Now I remember what it was like to wear my Peter Pan tights…

I was squeezed into a pair of ridiculously tight acid wash jeans, which would have been chafing me if I was not already accustomed to their uncomfortable tightness and the way the button bit into the skin of my stomach, as I made my way across the parking lot. The tag of the shirt I had on under my jacket was itching terribly and I didn't even like the band whose logo was plastered onto my chest, but none of that really mattered. What mattered was that I was walking toward a large building with neon signs too old for my generation while the girl I was convinced was the only one who actually gave even half a shit about me had her arm looped around mine, claiming me as her own.

I hadn't been to an actual movie theater to see a new showing in so long, I couldn't remember the last film I had seen. To be honest I don't even think it was good.

Well actually, that isn't actually telling the whole story. I hadn't gone for so long because I hadn't been able to afford outings like movies, mainly because my family was already struggling with money complications as it was, so things like going out to spend hard earned money on overpriced popcorn and tickets to a movie you could see in the comfort of your own home a few months later for the same price once it came out on DVD, or for free at a friends house- well, it seemed rather pointless and stupid.

So you might be wondering: Tavros, if you are so unwilling to go out to this public place to sit in a large smelly room with a bunch of strangers for a ridiculous amount of money, why are you here in the first place?

It isn't exactly like you can say no to Vriska when she wants to do something. Ever since I began working at the grocery store in Consort Plaza Vriska took it as open season on my bank account. Every single time I saw her it was "lets go to this place to eat" "Lets go pay to go do this dangerous thing that might hurt us" "I think you should buy these they would make you look great" and things of that nature all of which I was against but couldn't actually say no to. These were the things that made Vriska happy, and it was really nice to see her smiling and laughing, so I would smile and agree to all the things she wanted to do, while scrambling to make up for the lost sums of money by being as frugal at home as I could.

This was why I put up with the product in my hair and the blisters that my new converse gave me. Why I didn't complain when I cut my hand rock climbing, and went out to the new sushi place downtown even if everything was out of my price limit. It made her happy.

"Two for 'He Waits', please."

The pleased smirk of painted lips and the approving squeeze on my arm gave me a thrill. Even the smallest sign of approval was enough to make me want to bend myself backwards for her, and maybe the scariest thing was that if I was asked, I probably would have.

Once I exchanged a twenty for the tickets and some change I stuffed it all back into the pocket of the jacket because the pockets of my jeans wouldn't have held it. I was just able to thank the woman behind the glass before my arm was jerked and I was dragged through the revolving door.

"You act like going out and doing things like a normal person is a hard thing Tavros."

I kind of half smiled, doing my best to make sure I didn't trip over my own feet on the outdated carpet. "Sorry, am I acting weird again?"

"Well you're hardly talking," She remarked. "Thats one thing."

"Sorry."

"Just work on your conversational skills, dork-a-tron."

We gave our tickets to the bored looking doorman at the little gate area that blocked the lobby from the snack bar, and he didn't even bother to look at us as he ripped them in half and ushered us inside with a monotone "Enjoy the film."

His voice sounded vaguely familiar and I was about to take another look at him in an attempt of maybe recognizing him as a classmate or something, but Vriska was letting go of my arm to approach the snack bar, and I didn't want to lose her so I abandoned the thought and instead jogged after her.

"Welcome guys! Can I help you?" Offered the cashier behind the counter, and I held up a hand up.

"Uh, i-in a second, sorry. We're just going to take a quick look at what you have."

This worker was a lot more chipper than the previous one, and she smiled. "Of course, take your time you guys."

For a moment we stood there in front of the counter, Vriska with her arms crossed, me with my hands in my pockets, and just gazed over the menu. I cringed to myself at the prices. If I was expected to pay for these I would be really stretching my limit. I might not be able to pitch in for the bills that month.

I looked over at Vriska, who was now tapping her cheek and narrowing her eyes at the board. "What would you like?"

"I'm thinking a blue raspberry slurpee and some popcorn. Ugh," She closed her eyes as if she were possessed by the thought of the delicious treats. "I haven't had one of those slurpees in soooooooo long."

