theatre.ryden+ thoughts

theatre

ryan sighed as he walked into the clearing theatre, cheap broom in hand. did he like his job? no. did he feel like putting in effort to get a new job? also no. so after movies, he had to go in and sweep up all the popcorn ratty middle schoolers threw and snotty toddlers spilled. what a life.

"30 more minutes." he muttered as he began to sweep, letting his hair fall in front of his eyes as he gathered the crushed kernels. putting in earbuds, he focused in on the lyrics rather than his surroundings; a vital action for the boy to remain sane.

with a gentle hum, the teenager threw the first dustpan of popcorn and little candies into the trash before working his way up to the next aisle. there was a lot still scattered, but quite frankly, he didn't give a shit. he was paid for showing up for a few hours not for efficiency.

heavily "punk" music blared in his eardrums as he slid the ratty plastic broom back and forth across the outdated 90s carpet. the heavy guitar that was previously blasting paused momentarily, causing ryan to hear a hiccup that was followed by a sniffle.

that caught the lanky teens attention as he tore his gaze from the floor. pulling out his earbuds, he looked around to find the source of the noise. a sob rang through the theatre and ryan quickly found the source; a crumpled mess of a boy in the last row of seats.

"dude, uh, you okay?" ryan asked cautiously, approaching the heap of tears. it was a boy around his age, curled into the fetal position with his face tucked into his knees.

there was another sniffle and then the boy looked up at ryan.

"o-oh, y-yeah. m'fine." he stumbled and rubbed at his eyes, which were beyond puffy. the stranger was silent for a moment, before he began sobbing once more, burying his face back into his knees.

ryan thought back for a moment, trying to remember what movie had just screened. his boss had told him before he went in, but he just couldn't quite remember. it wasn't a new one, they were just rescreening. gah, what was it though?

red valentine?

blue valentine.

a pang of pain hit ryans chest as he sat besides the boy. that movie had got ryan tearful the first time he watched it, but not this bad. as he rested his hand on the other's back soothingly, another sob racked through the boy's body.

"b-but he l-loved her!" the boy sputtered, raking his fingers through his sepia colored hair.

"i know," ryan said softly, "and that was a really mean way to make frankie stop following him, but you know what?"

teary eyes met ryan's golden ones in the dim theater as ryan paused. the boy had been full on ugly crying. his skin was blotchy and defined by tear trails, and he could really afford a kleenex. it was pitiful, really. ryan wondered how a movie could hit him that bad.

"what?" he asked, voice still shaky.

"dean? that's really just ryan gosling. all those tears? those tears were just liquid paychecks. there was no real love between any of them. quite frankly, it's just hollywood depicting the modern day hardships in love realistically for once. things like that do happen, sadly. but that was just a sob story to boom in the box offices. there are way better things to cry over. like dogs dying in movies." ryan huffed out, grumbling the last part.

the other teen nodded, still rubbing his eyes with the sleeves of his sweater, "thank you. brendon, by the way."

"ryan. c'mon, you look like you need a napkin and a complementary slushie." the tall boy gave a small smile, standing up and offering his hand. brendon grabbed his hand and pulled himself up from the red seat before tiredly stumbling down the shallow, poorly swept stairs.