The Other Side - Chapter 28

"The Other Side - Chapter 27" 

That night, after eating the supper that Jim and Delany had created, which ended up being quite good, Becky found herself lying awake in her bed.

Summer was over. It was kind of hard to fathom. The entire season had been so outright amazing. Going to Africa, and all the things that she did there before she met Jake. Then, of course, meeting Jake became a whole different adventure.

Becky looked up at her ceiling, her vision lacking all color in the dark. It was funny how she could now think of Jake. It was like all the emotions she once felt when she thought of him were now dimmed, shoved to the back. She still felt the betrayal, the broken trust but it didn't burn as much anymore. Vaguely, Becky wondered when that had happened.

Time heals all wounds, right? Still, it was more than that. It's felt to her like she had put Jacob into a little box and shoved him to the back of her mind. How was she able to do that so effectively? Maybe it was her keenest sense of self defense. Or...

Gary? She thought slowly. She had to admit he certainly took her mind off other things. Her mind floated to their date tomorrow, and she couldn’t help feeling excited. Being alone in the dark seemed to allow her to move her thoughts in ways that she hadn’t dared before. She could see herself going out with Gary more and more…maybe eventually becoming a true couple.

Before Becky could realize what she was doing, she felt the smile on her face. She could imagine Lynn’s ecstatic reaction to that…and she could see herself laughing with Gary on the couch, snuggled up next to him. Maybe Jim and Delany would be on the other side of the room in a similar position. They would all be happy; they would all be oblivious to the harsh world around them.

With those thoughts in mind, Becky gently drifted off to sleep. The last thing she could remember before rolling on her side and closing her eyes was the fun scene of laughing and hugging. She didn't have to worry about Gary having ulterior motives. He lived here, in this world, a real place. A place where everyone could be trusting…true.

A place where she'd never find Gary kissing another girl…

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“Junior Mints, please.” Becky said to the woman behind the counter, giving her a friendly smile. She handed Becky her snack and small drink, while giving Gary his extra large popcorn and even bigger soda. Becky couldn’t help rolling her eyes as they walked to the proper theatre. Gary must have spent half his life earnings at that concession stand with its ridiculous prices.

Gary led her to the rear of the theatre and settled in, reclining back and throwing his feet up on the seat in front of him, sipping at his drink noisily. Becky sat down next to him and gave him a look. He seemed to catch it and stopped sipping instantly. Pulling the straw away from his lips, he looked a little sheepish.

“Sorry…you’ll have to blame it on Lynn. I have terrible movie manners.” He gave her a dashing grin and Becky laughed. She’d been to the movies with Lynn once…and only once. The girl forgot after the first ten minutes where she was and started up a whole conversation with her, complete with elaborate hand gestures and noisy laughter. Becky still wondered how they managed to escape the cranky movie-goers that were ready to pummel them by the end.

“So long as you don’t talk through the whole thing, I won’t mind.” Becky said truthfully and smiled shyly. Glancing at her watch she found that they still had a good ten minutes before the movie was going to start, which meant it was perfect time to do a little talking. “How’d your classes go?”

Gary shrugged, shifting so that he faced her squarely. “Same old grind, just different classes. The one professor I have seems like he’s going to be a lot of fun.” Suddenly, Gary scowled. “Which probably means he’ll be the hardest grader of them all.”

Becky smiled. “Aw, I wouldn’t worry about it too much…at least now. Wait until grading come around, then you can think about it.” She waited for a little bit while Gary nodded and dug his hand into his popcorn. She took a sip of her cola. “Um…well my classes were pretty regular too. It’s going to be different though, now I’m really getting into my stuff for my major.”

Gary nodded and they were silent for a moment, watching as a group of people filtered into the theatre. It wasn’t a very busy day at all, and the movie had been out for a while. She didn’t expect there to be many people around at all…and she almost wondered if that was how Gary had planned it. He had chosen the movie, which was fine by Becky. She hadn’t been in the mood to look around for something to see, she wasn’t really interesting in movies since getting back from Africa…but this one did seem pretty neat. It was a sort of comedy and action rolled into one. She wasn’t sure about the actual plot line though…and she didn’t have the faintest idea as to what the movie was even called. She would have just to watch and see.

