Efflorescence

Chapter 5: The Movies

Chapter 5

The Movies

Reese

Selena told Rhylee and I all about her date. She came over to our house with Haven on Wednesday, right as I was getting out of the shower.

“Lucky. I wish a boy would ask me out.” I said and pulled on a pair of cut-offs.

“You wish a boy you knew and liked would ask you out. I was asked out by a boy who, to be honest, kind of scares me.”

I tugged a tank top on over my head. “Selena, that guy is hot- with a capitol ‘h’. Why in the world would he scare you?”

She stood up from my bed. “Never mind, just forget it. You wanna come over and help me pick out an outfit tomorrow?”

“Sure.” I lead her downstairs to the kitchen where Haven and Rhylee were drinking lemonade.

“What’s goin’ on?” Haven said, gulping down a swig of her lemonade.

“Ya, what’s on the agenda for today?” Rhylee asked, swiveling in her bar stool.

“Actually,” I said, slipping into the seat next to Haven. “I asked Parker if he wanted to come hang out today.”

“I told you! All you had to do was ask him!” Selena said and closed the refrigerator door.

“Ya, ya. Anyways, we were thinking about going to see a movie today.” They all looked suggestively at me. “With you guys, too, of course!”

“Boo.” Haven pouted. “I thought for sure you guys would have gone out on a real date by now- without forcing us and his friend Corey to tag along.”

“Wait a minute,” Rhylee stopped twirling and raised her index finger. “I thought you were totally digging Cyrus!”

“Wait another minute.” Selena sat down next to Rhylee. “Who’s Cyrus?”

“Cyrus is one of the guys that came up with Jax.” I glared at Rhylee. “And no, I was not digging him.”

“But I totally saw you checking him out by the pool”

“Ya, until that ginger slut bag came and rubbed herself all over him.” I made a disgusted face and took a swig of Haven’s drink.

“Oh well,” Rhylee said. She drank the rest of her lemonade and took her’s and Haven’s glasses to the sink.

“So what movie are we seeing?” Selena asked with a large smile.

☽☾

We ended up watching some suspense movie that I wasn’t even paying attention to. In a row it was Corey, Parker, me, Haven, then Rhylee. Haven and Rhylee were the perfect movie-going role models. While Corey, Selena, Parker and I were just horrible.

We sat all the way in the top row in the corner. The first half of the movie we made fun of every dramatic look and silence. We tried to be quiet about it though, even keeping our giggles quiet.

At one point, Parker looked over and saw a couple basically attacking each other. The girl was on his lap, unbuttoning his shirt and everything. Of course, we couldn’t let that go unnoticed. We completely made fun of every move they made.

Once our conversation slowed, I noticed something else. Selena was really comfortable. Both of her arm rests were flipped up. She was leaning against Parker and her legs were draped over Corey’s. Selena always said she didn’t know how to properly act around guys, but she seemed like she knew all the tricks of the trade now. She was still making small comments and short laughs with the boys when I said it.

“Hey, Sel!” I whispered excitedly and leaned over Parker to talk to her.

“Yes, Reesie?” She looked up at me.

I pointed to the screen at the main character. He was pretty good-looking, in a Hollywood Dream kind of way. “Isn’t he hot?”

Selena looked at the screen, really studying the actor. “I guess so. Not really my type, though.”

“Because,” I kept talking like she didn’t even say anything, “he’s really hot. Like, he could walk up to me on the street, and I’d just- well, I shouldn’t say. Oh, you wanna know what would really be sexy? If he cried. It’s super attractive when hot guys cry. And-”

“Hey, Reese, why don’t we go to the bathroom?” Selena said and stood up.

“Why? The movie-” She cut me off with her look this time.

I got up and followed her down the steps to the bathroom. We walked into the ladies room, and Selena spun on her heel to face me.

“What the hell, Reese? I thought you liked Parker?”

“I do.” I was surprised she would question it. She’d sat on my bed countless Friday nights over the school year and listened to me talk about him.

“Then why would you do that? Talk about how ‘hot’ another guy is right in front of him- literally. Did you even see how uncomfortable he looked?”

I groaned and leaned against the counter. “I know, I know. But as soon as I saw how comfortable you looked, I just lost it. Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop.”

“That’s what that was about? You didn’t like how I was leaning on him? You could have just said something, sweetie.” She walked over and wrapped her arms around me. “Oh well. What’s been said is said. Besides, he’s a boy. He’ll probably forget about it by the time we sit back down, anyway.”

“You’re right.” I said and wrapped my arms around her, too. After a few minutes, I said, “We should probably get back before they start thinking we’re actually doing something in here.”

Selena laughed and grabbed my hand and lead me back to our seats.

“What took you girls so long?” Corey asked innocently.

“They had to sneak off to perform their lesbian duties.” Parker laughed and pushed my leg.

“I told you!” I said an shot a pointed look to Selena.

I was grateful to see that Selena had changed her seating arrangement so that she wasn’t touching Parker at all, but was practically sitting on top of Corey. She was a great friend.

☽☾

By the end of the movie, we had no idea what was going on. Haven and Rhylee, however, were on the edge of their seats. When the lights came on, we were still sitting, letting everyone else pass by first.

When the guy who was face-eating walked by us, he said, “You guys need to learn to shut up.”

I stood up and yelled back. “I’m sorry, were we interrupting your sexing back there?”

Outside of the theatre, Corey started walking to his car. Parker lagged behind.

“This was really fun.” He smiled at me and pulled me into a hug. “Maybe we should do this again.” Then he added in a whisper, “Alone.”

I told the girls once he walked away. We all did a giddy dance.

“Duh!” Selena said and bumped my shoulder. “No amount of me leaning on him would have changed his mind about him wanting to date you.”

“I beg to differ, little miss D-cup!” Rhylee laughed.

We all piled into Haven’s little purple car and drove away from the theatre.