That Stupid Little L-Word:

Chapter Twenty Two:

This is dedicated to my sister, because she is OBSESSED with How To Train Your Dragon xD I love the movie, but oh my god, her obsession has gotten bad. She now wants a Toothless car...

The Amex theatre is literally just outside my neighborhood, just like Blue-Eyes had said. I was expecting it to be a couple blocks over or something, maybe a few streets down. I wasn't expecting it to branch out from the red brick wall that separated the parking lot from the neighborhood. 

In my defense, I have never left my neighborhood this way. Lynn Woods has a double entrance --apparently. 

"What movie do you want to see?" Blue-Eyes asks, his trademark eyes focused on my expression as we approached the ticket counter. I glance over the choices --pausing at the poster of a cheesy romantic comedy, and the second How To Train Your Dragon movie.

I purse my lips together. Do I make the poor boy suffer, as payback for ditching me at school today? Or do I watch my most favorite movie of all time and expose my deepest, darkest secret to him. I mull it over. He did come by my house and has taken me here, so I guess that makes up for the whole ditching at school part. I stare at the HTTYD2 poster, and then glance at him from the corners of my eyes, "I don't know. What do you want to see?" 

He smiles a silly little grin and shakes his head. "Come on," he tugs me toward the ticket counter, and the guy behind the window wakes up a bit. He looks like Santa Clause, with chubby cheeks and a long white beard. 

"Two tickets for How To Train Your Dragon," Blue-Eyes slaps a twenty dollar bill onto the plastic red counter top and slides it through the small hole in the glass that separates us from Santa Clause. 

I fight a grin and stare at the ground. Inside, I am bursting with joy. DreamWorks, Disney, Pixar, all of that is my shit. I'm obsessed with them. Santa Clause slides our tickets across and Blue-Eyes snags them, before tugging me inside the building. Ice cold air conditioned air blasts me full force, and I shiver before I can stop myself. Blue-Eyes glances back, concerned, and I unleash the sheer intensity of my excitement on him. 

"I absolutely love this movie," I warn him, after I blind him pretty good with my grin. 

He laughs, "I can tell. It's pretty good. I like The Incredibles more, though." I feel my eyes widen, because I happen to be in love with that movie too, and Blue-Eyes rushes, "Don't get me wrong. I love dragons. But superheroes are more my style, you know?" 

I laugh and nod, "I like that movie too. We'll have to watch it some time." 

We approach the snack counter, grinning at each other like weirdos. It takes a few moments before we can actually speak to the freckle faced girl who is standing behind the counter, and when we do, she is just staring at us with a bored expression. Embarrassed, I quickly ask for a giant bucket of popcorn and a soda, and then reach into my purse to fish out my debit card. He paid for the tickets, so I plan to pay for the food.

But Blue-Eyes beats me too it, by whipping out a fifty dollar bill after he asks for a soda and box of candy. Before I can slide my card free of my wallet, he's already slid the cash across the counter. 

My eyes bug out a little at the amount of money. I mean, who comes to the theatre with large dollar bills like that? I've never even held anything bigger than a twenty before, much less spent it on something all at once.

I start to grumble a protest but relent, when he gives me a look. I sigh. I guess I can't argue with a free movie and food. The girl takes his money and then starts preparing our order. She reaches over and hands me my bucket of popcorn. I immediately scarf down a handful and bask in the warm buttery taste. Blue-Eyes laughs at me, and shakes his head. We grab the rest of our stuff and then turn down the hallway that leads to the screening rooms. A tanned guy waits at the end of the hall to take our tickets, a dark eyebrow arched at our weird giggly-ness.

"I might cry during this," I admit after we hand the guy our tickets and then walk toward our selected theatre room. "I get super into movies, and this one made me cry the first time I saw it." 

He laughs at me, "Alright then."

We walk inside the dimly lit room, and the commercials are already playing. The theatre is somewhat full and we snag two seats somewhere near the middle-front like the dedicated movie watchers that we are. We whisper back and forth to each other until the lights dim further, and the movie actually starts. 

Then I completely and utterly ignore him. 

I feel his hand take mine and squeeze, but I can't respond. I am in the zone right now, and Toothless is more important. No matter how cute Blue-Eyes is, he will never be able to top Toothless. 

Well, actually, now that I really think about it...

When the movie ends, and I've wiped all the makeup from my face, we walk back out into the bright sunshine, and cringe. "That movie was awesome," I shield my eyes and look up at him, smiling widely like a five year old with a bucket of candy. "Thanks for taking me. You're really sweet." 

He grins down at me, "I'm glad you enjoyed it." One of his hands lifts, and he hesitantly brushes at my bangs. A shy smile works its way onto his lips, "You look really cute today." 

I flush and giggle like a school girl. 

And we stand there, for a few moments, once again just grinning at each other like idiots. It's kind of pathetic really, but I have no clue how else to describe it. It's like a spell has settled over me; something that causes me to only be able to focus on Blue-Eyes, and all we can do is stare at each other and giggle. I try to break the spell by taking his hand, and we start walking around, laughing and talking like goofballs.

As we go to cross the street, I manage to drop my purse. We laugh at my stupidity and pause. I bend down to scoop it up. 

Neither of us see the car.