C H A P T E R 4 4
?Let the sparks turn to fire, and we'll quiver at the thought of losing our flame.?
"I still can't believe you have a car like that," I said as I glanced back at the car which was not some fancy expensive one. It could easily pass as a normal car and no one would believe it belonged to a billionaire.
"Yeah, it's for escapades like this one." He grinned, twirling the car keys around his finger.
"Where are we going?" I asked as he grabbed my hand when we were about to cross the road.
"It's right there."
I looked in the direction he pointed and was confused as to why we are at the theatre.
I mean I know we were there to watch a movie but why? We could've just watched it at home at the private movie theatre the Jenson's owned. It wouldn't have been a problem to get hands on the latest movie.
When I pointed it out to him, he couldn't answer for a minute. "I want to experience it like how other people do. At a crowded movie theatre, in the darkness with lots of people around. It would be fun if we don't get recognized."
I looked at him amusedly. "You really want to try out everything normal people do, don't you?"
He nodded enthusiastically.
"But why with me?"
He looked back questioningly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean why are you taking me to watch a movie with you? Why not your best friend Tristan or your girlfriend Heather?"
He shrugged. "Everyone's busy. Tristan's on his date and Heather is getting her beauty sleep. And also because you are fun to be around."
We entered the building. Ethan bought our tickets while I got two bags of popcorn for us.
Five minutes later we were sitting inside the movie theatre with our popcorn bags in hand, looking around to see only five other person. There was no one around.
"Of course, who would go to watch a movie at one in the morning?" I grumbled. "There goes your sitting-with-people-and-watching-a-movie thing you wanted."
The movie started and after a few minutes some people actually trickled in and sat in front of us.
There was a young college couple sat a row in front of us, three boys and a girl who looked like they were in high school sat at the very front of the theatre. There were still quite a few people sat at the back.
The movie began. It was kind of an okay movie in the start but then it got boring. Like a lot boring. I had to stifle yawns for about five times. So I just stuffed my mouth with popcorn. The only good part of the whole thing was the popcorn.
It didn't help that the young couple sat in front of us started smooching each other five minutes into the movie like there was no tomorrow, making Ethan and I extremely uncomfortable.
It looked like they were trying to eat each other's faces off.
I don't how I gobbled up the popcorn at the sight of a boring movie and an extremely horny couple.
The four high school kids looked bored of the movie too and spent majority of the time just running around, chasing each other in the darkness. And they were too loud!
Thankfully they left even before the interval. I sneaked a peek at the back rows and they were empty. So that just left the smooching couple, Ethan and I in the entire theatre.
When the interval finally came up, the couple got up and left with their belongings, hand in hand.
I exhaled out. "This movie is dead boring!" I whined.
And it was true. It was a movie about alien invasion. I didn't even know why he picked this movie. Not that I don't like alien invasion movies. It was just that this one sucked. Even without watching it, I would've known that this movie sucked.
"Yeah, I was dying to say that in the first thirty minutes. Anyways, do you want another bag of popcorn?" He asked, looking into his bucket to see it was empty.
"Yeah."
"Then I'm going to get us two more bags."
"Okay," I nodded.
He left to get us more popcorn and I was left there, bored. We could've left but I guess we were just staying for the popcorn.
After a while, the lights dimmed. I looked at the entrance but he hadn't returned yet. The movie started and I suddenly got an idea. I got up from my seat and walked further down at the very front of the theatre.
I crouched down in the seat to make sure I would be out of sight. I was in the corner in the second row.
After a few moments, Ethan entered and walked towards our seats. He looked around when he saw I wasn't in my seat. He set the popcorn down and pulled out his phone. A few seconds later, my phone vibrated.
It almost gave me a heart attack. Thank God I kept it on silent. I quickly picked it up and pressed it to my ear.
"Hey, uh where are you?" Ethan asked, still looking around.
"I'm still in the theatre," I whispered.
"Where? I don't see you."
"That's because I'm hiding."
"Why are you hiding?"
I sighed. "That's because I want you to find me, idiot."
"Hey, I'm not-"
I cut the call before he could say anything. He pocketed the phone and carefully observed his surroundings. I sunk back into my chair.
I could hear his footsteps walking around.
