Thin Bones

61

Gaige was very hot. Body temperature-wise at least. Erin and Paige had not allowed Gaige to sport his classic windbreak and or sweatshirt. Right now, his only layers were a white undershirt and a blood-red button up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. They had bought it after his hair cut. Paige had tried -begged- Gaige to get black slacks but he was only willing to go as far as a button-up and jeans. Shoes were out of the question to everyone, luckily. 

Finding parking wasn't too easy, that stirred up more of the butterflies in Gaige's stomach. The sun was low only enough to create a beautiful purple to orange gradient. Gaige watched the sky the whole ride to the theater. 

Leon's feet dragging on the sidewalk along other strangers filled Gaige's ears, not enough to mask his heartbeat. Only the Jones family was coming for the very beginning of all of Tuesdays showings. The Peterson-Carson Family decided to wait until intermission, mainly because the babysitter couldn't get there until then. 

The closer and closer they got to the theater, the more and more people seemed to pack on the sidewalk in front of the buildings. Gaige walked briskly in front of his family, faster than he usually did. He fiddled with one of the buttons on his shirt, the environment around him beginning to pick up volume. 

"Is Adonis supposed to meet us out here? Or in there?" Leon broke the silence in the group, coming close enough to his brother, pointing around his body and over the crowd. 

The crowd was a bubble of people of all sorts. Obviously teenagers -students- but also seemingly college students, adults, even fucking senior citizens. And that was only what Gaige could see from the outside. 

Gaige patted the back pocket of his jeans, only to remember he had left his reactivated phone back on his bed. He had talked to Adonis again, but only purely on details and logistics of this night. 

"Oh, uh, inside. Yeah. He said something about a directors huddle or something. I can't remember. But inside. We just need to get through," And getting through would take forever. Nearly a whole half an hour before they got through, paid for their tickets and pushed through the lobby -Gaige obviously as their telescope over the crowd- to find Adonis. 

Gaige basically shoved his way through the crowd, before he could reach out and grasp the shoulder of the well-groomed blonde young man; who was talking to an older couple. 

Adonis jumped a bit at the touch, a gasp escape his lips when he whipped around to see who had touched him. The couple he was talking to looked Gaige up and down, either trying to figure out where Gaige was from or deciding who Gaige was pulling Adonis away from them. 

Adonis wore something similar to his usual khaki pants and oversized sweaters. This time khaki pants and a light blue button-up with white strips. Over his heart, Gaige could see a name tag that read "Adonis Osborn Director 'Thin Bones'". 

"Oh!" Adonis blinked his wide eyes, pushing up his round frames. Gaige let his hand fall from the boy's shoulder to his side and bit his lip. 

It wasn't how much longer until they seated for the first film of the night. Gaige darted his eyes side to side around the crowd in the lobby. He could hear Leon shifting in his nice shirt behind him. Gaige could practically hear Paige smiling to impress. 

"You scared me," Adonis let out a nervous chuckle. Was it from the nerves of their situation or the nerves from their friendship? "Did the line take long to get in? It's kind of packed in here, huh? The winner of the animated film, Dylan Wan, won last year. I guess a lot of people are excited to see his new work."

Gaige blinked. He wasn't going to bother answering Adonis's questions, the boy was nervously rambling. Gaige just nodded, knowing everything Adonis was saying was probably true.