Smiling at her, I noticed that a strand of hair had fallen out of her braid, so I tucked it behind her ear. "You should get it then. I might not get anything."

"What? No! This is a movie date!" she dug a knuckle into my side, making me jump and writhe away with a shriek because it both hurt and tickled. "Get something you pixie, or I'll grind your bones for my bread."

I couldn't help but laugh at her villainous voice and agree as quickly as I could. "O-okay okay! Uh, I guess we could just share a large of the drink and the popcorn, I don't mind."

A sharp eyebrow raised above the rim of her glasses as if to ask if I was really sure, and I nodded in assurance before she made up her mind. "Alriiiiiiiight. If you say so."

I was about to come forward to order, but she stepped in front of me and whipped out her credit card.

"Large blue raspberry slurpee an a large popcorn." she demanded.

"Wait you don't-"

"Relax torea-snore." she didn't even have to look back to known where I was as she patted my cheek. "I've got it covered."

I didn't have to break my bank after all. Relieved, I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her shoulder while muttering thanks, but she scoffed at the sign of affection and elbowed me in the gut with a laugh as she paid for the food.

She had her moments, however fleeting.

Once we had our snacks in hand Vriska lead the way down the dimly lit hallway, past a few other rooms where other films were being showed, and it was then while we made small talk on the other things playing that I really realized that I was going to be watching a HORROR movie. Not just a thriller, but a movie with gore and blood and horrible acts of violence and monstrosity.

I couldn't even handle the movie about the little monsters that multiplied and killed people if you fed them after midnight, so anything R rated was no doubt going to make me shit my pants. Even if I already felt like I was going to cry from just anticipation alone, I couldn't tell Vriska that. Not only were we already here, but she already knew quite well how much of a baby I was and would harass me about it to no end if I complained and made us leave. Plus, she looked so excited… Was I really willing to ruin her great mood just because I was afraid? No. I was going to stay, but I wasn't going to enjoy it, I knew that for sure.

We went through the doors into the even dimmer showing room, climbed the stairs with minimal spillage of popcorn, and sat down near the back. Vriska took a large gulp of the Slurpee and tapped a black nail on her armrest. She seemed content for the moment.

Grateful for the pleasant surprise of actually having a good time so far I settled into my seat and popped some of the buttery kernels into my mouth. In the back of my mind I wondered if there was still time to back out. Of course I had no intention of leaving, but the thought of being far far away from a horror movie so gruesome that some of my classmates who had seen it literally ran out of the theater was much more pleasant than actually being there.

Just then I heard one of Vriska's exaggerated sighs, and I turned to give her a questioning look. "Something wrong?"

"No, nothing," She crossed one leg over the other and glared at the screen. "I just thought we had gotten here late enough to miss all of these stupid trailers, but APPARENTLY not." A huff, then she recrossed her legs. "It doesn't matter."

"No no, I understand." I knew how impatient she was, so I didn't hold it against her. "Do you want to wait outside a bit?"

"Just forget it Tavros. We're already here."

Not wanting to make her even more upset by asking her a bunch of questions I just kept my mouth shut and my eyes forward on the huge screen as a commercial with a talking dog driving a car with a cat in the passenger seat. It made me chuckle a bit, but that definitely made Vriska more irritated, so I just kind of sunk more into my seat and pretended I hadn't made a sound..

I ignored the rest of the trailers that played until one came on that instantly spiked my interest. It only took me a moment to realize what it was.

"Oh my god, oh my god Vriska!"

"What?"

I pointed at the screen like an energetic child. "Look! They've made a new Peter Pan movie! Oh my gosh I HAVE to go see it."

"Peter Pan?"

There it was, the familiar patronizing voice. I turned to look at her and lowered my hands which had previously been balled up in excitement, and instead rested them on my lap as I the excitement drained from me like a faucet had been turned. I knew what was coming.

Sure enough, Vriska flicked her bangs out of her face and continued. "I thought you'd grown out of that kid stuff. It was cute when you were five, weird when you were thirteen, and now it's just annoying."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"When that movie comes out lets watch the thriller that's coming out at the same time. It'll be way better."

