Over the Wall: A Collection of Short Stories (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Day 17: The Beautiful Smell of Movie Theater Popcorn

When the lights began to dim, she finally felt safe. Then he walked in.

No one else noticed him, the movie had just started, but she couldn’t look anywhere else. He was looking around the theater, she noticed. He was looking for her.

Yes, it had been childish to run away but what could she do? She couldn’t handle looking at him one second longer, it had hurt too much. The whole situation was embarrassing. He had looked at her so differently. She didn’t like him looking at her like that. It made her feel vulnerable. He should know that she didn’t like feeling vulnerable.

After they had fought and she had left she had walked, not ran, she was not being murdered or kidnapped, until she saw some of her friends going into see a movie. She had joined up with them, one of them had paid for her ticket, she would pay them back the next day, and found refuge in the dimming lights of the theater. Who knew he knew to look for her here. Maybe he just knew that some of them were meeting for a movie that night and he figured he might as well look.

Curse her love of movies. Curse his knowing of her love of movies and movie theaters in general. He could have at least bought some popcorn to bring as a peace offering.

Or some Red Vines. She would kill for some Red Vines right now.

Or some of those Sour Patch Watermelons.

Or those cookie dough bites. Now she was just hungry. She had to focus.

She ducked down in her seat and found a way to keep watching him through the crack between the seats. He hadn’t seen her yet and hopefully he would just give up. Then he saw something that was not her but still very close to her. She scanned where he was looking then realized her fatal mistake: she had dropped her scarf in the aisle. It was a red plaid scarf and he had just seen her wearing it. He definitely knew she was here now. Shit.

He walked down the aisle and to their row where the scarf sat by the aisle seat. She tried to duck even more and possibly become invisible but it didn’t work. He saw her. She looked up at him in mock surprise but he just glared at her. She forced a lame smile and he kept his intense gaze as he came and sat down next to her. He turned his head towards the movie but that intense look did not fade.

She looked at him, wondering how he was going to react at her leaving and her hiding in a movie theater with their friends but he said nothing. The friends she had come with whispered pleasantries and he nodded in return. He still didn’t look at her. She couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Are you going to say something?” He said nothing. She was about to ask again when he said,

“I can’t say anything until I’m calm. I’m trying to calm down.”

He was not going a good job. His hands were in fists tight against his side and his jaw was clenched and it was a miracle he did not make the movie screen turn into flames from the way she was looking at it. This is why she had to walk away. She couldn’t deal with seeing him like this. The only thing worse was making him feel this way. It hurt.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered. If his body hadn’t softened a little she would have thought he didn’t hear her but it did. Then, as fast as that had happened, he clenched up again. She sighed. What would it take to make this right?

“Do you believe me?” She asked.

“Yes.” He said.

“Then why are you so tense?”

“Because I always knew you were sorry but I can’t seem to use that to make myself feel better.”

“Why?”

“If I knew I would be able to fix it wouldn’t I?” He said through clenched teeth.

“Sorry.” She said again.

“Stop saying that.”

“Sorry.” He gave her a look.

“Nevermind. I’m definitely not sorry.” She thought she saw part of a smile and she smiled too. Progress.

“Are you going to maybe sit back in your seat? It must not be comfortable sitting like that.” He was sitting forward in his chair, as if the movie he was not watching was too riveting to move away from. He complied and sat back and so did she. She kept her eyes on him. He kept his eyes on the movie.

“So how’s your day going?” She whispered. He almost smiled again.

“Not too bad. I’ve had worse. Yours?” He whispered back.

“The same. I had a huge fight with this asshole earlier but now I’m good now that I’m here.”

“An asshole, huh?”

“Yep. You haven’t seen him around have you?”

“Nope. I got in a fight with someone today too, you know.” He said.

“Oh really. You don’t seem to be the kind to get in fights.”

“I’m not. But this girl, a short little spitfire, got in my face and I had to defend myself.”

“That sounds awful.” She said. They were both smiling now.

“It was.” They were silent for a moment.

“Do you want to go buy some popcorn?” He asked. “It’s very hard to watch a movie without popcorn.” She had taught him that and he hadn’t forgotten that fact.

“And maybe some Red Vines?”

“I was thinking some Sour Patch Watermelons.”

“And some cookie dough bites.”

“You can only choose one.”

“All of them.” She said, smiling.

“Ugh fine.” He said, also smiling.

They went out into the lobby and out to the concessions stand. He pulled out his wallet and pulled out a twenty and handed it to her, already moving to go sit down as she moved to the line. She knew it would cost more than this but she had money. Besides, she didn’t mind having him pay for more than half of it. Food here was way too expensive.

When she got to the front of the line she shot the guy, who was pretty cute, a smile and told him she would like two sodas, a popcorn, and all three candies. Hey, a girl needed to eat.

She brought the food and carried it with amazing ability to where he was sitting. She should’ve been a waitress. But that wouldn’t have been as nice as carrying delicious popcorn and candy around. She liked that.

She stopped a few feet away from him, swaying on her feet. He was sitting against the wall, his hands fiddling in his lap. He was watching the room, not for anything in particular, just looking. She had forgotten how handsome he was. He was just so handsome.

He saw her watching him and he jumped up, grabbing the popcorn and candies from her and said for her to go get some straws for the sodas. She smiled at him and did as she was told.

When she came back he was waiting by the door to go back into the theater.

“Ready for some movie hopping?” He said.

“We might as well. We already missed like half of this movie already.” She said, laughing now.

“Well come on.” He said, going to open the door.

“Wait.” She said before he could. He turned, giving her a questioning look.

“Yeah?”

“You know I’m sorry about today right?”

“Me?” He said. “Of course. Besides,” He opened the door with his foot. “I don’t even remember what we were fighting about.”

“Neither do I.” She grinned at him as she slipped past into the dark theater. He watched her go with an equally happy smile on his face before following her in.

He loved that girl so damn much.