the ones society stole

12. the pursuit of happiness

"people told me slow my roll. ''m screaming out fuck that. i'm a do just what I want. looking ahead no turning back. if I fall, if i die, know i lived it to the fullest." - Kid Cudi

"Why are we in target?" Jacian asked as Arabella pushed the cart through the snack aisle.

"Everyone knows you have to bulk up on snacks before you see a movie," She through a couple chocolate bars in the cart, "That shit is so fucking overpriced."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He tried to suppress the anxiety that crept up his arms like pins and needles, or the shortness in breath that had him feeling lightheaded. Just the sight of all that sugar was enough to make him go running. 

"You have any preferences?" He looked over to her, a smile creeping its way onto his face when he saw her holding up two massive bags of popcorn. 

"I'm fine with any." He replied. 

Arabella shrugged and threw the bag of regular movie theatre butter into the cart. She slowly began to notice how he was pretty nonchalant about this whole situation. It's not like she expected him to be overly hyped about the fact that he was going to be in a close proximity to her while they were in the dark watching her favorite movie, but she was pretty psyched. She didn't know if he knew it, but he was so damn fine in her eyes. 

And it wasn't the first time she noticed. 

She reminisces back to the day he first got her attention, the first day of sophomore year. She was in the library, still the goody two shoes her parents wanted her to be, and he was sitting in the lounge area drawing. She remembers the dark grey hoodie he wore over his tattered black jeans, and how his messy hair fell in all the right places. What really caught her attention was what he was drawing. His sketching pad was worn out due to its constant use and his right hand was smudged from the granite. The lines were a mixture of hard and soft, of bold and smudged. He didn't erase anything though, and that was probably the best part. Arabella, being stuck with a poetic mind that just had to find a metaphor in literally everything, wondered if there was any symbiotic relationship to him. 

There was no running from your past mistakes. 

Now, here they were, two reunited high school seniors doing what they should have done years ago. She knew that there was nothing big about catching a movie, kids do it all the time. Yet, it was something she craved. Just the feeling of being a kid again. All she wanted to focus on was if this boy liked her back. She wanted that possibility of a high school sweetheart intertwined with teenage tragedy. 

"I think we're good for the munchies right?" Arabella asked him, who in return tried to keep his composure. The cart was filled to the top with a multitude of junk. She wasn't actually planning on buying it all was she?

"Yes, we should be fine." 

"Alright, next stop is the dressing room." 

He watched silently as she took random clothes off the hangers and threw them into the cart. It was the little whimsical moments of each action she made, that had him perplexed and borderline head over heals. 

"You want to wait out here?" She asked as she strategically parked the cart in the entrance of the dressing room, making sure that the cameras saw the cart, but not what was inside. 

"Yeah, I can stay here." 

"Cool."

He took a seat nearby as she went in. She made her phone ring as she zipped open her bag and pretended to be on the phone, as she slowly filled her bag with the goodies. All that was left was the bottle of wine, and in all honesty, it was the easiest part. The bottle didn't make a shit load of noise like all the junk, which she thought was great.