My body felt heavy and cold, like I was a rock at the bottom of a well. Robotically I nodded along to what she said in the hopes that she would be happy if I agreed with her.

"Alright."

Content with the answer I had given her, Vriska graced me with a quick kiss and then pulled out her phone to check her facebook page. Her promise of no distractions was all in the past now that she was bored.

"Vriska," I did little to mask my exasperation. "I thought you said you would pay attention to the date."

She gave me a look as if I was the stupidest person to ever open their mouth. "Meenah texted me!" this seemed like the most logical thing to her, and so she turned back to her phone muttering about how much of a prude I was. I figured shutting up was my best option.

At the same time I wished I didn't have to shut down like that to please her.

As the theater's lights went dim I sat there slumped in my seat with my hands in my jacket pockets and inwardly wished I was in the theater two doors down, where a sappy romance was playing. beside me Vriska had lowered her phone and was holding it in one hand while her other was dipped into the already half empty popcorn bowl. Her sharp eyes were disinterested with the screen until suddenly it went black and slowly began to fade into a pale color. A chorus of voices began softly singing in something that seemed like latin, but I couldn't take it seriously, mainly because it sounded like the singers were all choir boys who were wearing pants much too small for them- and speaking of snug pants, I was beginning to feel the usual bite of the new jeans into the tender skin of my stomach already.

Vriska muttered a "Finally" and put her phone away while I shifted to not only put an arm around her shoulders, but to also try and get into a more comfortable position so the pinching could be eased. It didn't work.

The movie started out pretty alright, of course that wasn't taking into account the horrible acting and the overused tropes that horror movies nowadays couldn't seem to shake off. I was used to suffering through terrible acting in movies, however as always, Vriska wasn't nearly as patient as I was, and certainly wasn't willing to compromise. At every pause she would lean back and complain loudly about everything she could; the costumes, acting, scenery and plot were all subject of her ridicule, and the couple in front of us did not seem to be as patient with her as I had to be.

They kept shooting us nasty looks as if to try and get their point across, but of course Vriska took this as a challenge and loudly called them out. I was so embarrassed that I sunk even deeper into my seat every time they sent us a look, hoping they wouldn't say anything while also knowing that Vriska wouldn't stop until she won. Unsurprisingly, after only fifteen minutes of the film, the couple moved to a seat a great deal away from us.

This was taken as a victory for Vriska, and she leaned close to me to hiss into my ear. "Those losers finally moved!"

Unable to share her glee, I just shook my head as she accused me of being a spoil sport.

The music pulled my attention away from her and my embarrassment once more as it suddenly stopped, and then in a split second something shot across the screen, making both I and several of the other movie's occupants shriek. There was no saving face now. I was terrified and curled into the corner of my seat, and with a snark-filled smile Vriska draped an arm around my shoulders, comforting me slightly.

After that the movie took a turn for the worst. I watched as the main characters and a group of children OF COURSE took shelter down in the towns old abandoned warehouse that the whole town knew was haunted. as they approached the building all I could think was no, not the nine year olds, not the children…

I really didn't want to be here. Not even Vriska's rare sign of affection was enough to make me feel safer. This wasn't an exciting, adrenaline rushed scare, this was a sickening, tremor inducing fear that wouldn't even let me peek out from behind my fingers.

Oh god, oh god… think happy thoughts, happy thoughts…

"Vriska…" I unfolded myself a bit to look over at her. "Vriska, can we please get out of here?"

She didn't even glance over at me. "Are you kidding? It's finally starting to get good! You're not wimping out are you? Do you really want to be a pussy during the best movie of the year?"

No, of course I didn't. I showed her I didn't by shaking my head. I wanted to appear cool and tough, able to handle things like this, but I couldn't do that while a bloodthirsty psycho killer was running around and ripping the throats out of little children. Their screams were echoing in my ears, making me shiver despite my efforts of subduing it, and when I chanced a look when the music slowed I was met with the absolutely hideous: a little girl had been severed in half, her organs spilled all over the ground while her eyes still watched her friend get cut to pieces by the killer.

