“This is nothing like what you described, Sara…” Josh had barely witnessed thirty minutes of film time when he realized the movie was only getting more campy. “It’s so much better.”

“I know right? Most people think Bond movies are serious and gritty. But they’re mostly satire—at least the movies are, especially this generation.”

Connor sighed long and loud to make sure everyone heard him. “The worst part of the interruption rule is that you interrupt your movies more than I do. And it’s like… what’s the point of giving me free reign if you trash on the movie just as much.”

“Probably because it’s funny.” Kerry chuckled, chopsticks in hand as he continued to slowly work his way through what was left of the Korean takeout that had been delivered.

Everyone else had stopped eating, but Kerry had a habit of eating a large amount of food very slowly so that he could—as he claimed—enjoy as much of the food as possible for the longest amount of time it was edible. Having his mouth full of food for a long period of time also gave Kerry a good opportunity to step aside in the ongoing conversation and just observe.

“How did we go from horse racing to this?” Josh laughed.

It was one of many comments that brought laughter into the apartment, only partly at the expense of the film. In light of the laughter and conversation, Josh was surprised by how well everyone seemed to be getting along. Even Kerry, who had a tendency to get agitated in mostly male groups. He attributed this successful and upbeat feeling to Sara who, though she was still behaving oddly compared to when Josh had first met her—and even then she had acted strangely in Josh’s opinion—as she and Connor continued to watch where he was looking carefully.

“Okay. I know the answer is probably it’s an artifact of the styles at the time, but what’s with the makeup in this movie?” Connor finally leveled a complaint.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t wear makeup.” Sara held her hands up in defense.

Josh mimicked the more. “Same here. No makeup.”

“Believe it or not, I have an educated opinion on that.” Kerry raised his chopsticks like he was trying to get a professors attention during a lecture. “In the sixties, cosmetics companies realized that they could increase their profits by selling mens products. Lotions and aftershaves and all that good wood oil scented stuff. And by the end of the seventies, the cosmetics companies realized they didn’t really have any new people to sell to, so they just started trying to convince people that were already buying to buy more.”

“That sounds… possible.” Connor frowned. “But why like that.”

“Warpaint, maybe?” Josh offered. “Or maybe it’s to give it kind of like a science fiction sort of vibe.”

“Hold up.” Sara cocked her head to the side. “I wanna talk about warpaint. Because she loses a lot of that makeup later in the film right before she dies. Spoilers.”

Kerry chuckled. “I think we all assumed it was coming.”

“Yeah. But she loses the warpaint when she decides to redeem herself. So is warpaint an evil trait?”

“It could be. As far as cinema is concerned. Literal warpaint is used mostly for tribal appearances, which often signifies an evil character because of the inherent racial profiling of villains. They’re all either super white, and therefore evil, or not white and therefore evil. And warpaint makes the lack of whiteness obvious.” Connor sat up as he was talking like he was about to actually give a lecture.

“Hold up, are you a film or a sociology major?” Kerry asked, suddenly taking on a real and serious tone to his voice. “Because you have some good points, but I don’t know if I have the spoons to talk about real stuff right now.”

“You’re safe, I’m a biology major.” Connor cleared his throat, as if trying to signal to change topics.

“That reminds me, I know you’re pre-law, Josh, but we should say what our majors are in case we have any class overlap outside of electives.” Sara had caught the signal and her shift in topic was nearly effortless.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“My major is philosophy and rhetoric, actually. But that’s basically the path for pre-law.” Josh corrected.

Kerry held out a finger in a playful gesture. “Business management.”

“And I’m undeclared, two years and running.” Sara grinned ear to ear as she said it as if it was something to be proud of.

Sara’s announcement turned Josh’s head so he could look at her directly. “Really? You didn’t enroll with any plans?”

“None whatsoever.”

“Why go to college at all then?”

“I wanted to find something that interested me.” Sara was starting to deflate as she explained herself. “It’s only the first little bit of college, so it’s no stress… right?”

“Oooooh, woooah!” Kerry interrupted everyone as he leaned back into the couch and made a noise that could most accurately be described as an expression of disgust and awe. “They just chucked him right into the propeller! Who does that?!”

