Let's Kill Tonight (Ryden)

Chapter 5

I bought the tickets and gave Brendon some money to buy snacks.

"Knock yourself out, it's your birthday." I said with a smile.

And boy, did he care to oblige.

He bought MnM's, Skittles, a large popcorn, two large Cokes, and a small cup of little ice cream bites called 'Dibs'.

"You haven't lived if you haven't had popcorn with MnM's together!" He explained himself when I reacted to his hands full with all of these snacks.

"Whatever. It's your birthday." I put my hands up and shrug. He smiles and we walk into the hallway filled with different theaters for different showings. We walk into the theater with the number our tickets had printed on the front. The lights are on and it's relatively empty. Groups of different people sitting in different spots of the theater.

"So if I tried to rob a bank, you would just shrug and let me because it's my birthday?" He raised his eyebrows as we settled down into our seats.

"Don't get any ideas. I'm not exactly in the mood to get arrested."

"And when will you be in the mood to get arrested?"

"No comment." I smiled and he rolls his eyes. We seemed to bounce back from the awkwardness pretty fast.

"I hear this movie's funny." He said looking around at the other people in the theater.

"It has to be good. It was sold out the first time Spence and I tried to see it. He'll be pissed we didn't take him."

"Ryan... Can we, like, talk about earlier?" He says as he bites his bottom lip and looks at the floor.

I sigh. "Listen," I start as I shift in my seat to directly face him. "If you can't tell, I think you're really cool. And I'm so so sorry for reading your journal. It was just there and I couldn't help myself. I just wanted to see if you felt the same way about me." I shrug.

"Well... Now you know. I guess it's okay. I mean I would have already snooped through your phone by now if you hadn't kept it with you everywhere."

"Was that an understanding or an insult?"

"Both." He grins.

"Well, what now?"

"Do you wanna get lunch after this?" Brendon asked shyly. I felt heat rise to my cheeks as I tried to hold back the huge grin I had, and replace it with a soft smile and nod.

After a few minutes of chattering, the lights began to dimmer and people finished up their conversations with a last peep as the screen flashed a rating for a movie trailer.

Once the music for the end credits started playing and the lights grew brighter I stood and stumbled on one leg as I stretched my shoulders. I waited for Brendon to finish stretching so I could follow him out of the theater.

"What'd you think?" He asked me when we got in the car.

"Better than Mission Impossible." I shrug.

"Way better. I thought it was really good." He nodded.

"Oh, yeah. Where to lunch? My treat." I ask shyly, remembering the 'date' that we had scheduled before the movie.

"Nope. I asked you to lunch. I pay. You paid for the movie." He insisted.

"But it's your birthday, so it's my present to you."

"Your present to me was a movie and letting me take you on a date. Deal with it."

"Who said this was a date?" I smirked. It didn't really work with the blush on my cheeks.

"Ah, in your words, 'it's my birthday, do whatever I want.'"He threw up his fingers and put air quotations around his sentence.

I sigh. "Whatever, I guess. I don't want to have one of those fights where everyone insists on paying."

"Good. Now where should we go?"

"Honestly, I'm stuffed from that popcorn. But we can get something if you're still hungry."

"Yeah, I'm full too. I didn't really think that through."

"How about we just call that a date? I mean, it wasn't awkward, and people see movies on dates all the time." I shrug. Did I actually just say that? That sounded so creepy. Good going, Ryan, you stupid dip shit.

"I like that. First date accomplished." He laughed with a blush rising.

"I feel like we should high five, but that'd be pretty awkward." I say as I look at my lap.

He laughs and and nods. "Yeah, it would. We can hang out at my house for a little. Blast music on the stereo since my parents aren't home to yell at me."

"Yeah. That sounds fun."

"My parents not yelling at me? Yeah, it's a rare occasion, but it's always fun." He smiles and focuses on the road.

"You're a dumb ass." I laugh and shake my head.

"I'm a pretty smart dumb ass." He lifts up his pointer finger.

"That makes no sense."

"It totally does."

"I'm done arguing with you. Just shut up and drive." I try to sound serious but can't hold in my smile.

"Yes, mom." He says in an over exaggerated disappointed tone.

"So is your mom okay with you staying longer?" He asks as we walk up to his porch.

"My dad doesn't care." I say truthfully. Kids usually say that when their parents are okay with something. Not me. He truly doesn't care. He's too buzzed to even see most of the time.

"Don't you think you should text him about it? Just to make sure?"

"I'm usually at Spencer's anyways. If anything he should be surprised to see me any time before 5:00."

He looked like he wanted to go further into the subject, but then shook it off and opened his front door, letting me in first.