Finding You

3: Movie Night

SAMANTHA:

I run up to Reyna and envelope her in a warm hug, her bleached hair tickles my neck.

"You know, I've missed you so much", she gushes as she pulls away from the hug.

"I've missed you too, Rey", I say as we starting walking towards the restaurant.

The restaurant has a vivid red signboard with the word 'Paradish' embossed into it. The letters, which are surrounded by little white blossoms, glow dimly in the yellow sunlight. As we walk side by side towards the restaurant, I gaze through the windows. Some people are hunched over their meals, entirely engrossed in something on the screens of their phones and others chattering animatedly to the people next to them. The waiters are constantly being reeled into the kitchen by the cooks. As soon as I open the door, the light chatter and buzz envelope my ears.

"Sam and Rey? What a nice surprise! We haven't seen you two in a while, how have you been?", Johnathan exclaims cheerfully as he stands by the host stand. He reaches for a hug and we both return.

"Oh we're all good", I say in response.

Johnathan was the owner of 'Paradish'; as we came here more and more, we became acquainted with Johnathan and his family.

"No Yara I see?", he asks inquisitively.

"Oh, she's running late, as usual", Rey says casually.

Our friend Yara has recently applied for the prestigious Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics and she had been spending every spare moment revising for all her school tests and as well as the interview.

I didn't take much to convince her to come out today after we promised her that we'd rent the new Joker film at Rey's house and have a movie night.

"Can we have a table for three Johnathan?", Rey says as we catch a cool draught from the open door.

"Of course! Right this way", he takes us down the restaurant and leads us to a small, cosy booth. There is a single white lily in a vase and some red menus with blossoms on them on the table. Rey and I slide into the booth and remove our jackets.

"So tell me how are your parents?", I ask Rey cautiously.

Rey's parents are in the process of getting a divorce and with Rey being an only child, she wasn't used to having someone to communicate with. It was so difficult to sit and watch her anger build-up, whilst I was here unable to do anything.

"It's more irritating than ever, they just keep fighting over me like I'm some toy and not their daughter. I know they both want custody, but I don't want to be with either of them at this point", she says sighing softly.

"Well you can always come to stay with me and Arian if it starts to get too much, I'm always here for you", I say.

"And this isn't going to last forever, you're gonna be away at university soon!", I say reminding her.

"Exactly, I have that to look forward to, I just can't wait to get away from here", her eyes seem to pop out in excitement forcing me to laugh.

We both start laughing when we are interrupted by a tardy Yara.

"Hey Rey and Sam, I'm so sorry I just had to finish one more page of that new book", she quickly takes off her jacket and gives us both quick hugs as she slides into the velvet red booth.

"You know the Joker film is one of those films that leave you speechless, well that's what I've seen from all the fan pages and honestly it's been so hard avoiding any spoilers I'm so excited", she gushes as she talks with her hands. Her lilac nail polish glittering in the sun that streams in through the window.