[Chapter Ten: The Movies Part II—Revelations]

Melanie was trying to hide behind her popcorn.

She was the only one that was actually scared by the movie. Ellie, Carly, Steve, and Soda were all laughing at it. Yes, it was a horror film, and yes, it involved a chainsaw-wielding serial killer, but all the same, it was stupid. That was the only way to describe it: stupid; moronic; dumb. The acting was horribly melodramatic, the special effects were awful, and the camera shots were just bad.

All the same, Melanie was having trouble convincing herself to calm down. She knew it was just a movie, and a bad one at that, but telling herself this did nothing to console her. It wasn't the movie itself that was scaring her; it was the concept. She couldn't help but imagine that a murderous psychopath was going to jump out from behind every dark corner…

She shuddered, sinking farther into her seat as her eyes flitted around, searching for a distraction. She just couldn't make herself look at the screen… So, she concentrated on Gabby.

Melanie's features settled on a thoughtful frown as she looked more closely at her friend. Her face was abnormally red, and she was leaning on her elbow with her cheek resting on her palm, probably trying to cover the rosy hue. Her other hand stretched over the armrest, her fingers drumming methodically. Her pale blue eyes were focused on nothing in particular, but she was obviously thinking very hard about something because she was practically cross-eyed. And finally, Melanie noticed the oddest thing of all: Gabby didn't have a Coke.

She'd thought it weird at first when Gabby only brought back six, but when she forfeited her own soda, she knew something was seriously wrong. It wasn't like her to forget to buy herself a Coke… She was addicted to the stuff. And not only that, but she'd also returned a good five minutes after Sodapop, and her face had been just as red as now. She'd barely said a word and kept stealing some not-so-inconspicuous glances in his direction.

Yup, Melanie decided, there's definitely something wrong here. She made a mental note to ask her friend about it the second the movie was over.

She had begun to work out what she was going to say, purposely zoning out from the movie. Still, she couldn't completely tune out some of the more… gruesome sound effects. It was only natural that she'd be on edge…

It was about then that she felt someone prod her in the back, right below her neck.

She let out a short, terrified scream and leapt to her feet, the bag of popcorn that had been resting on her lap flying up and showering everyone in the row. Pony and Gabby followed suit, jumping up and looking around wildly. Melanie's hands flew up to cover her neck, and she took a step to her left, stopping to stand directly behind Pony. She turned around and peered over his shoulder, gripping his arm almost possessively. She was completely oblivious to the color that was rising to his cheeks and the shocked expression he wore.

"Wh… what the hell?" she finally stammered upon seeing her attacker.

Behind her seat, crouched down and doubled over laughing, was her so-called "friend" Carly. But she wasn't the only one to find it funny; everyone else, save Gabby and Pony (who also had no idea what was going on) was busting their guts laughing.

"I knew it! So much better than the movie!" Ellie declared, clutching her side as the laughter racked her body.

Steve and Soda nodded their agreements, laughing too hard to verbalize anything.

"Well, thanks, guys," Melanie muttered crossly, her eyes narrowed. She didn't, however, let go of Pony's arm; they could still be planning something else.

"Oh, Mel…" Carly began, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye as her chuckles died down. "That never gets old…"

Melanie rolled her eyes and tapped her foot nervously. "Speak for yourself. You're always doing this stuff to me! I mean, it's no wonder—"

"Shut up, dammit!" someone from farther down the rows of seats called. Several people immediately echoed their agreement.

"Make us!" Carly yelled back, brushing the dust from her pants after crouching on the ground.

In response, a half-full water bottle came soaring in their general direction. Its arc was low, and it would have hit Melanie and Pony if the pair hadn't dived to the ground at the last second. They ended up both on the ground, he facing forward and she to the side, Melanie somewhat in Pony's lap.

