Your Picture On My Phone (The Scar Series - Book One)

8 - Colossus Two

I hate surprises, and Conor should remember that after my tenth birthday party. Wow, yet another memory that is about to pop up unannounced, feeding my anxiety.

To keep it short: My friends and family literally scared the shit out of me when they all screamed, "Surprise." And when I say 'literally,' I mean 'literally.' On that day, being ashamed turned into being mad very quickly. I was so infuriated that I smashed the custom-made football cake and threw it through the living room to ensure no one had fun. But with my friends being the lovely eggheads they were, Conor, Milo, Leo, Will, and my cousin Tristan (Let's not talk about him. There's a special place for him reserved in hell.) joined in, turning this into the messiest food fight our house had ever seen, followed by the most strenuous clean-up my parents forced me to do. Luckily the other parents insisted on the guys helping, too, because if they hadn't, I would still be scrubbing the windows.

So... I didn't like Conor's answer about what he planned for us to do next.

Why can't you let me prepare mentally for at least one thing tonight?

We had been wandering around for roughly twenty minutes. He was serious, not giving me the tiniest hint about our next adventure, even after I kept asking him several times. My blood pressure rose the further we walked, which had me huffing and puffing louder by the second. And somehow, it seemed as if Conor didn't even notice how miserable this made me. Or maybe he enjoys slow-burning me? I scanned every sign, advertisement, and window display, hoping to find a hint, so I didn't have to relive my tenth birthday.

As I stared at a ceiling signpost, I was about to bark at Conor when I realized he wasn't next to me anymore. Am I stupid? I turned my head to find out that he had stopped walking about ten feet ago. Thanks for making me look like a fool. He waved his eyebrows at me as if I was the one who decided to stay silent after the swimming pool incident.

"Here we are," he raised his hand to point to the left. I was so fixated on looking for clues that I didn't even notice that we were standing right in front of a cinema. He could have just told me that this was his plan. It would have saved us some fuss.

"Not the worst idea to kill some time," I said aloud when I better shouldn't have.

"Don't kill time. Seize it," Conor said as if he were my afternoon tutor. I will seize the shit out of you, I thought and threw a deathly stare at him that only made him widen his smile. Stop having such an adorable smile. This makes it challenging to stay mad at you.

The store front was modeled after an old-fashioned theater, with a black and white board over the door announcing the next showtimes. I walked past the movie posters in front of the small lobby, trying to get an idea of what kind of movies they were showing.

"Any favorites?" I asked, not seeing anything particularly appealing at first glance.

Conor pointed directly at 'Colossus Two,' a sci-fi movie. The poster showed a woman in a metallic jumpsuit charging against a colossal robot in a desert-themed world. I don't really hate sci-fi, but it's not my go-to genre, to be honest, and "I haven't seen the first one."

"The other option is some romance from the 2000s."

I looked at the poster adjacent to the Colos-something. It showed a man and a woman sitting on a bed, separated by grey tape.

"Who is Jennifer Aniston?" I asked as I surveyed her suspiciously weird-looking face, and Conor smiled as if I were his girlfriend, asking a stupid question.

"Well, at least you are cute."

Don't treat me as if I am stupid for not knowing some actress from the, what, 1980s? Wait, did he call me cute? Is taking me to the movies a scheme to trick me into having something similar to a real date? Even if it was, would I mind? After everything that already happened tonight?