Sara burst out laughing at Kerry’s response. “You know, at this point, I’m a little unclear if the lower level henchmen are KGB or just Nazis.”

“This movie makes absolutely no sense, and I’m here for it.” Josh joined in on the laughter.

The movie carried on much the same, though the four watching it became more comfortable with each others boundaries as it went on. Connor began to be more careful about where he steered conversation and Sara preoccupied herself mostly with joking remarks. Josh and Kerry were more comfortable interjecting on their own as well. And by the time the movie ended, everyone seemed like friends. Josh had almost forgotten the real reason why they’d come. In fact he could see himself coming back for regular movie nights.

“Hey, thank you guys for letting me tag along.” Kerry was the first to stand when the movie ended, and the first to try and make a break for it. “But I really should get back home so I can sleep. I’ve got an important day tomorrow, it’s the last day before you can drop out on audits without it permanently showing up on your records.”

“Ah…” Sara gave Kerry a knowing smile. “Wouldn’t want to tip anyone in administration off to your methods.”

“No. They might get suspicious.” Kerry glanced to Josh, who shrugged, as if to say is it really that big of a deal that I told them? But Kerry didn’t make a big deal out of it, as much as he wanted to. “And it’s my last chance to… well, I’m sure you know.”

Connor couldn’t help but laugh at the embarrassment on Kerry’s face. Not a mean laugh, but still a laugh. “Well, good luck.”

“And remember, you’ve always got a second chance with a Gemini.” Sara waggled her eyebrows and Josh burst out laughing at the joke.

It took Kerry a moment to catch on. “Ah, right. Gemini. Two chances. Anyway. Thanks again for the food, the movie, and the conversation. Certainly made my Sunday night. Let’s head out, Josh.”

“Yeah.” Josh turned to give both Sara and Connor a nod, almost a bow, but that felt silly. “Thanks for having me over. And let me know if you wanna do this again. I can chip in for food next time.”

Josh got one last look at the marks on both of their arms. They were still there, still just as unearthly as they had been when he first really looked at them. But they didn’t seem to pay them any mind.

“I’ll text you.” Sara smiled, bright as the light Josh had seen when Sara had gotten her mark. It was nearly impossible not to smile back.

As soon as they had left and the elevator doors had closed for the car to descend back to earth, Kerry was immediately uncomfortable. And he made it obvious.

“That was weird.”

“Yeah, but it’s kind of grown on me.” Josh felt bad, like he’d talked down on Connor and Sara when they couldn’t defend themselves.

Kerry put put the palm of his hand over his face. “Not just the behavior. They definitely didn’t have tattoos. Neither of them.”

“On their left arms? Just above the wrist?” Josh was growing slightly more afraid of what his roommate thought.

“I didn’t see any.”

“But they were so obvious… so..” Josh was beginning to forget what the marks looked like.

It was still so soon after he had looked at them too. It felt like the further away from them he was the less concrete the memory of them was. He couldn’t recall anything about how they looked, other than that they were mesmerizing.

Back in the apartment, a similar conversation had begun.

“He saw them. Both marks. I saw him zone out while he was looking at yours.” Connor had laid down across the full length of the couch, stretching out his long and lean body to take up nearly the full space. “And it’s probably our fault.”

Connor’s face was in his hands. He didn’t know exactly how to articulate his frustration, and so he just did his best to hide his face from the world.

“Yes, but did you see how much more comfortable he was around us? Even his roommate was super nice.” Sara was trying to find the positive side of the situation. “I think he’s mellowed out to us and he’s probably saying good things on our behalf. Why else would he invite his roommate over?”

Connor let out a deep sigh that lasted for nearly a minute. “I have a theory… I saw Kerry looking at our arms too. But then he just started looking for anything, like he knew something was supposed to be there but he wasn’t sure what or where exactly.”

“You think Josh knows something weird is going on?”

“Oh yeah. Definitely. And I think he’s trying to figure it out on his own.”

“Do you think we should tell him?”

“I think we should tell Margot.”

And like that, a decision had been made—unbeknownst to Josh—that would seal his fate.