Becky leaned back in her chair and Gary held out the huge bucket of popcorn in offering. “Would you like some?”

She shook her head while mumbling thanks. She normally liked popcorn but wasn’t in the mood for the fake, buttery concoction at the moment. She had a sneaking suspicion that Delany’s cooking the night before had put a halt of her eating greasy things for a while.

“Come on, I bought it for the both of us to share. You don’t think I could finish this whole thing by myself do you?” She looked over to him and smirked, a witty comment flying into her mind. As she caught his eyes in the dim light though she could see that while there was a humor sparkling in their dark depths they were also still. For a moment she worried if she had offened him. Not wanting to cause a rift, she reached out and grabbed a handful.

After a few more minutes of talking the lights dimmed and the movie previews started rolling. Some fast paced and very catchy blasted through the speakers, reminding her as a sort of James Bond/Mission Impossible theme. She watched the screen as a blur of light rushed past, stopped for the word “Never” rushed again, stopped for “Get” and rushed again stopping lastly for “Caught”. Becky held back a groan.

He’s never going to leave me alone is he? She thought to herself, watching as some sort of priceless item was being carried out of what looked to be a museum by a girl with a hooded sweatshirt. When she got outside the alarm sounded and she jumped into a moving vehicle. Throwing off her hood, it was revealed to be Melissa Ettison.

The girls in the front row of the theatre “ooh”ed. Becky rolled her eyes.

Then the camera pulled out to show both the people in the car. Jacob’s face was hard, cool and calm. Becky tried her best not to notice that the expression was nothing like the one he normally wore. At the appearance of him, all the girls in the front row gasped and made several sounds of swooning. All of them talked excitedly as Jacob easily shot out the tires of a police car that was following them, before taking the car off a make-shift ramp in the middle of a high way. Becky narrowed her eyes at the girls as they squealed with glee.

“SHHH! This is a movie theatre.”

Gary turned to her in surprise. “Beck – it’s the previews.”

Becky bit her lip, digging her hand quickly into the popcorn. “I…like the previews. It would be nice if I could hear them.” She then shoved the junk food into her mouth as an excuse not to explain anymore. Gary held her gaze just a moment longer and then turned back to watch the preview, which had thankfully moved onto another movie.

They didn’t speak again before the movie started, and Becky made sure to pay attention right from the beginning. She knew that if it turned out to be something spy related with a confusing plotline she would be lost throughout without the beginning. But her thoughts were quickly cast away as the story started with a person falling down a flight of stairs, and ninjas jumping out of alleys.

Becky cast a sidelong glance to Gary, who looked at her sheepishly. “There’s a fine line between funny and stupid.” He said softly. “I was hoping that this would be on the other side of the line.” Becky held back a giggle. At least he knew when he was wrong. Delicately, she tried to give the movie the benefit of the doubt.

“Maybe it gets better.” But Becky quickly found her optimism crushed. The dialogue seemed to be formed purposely for the occasional one-liner, which always ended up being delivered flat anyway. Before either of them knew it, they were lounging in their seats, feet kicked up on the armrests of the chairs in front of them, just generally making fun of the movie.

“Oh, please!” Becky cried, pointing to the main character as he made a pun. The characters on the screen exploded with fake laughter as the scene ended. “Who does that guy think he is? Only James Bond can pull off puns like that!”

Gary laughed aloud. “Yeah, and there is no way that chump is James Bond!” He and Becky cracked up with laughter, only to have one of the girls in the front row turn around and shush them. Becky did her best to calm herself. She knew that they had to be really loud if the people on the other side of the theatre could hear them.

But before she knew it Gary and she were roaring with laughter yet again, at a scene where the actor obviously forgot his line but tried to pass it off as suspense. The director either didn’t catch it or thought it was just good acting, but either way it was enough to set Gary and Becky off.

