CASUAL AFFAIR; brendon urie

Chapter Forty-Three

I blinked, briefly seeing stars and then those wavery rainbow blobs, dancing across my vision, as we stepped out the movie theatre and into the startling sunlight. I winced and shaded my eyes, as they tried to adjust from the quiet dark to the bright light beating down. That was what sucked about seeing a film when it was still day outside, like you forgot that an outside existed beyond the confines of the dark and hushed theatre you'd been in for over an hour (especially a day as sunny as this one). Then it smacked you in the face with all its ... Reality and stuff.

Literally the second after I stepped out the door, Jessa barrelled into me, throwing her arms around my neck in a reverse hug (or y'know, a chokehold), before whooping and fist pumping the air. That, her massive pupils and equally big grin told me I probably shouldn't have let her put as much butter in the popcorn as she'd had. Something in that syrupy goo drove Jessa to paramount levels of hyperactivity.

Her restlessness quickly made her grab my elbow and pull me along, a bounce in the soles of her feet, as she hummed the old Batman theme song. "I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. But all those ab shots of Christian? Can I have a woo-hoo? That boy is fine." She clutched her lower abdomen, swooning exaggeratedly. "He almost makes me want to join the light side of the force."

I rolled my eyes. "You're confusing Star Wars with Batman again. And what makes you so sure you're dark side? You don't strike me as the build-a-death-star-and-blow-up-Alderaan type of evil. Maybe the kick-a-puppy, steal-ice-cream-from-kids kind of evil."

Jessa snorted. "Bitch, please. I taught Vader everything he knows." She waggled her fingers, before giggling. "Anyway, yeah. Not Star Wars. Batman. Much better. So much more morbid than the Pow!-Bam!-Zok!-Kapow! Adam West I remember. Though I do miss the girlish tights."

"Gotta miss those girlish tights and the dramatic accent." I attempted the best Adam West voice I could muster. Though it wasn't half as good as Brendon's.

"Please, don't do the voice." She said in a simpery voice. "It's my kryptonite!"

I rolled my eyes again. "Superman."

Jessa rolled her eyes back. "You're such a nerd. They're both rich playboy philanthropist geniuses."

"No. That's Iron Man, and Batman. Superman is Clark Kent. He was raised on a farm, and works for the newspaper."

"But ... I thought that was Spiderman!"

"No. Spiderman is Peter Parker, who does work for a newspaper. But he lives in New York and is obsessed with Mary-Jane - the redhead. Y'know, Claire Danes in the film series. He was also the one whose uncle said 'with great power, comes great responsibility''."

"Wait. Ok." She screwed her face up, thinking. "Batman's called Bruce. Right? But isn't there another Bruce...?"

"Wayne. Batman is Bruce Wayne. DC comics. The Hulk is Bruce Banner. Marvel."

Jessa coughed 'dweeb!' before straightening, and shaking her head. "I have now learned - though I guess I already knew, deep down, in my gut- that my best friend is a massive, gigantic, comic book goober."

"Gee, thanks." I disentangled my arm from her, and shoved her lightly.

Only for her to grab it again, linking our arms tighter. "For the majority it's called being a virgin. On you it's sort of cute."

I stuck my tongue out, and she returned the gesture, before shaking her head. "Hey, I called your ratchety ass cute! Don't say I don't compliment you."

"You sort of cancelled it out by calling me ratchet immediately after." I snorted a laugh.

She rolled her eyes dramatically, waving a hand. "Anyhoo, that aside - can we talk about Anne Hathaway here. I would have said Catwoman's gotten hotter, because Anne bending over that motorcycle? Ah-may-zing. But Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt were pretty damn sexual, too. It's just the suit, man. Well, it didn't work all that well for Halle Berry." She sighed disapprovingly.