"Aw!" Gabby cooed, grinning down at the pair. "That's so adorable…"

Soda just grinned and gave his little brother a thumbs-up while Ellie and Carly spontaneously burst into laughter, his message clear: Nice one, bro.

Steve smirked down at them from his seat at the end of the row, shaking his head a bit. "That's movin' a little fast for your first date, there, kid. I didn't think you had it in you…"

Melanie and Pony scrambled to their feet, their faces so red that they could easily have made tomatoes everywhere jealous.

"It was just an accident…" Pony protested, but it sounded so feeble that no one even bothered to acknowledge it. They just kept on snickering and cracking jokes at their expense… that is, until Melanie suddenly yelped and ducked down again.

"Popcorn!" she screamed as the majority of her friends took the hint and followed her lead, jumping down to use the seats as a barrier. Carly, however, didn't catch on.

"Yes, Mel, you dropped your popcorn…" she confirmed as she quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "That's why we're—"

She was cut off as a shower of popcorn rained down on them, apparently thrown from somewhere off to their left; she was forced to stop talking unless she wanted to choke to death on the little kernels.

"Thanks for ruinin' the end of the movie!" someone with a thick southern drawl yelled.

Carly fixed the stranger's outline (it was still rather dark) with a smoldering glare, obviously about to tell them off, but Gabby beat her to it.

"It was awful, anyways!" she shot back loudly, scooping up a handful of the fallen popcorn as she did so. "If you think that was entertainment, you seriously need to get a life!" With that said, she brought her arm back and flung the yellow snack towards the impudent victim, smirking with satisfaction when they connected with their target.

That was when all Hell broke loose.

As if in on cue, the entire viewing audience seemed to decide that this was the signal to begin a theater-wide popcorn war. Blurs of yellow whizzed past shrieking movie-goers as they all raced around and trampled each other trying to find shelter. Somewhere along the line, what started as a belligerent confrontation became a friendly, mischievous battle… Of course, that also meant that the seven friends who had started everything were then free to divide into teams.

It basically boiled down to girls versus boys, much as it had everywhere else throughout the drive-in, and they easily divided their ample supply of popcorn. It was a relatively even match, and probably would have gone on to finish without a clear winner had it not been interrupted. (Although, Ellie was getting in some seriously awesome sniper shots from a few rows down…)

The workers had noticed the commotion and were frantically racing around, making their best attempts to shut down the whole operation. One such employee ran up to them, waving her arms and yelling, "Stop! This is a public drive-in! Food fights are not permitted!" and things of that nature. Now, normally, the entire group would have just laughed in her face, bombarded her with popcorn, and gone back to their war. This was, in fact, what most of them started to do… the key word being "most."

Melanie and Carly had completely frozen, staring intently at the seemingly random movie worker, her honey blonde hair pulled back in a braid, her blue eyes widening with recognition…

"Sara!"

The two girls ran forward, smiling, while their friends ceased fire to look on in confusion. It was the cashier from the corner store!

"You're the two girls from the grocery store!" Sara exclaimed, which helped clear some of the mystery for the others. Then, blushing a bit, she added, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your names…"

"I'm Melanie, and this is Carly," Melanie informed her, gesturing between herself and her dark-haired friend. "I can't believe we ran into you here, too…"

"Yeah, what are the odds?" Carly commented, grinning. "Do you just work two jobs?"

"Actually, I was filling in at Anna's job before," she answered wryly with a pointed look at Carly that basically added, "…because you were busy slashing tires with her."

Carly had the decency to look sheepish, but she wasn't really sorry… that Soc had it coming.

Melanie laughed awkwardly and said, "Yeah… Well anyways, this is Sara." She was addressing the rest of her friends, trying to guide them back into the conversation. "Sara, this is Gabby and Ellie, the twins, Steve, Sodapop, and Ponyboy." She said this while pointing to each of the group in turn, most of them nodding or waving or showing some other kind of confirmation when their name was mentioned.

