Act 1 | Chapter 12

I was sitting outside the bathroom, waiting for Riley to get out. The shower had just turned off, so she was probably drying herself, and getting changed. Once I saw the door open, and Riley step out in a clean pair of clothes, I slipped in myself and took a quick shower. I brought my backpack with me and pulled out the clean change of clothes as well as the shampoo and body wash my mother makes me use. I stripped myself of the all-black and greasy uniform and folded it up, before placing it on the floor just behind the door. Stepping into Riley's shower, I placed the two bottles down and turned on the water. It was still warm from when Riley was using it, so I didn't have to stand there in freezing water and wait for it to warm up.

After drenching my hair in water and scrubbing it down with the shampoo, I started applying the body wash. I had to do it twice. Once to get the grease and sweat off, and a second to make sure I can be as clean as possible. My shower was much longer than Riley's. I had a lot more to do, and judging on how quick hers was, I wouldn't be surprised if she just stood under the showerhead and just rubbed her hair a bit. As I finished up, I took a moment to sit down on the shower floor. The glass wall separating me from the rest of the bathroom had fogged up completely to the point where I couldn't see through. Resting for just a moment, I traced my finger along with the glass and drew a small smiley face. "Should I ask her?" I thought. "Should I ask her out?" A question that I have constantly asked myself for years.

I do like Riley a lot, and I guess you could say I do have a crush on her. However, we have been friends for over a decade, and I'm just worried that asking her out could make things awkward between us, and ruin what friendship we have. She is the only friend I have. Who knows, maybe Riley has fantasized about the two of us together in bed and being a couple like I have. I'm not sure when I'm going to ask her, or if I ever will. I'm too much of a coward too.

I stood up, and turned the showerhead off, before stepping out and drying myself off. The mirror had fogged up as well, and I drew another smiley face after getting dressed. I only wore a black long sleeve shirt with pajama shorts. After crying off the bottles of shampoo and body wash, I stuffed them into my backpack and dragged it out of the bathroom. Riley's washing machine hasn't started yet, so I tossed my work clothes in and turned the machine on, assuming Riley did the same with her own.

Riley was sitting in the kitchen when I walked out of the hallway. She was eating a slice of warmed up pizza while watching something on her phone. I smiled a bit and looked at her. Specifically the purple dye at the tips of her short black hair. She looked beautiful with it, and for the longest time, I've wanted to dye my hair the same shade of purple, but because of my mother, I haven't been able to.

"Oh, you ready?" Riley said, turning her head once she heard me entering the room.

"Yeah. I hope." I replied nervously. Riley gave me a nod, and quickly finished the rest of her pizza, then stood up from her seat, and walked over to the couch with me. The two of us sat down beside each other and began scrolling through horror movies.

"Alright." She began, "So the horror movie not too long, and it's not really 'scary'. However, it is completely disgusting, and disturbing, so I just want to warn you."

"You think it's okay for me?"

"We'll find out, I guess. Remember, if you don't like it, we can shut it off and watch something else instead."

"Alright." I nodded. "Disturbing how?"

"Well, there are some scenes that might be a bit disgusting and um..." Riley stopped for a moment, "Just stuff that might not make you feel comfortable."

"Do you know when those screens are?"

"It's been a while, so not exactly."

"I guess I can always cover my eyes." I shrugged.

Riley found the film and hit play. The movie was apparently about this scientist who does teleportation experiments and gets his DNA fused with a fly's somehow. It wasn't really a horror movie from what I saw. There were no real jumpscares or shocking reveals. In fact, I kinda got bored halfway through, and leaned up against Riley, hoping that she may get a hint, but from the expression on her face, I don't think it worked. I turned my attention back to the film and kept watching. As the conclusion to the movie approached, however, I started seeing what Riley meant. The scientist's skin was rotting away, and falling off. His teeth were gone and his body was shriveling up. In the end, I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach as he completely turned into a massive monster. It looked absolutely disgusting, and I couldn't take my eyes off it. The feeling got worse as the scientist got even worse. His body fused with his own machine, and chunks of it were sticking out of him. It looked like he was in complete and absolute pain, having shards of metal and wire sticking out of his already decaying body.

The feeling soon became too much, and I had too quickly get up. I felt like I was going to puke, and ran over to the nearest trash can, bending over and puking into it. I threw up my dinner and gagged into it, taking slow and deep breaths. I could feel Riley's hand patting against my back.

"You okay?" She asked, bending over beside me. When I glanced over to her, she had a cringe expression on her face.

"That was disgusting." I groaned and looked back into the trash can, feeling as though I might vomit up more.

"Yeah, it was," Riley commented, running her hand across my back. She handed me a paper towel not to long after and I used it to whip my mouth up before pulling away from the trash and leaning up against the kitchen fridge. I had to take deep breaths in order to calm down enough to focus or think straight.

"Thanks." I groaned. "I think... I think I'm done for the night." Riley gave me a nod and patted my shoulder a few times.

"I can make the bed then." She said, standing up.

"Yes please." I sat there in the kitchen and watched as Riley unfolded the couch into a bed, and began setting it up for me. She got the spare pillows and blankets and helped me to my feet.

"Um, I'm sorry," Riley said to me in a guilty voice, as she laid me down.

"For what?" I asked, tilting my head.

"I just feel a little guilty for showing you that."

"No, don't be." I groaned, "I wanted to watch it. Guess I didn't know how disgusting it would be."

"Yeah." Riley put a hand behind her head and glanced away from me nervously.

"I can't lie, it did get kind of interesting towards the end." I smirked, "But I think I'm going to try and sleep now."

"Good luck." She said jokingly.

"Thanks for letting me stay the night," I said, closing my eyes weakly.

"No problem." I felt Riley's hand pat my head before the sound of footsteps fades away down the hall. I laid there in bed, keeping my eyes shut and trying to think of anything but that movie's ending. The image of the doctor being fused into that monstrosity in the end. I couldn't get it out of my head. How he fell out of the teleporter and screamed in pain. It kept replaying in my head over and over like a broken record. However, the more I kept thinking about it, the less and less upset I felt. It was still a sad ending, but the shock factor seemed to have faded already. Seeing the doctor in that painful state didn't bother me as much.