Ch4 Dinner and a Movie
I woke up late on Saturday morning. "Mmmm," I sighed contentedly. After a week or so of getting up at 5:30ish in the morning, weekends felt REALLY good. I swung out of bed and into my slippers and glided out of my room into the kitchen where I fixed myself a bowl of cereal.
I lazed around the rest of the day…until about two o'clock. Then I hopped in the shower, chose my outfit, primped, make-uped, straightened, blow-dried, and every other possible thing there was to do to get ready for my date.
Promptly at four, the doorbell rang. Slowly and gracefully, I walked to the door and opened it.
"Good afternoon, mademoiselle," Ben greeted me. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yea, just let me grab my purse," I replied. I hastened to my room, grabbed my purse and turned off the light. Ben guided me out the door.
As we walked to the car, I noticed someone sitting in the front seat. "Who's that?" I whispered to Ben.
"Oh." He grimaced. "Leora. She is making me drive her home."
"Oh. How nice. And sweet of you." Andbitchy of her.
Ben opened the door for me; it was the BACK door, because LEORA was in the front.
Leora turned and smiled at me. "Hello Allyson."
I smiled back…fakely, of course. "Hello yourself Leora," I replied graciously.
Ben got in the front seat and, after fastening his seat belt, began backing out of the driveway.
"So, Ben," Leora started, "How do you like being junior drum major?"
"Uh…it's great. Not that I've really experienced it a whole lot yet. That won't happen until fall."
"Of course," Leora replied smoothly. "I hope that it's not a bad experience for you." She gently laid her hand on his leg.
My mouth tightened. Get off my turf bitch.
Ben shifted slightly away from her, causing her to remove her hand. "Oh, I doubt it will be a bad experience. But it will get better after I have more experience."
Ben pulled into Leora's driveway. "Well, I guess this is your stop."
"Yes," Leora sighed. She turned and winked at me. "Have fun tonight."
I just smiled and kept my thoughts to myself.
Leora clambered out of the car and walked to the trunk to grab her stuff. I opened the back door and walked up to the front to get in the front seat. I shut the door. Leora closed the trunk and walked up to her house, waving at us.
I looked at Ben. He looked at me.
"I hate her," Isaid.
"Yeah, me too."
Ben and I walked into Regal Cinemas and then he went and bought tickets for the 4:45 showing of Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We walked into the theaters and gave the ticket man our tickets.
I pointed out a man to Ben. "Isn't that Chaz?"
Ben looked where I was pointing (Incidentally the snack bar). "Yeah, I think you're right."
We received our ticket stubs back and then we walked up to the snack bar.
"So what do you want?" Ben asked me.
"I'll just take a Coke."
"You're sure."
"Positive, and I'm going to go to the bathroom ok?"
Ben nodded and walked up to the register.
I walked over to the bathroom and glanced at my reflection in the mirror. I adjusted my hair and added a touch more of lip gloss. Then of course, being the clean freak that I am, I washed my hands…cause you never know where those theater peoples' hands have been.
I walked out of the bathroom and saw Ben and Chaz talking. I walked over to them and tilted my head.
"Ben, why did you get an extra-large popcorn?"
"Because I knew you'd eat all of mine if I got a small."
I gave him the evil eye. "No I wouldn't." Then I grabbed a handful of popcorn.
"What movie are you going to see?" I asked Chaz.
"Hitch-hiker. Can I sit with yall?"
Ben and I both shrugged as an answer.
"I guess I'll take that as a yes."
Ben and I shrugged again. Then we all started walking down the hallway to theater 7, and then we walked inside.
"I get to choose seats," I said.
Ben looked at me. "Why?"
"Because I say so."
"Well, I prefer the back."
"So do I," I replied. "Cause all the whiny kids sit up front."
Chaz grinned. "Then maybe you should go sit up there, Allyson."
I turned and swung my purse at him. It hit him on the shoulder.
"OW! What do you have in there? bricks?" Chaz exclaimed.
"Yeah, Chaz, I carry around bricks in my purse so whenever I get mugged I have a weapon to defend myself with," I said with a straight face.
"Are you serious?" Chaz said.
"Yes, Chaz, I'm serious," I said, my voice oozing sarcasm. I shook my head and smiled. "It's okay Chaz; you'll understand when you're older."
I grabbed Ben's hand and pulled him into the back row.
Chaz, Ben and I walked out of the movie theater and hour and a half later.
"So what was the point of that movie?" I asked.
Ben shrugged. "Don't ask me."
"Strange movie, if you ask me," Chaz added. "I'll see you two lovebirds later, ok?"
We smiled and nodded and then walked to Ben's car.
Ben pulled into the parking lot at Max and Erma's.
"Holy crap, there's a lot of cars here," I said. "Can you even find a spot to park?"
"Maybe ten miles away."
"Farther."
Eventually, we found a spot and walked up to the front door. It took us 10 minutes to get up to the front desk.
"Name?" the girl asked.
"Uh…" Ben started.
"How long is the wait?" I interjected.
The girl grimaced. "At least an hour."
"Areyou serious?" I turned to Ben and raised my eyebrows. "Do you want to wait that long?"
"Ah, no, not really." He turned and guided me back out of the door.
We both climbed into the car. "So what do you want to do?" I asked him.
"Well…we could go to my house…"
"And you could make a lovely romantic dinner."
Ben smiled. "More like, my mom cooks… cause you don't want to sample my cooking."
"But is your mom home right now?"
"Well, actually, no."
We sat in silence for a minute.
"Fine." I sighed. "I'll make dinner."
Ben laughed. "I knew you'd give in."
He drove us to his house (right down the street) and then we climbed out of the car. He opened the door, and I walked inside into the kitchen.
I set down my stuff and opened the fridge. Then I opened the cabinets. I spied the bacon bits and pulled them down. Then I opened the refrigerator an pulled out the eggs and milk and cheese.
Ben walked into the kitchen. "So what are we having?"
"Omelets. Do you like tomatoes?"
"No not really."
"Good; neither do I. That makes my job easier." I pulled out a frying pan, set it on the stove, and turned on the gas. I cracked two eggs into the pan, and poured about a quarter cup milk into them. Then I broker the yolks and swirled the egg/milk mixture around the pan.
"Anything I can help with?"
"Um…you can set the table and then cut the cheese." I laughed as soon as the words escaped my mouth.
Ben turned, laughing. "What did you say?"
"Cut the cheese."