Unexpected Encounters [B.H.M.]

27

"Where would you like to sit?"

"Hm... somewhere in the middle of the row and not too far in the front or the back. But you can include your preferences too."

"I prefer in the back because I'm tall and and have a lot of hair...," he said, smiling sheepishly.

He was cute. "That's fine," I assured him. "You're being very sweet being so considerate of others."

"Well, I know from experience how annoying it can be if someone tall and hairy sits right in front of you, so I try not to be that person," he explained.

"Aren't you tall enough to not be annoyed by that?" I asked him curiously. I always thought tall people didn't have such problems.

"Oh, yeah. No, I'm fine usually. But the kids sometimes have that problem," he explained.

Ah, that made more sense. "That's sweet of you," I managed to tell him before it was our turn and he had to order our tickets. He got some for the middle of the second-to-last row, which was a good compromise of our preferences with our tickets in my bag so we wouldn't lose them, we went to get some snacks.

"You choose whatever you want, okay?" I told him.

He nodded and looked around, but seemed to decide relatively quickly. "I think I'm just going with the classic combination, popcorn and something to drink."

"That's fine. I think I'll take the same. Salty or sweet popcorn?" I asked him, going directly to the counter where we'd have to order that.

"Salty, of course. And some lemonade, please."

I shook my head a little. "Salty popcorn... how dare you.."

Brian chuckled, glancing at me. "Don't tell me you prefer sweet popcorn..."

"I do, and I'm seriously reconsidering this friendship," I teased.

"Oh not just you," Brian said amused. "But I guess everyone has their flaws."

It was wonderful to see him like this, joking around with me, actually happy. "Well as long as the wrong - but actually the right - choice of popcorn is my only flaw, I can live with that," I told him before I turned to the girl behind the counter and ordered for us. One salty and one sweet popcorn and two lemonades, only to have Brian comment on how he could maybe forgive me for choosing the wrong popcorn because I chose a good drink. I wasn't used to this, to him joking around and making me smile so much, but I really liked it. It was good to see him so happy and cheerful.

Once we had our drinks and popcorn and our tickets of course, we walked to the screen our film would be showing on. We weren't particularly early, so there were already a few people sitting in their seats. Brian held the door open for me. "Could you go first? That way we maybe attract a bit less attention."

"Oh, sure," I said, going ahead. There was so much he had to think about that didn't even cross my mind. You always heard about people wanting to be famous, but if I was honest I wasn't that sure it was such a good thing. It seemed so stressful if I was honest. Yes, the money probably was great but basically you were sacrificing a lot for that. I walked up the stairs, glancing at the row numbers even though that was a little pointless because I knew we had the second to last row. So I glanced at the people already in the room and most of them looked up when they noticed movement in the quiet room. And it didn't take long before I could see some whispering and glancing at Brian happening.

"You go ahead," I ended up telling him when we reached our row. It was only accessible from one side, so I hoped that if I was between the people and Brian they might be deterred a little more and leave him alone.