Bad dreams

Justin was on edge enough the way it was from the movie alone, so when Beth shrieks and is suddenly next to him, it makes him jump all the more. "Jeepers!" Glancing down and realizing that she was clinging to his arm, a grin seeps out, then a laugh. "You think I'm gonna keep you safe?"

He rescues his arm and puts it around her shoulders instead, pulling her even closer back behind his curled legs. "I think I'm the one that needs you," he teases, "and I've already seen this a bazillion times." Later, he would justify his action as one that Beth needed to make her feel better, so she really didn't get scared. But was there a reason closer to the truth than that? If there was, it was going ignored.

Keeping Beth next to him as the movie played on, Justin still flinched at surprising scenes, though that in itself was funny enough to dispel any actual fear in the room. Once even Zora barked at a scream from the television, so what would have been an intense moment was again a funny one as Justin had to quiet her.

By the time the credits were rolling to some eerie music, it was getting late. Though having been on edge from the movie, Justin yawns and starts to stretch but stops before getting in Beth's way. Instead, his hand drops down to give her shoulder a squeeze. "Don't have bad dreams tonight. You might not let me come back again."


Chuck saying he knew about someone being emotional made Susanne chuckle and she shakes her head. "I'd forgotten - I'm sure raising a girl has been quite an experience for you." Even most fathers had a wife to absorb and handle much of a girl's oddities, but Chuck had been on his own.

His question makes Susanne think and she sits back, turning a little to face him better in the same booth. "For some people those two questions might be one in the same." She grins. "I don't have a favorite food and..." She purses her lips for a moment then shakes her head again. "I... I don't know what I'd like to do," she admits. "I just... live life how I can and must, not always how I want. I suppose I've never really entertained thoughts of much else." That much was true. She was too practical to have let herself dream much in her life. There was however one thing...

Her cheeks redden slightly and she glances down, her hands back in her lap again. "And if I were to tell you anything else, it would either be a lie or I'd be too embarrassed to say, so we'll just leave it that I don't have anything."

She looks back up again, the humor returning to her eyes as he tries to steer things back to him. "What about you?"