"It's nice to meet you all," Sara responded, smiling amiably. Everyone seemed to decide that they liked her… that is, until she kept talking.

"Now, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're all going to have to stop this popcorn fight… It's causing a disturbance." She looked at them all expectantly, though what she was honestly hoping to happen was unclear. What she got, however, was clearly not it.

Ellie and Gabby exchanged a quick glance, sharing an affirmative nod, and then turned to back to face Sara while both saying the same thing: "Hell no."

Sara stared at the two, dumbfounded as her mouth hung open in shock, while several of the greasers muttered things like "Freaky…" and "Hey! They really are twins!"

To her credit, the young movie worker recovered her wits somewhat quickly.

"Excuse me?" she prompted, giving the twins a hard stare. The two had the shame to look guilty, but not much else; there was no way they'd ever call off their fight without a winner. "It's not even your choice. If you go back to throwing popcorn everywhere, I'm afraid you'll have to leave…"

"Oh, come on!" Carly interrupted, earning herself an annoyed look that was ignored. "You're honestly still having this argument with us? Look around!" She paused to gesture wildly, her hands flying everywhere to indicate the entire drive-in. "You're the only person still against it! Even the rest of the employees joined in!"

She was right. Everywhere, popcorn was whizzing around and people were hiding behind their seats; no one else was intervening, and everyone could easily pick out the red shirts of the attendants, all of whom were shrieking and bombarding each other with the salty snack.

Sara turned back to face the group of seven, who were all staring at her hopefully. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, unsure of what to say. This was her job! She couldn't act so unprofessional…

"So?" Soda prompted, tossing a piece of popcorn up into the air and then catching it in his mouth, swallowing it easily. "You in?"

She still looked unsure, so Melanie added, "We only need one more person on our team to completely overwhelm the boys…"

Sara's face broke out into a grin at this, and she finally relented. "I'm in," she told them at the same time the greasers all started shouting protests: "No you don't!" "We're still going to win!"

They all immediately divided into the two groups, everyone shooting at each other as they scrambled away to take cover. The next hour or so was the most fun they'd all had since the girls entered the book: most of the time, they were all laughing so hard that they could hardly stand, let alone throw the popcorn. When they weren't, it was because they were instigating a stealth mission; there were five of these total, two by the girls and three by the boys. All but two failed: once when Soda snuck around behind the girls in an arc and caught them off guard, stealing all their ammo and taking it back to their base, and the other when the girls did the same thing to retrieve it (they were kind enough to only take what belonged to them, mostly because it was boring when one side had it all). You would have thought that they'd think to watch their backs if the girls were desperate for weapons, but it apparently never occurred to them.

All was going well. It looked like the girls were managing to pull ahead—Gabby had managed to climb up to the roof of the concessions stand, where the boys had formed a sort of base, and was sniping them from above without giving away her position. Yes, it wouldn't be long before they got tired of it and realized that they had no choice but to surrender…

It was about then that all the girls ran out of popcorn.

"What should we do?" Gabby hissed as she slipped behind the row of seats that served as their fort, rejoining her team as they crouched down for full cover. "I already chucked the empty popcorn bucket at Pony's head!" This got her high-fives from Carly and her sister, and a miffed glare from Melanie. "Isn't there anything else we can use?"

Everyone thought for a moment, but they were all at a loss. Their prospects looked bleak; it was only a matter of time before the boys realized that their cease in fire was because they had nothing to fire.

Suddenly, Gabby snapped her fingers. "I've got it!" she declared, pulling a box out from under one of the seats. "I bought these M&Ms, too! We can throw these at them!"

"Well, what took you so long to remember?" Carly demanded as a handful of the colorful chocolate bits were poured into her outstretched palms. "We could've had them on their hands and knees, begging for mercy by now! They've had time to regroup!" She glanced around at all of them in turn, her face deadly serious. "They could be… right… behind us…"

Melanie started and whirled around to check, causing everyone else to erupt into laughter, but Gabby just rolled her eyes. "I just forgot, okay? Jeez, cut me some slack…"

Ellie shook her head, eyes narrowed with concentration. "It doesn't matter! The point is, we've got to attack, now!"

