Celestial Worlds

Chapter Twenty-five

That’s the second time. The second time he’s called me his girlfriend.

    We exit the house and Daniel storms angrily in his car. An antique Mercedes Benz. He goes in, not bothering to open my passenger side door for the first time. But before I could open it, he does. He opens it from the inside. Even if he’s angry, he doesn’t forget about the people around him. He doesn’t treat people like trash.

    “Arsehole,” he mutters angrily before he jams the keys in ignition and runs. He’s keeping a calm pace when driving, not speeding up or getting to carried away by his anger. “Is he this…bad? To you?” He asks concerned, peeking at me sideways.

    “Most of the time,” I admit. “He wasn’t like this when I first came.”

    “Did he do…other things to you?” What he meant to say was molest? Toched? Raped?

    “No,” I say miserably. “Let’s forget about that.” I smile this time. “That…thing you did back there, that was brave.” Then, just like that, his anger vanished like ashes in a windy day. He smiled his smile, dimpling.

    He puckers his eyebrows. “Do you want to go somewhere?” he asks, smiling.

    I smile, eyeing him suspiciously. “Why?” I ask slowly.

    “I don’t know…to get your mind off him.” A tucked-lip smile.

    “Sure, but…where?” I ask, considering this for a moment.

    “Movie theatre,” he answers immediately. As if he knew that ii was going to say yes and his mouth was waiting to release his answer.

    “I’ve never been to a movie theatre before…”

    “Perfect,” he says smiling at me one last time before turning back to the road.

We went to Eisenhower first so we can shower and get dressed. I pull out my…wait, what am I even going to wear. Is this a date? Or just another friendly outing? Victoria confused. I pull out my generic type of clothing which can be considered friendly and flirty at the same time. I pull out a sundress. This time, it’s baby blue with polka dots scattered. I change into that and wrap my hair into a bun and putting on my round sunglasses because of the heat today. I go down and I’m stunned to see Daniel dressed in a white button down and some black jeans with white sneakers. He sees me and smiles. But what I like most about his outfit that, despite his formality in dressing, he still kept his large framed glasses. He wore them. He rarely wears them.

    “You look amazing,” he says without any twinge of hesitation. He jams his hands in his pockets and looks around. I’m glad he didn’t say hot, or sexy, or any of those sexist words.

    “Same,” I say, reaching for his hand and bolting out the front door, he leaves the gate open and he opens the car door at my side then goes to his side. He puts the key in ignition and off we go.

The mall had less people than we thought.

   Today’s a Friday so we expected jam-packed, sweat covered people lurching around in every direction.

    “So,” he says, stifling a smile. “Ice cream.”

    “Only if I pay,” I offer. Before we left, I jammed about a hundred dollars in my purse. It’s almost another month in a few days. I still have plenty so my pension will just add up to my previous allowance.

    “You’re the one who said it, don’t hate me.”

    We run towards the ice cream shop, the people eyeing us like we’re some crazy eight-year olds. We reach the ice cream shop and I order my favourite, cookies and cream and I order his favourite, which is vanilla.

    “But I didn’t asked you,” he protests just as I was handing his ice cream and I started licking mine.

    “But I know you want some,” I explain. I saw it earlier how he was eyeing the vanilla flavour. He rolled his eyes and smiled and took the dripping ice cream from my hand.

We arrive at the theatre and he ordered some snacks since he insisted. He bought small box of popcorn and many, many candies and chocolates.

    “Do you want me to lose my teeth?” I ask jokingly.

    “Maybe,” he said.

    I tell him about how I hate popcorn and he tells me that he also hates popcorn.

    “Then why’d you buy some?” I ask.

    “’Cause I thought you liked popcorn.” He counters, laughing.

    “Well, here, I don’t want that to go to waste.” I reach for the popcorn but he says, “We’ll just give it to some kid.”

    After a moment of walking to out theatre, which is significantly far from the snack bar, he finally finds a bawling five-year old and gave his popcorn to the kid.

    We’ve reached the theatre showing The Post-apocalyptic. I insisted on it since I’m sick of romance. Then he said, “I thought I was going to sleep because of all the cheesy lines.”

    So I said, “But then I would too.”

    We watch the movie with tiny shrieks from other people in the theatre. It’s about zombies (obviously) and people and getting infected. It was a pretty great movie. We were halfway through the movie when I feel something grab my pinkie which was lying haphazardly to the side. Daniel hooks his pinkie in mine but when I glance sideways at him, he’s watching the movie with intense eyes. This moment, there are these moments where you feel as if it’s a do or die. If I don’t make a move, we’ll stay pinkie-hooked forever. But if I make a move, everything will change.

    I grab hold of his hand and interlace them.

    He doesn’t expect this because he jumps, like; literally jumps slightly in his chair. He looks at me whom I see in my peripheral vision but I keep my eyes straight ahead, like I didn’t do anything. But I am, though, stifling a smile.

    His hand tightens around mine.

    When the movie finishes, he’s the first one to stand, his hand still in mine, and pulls me up. We walk, hand in hand, out of the theatre. He doesn’t say a word but he keeps a smile on his face, that way I know everything’s fine. We were halfway through the Movie Hall when I see someone. Someone I least expected to.

    Jonathan.

    And Amber.