The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 473

He looked down at her, his eyes shining with cautious anticipation. "Sloane, let me treat you to a movie tonight."

"I want to go too!" Piper immediately raised her hand.

Josh slowly turned his head, shooting her a death glare.

That glare was the absolute pinnacle of an academic stare—precise, ruthless, and terrifyingly piercing. It didn't contain a single curse word, yet its lethal damage was enough to give any student who took his class nightmares for a week.

Piper's survival instincts engaged in exactly 0.3 seconds.

She smoothly diverted her raised hand to scratch the back of her head, her tone as practiced as if she had rehearsed it a hundred times. "Oh, wait, I just remembered! I'm going shopping with my mom tonight. Yep, mom, shopping. Planned it ages ago. You guys go have fun. Movie tickets are expensive, don't let them go to waste."

Josh finally retracted the death glare and turned back to Sloane, his gaze switching back to a gentle, harmless mode.

Sloane, who had witnessed the entire silent battle, leaned against the hallway windowsill. With her hand firmly enclosed in Josh's, the corners of her lips tugged upward unconsciously.

"Alright."

*

That evening, Sloane and Josh arrived at the movie theater.

The weekend theater was bustling. The sweet scent of popcorn and the steam from hot milk tea mingled in the warm air. Josh told Sloane to wait in the lobby while he scanned the QR code at the ticketing kiosk. Two tickets slid out.

He handed one to Sloane. She squinted at it under the lobby lights: 14 Nights in the Haunted Manor.

She looked up, giving Josh an "Are you serious?" look.

"Josh, is this... a horror movie?"

If she buried her face in his chest, he could naturally kiss the top of her head. It was a flawless, foolproof plan.

But he couldn't let his little scheme show.

"This was the only screening left tonight." Josh's expression was pure innocence, his tone incredibly sincere. He even frowned slightly, looking genuinely apologetic for his oversight. "I'm so sorry, Sloane. I didn't check carefully when I bought the tickets. I forgot you can't watch these. Should we just go home?"

Sloane looked at his dark eyes, catching the faint, poorly concealed glint of excitement he tried to hide, and then looked down at the ticket.

Well, they were already here.

She stuffed the ticket into her pocket, grabbed his hand, and pulled him toward the ticket checkpoint.

"Let's go."