Dreams

16

Kevin felt anxious as he walked into the Chick-fil-A after Amy. He moved robotically among the crowd of people inside.

He ordered his food, barely thinking about the cost, and then he sat down with Amy at a table in a relatively quieter part of the dining area.

"What did you order?" Amy asked.

"A chicken deluxe."

"Ohh," Amy smiled in mock disappointment, "not the spicy deluxe?"

"I'm not really into spicy food."

"It just takes some time getting used to," Amy said. "You just gotta eat a bunch of spicy things."

"I'm so bad with spiciness," Kevin said, in a dead, muted tone, "I'd probably pass out just looking at a ghost pepper."

Amy laughed at his remark. And... and it sounded genuine.

"Well I'm not asking you to go for eating crazy hot peppers," she chuckled.

"One time I did," he said, in the same unexcited tone. "I was at a party with jalepeno poppers wrapped in bacon, and I wanted the bacon, so I kept on eating them, and it kept burning more and more, but I kept wanting the bacon..."

Amy laughed again, though a little less this time. What was he doing? Why did he say that? It made it sound like he was a glutton. No wonder he didn't have any friends who were girls. Why did he even care about what he was saying right now? It wouldn't go anywhere.

An employee came up to their table, and delivered their trays of food. Although Kevin still wasn't feeling very good, he couldn't deny that it was nice to have some waffle fries.

"So what do you like to do for fun Kevin?" Amy asked.

Masturbate. Put off schoolwork. Ruin my life.

"I dunno," he shrugged.

"Oh c'mon," Amy said, taking a sip of her frosted lemonade, "what are you interested in? What are you studying in school?"

"Well...," Kevin said, "I'm interested in film. I'm studying it in my major."

"That's cool," Amy said. Her tone wasn't easier to dechiper. He couldn't tell whether she was feigning interest or not. "What's your favorite movie?"

Honest answer or professional answer honest answer or professional answer...?

"Well... I... I really like the Dreamworks movie Prince of Egypt."

Amy's eyes shot wide open. "Yes! Finally someone else who knows about it! I feel like no one's ever heard of it!"

"Yeah I know right?" Kevin said, "and I feel like they haven't seen a lot of the other drawing animated films from that time either. Or they have seen them and they don't appreciate them."

"Like Lilo and Stitch," Amy said, "I adore Lilo and Stitch."

"That's a good one," Kevin said, "especially with it's watercolor background art. My personal Disney favorite of that time is Atlantis."

"Ooh," Amy said, "now I haven't seen that one in a while, but I remember liking it."

"It is a flawed work," Kevin said. "It has some story issues that needed a bit more time to be ironed out, but the animation... oh I love the animation so much in it. The moment that the Ulysses launches, and there's the stirring music in the score..."

Amy was staring at him with a grin on her face.

"Sorry," she giggled, "continue."

Kevin felt a wave of embarrassment go through him. He had just caught himself, before going and rambling. Something he did all the time. Something that his stupid brain didn't have the self awareness to realize.