CHAPTER 12: AT THE MOVIES

When Adam first suggested the mall and the movies, Gordo immediately nixed going to the mall. It was too public, too easy to run into people he might not want to see. He did, however, let Adam talk him into the movies, figuring they would spend most of the time in a dark safe theater. Adam suggested Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, knowing Gordo was enjoying the books, but Gordo said no, he was saving that movie for Nicole, for their first date. They decided instead on the new Adam Sandler movie, Eight Crazy Nights. The decision made, they quickly warmed up to the idea of seeing a comedy and had a few good jokes about how proud their parents would be to know their good Jewish sons were seeing a movie about Hanukkah.

But Gordo's level of discomfort rose again as soon as they got to the multi-plex and saw how busy it was. Hello! He chided himself. Day after Thanksgiving, everybody out and about, having a good time. What had he been thinking, letting himself get talked into this?

Okay. Well. This didn't have to be a complete disaster, he thought as they got their tickets and walked into the crowded lobby. The safe dark theater awaited only footsteps away, if only they could quickly attach themselves to the ticket-taker's line, inconspicuously breeze through and—

"Man!" Adam exclaimed, taking a deep breath. "Smell that?"

Gordo didn't have to ask "Smell what?" Like a thunderbolt it hit him—the memory of Adam's legendary love of buttery movie popcorn. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, he said, "Yeah. Popcorn. Great idea! You go get your popcorn, I'll go ahead and find some seats—"

"You want a drink?"

"Sure, sure," Gordo answered absently, scanning the crowd for potential trouble.

"And Junior Mints! Right? You want some Junior Mints?"

"Sure, sure…"

"Then you've got to come with me," Adam said. "I also want Jujubes, and I can't carry all this stuff into the theater myself."

"Then skip the Junior Mints," Gordo said, starting to take off.

"Davey. Get over here," Adam said, giving his cousin a look that made it plain he understood exactly what was going on in the young man's head. As Gordo obediently joined him in line with a giant sigh, Adam added gently, "Don't worry, kid. Nothing bad is gonna happen. You can do this."

Gordo nodded, wanting to believe that, but he had to admit he was feeling very shaky after everything he'd been through the last few days, and frankly, he was also starting to feel funky, like maybe he was getting sick. It was probably just too much food, and not enough sleep, but all in all, he preferred not to see anyone. Especially Lizzie.

Of course, that was the first person he did see.

They were third in line when Gordo suddenly stopped scanning the crowd, his face went white and he ducked behind the fat lady in line ahead of him.

"Dude! What's wrong?" Adam asked.

"I told you this was going to happen!"" Gordo whispered. "It's her!"

"It's who?"

"Lizzie."

"Where?"

"On the right. Far end. With two friends."

Adam looked. "I see them. Nice looking girls, all of them. Which one is Lizzie?"

Gordo was still hiding, not looking, but he didn't have to look to be able to describe her. "The blonde, with her hair kind of up, but not really. In the blue sweater. And the silver necklace. And the shiny lips…" He shivered a little, remembering the brief glimpse he'd had of her.

Adam kept watching, a smile beginning to play upon his lips. "So…" he said, fully grinning. "So…" he repeated. "I see now why you like her so much…"

Gordo said nothing. He could sense Lizzie passing by, and felt frozen to the spot, hoping she wouldn't see him. What he couldn't see and didn't know was that Lizzie had caught sight of Adam and was looking at him intensely. Sure, Adam was a good-looking guy, but polite people in polite society did not stare at strangers this obviously, for this long. Surely there must be something else going on here…

Lizzie passed by, still staring at Adam, and he was grinning back at her, until finally it became a little silly and one of them had to say something.

"Hi," Adam said.

"Hi," Lizzie said.

Gordo cringed behind the fat lady, recognizing both their voices. Why the hell were they talking to each other?

Kate stepped up, looked at the guy Lizzie was talking to and decided to get in on the action. "Hi!" she said, almost seductively. "Friend of yours, Lizzie?"

"No, I…" Lizzie answered Kate, then "Sorry," she said to Adam. "It's just…you kind of look like someone."

Adam nodded. "I get that a lot."

"Well…bye…" Lizzie said.

"Bye," Adam said.

Gordo held his breath. In a moment, Adam said, "It's okay to come out now."

