Free Me (bxb)

Part 16

 "Griffin, thank you so much for doing this," Karin gushes a couple days later while Chad drives them down the road to Poughkeepsie. Though none of them are old enough to be driving, Chad has driven around his parents' farm enough to know how to handle a car on the road no problem, and if he gets caught it'll be his problem. "You have no idea how excited Courtney is. I sent her a picture of you that Chad sent me, and she thinks you're really cute. She's been getting ready for hours."

"I'm excited to meet her," Griffin says shortly because he isn't sure of what else to say (big surprise), and Karin seems just a little put out by his lack of response. He isn't about to apologize for it though. He doesn't do well with talking to people and it isn't like he really is that excited to meet Courtney. It's a Friday night and he'd much rather be practicing until he can hardly see the track in front of him and then watching the top trending motocross videos of the week.

They pull up to the small movie theatre in the middle of Poughkeepsie, and Karin immediately points out an army green two-door Jeep that belongs to Courtney. "She's a total Daddy's Girl," Karin speaks up to Griffin, turning to look at him in the backseat again as Chad is pulling into a parking spot. "I'd watch out if I were you. Better not break her heart." She winks at him in what he is pretty sure she thinks is funny and endearing, but the wink to him means he's currently signing his name on a dotted line to have his head served on a silver platter when he does, ultimately, break Courtney's heart.

They all get out of Chad's mom's Honda and make their way inside, where Courtney promised Karin she'd be waiting. When they enter, Karin makes an immediate beeline for a short blonde girl standing in the far corner of the theater. Griffin and Chad trail behind her, letting the girls have their little reunion since they had apparently not seen each other in two weeks. When they break apart, Griffin and Chad have fully approached and Courtney gives Griffin a timid smile.

She's a lot shorter than Griffin. That's the first thing he notices. The second thing he notices is that she is really just as pretty in person as she is in her pictures, and he wishes more than anything that he could look at that prettiness and be attracted to her, instead of just acknowledging it as more of an observation. He wishes that he would eye her outfit and the way that her white shirt and pale jeans hug the curves she has flatteringly instead of just skim over them. He wishes that he could be captivated by her beauty, or any other girl's, the way he was captivated by the things that were undeniably masculine. But he couldn't, and at this point he was doubting he ever would.

"You look great," he compliments, because she does. She looks amazing in the outfit she chose, and she must have spent a couple hours on her hair and makeup because her lovely painted face is framed by her light blonde hair just like a picture would be. She blushes up at him and her glossed lips stretch into a more confident smile, and he craves for the gift so many other guys to fall for that enchanting smile of her's. But he was not given that gift, so her smile is just another reminder that he's sick and wrong inside and he wants her to just stop smiling at him as if he could give her what she needs.

"Thank you, Griffin. You look incredibly handsome tonight." Courtney tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, and as soon as the words leave her mouth, Griffin knows that if she was just given a sharper jaw line, harder lines and ridges across her frame instead of soft curves, and something else that was indisputably male, he would be falling head over heels. But she's not, so his head is staying firmly on his head and not falling anywhere. He hates this; he just wants it to end.

"I got us all tickets for The Purge. I hope that's okay; everything else just looked boring. Unless you're the type to sing along with five year olds to the number one hit in America - Let It Go. "

Griffin laughs, and she smiles brightly up at him, her brown eyes so bright it's as if he's the first to ever laugh at a joke she's told. And he's always been a sucker for big brown eyes, so he slips right into her trap and he knows he's on the fast track to the barrel of her daddy's Sawed-Off Shotgun because he can like her the only way he can, but her body and soul will never be coveted for the way she seeks.

"The Purge sounds great," Karin says, throwing an arm across Courtney's shoulders and smiling up at Chad and Griffin. "Maybe we'll have to hold their hands during the scary parts."

Chad guffaws next to Griffin, and suddenly his arm is wrapped around Griffin's shoulders, glaring down at the girls with a playful glint in his eyes. The side of his body is pressing tightly against Griffin's and even though Griffin sees Chad as nothing more than just a best friend, the hard press of his body is incredibly distracting and he wants to keep it there. "Hah! Griffin here competes in motocross, he's hardly scared of anything."

Ha, if that's not the biggest lie ever told...

"Motocross?" Courtney's eyes are wide and legitimately interested. "I've never met someone who does that! You'll have to tell me about it, I'd love to learn more."

Finally, something he could talk confidently about and not risk sounding like a stammering buffoon. "Sure, I'd be happy to," he says just as Chad moves away from him and goes to wrap the arm that was wrapped around his shoulders around Karin's waist. It feels cold in the movie theatre all of the sudden. "You wanna get popcorn and drinks with me? Chad'll be pissed if he even misses the previews so he won't get them."

"Sure," Courtney happily says and falls into step with Griffin when they head over to the counter to buy two large popcorns and two large drinks. Griffin would rather share with Courtney than carry four drinks and four popcorns inside the movie theatre with just him and Courtney to carry them.

When they get inside the movie room, the previews are nearly ending and Chad and Karin are up at the top already making out.

"Gross," Courtney complains, moving to a different row instead of even trying to interrupt their session. Griffin happily follows her; he'd rather sit all alone with Courtney in the movie theatre than next to his best friend loudly and grossly making out with his ballerina girlfriend. "Well, sorry you just bought popcorn and a drink they probably won't even come down here to get."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll have him pay me back if he doesn't come and get this stuff," Griffin replies as he sets the drink and popcorn on the chair next to him. They aren't able to say much else to each other, because the lights began dimming around them and the volume of the movie began to increase once the credits of the movie began to pop up on the screen.

Halfway through the movie, Griffin is observing the few other couples that have started to snuggle up while they continued to watch the movie. Some guys had their arms wrapped around their girl's shoulders, and some of the other girls had their heads resting on the guy's shoulder. Even though Griffin didn't necessarily want to be on this date and even though he would never be able to like Courtney in the way she wants, he does know formal dating etiquette. Even if he didn't really want to be here, he wasn't going to waste all of Courtney's time and not at least make this date somewhat worthwhile for her.

He looks down between them and eyes her hands, that were settled on her lap, nervously. Before he could talk himself out of it, he reached out and takes one of her smaller hands in his. It's rougher than he expected it to be, and it throws him off a little, until he remembers that she's Poughkeepsie's annual rodeo queen. She didn't get where she was on the saddle and rodeo without putting some work in or keeping her hands perfectly soft and uncalloused. 

With the callouses he was able to imagine, if for a cheating moment, that he was doing this with a boy. But as soon as the thought comes, he forces it to the back of his head and he looks over at her face, that is just as pretty as it was when he first saw her, and she's smiling openly at him again. Her hand squeezes his lightly and he decides to imagine that his heart beats wildly from that like it should.