By the time that the movie had ended, Becky’s sides hurt from laughing so hard and they had been shushed numerous times. As they got up to leave, the troop of girls, probably just a few years younger than Becky, glared venomously at them, noses in the air. She felt a little guilty, but, taking one look at Gary, she started giggling again.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Gary said, pulling on her hand. Becky struggled to keep up.

“Hey, ew, you’re touching me with your popcorn hand! It’s all buttery!” Gary didn’t seem to care though as he pulled her through the doors and out onto the street, where they could really be loud.

“That was the stupidest movie I’ve ever seen!” Gary yelled and Becky laughed aloud. All she could do was nod.

“Hey, you chose it.”

Gary nodded his head slowly, looking ashamed. “I know and I’m sorry. I really thought that it might be interesting when I saw the previews. Will you ever be able to forgive me for taking out on such a retched date?”

Becky took her hand back (which had still been attached to his) and wrapped her arms around her, nodding. A chilly breeze blew past them and she pulled her zip-up sweatshirt around her tighter. The sun had long since gone down, but the night was clear. Becky sighed.

“Don’t worry about it; I still managed to have a good time.” She smiled up at him, being completely genuine. She couldn’t believe that she had actually had so much fun going to a horrible movie. “Maybe I should make sure that you pick all the movies that we go to, just to make sure that I get a good laugh each time.”

“So that does that mean that there will be more movies dates for us in the future?” Gary asked as he started walking to his car. He had picked her up from the school campus in his old ’57 Chevy Belaire, which still drove well and looked good too. Becky smiled as she jogged up next to him.

“No.” Gary looked at her in surprise. “Maybe one or two I suppose, but I’m hoping they all won’t be movies.”

Becky grinned as they made it to the car, walking around to the passenger side. She didn’t even allow her mind to second guess her last statement. She knew that she had wanted to take it slow, go easy, but for some reason tonight she just felt like whisking up the opportunity. Gary made her laugh. She looked over at him in the shadowed car. So long as she wasn’t hurting, that was good enough for her.

Gary returned her grin and gave the steering wheel a pat as he pulled out of the parking lot. They were silent for a moment until Becky decided to inquire about his choice of vehicle.

“Oh, this used to be my dad’s until I fixed it all up. Didn’t have the money for a new one, and didn’t need one either, she still runs and plays the music, so that’s all I need.” His bright smile could be seen as he turned the corner and Becky nodded. That was a good enough answer for her.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the apartment and Becky turned to Gary. “Hey, I had a really nice time…”

Gary unbuckled his seatbelt. “Don’t say good-bye yet, let me walk you up –“ But before he could even finish the sentence she was shushing him.

“I can manage my way up; you just go ahead and go home. Plus, you know if you come inside we might be tempted to run up the stairway again, and you know what happened last time.”

“Yeah, you hooligan. If you want me that much all you have to do is say so.” He grinned and Becky smiled, casting her eyes downward. Before she knew it she felt a soft hand on her cheek, she lifted her eyelids to catch his eyes which now loomed closer than ever. His breath was soft and fresh from the peppermint they handed out after the movie.

Softly, Becky struggled to speak. “You’re touching me with your popcorn hand.” She whispered and Gary chuckled, switching to his other hand on her other check.

“Better?” And she nodded. She could feel her heart racing inside of her chest. Was this really it? Were they going to solidify this relationship, should they -? But before she could even finish her thought Gary had come even closer until their lips were just centimeters apart. He hesitated, and Becky took the leap of faith, closing the gap between them.

The pressure of their kiss didn’t last long, and Gary pulled away, leaning back in his seat. It was a very gentleman-like good night kiss and Becky was almost angry at him because of it. But she took the cue to whisper good night and quickly let herself out of the car. She waved as he pulled away and then walked up to the apartment, not even trying to hold back her out and out grin.

Maybe Lynn had been right. Maybe this year really was going to be perfect.

"The Other Side - Chapter 29"