The Faint Taste of Spearmint

2 | First Base

Adric parked in front of the movie theater. As we approached the entrance, I headed for the ticket booth.

"Hey," he said, grabbing my arm firmly yet gently. "I already got the tickets; we can go in."

Walking towards the entrance doors, I felt conflicted about Adric's chivalry. While pleased he cared enough to open doors and buy tickets, I didn't want him to think I expected to be treated like a girl, even if I had a more feminine temperament.

Entering the theater lobby, Adric pulled the tickets from his back pocket and handed them to the zealous ticket ripper eying us curiously either because he knew we were on a date or because we'd trailed in the mighty stench of Axe.

Before we made it to Theater 8, we bought snacks at the concession stand. Adric bought a large bucket of popcorn, and I bought a large, egregiously-priced Sprite despite Adric's offer to buy it for me. I wasn't looking forward to peeing every two minutes, but the drink was pricey enough to show I could pay for things, although he insisted on carrying the popcorn and both of our drinks. Overly considerate jerk.

He handed me my soda once we were seated in the theater. I'd expected him to leave an empty seat between us, but he sat next to me. I supposed it reasonable since more people might be walking in looking for seats, and it'd be easier to pass the popcorn he insisted on sharing.

Adric took a huge fist of popcorn from the bucket an crammed it into his mouth. The pieces that didn't make it fell down his chin and onto his shirt. Mid-chomp, he brushed off the residue before looking at me smiling. He resembled a happy hamster with stuffed cheeks. I giggled.

"Here," he said handing me the bucket of popcorn.

"Thanks," I said. I sat the bucket between my legs, wanting to wait until the movie started to snack on it.

We were watching the coming attractions when Adric placed his hand in the popcorn bucket between my legs. The feeling of the bucket rocking against my inner thighs as he grabbed another fist of popcorn startled me. My nerves and hormones had trouble distinguishing him putting his hand in the bucket between my legs from him putting his hand in between my legs. Does this count as first base? What is first base? Or would it be considered a steal? A foul ball...?

I shook the thought from my head. Get over yourself. I tried not to overthink it, but it was difficult as he rummaged through the popcorn bucket a few more times. The less popcorn, the more rummaging.

We watched more of the coming attractions and cinematic reminders to silence cell phones. I was intrigued by an upcoming movie about a man-made apocalypse that wiped out 90% of the population.

Adric leaned into me. "We should totally see that," he whispered.

The warmth of his breath pierced my ear and sent chills through my body. I jolted and the bucket of popcorn fell to the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" I whispered as I leaned forward and scooped up the scattered popcorn from the floor back into the bucket.

"It's all right," he whispered. He leaned over and picked up some of the popcorn.

"I'll go get some more!" I stood to leave.

"No. It's okay." He held out his hand to stop me, but I was already out of reach.

"I'll be right back," I said before running out of the theater and trashing the dirty popcorn.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

~

I'd locked myself in one of the restroom stalls, sitting on the shaky toilet seat trying to calm my nerves. I was glad the restroom was empty. Panicked, I pulled out my phone and texted Tara.

This date sucks. I can't do this. 😣

Just then, Adric called me twice but I let it go to voicemail as I nervously awaited Tara's response. I was relieved when she responded.

Really??? Where r u?

I'm hiding from him. He just called. 😳 SOS.

I'm ruining EVERYTHING. 😭

No, ur not, lol!! It's all n ur head.

Is not! I thought I could do this, but I can't. 😫

So u don't like him?

No!! I'm a trainwreck b/c I like him TOO much.

Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe we shoulda just stayed friends...

Where r u?

In the restroom hiding like an idiot. ☹️

Tara's messages seemed weird. How could she think I didn't like Adric when she knew how long I'd been crushing on him? And why did she care where I was? Was she planning to rescue me?

I saw an incoming text floating at the top of my screen from her. I pressed on the notification which took me to the full text thread with Tara. Why's her message appearing in a different thread after I just texted her?

Hey! How's the date going? 🤗

I just texted you, I began texting when I paused to scroll up the thread and didn't see any of the messages we'd just exchanged seconds ago. Mid-text, I froze in terror, remembering that Adric was actually the last person I'd texted when he arrived at my place. I hadn't paid attention to who I was texting.

I frantically returned to my previous text thread hoping I was wrong. Adric's name stood out in bold like a mark of death at the top of the text thread. No wonder he called me. I've been texting him the entire time...

Kill. Me. Now.

I heard the bathroom door open from my stall. "Blyth," Adric called. His voice echoed through the tiled restroom. Shit!