dropping this stuff off,’ I said, ‘the handles are digging into my fingers,’ I said switching hands.

‘I did tell you not to buy the biggest one,’ Tom said shaking his head. ‘You’re not going to use it all.’

‘I like my apple juice,’ I defended, ‘and having a good few cartons will mean I won’t have to keep going out to get some more.’

‘But you’ll have to get everything else, so why not get the cartons then. It doesn’t make any difference whatsoever.’

‘I thought it was a fool-proof plan when I thought of it,’ I admitted.

‘Is that your way of saying that I was right,’ Tom smiled smugly.

‘Take that as you will,’ I said not wanting to admit that he was indeed right. We walked back from the mall to my house. I wanted to prove that I could handle the bags without stopping along the way, but I regretted that decision as well when I dropped them off in the kitchen. My fingers were throbbing; I could hardly bend them. I grabbed a glass of water, and masqueraded checking the water to see if it was cold enough as actually reducing the swelling and pain in my fingers, which helped massively. I gulped down the entire glass in one go, afterwards, tasting the flavour of fingers.

‘So, do you want to watch a couple of my films?’ Tom asked pulling them out of one of his bags. They were both eighteen rated, which didn’t bother me because we were both old enough to watch it – even though he did have to produce ID to prove that he was indeed twenty – but it does prove what sort of films he’s into. They were both horror. The Factory’s Secrets and The Victim and the Witness. I’m a massive film buff, but I haven’t seen nor heard of them.

‘Isn’t it a bit early to be watching those kinds of films,’ I said looking at the clock, ‘it’s only two in the afternoon.’

‘And?’ he questioned with a shrug.

‘And, a horror like that should be enjoyed at night, with the curtains drawn and all the lights off,’ I explained.

‘Be that as it may,’ he said, ‘I’ve been waiting to watch these for ages, so I’ll be dammed if I have to wait another few hours,’ he said.

‘But don’t you want to enjoy them the way they are meant to be watched, considering you’ve waited so long to watch them. You don’t want to spoil the mood, do you?’

‘Fine,’ he said, ‘we’ll watch yours,’ he said.

‘You sure?’ I teased. He knew what I had meant the moment I asked my first question.

‘Don’t push it,’ he said, pointing a finger at me. I darted into the living room and turned on the TV, pulled off the cellophane wrapper around the DVD, opened the case and popped it into the DVD player.

‘What film did you get again?’ Tom said throwing me a packet of popcorn that we brought from the newsagents just outside the mall. He sat down on the sofa, made himself comfortable and tried to open his popcorn.

I pressed the close button on the remote controller and sat down beside Tom. I opened my packet of popcorn with ease, making Tom look at me as if he was trying to re-seal my bag back up again. He then went back to trying to open his packet, but failing miserably.

The preview trailers, followed by a warning message, followed by the animation title, which showed the menu for play and special features.

‘You ready?’ I said watching Tom fight for his bag of popcorn.

The packet suddenly popped open, spraying popcorn all over himself, me and the couch. I couldn’t contain myself and doubled up with laughter as Tom sat there in shock at what had just happened. ‘Very funny,’

‘It is actually,’ I said wiping my tears from my eyes as Tom attempted to put as much popcorn back into the bag as he could. After about a couple of minutes of laughing and watching Tom rescue as much popcorn as he could, we were both ready to watch the film.

‘You never answered my question,’ Tom said.

‘What question was that, then?’ I asked.

‘What film are we going to be watching?’

‘The Red Lit Room,’ I answered.

‘Is it any good?’

‘It’s one of my favourite films of all time,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to give too much away, but the main premise of the film features a red-lit room,’ I explained.

‘I would never have guessed,’ Tom said as I pressed play on the remote. The title screen disappeared via another animation, bringing up another warning message before eventually starting the film which began with two boys playing football before taking a rest on a wall.

***

‘That was a pretty good movie,’ Tom said.

‘Glad you like it.’

‘Just one question,’ Tom said.

‘Yeah,’ I was worried that he might ask something that I couldn’t answer. I know the film backwards, which is handy considering it rarely goes forwards.

‘How come you have only got the DVD of it, even though it’s one of your most favourite films?’

‘I wore out my last copy,’ I said relieved that it was a simple question.

‘Of course you did,’ Tom said as if it was common knowledge and already knew that. The film was an hour and a half, which was plenty of time for us to get through all of my popcorn and what was left of Tom’s.

‘What do you want to do before we watch yours?’ I asked.

‘Well, as you put it,’ Tom said looking at his watch, ‘it’s still too early for one of mine, so how about a game of Grand Torismo?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, alright,’ I said turning off the DVD player and switching the TV to the necessary function to play the PlayStation through. I slotted the disk into the PS3 and handed one of my controllers to Tom.

‘I’ve been practising,’ he was gearing himself up.

‘Then you will lose in style,’ I said confidently. Racing games is my forte. I can drive anything and everything on four wheels. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve won against Tom now. I set up the race, we picked our cars and waited for the game to load. It was then that I remembered that Tom and I had planned for him to come round and race me anyway, but we both forgot. We went bowling instead, then quizzing, and then shopping. At least we’re doing it now.

‘You don’t believe me, do you,’ Tom said as the green bar in the loading screen moved across the screen. I had picked the Mitsubishi Evolution XIII and Tom was driving some version of the Subaru that I couldn’t remember because I don’t follow that particular car line as much as I do the Mitsubishi.

‘I believe that you have been practicing,’ I said, ‘I’m only stating the inevitable outcome.’

‘You’re so confident,’ he said with fighting spirit.

***

We were on our last lap. It was neck and neck. Our tyres were screeching around the last bend. It was a shallow bend, allowing us to take it at speed, but because we didn’t want either one of us taking the lead, we pushed our cars to the limit before exiting the corner, slamming down the accelerator. Our cars sped up. My car had a faster acceleration, but Tom managed to put his foot down before me so we were still neck and neck. Both of us were in first person view so we couldn’t properly see who was further in front than the other, just that we knew it was going to be the closest race yet. The finish line neared at tremendous speed. Then it was all over in a matter of seconds. Both our cars crossed the finish line at the same time. Our hearts were in our mouths as we waited for the last positions and times to show. We instinctively knew that it was going to be less than a second. After what felt like the longest minutes of my life, everything was revealed.

Sebastian Spencer: First – 4m : 03s : 27ms.

Tom: Second – 4m : 03s : 29ms.

‘YES,’ I yelled triumphantly, throwing my arms into the air.

‘Bloody hell,’ Tom said unbelievably. He checked the times again just to make sure he wasn’t reading them wrong.

‘You can’t get any closer than that,’ I said standing up and doing my usual celebratory dance.

‘You do know what this means, don’t you?’ Tom said.

‘What?’ I asked stopping my dance to hear what Tom had to say.

‘If I keep practising, next time, you won’t be so lucky.’

‘We’ll see about that?’ I said resuming my dance.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)