Royals

Chapter 41

As I brushed my teeth, I couldn't help but smile. Joey wanted to hang out with me instead of Ashley. Perhaps we actually had a shot at being friends.

I slipped my feet into a pair of boots before running out of the door. As promised, Joey was waiting in the driveway, twirling something between his fingers. Pushing down my curiosity, I climbed into the passenger seat.

Without greeting me, Joey tossed a tiny, aquamarine sack in my direction. Surprisingly, I caught it, noticing the black text: Tiffany and Co. I gasped, pulling the minute strings, and revealing a striking, silver chain. Dangling from the edge was a stately, opulent crown. Diamonds were scattered along the diadem, leaving me awestruck.

"Joey," I gawked, turning it between my fingers. "Why did you buy me this?"

"It was for Christmas," he shrugged, accelerating past a yield sign. "I just never got the opportunity to give it to you until now."

"You didn't have to buy me anything," I responded, biting my lip.

"Do you like it?" he asked, ignoring my claim.

"I love it," I gaped, fiddling with the clasp at the back. "The crown...it's beautiful."

"When I asked you to be my girlfriend, do you remember what it said on the cake?"

"You said I was your princess," I whispered, feeling my heart melt into a pile of putty.

"So the crown necklace felt fitting, you know?" he lightly said.

"Thank you," I murmured, looking down, "so much."

When Joey came to a stop before a movie theater, he instructed me to angle my body away from him and towards the window. He gently lifted my hair and clasped the necklace shut, making the hair on the back of my neck erect from his close proximity.

"Can we have two tickets for whatever movie is soonest?" Joey asked the cashier, pulling his wallet out from his pocket.

"Um, alright," the worker complied, giving us an odd look. "Theater four."

We headed straight for the concession stand, purchasing thirty-seven dollars worth of candy and drinks to share, once again receiving a weird look from the employee. While I navigated us to open seats in the middle of the middle, Joey used the flash on his phone to find out what movie we bought tickets for.

"Umm," Joey paused, squinting at his ticket stub in the minimal light. "Have you ever hear of The Best of Me?"

"It's a romance movie."

"Oh," Joey muttered, standing up and preparing to leave the theater, "then there's no way I'm sitting through this."

"Please," I whined. "I've been waiting to see this forever."

"Fine, I'll sit through it," Joey agreed, smiling deviously.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

So, when Joey agreed to "sit through the movie", he was being very literal because, while he physically sat down during the movie, he completely disregarded every other rule. Joey made slurping noises from his pop, chomped excruciatingly loud, dropped kernels and crumbs anywhere within a five foot radius, and he talked. And talked. And talked. And talked.

And, of course Joey wouldn't just subtly whisper for only me to hear. No, of course not. He spoke in his normal tone, voicing his judgmental opinions on the characters hair, outfits, actions, etc. He would sporadically ask the most random questions that had nothing to do with the film, varying from "if I flushed a fish down the toilet, would it survive?" to "is it legal to, like, break into someone's house if you donate money to them?"