It was Tuesday night and the kids had managed to bully Jac and Fletch into taking them all to the cinema to see The Incredibles 2 film. It was a school night, and they normally never would've agreed, but Mikey hadn't gotten in trouble in at least two weeks and Evie had barely left the house amongst all of her revision.
Jac had been thoroughly reluctant. The cinema really wasn't her scene; she'd been once when she was 14 on a group outing with her care home and had spent an hour and a half having popcorn thrown at the back of her head. That had been enough to tell her that the sofa was a far more comfortable place to watch movies from.
"Can we get popcorn, Dad?" Mikey enthused as they passed the ticket stand.
"Go on then. Just a small one!" Fletch stated firmly as he handed over a fiver and watched his son run off eagerly to queue. Of course, the kids already had pockets full of snacks, primarily to avoid spending a small fortune in the cinema.
The kids had even persuaded Jac to tuck a packet of cheese and onion crisps into her pocket or she'd be moaning the entire film and trying to steal theirs. She rolled her eyes at them before stuffing them in anyway and accepting that she may as well have something to eat.
After three minutes, Mikey came hurrying back to them with a bucket of popcorn as big as his head and a mouthful of it. He led the group of them towards the screens where, in succession, their tickets were torn in half and returned to them.
Mikey decided that the third row was an acceptable compromise between the youngsters who wanted the front row and the rest of them who wanted the middle. They all filtered down the row with Evie at one end, and Jac and Fletch at the other.
The adverts had already started and Evie and Mikey were watching them eagerly, looking for their next excuse for a family outing. Ella and Emma were organising their sweets between the pair of them, and Theo had already stuffed half a dozen gummy worms into his mouth.
"I can't believe you persuaded me that this was a fun way to spend my Tuesday evening," Jac grumbled as she slumped back into her seat.
"Stop complaining. We could be sat listening to the kids argue about what to put on before eventually deciding on Cars for the fortieth time this month," Fletch pointed out, pulling a KitKat out of his pocket and tearing off the packaging.
Jac reached over and snapped off a small piece before dropping it into her mouth, ignoring the scornful glare she received.
Three adverts later, the opening credits began.
Jac curled her feet up underneath herself, getting comfortable as best she could on the narrow cinema seat. It wasn't long before her head flopped onto Fletch's shoulder as she got tired of sitting up straight.
Between the distracting noise of popcorn-crunching and Jac's general disinterest in the movie, she managed to daydream her way through the entire first half before she was jolted back to focus by the shrieks of Theo, Ella, and Emma.
Her head snapped up, looking at the screen to try and figure out what she had missed though ultimately, she gave up. The first movie had been pretty good, and she would definitely give this one another try once it was out on DVD, but the mere atmosphere made her too fidgety to really pay attention.
Forcing herself to remain quiet and somewhat still for the next forty-five minutes, she was nothing short of relieved when the credits ran. Even though it took another five minutes just to get the kids up and gather up the rubbish, she was just pleased that they could finally head back and she could curl up on the sofa in a comfortable position and pay as much or as little attention to the television as she liked.
"D'you enjoy yourself?" Fletch asked with a smile, wrapping his arm around Jac's waist as they headed through the foyer.
"I didn't not enjoy myself. Satisfied?" she answered sweetly as she reached for Emma's hand and walked between her two favourite people to their car.
Over the months that had passed between them, she had come to accept that the people carrier was something of necessity. She couldn't stand the thing, and she wouldn't be caught dead driving it or going anywhere near the hospital in it, but the occasional ride wasn't going to kill her.
"Shotgun the middle!" Mikey yelled as he tugged open the door and hopped into the seat he deemed to be his. The entire clan piled into the car before they headed for home; Ella babbled on about how she wanted to be Violet and how cool she thought the entire film was.
Everyone seemed to be in a very good mood after the outing, and though she had enjoyed little in the way of the film, the temperament of everybody else in the car was putting a smile on her face. She was never going to be a fun person, but she could at least pretend, for Emma's sake.
"Straight to bed for all of you, understand?" Fletch ordered as they approached the driveway of the house. "Evie, you too, no studying."
It was only 8o'clock, and he knew full well that Evie wasn't going to go to bed, but he'd be damned if she started trying to work on her night off.
"But Dad, I have Maths A on Thursday! Half an hour? I thought we'd be back later than this," she pleaded, looking at him glumly with a protruding lower lip.
"Let your brain have a rest," Jac interjected, hoping to diffuse the situation with rationality. "I finish at 4 tomorrow, so I will come over and help you cram if it makes you happy."
Evie grinned widely and hopped out of the car without another word.
The two of them stayed in the car for a moment, hands together, sat on Fletch's knee. No matter the movie, it had been a wonderful evening.