Sara looked from face to face, then stuck her head above the seats. "They've stopped firing, too!" she informed them in a frantic whisper. "What's the plan?"

"I've got one," Carly stated smugly. Then she jumped to her feet, grabbed the rest of the M&Ms out of Gabby's hands, and began sprinting across the drive-in and over to the boy's base, leaving her friends to leap up and yell after her in confusion.

When she was dangerously near the concessions stand, Steve, Soda, and Pony all ran out from behind the counter, ready to meet her. Judging by their empty hands, Carly realized that they must have thrown their last kernel, as well.

She came to an abrupt halt a few feet in front of them, smirking victoriously. "So… looks like we've got the one up."

Pony gave her a confused look. "What do you mean? We're all out of popcorn."

Carly's expression didn't waver. "Yes. We are."

The greasers exchanged suspicious looks; they'd been expecting a messenger from the girls to rely a formal declaration of a tie, but that didn't quite seem to be her intent…

"So… how can you beat us?" Soda asked cautiously.

"I was hoping you would ask that," Carly told him, a playful glint entering her green eyes. The boys all tensed, ready to dive back for cover, but it was too late: she'd already begun showering them with handfuls of M&Ms. And when there was such a short distance covered by such powerful throws, those little candies hurt.

Pony and Soda dove for cover behind the counter once again, hoping to maybe find some other kind of candy that they could use in retaliation, but Steve stood his ground.

"What's the matter, Steve?" Carly taunted as she aimed another M&M for his cheek. "Giving up so soon?"

"That's illegal!" Steve declared, ignoring her attempt to bait him. "This ain't a candy fight! Popcorn only!"

Carly immediately stopped throwing so that she could fix him with a glare. "What are you talking about? You're just a sore loser!" She rolled her eyes and flicked one more M&M at his chest, just for good measure. "Just because you didn't think of it…"

Steve stepped forward, returning the glare, and made a grab for the box of candy in her hand, but she held it behind her back. She didn't, however, back down; she just narrowed her eyes and stared up at him (he was taller).

"M&Ms don't count," he insisted, somewhat-gently prodding her in the shoulder.

Carly growled and elbowed him in the ribs. "Yes, they do! Just accept your defeat with dignity and you'll have less to be shamed for!"

Steve opened his mouth to retort, but in the end, nothing came out. For some reason, right at the most important moment of the battle… he'd been distracted by her looks. He seemed to realize for the first time just how pretty she was, with her dark hair and intense green eyes. He'd actually come to enjoy her company when they weren't fighting… of course, he never planned to tell her that, because he refused to think of her as anything more than a friend… or so he thought.

Yes, that's right. Steve Randle, deciding he didn't want to go out with a pretty girl? Oddly enough, yes.

To explain why, think back. He'd gone to the bathroom earlier, back before the movie started… and there was a reason why he took such a long time to get back.

xXxXx

Steve ambled slowly out of the men's room, taking his time and shoving his hands into his jeans' pockets as he glanced at nothing in particular. He was having fun on this moving outing or whatever, but he was glad it wasn't a date… None of the girls had really shown much interest in him, and even if they had, his heart wouldn't really be in it. Sure, they were having fun when they were all in a group and they were just hanging out as friends, but if he ended up caught in some romantic shit, he'd just mess it up. Why?

Because of Evie.

They'd split just a few weeks before these other girls had come from the future, and it had been the messiest break up of Steve's entire life. He could still remember the tears streaking down her face, could still hear the ringing in his ears from the intensity of their shouting match…

But he still didn't want her back.