I peeped back to see he had gone to search for me at the other end of the movie hall.
I quickly scrambled our of my seat and got down on my knees.
He was coming to the front of the hall and I had to move.
Hiding behind the rows of seats, I slowly made my way up the stairs.
He was now at the very front and was coming to the other side where I was. I quickly moved further up the stairs and when I thought he was going to catch sight of me, I turned and entered in the space between two consecutive rows.
Looking through the gap between two seats, I saw he was stood a few rows down, looking around and scratching his head.
I continued to move through the row and once I was at the end, I sprinted to our previous seats while keeping my head down.
Sitting down, I sunk into my seat and grabbed the popcorn. Watching Ethan search for me near the front was far more entertaining than the movie.
I didn't know how I fell asleep after eating a few bites of popcorn but when I woke up, the movie was still playing. I rubbed my eyes and looked around for Ethan in the front row but he was not there. I leaned forward in my seat to search for him but I didn't see him anywhere.
I looked to my right, then to my left. I screamed as I saw him right next to me. The popcorn flew in all directions due to the fright he gave me, some landing on me and some on him too.
"What the hell, Ethan."
"Caught you." He said plainly as he ate popcorn.
I calmed down my fast besting heart and rolled my eyes at him. "Not so fast."
I leapt out of my seat, ready to dash around the whole theatre but just as I got to the middle of the hall where there were no seats, I was grabbed from behind. Ethan put his hands around my waist and lifted me in the air, twirling me a few times before setting me down.
"Now I did catch you."
"Okay, fine. You caught me." I gave in and turned to face him.
We both looked towards the screen, not aware that there was a slow song playing now. I think it was the ending song.
When I looked back at Ethan, he had his hand extended for me to take. I smiled and placed my hand in his.
He immediately pulled me close. His arms wound around my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck. We began swaying to the music. He dipped me at the right time and pulled me right back up in his arms. We danced for the remainder of the song and just at the end, he dipped me again.
On the speakers, weird sounds could be heard, as if two people were kissing.
I looked at the screen and indeed, the main actors were locking lips, in a similar position like ours with me mid-dip.
Ethan still had me in that position and I looked back at him to say he can pull me up but I swallowed my words when I saw that his face was incredibly close to mine.
His minty breath fanned my face and he closed his eyes as he leaned in.
I just stared at him, wide-eyed as I was too afraid to do anything. Just as his lips were about to touch mine, he lost his footing and we both crashed down. We were at the edge of one of the stairs after all.
I was the unlucky one as I fell on my back. What made it worse was Ethan landing on top of me. He immediately scrambled to get off of me.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he sat up straight and stared down at me.
"I hope so," I grunted.
After I recovered from the fall, we burst out laughing for no reason.
I woke up the next day with a smile on my face. I was reminiscing all the fun moments I shared with Ethan.
That was when Olivia came storming in my room.
"Where were you last night?" She asked, pointing a finger at me.
"Why do you want to know?" I asked as I swiftly rolled out of bed and fixed my shirt.
"I told you I was going to tell you everything about my date with Tristan. But when I returned I couldn't find you anywhere. Where did you run off to in the dead of the night? I almost thought you ran off and left me here alone," Olivia rambled.
"I'm sorry. I just went out for a bit."
Olivia suddenly turned suspicious. "With whom?"
"I never said I went out with anyone."
"Save us both some the trouble and stop lying. Tell me the truth."
I pouted. "Fine, I did hung out with someone."
"So it was a date?"
"I never said it was a date!" I protested.
"So when I say I'm hanging out with Tristan, it's suddenly a date with him and when you hang out with someone it's just a hangout? Not fair."
"Shut up. It was just two friends having fun."
"Ooh. I like the sound of that. What kind of 'fun'?"
I just gave her a flat look and threw a pillow at her head. "It could've been a girl for all you know."
"Then tell me who you hung out with. Was it Keith?"
I shook my head.
"So it was Ethan."
I nodded slowly.
"What did you do...at night?"
"We went to watch a movie because he wanted the whole living-among-normal-people experience. But there weren't many people around so he didn't exactly get the feel."
"Oh."
"Well, what about you? You were dying to tell me about your date."
