𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 36.

I had never been to a sleepover before, except for at John B's house. I had never had a "girls night" in my life. And I thought that, that kind of stuff only happened in the movies. But when Sarah had actually brought her box of nail polish down into her movie room, and made us buckets of popcorn, settled us onto the sofas with ten different blankets, my heart had almost exploded with joy. I tried not to act uneasy.

The movie we watched, "A Night In Paris", was Danny and Cecile Collins' most famous movie— as Sarah explained, when I mentioned that I had never seen it before. Apparently, it was the movie that gained my parents their stardom, back in 1997. The revolutionary start of their romance-film escapade in the world of Hollywood. After the movie exploded with popularity, my parents were casted, together, for practically every romantic or drama film after that, which undeniably gained them their title of "legends". I didn't understand.

The whole time that the movie was playing, I couldn't sit right in my seat. Although it was an unexpectedly eye-opening experience for me, it was like when you listen to your voice in a video recording as a kid— your stomach turns and you can't stop cringing. The movie would have been absolutely amazing, if it were simply different actors. When Sarah had dropped the movie cover in front of me, back when we were in her bedroom, and I had looked down to see my parents, I felt like I was going to be sick.

My whole life, my parents had never let me watch a movie of theirs. I wasn't even allowed to watch them on TV for award shows or those movie ceremonies. But finally, after sixteen years, I got to see one of their films. When the movie had started playing, a small part of me felt guilty, but the other part of me was more curious than ever. When their faces came up on the screen, I felt a smile trickle up to my lips, finally seeing their faces after a long time of being apart.

I didn't quite know how to feel while watching. What Sarah saw, was her two favourite movie stars, acting in her favourite movie, playing her favourite characters. What I saw, was both of my parents, pretending to be other people. When they kissed at the end of the film— which was by far, the worst thing I think, I've ever had to witness— Sarah saw her favourite scene, even ranted to me afterwards about how she wanted love like that. What I saw, was both of my own parents making out in front of the Eiffel Tower. It took everything in me to refrain from gagging.

But despite all the cringe I couldn't stop myself from feeling, I didn't mind watching one of my parents' films. For some reason, it made me feel happy. After a while, I began to figure that was because, since my parents have never really interacted with me in their personal life, seeing them— just as slightly different people, made me feel, sort of connected, in a way. Seeing their love onscreen, and the way they portrayed qualities of themselves through the characters, gave me a different perspective on them in real life. It was hard to explain.

When Sarah had first mentioned the name of the movie, and when I saw my parents on the DVD cover, I didn't want to watch it. My first thought, was to ask Sarah if we could watch something else. But she was fixed on the idea. Also, she was already upset, and through her soaked cheeks from crying, when she picked the movie, there was a smile on her face and I didn't want to take that away. I had told myself that I was going to sit through the film of my parents, maybe just pretend to watch, just to make her happy. Her eyes were twinkling the whole time it played.

At one point, Sarah even mentioned that I coincidentally looked a lot like Florence— my mother's character in the movie. She said we almost had the exact same eyes and cheek bones, which made her laugh, and I played along with it and jokingly denied. She also found it quite hilarious that me and the actors even had the same last name. I laughed with her, pretending to be surprised by how crazy real the coincidences were getting, but denied it with an "I wish I was related to them".