She'd broken up with him. No, that wasn't the reason—he was proud, not petty, and he knew better than to write her off completely because of a mark on his ego. No, he would never forgive her because of the reason why she ended it.

Had it been because she felt neglected? No.

Had she cheated on him? No.

Had he cheated on her? No.

But Evie sure seemed to think so.

She'd heard a rumor that he'd been messing around with Angela Shepard. It was all lies, of course, but she wouldn't hear it, and especially not when he got so angry at her for believing it.

Could you really blame him, though? She'd believed a stupid piece of gossip over the word of her own boyfriend. How could he be with someone who didn't trust him? That's all Steve ever wanted out of a serious relationship: trust. Mutual trust. He didn't get as many girls as Soda, and even fewer that were worth seeing more than once. If she was going to be his girlfriend, she'd have to know that he'd never cheat on her, or at least not lie about it to her face. If she thought that little of him, then of course he'd have had to set the record straight; of course he'd been mad. They were his morals being questioned, after all. He'd had a right to yell at her and want nothing more to do with her.

But that didn't mean he didn't miss her.

That's why, when he rounded a corner on his way back to the seats and saw her standing there, looking right at him, it took all of his will power to stick to his resolve and say in a cold voice, "What do you want?"

He almost felt sorry for her when he saw the hurt flash through her dark eyes.

Almost.

"I… I came to say I'm sorry, Steve," Evie told him in a small voice, taking a few tentative steps towards him. When he didn't say anything, she let out a shaky breath and continued. "I was wrong. I know that now… Angela told me she never did anything with you. I overreacted, and I'm sorry. I should have trusted you."

It was all he could do to stop himself from flinching at her words. There was that word again: trust.

"Steve…" she continued, placing a gentle hand on his forearm, "I've been a mess without you. Please… I'm sorry. Can't we just forget what happened and go back to how we used to be?"

Steve was silent for a long time. The two just stared at each other, two sets of dark brown eyes both holding their own—one pleading, the other accusing.

Finally, he said something.

"You can't do that," he told her in a tight voice as he shrugged off her arm. She took a step back, her face a mask of hurt and regret, but he pretended not to notice. "You can't change what happened just 'cause you screwed it up. This ain't a game."

Then he pushed passed her and walked away, towards the seats where the others were all waiting…

...but he still looked back.

xXxXx

Of course it hurt. But he wasn't so torn up about it that he couldn't still enjoy his time with his buddies when they went to go see a movie together; the gang was the gang, no matter what happened with his love life. He only acted abnormal and depressed like that when he was talking to Evie or thinking about "love"; otherwise, he was just his usual self, because in the grand scheme of things, one girl wouldn't make a big difference, even if he wasn't completely over her. When the girls had come along, nothing really changed, since it didn't seem like he'd be getting romantically involved with any of them any time soon. Still, he couldn't deny the fact that something was different right then, facing down Carly as another one of their fights drew to a close…

He didn't know what it was that made him do what he did next, and he probably never would (after all, he'd just sworn to himself that he wouldn't think of her as anything more than a friend). Maybe it was his avoidance of all girls over the past few weeks finally catching up with him.

Maybe it was that she no longer wanted to strangle him.

Maybe it was because she made him want to forget about Evie and move on.

Maybe it was because she just looked so great right then.

Or maybe… it was because he thought he might be able to trust her, even if he didn't plan on revealing everything to her just yet.

Whatever the reason, he didn't regret it when he leaned forward, closing the small remaining distance between himself and Carly, and pressed his lips against hers.

Notes: CHAPTERS IN THE DOUBLE DIGITS! WHOO!

I really don't have much to say here, mostly because I just wrote a lot and have other things to do. Steve's thing with Evie was a little dark-ish-sort-of-not-really, but I didn't think it was out of character. I actually had it planned for a while now. I wanted to give his character some more depth, since Hinton barely touched it and we know so little about him. I felt like it was kind of rushed, but what can you do?

Stay gold,
~Rae