Sarah Beth~
After taking Scorpius back home and checking on Eleanor, we returned home, only to receive a phone call from Jeff. Ashley listened intently and shook his head yes several times.
"Yes." HE said a few times. "Uh-huh. Tonight? Dorian Gray? I'm not sure if... Well, yeah, but...okay. I'll ask her." He pulled the phone away and then turned to me. "Hey, Sarah Beth? Do you want to go on a double date with Jeff?"
"Um..." I thought for a moment. I really didn't want to, but it wouldn't be right. For the last two week I had made him hand out with my friends. I needed to make it fair and hand out with his. "Okay.. When?"
"Tonight."
"Oh, okay then. 'I stood up and turned the telly off. That meant I would have to clean myself up.
"Yeah. We'll go." He put the phone back to his ear. "Dinner? Oh, it doesn't matter? At six? Got it. See you soon." He hung up and put the phone down. "We're meeting him at six for dinner, then we are seeing a movie."
"What movie?"
"Dorian Gray."
"Hm." I had seen a couple of previews for it, but I wasn't really sure what it was about. All I knew was that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it. But never-the-less, I sucked it up and smiled. "Well, I guess I better start getting ready." I continued to the bathroom door and closed the door.
........................................
A six o'clock sharp Ashley and I stepped out of the car and into the parking lot of a fancy looking Asian restaurant. When we first pulled in a made a fuss, saying that I had never eaten Asian food and that I didn't plan on trying anything new. He told me that I was being ridiculous and that I would be fine. I stuck my tongue out at him, and he laughed.
We had decided to dress in tee-shirts and jeans, hoping that Jeff and his date had decided to do the same. Inside the restaurant we saw that they were already there, waiting for us at the corner table in the back of the room. Ashley and I weaved out way through the maze of tables and slid into the booth when we finally got to our destination. I ended up on the inside, next to the wall, across from Jeff. I looked his date over.
To my embarrassment, she had dressed up for the occasion, although Jeff was dressed casually. She was wearing a silky, frilly green shirt that perfectly matched her eyes. Her makeup looked like she had stepped straight out of a magazine. Her hair was curly, but not frizzy like mine. It was the kind of curl that could only be accomplished by the handiwork of a curling iron. I enviously touched my crazy, out of control curly hair. Why couldn't I look like that?
"Spencer, this is my friend, Ashley." Jeff gestured to him. "And his girlfriend, Sarah Beth. "
"Oh, you go by your first and middle name? How cute!" She gushed in that 'I'm pretending to be nice to you' way that only other girls can pick up on, leaving Ashley as well as here date oblivious.
"Actually," I said matter of fact-ly, "My whole first name is Sarah Beth."
"Aw! Your accent is so cute! Where are you from, Sarah?" She gushed. I didn't like the fact that she was judging me and didn't even know me. I mean, I didn't do that (often). Who did she think she was? I felt my face get a bit red. If she called me 'Sarah' one more time...
"Actually-"
"She's from Transylvania." Ashley cut in, sensing my anger.
"I thought you were from Austria?" Jeff asked.
"I moved there after I moved to Uruguay." I tried to sound convening. Ever since Ashley had introduced me to his band mates I had had to lie about my origins. One lie had stacked on top of another and I wasn't sure what I had said. I couldn't keep track of them.
"Is everyone ready to order?" A waitress came up with a pad and a pen. I was thankful for the interruption. We all nodded. "Okay, I'll start you off with drinks." She smiled that 'I've been here since ten in the morning' smile. All of us ordered, then she gave us menus for our food. I scanned everything, started to feel a big overwhelmed. Nothing on there looked safe.
"Ashley..." I looked at him. He took one look of my face and knew what I was going to say.
"There's fish, see." He pointed to a section. I read through it all.
"But it's mixed together with stuff..."
"I know, but-"
"Ashley!"
"Okay." He sighed and looked through more of his menu. After a minute or two of browsing, he pointed again. "There's a kid menu with normal food. See?" I looked at where he was talking about. It all seemed more my style; hamburgers, chicken strips, mac and cheese. I relaxed a bit.
"Okay. That sounds nice. I think I want chicken strips." I said, and Jeff let out a laugh.
"Of course."
"And what just do you mean by that?" If I would have been standing up, I would have had my hands on my hips.
"I mean you act like a kid. You were going to eat off the kid menu." I knew it was suppose to be a joke, but it kid of hurt. I bit the inside of my cheek and stuck my hand in my purse. Inside, I felt my wand and griped onto it. Ashley sense my anger and stuck his hand in as well and grabbed onto it and squeezed.
"Stop it, Jeff." He put in, giving me another squeeze. Spencer let out the most obnoxious laugh I had ever heard in my life.
"Yeah, Jeffie! Stop! You're being mean to little Sar-wa." She said my name in baby talk. I squeezed Ashley's hand back, hard. He winced a moment. Finally, the waitress came back.
"Are we all ready?" Her smile was still there.
"Yeah." Jeff handed her his menu. He ordered some weird, Chinese dish. All of them did. When she looked at me a looked down and blushed a little bit.
"Uh... the chicken strips?"
...................................
Five minutes into the movie I started to freak out. Everything was dark and creepy. To add to it, we didn't have a rude person in the audience. Usually, this would be a good thing, but this time it wasn't. There politeness meant that he theatre was silent except for the film. I turned to Ashley.
"I don't think I want to see this." I said. He chuckled that kissed my cheek.
"It'll be fine." He wrapped an arm around me. I leaned into him. "I promise. It's just a movie."
As the plot went on I got closer and closer to him. Any time anything moved on the screen, I would scream. What made everything worse was what the movie was actually about. The main character put his soul into an object so he wouldn't die; A horcrux.
Everyone in the wizarding world knew the term. It was what a wizard named, well... Let's call him You-Know-Who used to stay alive. He had seven. This whole thing brought back bloody images of the battle I was in that he caused. So many people dead. So many lost. And the first time You-Know-Who died, he was suppose to be dead. Whose to say he died this second time.
Near the end the main character was in a dark room. Suddenly, an object moved across the screen. My mind heavy with the You-Know-Who thoughts, I jumped and let out a loud shriek. Spencer looked over at me, annoyed. I was basically in Ashley's lap, gripping onto him. My face was pushed into the top of his shoulder.
"I want to leave." I said with tears in my eyes. "I want to go now." He looked at me with concerned eyes.
"Okay." He looked over at Jeff. "Hey, Sarah Beth and I are going to the car. She's a bit..." He looked at the back of my head that was right next to his chin. "scared. WE'll meet you there." Jeff, who was making out and had been the whole time, gave him a thumbs up.
Ashley and I excited the theatre and got into Jeff's car. From the restaurant we all got into his car and went together. Ashley sat next to me in the back seat, so I laid down and put my head in his lap, taking deep breaths. Was this how Ellie felt every day?
"What's bothering you?" Ashley asked, running a hand through my hair. I shook my head no.
"Nothing..." I lied. "Its nothing..." We stayed like this for maybe and hour until Jeff and Spencer came back to the car.
"Must have been a long movie." Ashley tried to make conversation as Jeff pulled onto the road. "Nah. It ended fifteen minutes after you left."
"What where you..." Ashley trailed off. "Never mind. I don't want to know."
"Hey, Sarah Beth!" Jeff looked at me by turning his head and looking away from the road. The car swerved a bit. "On the bright side, you almost made it through this one!"