You're only a fool if you give up

C2

Sara is babbling her way through the commercials. Matteo doesn't hear a word. His head replays the moment he set eyes on the guy behind the register, over and over again. The movie starts to play and Matteo is looking at the screen, but he doesn't see anything. He's imagining those brown eyes and that perfect smile, showing all of his teeth, showing nothing but joy. He is caught off guard when his future-hopefully-not girl friend takes his hand and intertwines their fingers. It's the most uncomfortable he's felt in days. He can see her head starting to lean to his side and he immediately moves to his left as far as possible. Sara seems surprised that his shoulder isn't there, but he pretends he never read her intention and keeps staring at the screen. When she starts playing with his fingers, he can't take it anymore.

"Sorry, I need to take a piss real quick. I'll be right back." he jumps from his seat and doesn't look back at her while he's making his way to the exit.

There's an empty hallway and it's so bright Matteo feels dizzy after all the darkness. He doesn't really need to piss, but he does need to calm down if he wants to make it out alive. He pushes the toilet door and suddenly he's standing there, grunting with disgust. There's a couple making out in men's restroom. There are hands under shirts and bodies pressed against each other and it's so intense they don't even notice him. He coughs, louder this time.

"It's taken" the boy, looking younger than Matteo is, shots him a glare and goes back to kissing his girlfriend. He sighs and goes back out to the empty corridor.

It's long. The walls are painted white and there are at least six doors on each side. He takes a look at girls' toilet (he doesn't think it's a good idea to go in there), check's the disabled toilet (it's closed) and then he keeps wandering, because it's better than watching the movie with a girl he doesn't even want to know.

There are turns and tiny alleys and he tries to remember which door he came from when he hears footsteps. It's more than one person, Matteo can tell, and he tries to run back towards men's toilet, but he freezes in place and his whole body tenses. He hears the laugh.

He turns around, the footsteps getting louder each time, and he just kind of stands there. Waiting.

Two people appear from a small corridor on his left and he catches a glimpse of some girl's long hair, but he doesn't care. He looks at the guy next to her, a phone in his hand and a sandwich in his mouth. He seems surprised to see Matteo and his cheeks turn a light shade of pink as he takes the sandwich away from his face and starts to slowly chew on the bite he just took. Matteo stares at his jaw mowing and he's pretty sure he could pay all the money he doesn't have just to get sliced by his bones.

"What are you doing here? This is employees area" he takes a look at the girl, her words reaching him after a while. She is wearing the same t-shirt with the cinema's logo on it and Matteo tries to read her expression, hoping she won't get him in trouble.

"Sorry. I was heading to the toilet." he says with a faint smile. She replies immediately, telling him it's the second to his right and she doesn't sound angry. "Uhm, do you have a key to the disabled one?"

Both employees give him a surprised look, the guy asking "Are you disabled?" and while his face is getting red with embarrassement, he regrets ever stepping out of his house.

"Erm, no. Men's was taken" he answers, staring at the floor.

"Were all the stalls taken? Well, you could just, you know, wait a bit." the guy suggests and Matteo feels stupid, and he makes a disgusted face remembering the view in the toilet.

"No. It was... taken." he accents the word and the guy seems to catch it, though he rolls his eyes, looking very annoyed. This probably happens often. Matteo heard that people often make out at the cinema. He's just never witnessed it before.

"Sorry about that. I have the key, if you want to use it. I'll wait until you're done."

He takes the offer, because he asked for it, though he doesn't really need it. He goes into the toilet and washes his hands. He adds some more soap, thinking of Sara's hands on his, and when he looks into the mirror, there's pain written on his face. He's hardly slept last night, thinking about this date and why the hell did he agree to go. But then it hits him that he never did. He just didn't say no, so there he was, the dark bags under his eyes more visible than usually. He bit a hole in his left sleeve by stressfully chewing on it whenever Sara didn't look. And now he was hiding in a diasbled's toilet.

He goes out and is both relieved and frightened when he finds the girl disappeared. He takes a look at the boy once again and pinches himself (it hurts, so it must be real). He mumbles a shy "thank you" and gets a happy "no problem" in return. He wishes he knew the guy's name. He doesn't have the courage to ask. Instead,

"How to get out of here?"

"You're watching Aladdin, right?" he sends him a smile and Matteo shivers at the thought he remembered. "It's the first door on the left."

"No" he says, because he can't go back there. He can't. "How to get out of here?" he asks again and the guy's furrowing his eyebrows, a worried expression going onto his face.

"Aren't you here with a girl?" he asks back and Matteo wants to disappear. He utters "it's complicated" to the ground and it's so quiet he isn't sure if the guy even heard him, but he doesn't ask anything else. "Well, I can show you the exit. Can you wait a second? I need to get my stuff and I'll be heading out, too."

The guy doesn't even wait for him to reply, walking through a door with a "no entry" sticker on. Matteo tries to understand what is going on at the moment, tries to understand that he was alone with a guy he just met and he's starting to panic because there's so much on his mind right now, but then the guy comes back and casually nods at Matteo and he follows him withouth a second thought.

"My name is David" he says and Matteo stops mid-step, in the middle of a bright hallway, because David. He wondered what the guy's name could be, trying to think of one good enough, but the way he just said it, it sounds so beautiful, so sweet and so right.

David looks at him expectantly and Matteo mumbles his name, with his cheeks blushed and his eyes on the ground. David repeats it and his voice makes Matteo's heart skip a few beats.

"Did you not like the movie?" David asks, opening the door for him. Matteo sighs, confused, because he's not even sure what the movie is about and he knows the story of Aladdin. He just thought too much about trying not to think.

"I don't know. Do you like it?" he asks instead of answering and David says he likes the original one better, but this one isn't that bad. "What's your favourite movie?" he finds himself asking and David makes a thinking face that makes Matteo squeal inside.

"I'd say it's Only lovers left alive." he replies after a while and Matteo isn't surprised he has never heard of it.

"What's it about?"

He stops, making Matteo stop a bit too late, a step too close to him, and he looks straight into his eyes. Matteo feels like he's trying to read him, figure out everything from just this one look. He lets him.

"I have it on DVD. We can watch it together, if you'd like." he offers and Matteo is choking on air, because he missed a breath and he's not sure how can he even breathe when David just invited him to watch a movie together at his house.

They're interrupted by Matteo's phone buzzing. He takes it out and sees an unknown number. He has a feeling he might know who it is, but he turns it off and puts it back in his pocket.

He looks back at David and suddenly he feels like he could say no. After all the "didn't agree but also didn't refuse", the look on David's face makes him feel safe and secure and he feels like he could say no to that offer.

He doesn't. He's going to watch a movie with David.