They Saw a Movie Together
"So," I asked, "Are we going to… the arcade?"
"Nope!" he said laughing. After we finished lunch, Brady told me he was taking me somewhere special and refused to tell me where. So we had been playing 20 questions. I had narrowed it down to just a few places.
"So then it must be…the theater!" I practically shouted, causing some people to turn their heads and stare at us. He laughed.
"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" he said, imitating a game show host. I laughed and we fell into a comfortable silence.
"So… what movie?" I asked. He just grinned.
"I'll surprise you." I groaned.
"What's with all the surprises?"
"Will you just go with it? For five seconds?" he said, exasperated. Sighing, I nodded. I counted to five in my head.
"It's been five seconds." Now it was his turn to groan. I laughed and he rolled his eyes.
"I thought you were supposed to be the mature one."
"I am." I retorted, poking him.
It was just then we arrived at the theater.
"Come on." He said dragging me in. I smiled, but then that a sudden thought hit me. 'Aren't the movies something people did on dates?' I nearly stopped dead in my tracks. But I caught myself, and thankfully I don't think he noticed. I decided to just try and act natural, for his sake, although I was freaking out on the inside.
"Ta-da!" he said, pointing to the sign over the ticket booth. I groaned as I read it: West Side Story. My grandpa's all-time favorite movie, the one he could never stop talking about. Brady pouted at my whining and I started to laugh. But I realized what I was doing and abruptly stopped. 'Don't get too close to him!' I thought. He looked at me strangely for a second, before turning to buy us tickets. I knew he could tell something was up, but I hoped that just for now, he'd let it lie.
...
I watched as the characters ran across the screen. It had been only 10 minutes, yet I was already bored. When I was little, my grandpa would play this movie nearly every single day, so of course I know all the lines. I looked around for things to do. Talk to Brady? No, too risky. It could get too awkward. Besides, he was absorbed in the movie. Listen to music on my mp3 player? No, the movie's soundtrack was too loud. Eat popcorn? Nope, I already polished the bag. So I settled on people watching.
My eyes scanned the theater. There was an elderly couple up near the front. They laughed at the characters like it was their first time watching the movie, which, in fact, it probably was. They were decked out in tourist gear all announcing they had visited Orlando. My eyes moved a couple rows back to where there was a Japanese couple. The boy had his arm around the girl and while she was clearly enthralled by the movie, he was just staring at her, memorizing her features. I felt myself smile. It was pretty clear how much he loved her. Next my eyes fell onto a girl sitting hunched over. It was clear she was a college student, and her wild bright red curls were pulled back into a loose ponytail. She was leaning over what appeared to be a sketchbook.
'Impressive', I thought. 'She's trying to draw the moving movie characters.' Or maybe even the theater patrons, who had no idea they were being drawn.
Finally I looked at the last group of people in the theater. It was a family of five. The dad looked like he was asleep and the poor mom was trying to hush a crying baby. In between them sat two girls. The first was tossing popcorn into her mouth. She had obviously seen this movie a thousand times, like me, and was bored. But the second girl was practically bouncing on the edge of her seat, her blonde ponytail bouncing up and down. Her excitement almost reminded me of the look on Brady's face as he dragged me into the theater.
I turned to glance at him. It was funny, almost cute, how into it he was. He started forward, his bright blue eyes focused. 'His eyes are like the ocean,' I thought 'Bright and blue and full of emotion.' They would tell you if he was confused, hurt, angry or, best of all, happy. His smile was contagious. It lit up his entire face, framed by his long blonde hair. I smiled as I thought of how just a couple days ago he ran into to me. When he realized what he had done, he looked so embarrassed. His back was hunched, his cheeks pink and his blue eyes glancing up sheepishly from beneath his bangs. He looked really cute that day. But that was no surprise, he always looked-
I felt my stomach lurch, realizing what I was thinking. On the movie screen, the characters cheered as they finished a big dance number. I inched away from Brady as I willed my stomach to calm down.
Once the characters started talking again, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. Nobody had noticed my little panic attack.
I shut my eyes and tried to push out the thought. But try as I might, it echoed in my head. 'You like Brady. You like Brady. You like Brady'
'No' I thought, 'I won't let myself. I can't fall in love. All people ever do in love is hurt you.' I turned to Brady. The sweet, sentimental side of me thought 'But how do you know he's going to hurt you? He would never do something like that.'
'We are friends'. I reminded myself. 'And it will stay that way'.
I glanced towards Brady again. 'I will never fall in love with him.'
...
"Great movie, huh?" Brady asked as we left the theater. I rolled my eyes.
"It's creepy sometimes, how alike you and grandpa are." I said teasingly.
"We both have great taste." Brady said, sticking his nose up at me. I flicked his forehead.
"Ow!" he said. I stuck my tongue out at him. He stuck his tongue out back. I laughed.
As we walked down the boardwalk, he turned to face me. "Alright, Mack, are you ready for the last part of your cheering-up-day?"
"Alright." I said, not very enthusiastically. I had been enjoying myself and it looked like me and Brady would become firm friends. To be honest, I was hoping today would never end.
"I want to show you something really amazing, but you have to hurry if you want to see it. OK?"
"Alright, fine." I said. He started walking and I fell into step beside him. "So, where are we-"
"No, you're not getting it out of me this time. No ifs, ands or buts!" He added for emphasis.
"Fine." I said laughing. It was then I noticed he was leading us back towards the house.
"Why are we going to-"
"Ah, ah, ah!" he said. "It's. A. Surprise." I sighed, he really was serious.
"Wait here," he told me, and he headed around the house. I started thinking he was just looking for an excuse to get rid of me when:
"Ta-da!" he said, for the second time today. He was holding a bike, but not just any ordinary one. It was a bicycle built for two.
"Cool!" I said, examining the bike. I had always loved bikes, and this one was no exception.
"Hop on." He said, climbing into the front. As I climbed on, I noticed something.
"Brady?"
"Yes?"
"What am I supposed to hold on to?"
"My back." He said like it was the world's most obvious answer. I slowly wrapped my arms around him, and we took off.
I was too busy between holding on for dear life and suppressing the butterflies in my stomach to notice where we were going. All I knew was we were headed up-hill. And that's when he stopped the bike.
"Ta-da" he said softly.
Author's Note: I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack! And to reward you guys, here is another chapter. Tons of love to everyone who reviewed, favorited and followed! If it weren't for you this chapter wouldn't have gotten done as soon as it had. Also, in case I hadn't mentioned it, this whole thing is unbeta'd. So if you see any errors, mention it to me. I want to make this story as good as possible for you guys, and with just me over here, sometimes I overlook stuff. Anyways, with all that out of the way, I want to know: what do you guys think the surprise for Mack is? A pile of gold? A leprechaun? A giant piece of chocolate? That's all for now. Ciao! (And sorry for the extra long author's note. :P)
