Page 14 of Pack Apollo

He chuckles as do most of the others. "I don't have one. I could watch them all over and over."

"He already has," Roz confesses for him.

"Want to see my collection?" Jake asks.

I nod enthusiastically and get up to follow him over to the wall where he presses a button and part of it slides out of the way revealing rows upon rows of DVDs.

"Holy, bananas!" I exclaim. "Now this is a movie collection."

"This whole row right here is nothing but Troma," he tells me proudly.

"How long did it take you to collect all of these?" I ask curiously. "There are some here I haven't even heard of."

He chuckles, and I like the way it makes my skin tingle. "I started hunting them all down about four years ago."

"That's impressive," I admit not daring to touch any of them but taking my time to read the spines of the cases.

"Want to pick one for tonight, or do you trust me enough to let me pick for us?" he asks.

"I don't know you enough to trust you with much of anything," I say honestly. "But, as this seems to be your area of expertise, I'm going to request that you choose."

Whatever the play was with his question, I get the feeling I passed as he smiles the first real smile since I walked in.

"Not going to lie," he says, "I was surprised hearing that you like these movies. It's an unusual and unpopular genre that didn't make it past the eighties."

"Now that's just too bad, isn't it?" I ask, smiling. "Could you imagine what they'd do with it these days with all of the technological advances? People just don't care for the cheesy gore core anymore."

"‘Gore core?’" he repeats.

Bringing a hand to my lips, I hide my smile behind it. "Yeah, sorry. That's just what I call it."

Lost in thought, he agrees after a few seconds. "I think it's fitting. We're going to watch this one."

I walk back over to where everyone sits waiting patiently. Brent smiles up at me from his place on the couch. "Impressed?"

"Absolutely," I tell him, returning to my spot beside him. "I wasn't even aware there were that many of them out there."

"Guess we're no longer allowed to question my sanity, now that I have an ally," Jake says, coming back over.

"Oh no," Cordell says. "We're still very much questioning that. On the daily."

They all either grin or chuckle except Roz, who I've felt has been watching me as though I'll steal something when none of them are looking. I've been trying to ignore his gaze that's been burning a hole through me the whole time.

"We're told that you're going to North Five University," he states.

It leaves me no choice but to look at him, making my palms sweat again. "Yes, this is my first semester there."

"What is your major?" he asks.

"Digital Arts," I answer. The question always seems to surface when talking about college, so it's no surprise that he's curious.

"And where does that choice lead you?" he inquires."What are your career options from that?"

"Graphic design, digital management, and many other choices," I reply easily, not ashamed to admit that my choice is up in the air at the moment. "I haven't decided what yet. It hadn't been my first option for what I wanted to do, but it is the shortest school time and depending on what you do afterward, could pay really well."

"What was your first option?" he asks, starting to make me feel slightly overwhelmed with all the questions.

There's only one other person in the world who knows the answer to that question, and she probably doesn't even remember having the conversation. I've never told another living soul, and for some odd reason, I want to tell them.

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