Gordo turned around, still cautiously hiding, and watched Lizzie, Kate and Claire walking towards the front doors. Lizzie turned back to look at Adam, and Gordo ducked again.

"Cute girl," Adam said. "And very friendly."

"I think she may have seen a picture of you once or twice," Gordo said.

"Even if she hasn't, or doesn't remember," Adam said, "I'm sure she saw the family resemblance. I think she was looking for you, dude. I think she was hoping to see you."

"Don't even say that," Gordo snapped. "Don't get me started again with Lizzie. I'm trying to get her out of my system. What you're saying isn't helping."

"Sorry," Adam said. "But she is a cute girl."

By the time they were walking into the theatre with their drinks, Gordo had chosen a new theme. Why was Lizzie still hanging out with Kate and Claire? She didn't really like them, she said she didn't know who she was when she was with them, so why was she still with them? Was she so obsessed with being popular that no matter what happened, she would continue choosing friends based on what they could do for her, and not on whether or not she actually liked them?

"Give her a break," Adam said, taking her side. "She just lost her boyfriend. And one of her lifelong friends."

"She didn't look too broken up about any of it," Gordo said. "In fact, she looked pretty damn good, pretty damn happy, like she was having a great time with Kate and Claire. I don't think she misses me at all. I don't think she cares at all. I think she's a mindless popularity drone."

Adam recognized that Davey had to say things like this to stay angry at Lizzie, otherwise he would be overcome by sadness. He also recognized that laughter was one of the best ways to overcome both anger and sadness, so he said, "Never mind that now. Let's get in to the movie."

Fortunately, the movie was hysterical, and while Gordo was laughing, he wasn't thinking about Lizzie, and that felt good. Too bad the movie was over so quickly, and when it was over, another surprise awaited Gordo in the theatre lobby.

The multi-plex consisted of two long hallways, each containing eight theatres. Gordo and his cousin were emerging from Theatre Four on the left just as Theatre Ten was letting out on the right. Amused and contented moviegoers met in the middle before approaching the long wall of glass doors which led out into the night.

As they approached the lobby, laughing about something in the movie, Gordo felt better, almost relaxed, and looking up he said to Adam, "Hey, look! There's Miranda. You've met Lizzie—-well, sort of. You oughta come meet Miranda."

"Sure," Adam agreed, as they continued walking towards the lobby.

But suddenly, Gordo turned and hid. Again. This time behind a large cardboard cutout of Harry Potter.

"What is it this time?" Adam wondered in exasperation. "You don't see Lizzie again, do you?"

"No," Gordo said, feeling icy cold and hot all over, both at the same time. "It's…it's…" But he couldn't say it.

Adam looked across the lobby and easily picked out the problem. There was the girl Gordo had indicated was Miranda, with a boy on her arm. And now, coming up directly behind them, a girl who, based on Gordo's detailed description two nights ago, could only be Nicole.

Also with a boy on her arm.

"Oh, God…" Adam moaned. This wasn't fair. How could one guy have so much bad luck with girls? Poor Davey. He stood in front of his cousin, shielding him from possible detection, knowing any confrontation at this point would be entirely too painful.

Gordo leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy and wondering how he could be so hot and so cold at the same time. Didn't that mean he had a fever? Maybe it was only a fever, and he was hallucinating. Maybe he had not actually seen Nicole, his Nicole, walking out of the movies— and not only that, but apparently out of The Harry Potter movie, the movie they were supposed to see together— leaning against a very tall boy. That was it. It was a hallucination. A nightmare. It couldn't possibly really be real.

In a few minutes, Adam turned to him and said, "I don't think she's really with that guy."

"What do you mean? Didn't you see them?"

"Yeah, I saw them, but then you didn't see what happened next. She had something in her shoe. She took off her shoe, she was leaning on him to shake out her shoe. Afterwards, she wasn't leaning on him. She wasn't holding hands with him or anything. They were just walking together."

"Together being the operative word," Gordo said heavily.

"I don't think you should jump to conclusions," Adam said. "It might not be as bad as it looks. I think you need to find out what's really happening before you jump to conclusions."

But it was too late. Gordo had already jumped, and he was falling, falling, right back down into the pit. To make matters worse, his throat was starting to feel really scratchy, and that hot and cold feeling would not go away.

"Let's go home," Gordo said miserably. "I just want to go home."