I just couldn't take it.

My stomach suddenly did a cartwheel, my hand flying to my mouth, and Vriska was left to watch as I leapt right out of my seat and stumbled down the stairs to the exit of the theater. I was praying to get to the men's room in time, by some miracle to make it to a toilet, but I only got as far as the trash can just outside the door before everything within my stomach came surging up my throat and I vomited with a painful lurch.

This was so embarrassing, so impossibly embarrassing, but I soon forgot about how embarrassed I was when I had to lean even farther into the trashcan to puke a second time.

Why was I here? Why didn't I listen to myself when I thought this would be a bad idea?

It was then as I was just laying there limp with my head in the trashcan that I felt a hand touch me on the shoulder.

"Sir?"

I turned with watery eyes to look up at whoever had pitied me enough to acknowledge me, and found that it was the bored looking teen who had taken our tickets earlier. He looked to be about my age, maybe a year or two older, but that only made it all the more embarrassing.

I wanted to give him an apology, an I'm so sorry or I'll clean all this up but all I could get out was "I— " because I felt something coming up and the rest choked off as I desperately tried to hold the rest in.

"Oh shit dude you look terrible. Uh, stay right here sir, I'll be right back."

The way he addressed me as sir sounded as unnatural and awkward as any urban teen saying it would. His flat hand patted my back with a couple hollow thumps before he turned away, but that only sent what was inside me out again.

A burst of clammy panic hit me after I expelled this last batch of bile because I realized that all the families and couples and groups of friends walking by on their ways to their films were staring at me, some with disgust, others with pity, but all shuffling by and avoiding eye contact with me for fear of the possibility of being addressed by the freak puking into a trashcan. The humiliation was crippling. Without the strength or will to hold myself up I sagged to my knees and just hugged the sides of the trashcan and hoped that the world would stop spinning around me.

The ticket guy found me there when he returned with a roll of toilet paper and his manager. They were both helping me to my feet on shaking knees when Vriska came out of the theater, her face tight with the uncomfortable feeling of confusion and irritation, which was how she expressed worry.

"Tavros what the hell happened?"

"…I threw up. A lot."

"Oh my god." A few strides and she was at my side, gripping me against her and away from the assistance of the staff. It jostled me and had my stomach cramping hard. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

I nodded weakly, thanking the employees one more time before Vriska let me away with an arm practically lifting me up from my waist.

I didn't speak much on our way to the car, I was too embarrassed. Out on a date with Vriska, the most captivating girl I had ever known, and I end up hurling my guts from my stomach all because of some bloody intestines. Since remembering the scene made me want to gag out more from my now empty stomach I bit my cheek in an attempt to distract myself from thinking about it.

Now in the passenger seat with Vriska settling into the driver's side, I pressed my forehead to the window as she turned to me.

"Why didn't you just tell me you weren't feeling good?"

After swallowing for precaution I replied in a hoarse voice. "I tried…"

"No you didn't! If I had known you were that freaked out I would have left with you!"

Would you have? I didn't say this out loud because I was too busy trying to keep my stomach from crawling right out of my mouth and onto my lap, but inwardly I did question if she really would have listened if I had insisted. I mostly came to the conclusion that it wasn't likely.

One car ride later I was weakly climbing out of my seat and onto the sidewalk in front of my house. It was an old looking thing, first built back in the sixties and seemingly stuck in that time era permanently, but it was a safe haven away from the chaos of my day. I didn't think I had ever been so happy to see it.

Vriska came out as well and followed me with a hand on my lower back until we reached my porch, where she stopped me and tried to lean in for a kiss.

"Don't-" I held up a hand and leaned away.

She seemed indignant that I refused her kiss. "Why the hell not?"

"I threw up remember? I don't want to put you through having to taste that and becoming sick yourself."

That seemed to settle her, and she even kissed my cheek with a smirk. "Alright idiot. I'll text you later to check up on you, but don't you dare throw up again." She chuckled. "You're skinny enough as it is."

I agreed to try not to blow any more chunks that night, and so we said our goodbyes before she strode back to her car and with a rev of her engine drove off.

That night I never got a text.