Knowing You're There

Chapter 10

“Hey.  Glad you could make it,” I said. 

I heard Mom get up.  “Kurt, it’s nice to finally meetyou.  Lia talks about you so much! Practically nonstop.  Just don’t let anything happen to my daughter, okay?” 

My face felt hot.  This was the exact reason why I didn’t want Mom to come.  Why did parents always have to be so embarrassing all the time? 

“Oh, I won’t.  No worries.” 

Mom patted my arm.  “Behave.  You two have fun.  I’ll be here to pick you up in a few hours.” 

“Okay.  I’ll see you then,” I said through grit teeth. 

Kurt’s hand lowered and his fingers interlocked with mine.  I gasped at the thought that this was my first-ever hand hold. 

“You really look great Lia,” he said.  “Like, I don’t understand how you are so pretty.” 

I shrugged.  “Well, we both know I can’t see you, but I’m sure you look super awesome too.  Shall we?” 

I felt his smile.  “I think we shall.” 

We walked inside and headed over to the counter to get our tickets.  The second Kurt opened the door for me, I remembered why I loved the movie theater so much.  The aroma of buttery popcorn was one of my favorite smells, and hearing the conversations of people exiting, giving their own little critiques of the movies while I waited in line was just awesome.  As we waited, Kurt still held onto my hand. 

“Just so you know, you’re not paying,” he said. 

“I figured.  Can I at least buy my popcorn though?”

He squeezed my hand.  “Only if you really want to.” 

“Oh, I have an idea!” I bounced up and down a few times.  “We should share one of those giant buckets—if you want.” 

“I like the sound of that.”  We stepped forward and he placed his card on the counter.  “Two adults please.” 

I heard the person behind the window slide over the tickets without a word. Kurt’s hand was heating up.  He seemed a lot more excited about the sci-fi alien movie in our previous texts than I did.  Being a sucker for romantic comedies, aliens weren’t really my thing, but I didn’t want to make a problem about the movie on our very first date. 

After getting the tickets, we waited on the humongous snack line.  As usual, everything was overpriced.  I wound up spending all of the twenty dollar bill Mom gave me just on the popcorn and soda.  Kurt lent me another ten for a hotdog with mustard. 

He gripped my hand tighter as he led me to theater number twelve.  Since there weren’t a lot of voices, I guessed that we were either early or there just wasn’t a very high demand for Vengeance in the Cosmos, which I found out from Kurt earlier that was actually a novel by some author I’d never heard of. 

We found a seat by the aisle so there was room for Star.  When we sat down, instead of putting her head on my lap and waiting for bits of hotdog, she laid down. 

“Star looks tired,” Kurt said. 

“Yeah, I know.”  I reached down and scratched her back.  “I took her for a pretty long walk earlier.  That must be why.” 

“That's probably it.  Anyway, popcorn?” 

He moved the bucket over to I could reach it.  I grabbed a handful and shoved it into my mouth.  Then came the realization that we forgot napkins.  I didn’t feel like getting up, and I didn’t want to make Kurt run all the way back out to the lobby.  My greasy fingers rubbed together as I formulated a plan.  With a swift move, I put my arm and around Kurt, letting my nasty hand rub back and forth on his sweatshirt.  It seemed to be working until he let out a long sign. 

“Can you not rub your grease on me please?” he asked in the most innocent, relaxed tone. 

I put my arm back at my side.  Of course that didn’t work.  “Sorry.” 

“It’s okay.  I accept your apology.” 

“You do?” I asked. 

“Yes.  But first I have to do something.” 

Before I could answer, he lunges forward, pulled on the neck of my sweater and sent a handful of buttered popcorn tumbling down into my bra.  I let out some sort of high-pitched squeal, trying to reach my hand up the sweater and grab the individual pieces.  Kurt laughed the whole time. 

Just to get back at him, I grabbed a fistful and rubbed it into his hair.  In seconds, it just resulted to us giggling and throwing popcorn bits at each other. To be honest, it was probably the most fun I’d had in ages.  I was in this euphoric state, throwing popcorn with this guy in the middle of a movie theater. 

“You two!”  I heard a husky man’s voice, and I froze.  There was a clotting of shoes.  They were right next to me.  “This is not a playground, and this is not a cafeteria!” 

Never was I so glad that I couldn’t see.  With the mess that we made, I didn’t even want to know how much popcorn was all over the seats and the floor.  I put my hands up. 

“Please don’t arrest us mister movie usher, sir!” I said, about to burst into tears.  At the time, I wasn’t sure about Kurt, but getting in trouble was completely foreign to me. 

“I don’t want to hear it,” he said.  “You two are out of here.  And take that mutt with you.” 

I gave Star’s harness a light pull and she got to her feet.  I hear Kurt reaching down, feeling for the popcorn in the darkness.  When I took the massive bucket from his lap, it felt nearly empty.  We got up without a word, the usher following us right to the door and to the lobby.  From there, he left and went back towards the theater.  I put my arms around Kurt and leaned into his chest.