"Yeah, about that-"
I cut her off. "Never mind. Let me freshen up first."
After I had brushed my teeth, took a shower and had my breakfast, I sat with Olivia in my bedroom. We were going to start our classes about half an hour later so we had enough time to discuss her date.
We sat on my bed Indian style and then Olivia finally started filling me up on last night's happenings.
So basically they had gone ice skating because in one of their many late night conversations she had expressed her desire to go ice skating someday with someone.
Olivia had never gone ice skating, neither had I for that matter.
So Tristan tried to teach her. But what she didn't know was that he didn't know how to ice skate himself.
When she told me that I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
So they spent about two hours just falling with each other and sometimes on each other. But they had a lot of fun. I could see it in her eyes. She was reminiscing her time with him and she looked genuinely happy.
Then they had a warm dinner at a nice quiet restaurant which took up nearly another two hours because they couldn't stop talking. I wondered what they talked about so much.
"So after dinner, he dropped me off here and as a thank you for a wonderful evening, I went to kiss his cheek but-"
She bit her lip, building up suspense. Oh hell no she didn't.
"But?" I prodded.
"It was a mistake. He moved his head at the wrong time and in the wrong direction so I ended up kissing him on the lips."
"You kissed him? On the lips?"
She nodded. "I swear I didn't mean to. It was an accident."
Yeah sure it was an accident. I didn't believe that. I knew Tristan harbored feelings for her and when she went to kiss his cheek, they ended up kissing? That was a smooth move on Tristan's part. I knew it was intentional.
"Olivia, you don't like Tristan that way, right?"
She shook her head immediately. "We're just good friends and that date meant nothing. Even the kiss didn't mean anything. Tristan doesn't go for girls like me."
"Girls like you?"
"Yeah, did you forget that we work at a café and are total commoners?"
"I didn't forget. But did you tell him about us?"
"No."
I nodded. "Good. But make sure such...accidents won't happen again."
She nodded.
I felt a little bad for Tristan. I knew the guy liked her but they just couldn't happen.
He barely knew anything about her and who knew if he still would have feelings for her after he learns who she really was.
We had told everyone that Olivia lived in another country and had come here for college.
We also made it seem like she was quite wealthy.
But it was nothing but a big, fat lie. Although Olivia's family was well off, she wasn't. She didn't get along with her family.
They were against what she wanted to learn.
Her family was a family of lawyers and they wanted her to carry on the legacy.
But she didn't want to study law and since then her family had cut off all ties with her.
She does talk to her mother once or twice a month but it doesn't end on a good note.
It always ends with Olivia yelling over the phone that her mother couldn't never convince her to study law and that she'd do whatever she wanted.
So basically she was broke right now, along with me as we temporarily lost our jobs at the café.
"Are you planning on hanging out again?"
"I'm not sure. If he has time, maybe we would, maybe we wouldn't." She shrugged but didn't meet my eye.
"You did tell me that nothing is going on between you two and that's good but do you think you can hang out just a little bit less with him?"
"Why?" She asked after a moment of silence.
"You know, just to be on the safer side and ensure there are no feelings involved."
"I did tell you that I wouldn't let anything happen again. So trust me on this okay?"
"I do, but please just don't hang out with him so much."
"What are you not telling me?"
I contemplated on whether to tell her about Tristan's intentions.
"Tristan kind of likes you."
She looked at me incredulously and then burst out laughing. "No he doesn't."
"He does. He told me himself." I said seriously.
"I'm pretty sure he was just joking around. He does that a lot. He's a pretty funny guy."
"No, he was serious."
"He's a playboy, Julie. Those are not my type. I like easy relationships which are noncommittal and although it looks like he prefers the same, I don't want to be involved with him and get my heart broken. He's special. A dangerous kind of special."
"He's not a playboy. He just has a...dirty mind.
Although it's not my place to tell, I have to.
He had a girlfriend and he was in a serious relationship with her but then shit went down and he found out that she was with him for the money and fame.
They were together for a long time. He's a serious relationship kind of guy. "
"Then you don't have to worry because he totally isn't my type."
"Okay, if you say so. Just...don't break his heart, because his feelings are genuine and probably even strong now."
She gulped but nodded. "I can't promise you that, but I'll try."
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