"So, what're you feeling?" Cady asked Janis as they stare up at the colorful marquee displaying several movie titles.
"Hm, I don't know, A Quiet Place sounds like it'll be a thrill ride." Janis chuckled to herself before noticing that Cady isn't chuckling back, instead staring at the popcorn kernel-covered rug.
"Cads, you okay?" Janis asked, taking her hand.
"Yeah, yeah. Fine. Sounds good." Cady played the Janis card, hoping she wouldn't be able to see right through it. Cady never liked horror movies, but Janis and Damian always made her watch them with them, not realizing how much it scared her. Cady was far too nice to say anything, so she suffered in silence, covering her eyes whenever they weren't looking.
Janis tugged playfully on Cady's limp arm. "Come on, Cads, it's a horror thriller, our favorite! And Damian's at play practice, so for once it can be the two of us alone! You've always said you need more time with me." Janis pressed a kiss to Cady's knuckles, which were starting to turn white as she gripped Janis' hand. Cady tried to say something, to try to divert her away, but Janis had that kid-in-a-candy-store look on her face and an excited gleam in her soft brown eyes, something Cady hadn't seen since they met. Janis was right, this was valuable time she had with her, and she wasn't going to let a little, albeit terrifying, movie ruin it for her. So she unclenched Janis' hand and walked up hesitantly to the ticket person. "Two tickets to A Quiet Place please," she said through a forced smile. The ticket person handed them the stubs as Cady placed money on the counter.
"Cads, you're the best, have I ever told you that?" Janis exclaimed, a gleeful lilt in her voice. "This is gonna be epic!"
"Mm hm," Cady nodded, still forcing a smile.
Janis was oblivious to the fake excitement in her voice, too enthralled in her own joy. "Now, step 2, we buy a bunch of food and chow down!" Janis yelped, practically dragging Cady to the snack stand.
"I'll pay for this stuff, I need to not feel like a shitty person who lets their date pay for everything." Janis shoved a hand over her mouth as soon as the words came out.
"So this is a date, huh? What happened to 'Oh we're just going platonically even though everyone's seen me make out with you before?'"
"Eh, neither of us really believed that, now, did we?" Janis giggled a little, her pale cheeks turning a faint pinkish color.
"Hey, can you two lesbos shut up and order already? You're holding up the line!" some older guy behind them barked. They had somehow made it to the front of the line without even realizing, and when they faced forward they could see the people behind the counter glaring at them impatiently. "Oh, agh, I'm sorry, um, I'll get a large popcorn, and, um...some Red Vines...no wait, Twizzlers, who buys Red Vines? No, I shouldn't say that, people like Red Vines. Anyway, uh, can I also get a thing of Sour Patch Kids and a Coke? God, I feel like an asshole, why do I talk?! Shit, I said that out loud, didn't I? Ugh, I'm sorry, what do you want?" Janis turned to Cady with her head in her hands and her cheeks redder than before, unsuccessfully disguising her prominent social anxiety and general inability to formulate a sentence. She took deep breaths as Cady placed her order, flinging her contribution of $30 onto the counter in silence before she said something else dumb and made a bigger fool of herself. The cashier took the money and placed their food onto the counter quickly, clearly fed up with them both.
Cady awkwardly balanced her food on her arm, took Janis' somehow empty hand, and pulled her off to the side away from the crowds to make sure she was okay. She was still red in the face and her chest heaved shakily with anxiety. "Jan, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"
Janis cut her off immediately. "No, Caddy, it's fine. I'm fine, really, I just panicked. I'm just an idiot, no big whoop. Let's just go in and have fun and and forget about that and never ever talk about it again, okay? Please?" Janis replied, her focus wandering from Cady's concerned crystal blue eyes to the floor and back, willing herself to forget how much of an idiot she knew people saw her as, how much everyone was clearly judging her as they stared, and how uncontrollably awful she was at simple social interaction.
"Okay..." Cady's voice trails, both from fear of the movie and worry for Janis. Janis managed to clear her mind as they walked towards the theater, staying as physically close to Cady as possible like a child not wanting to be separated from their mother. Cady squeezed Janis' hand tightly as they entered the dark theater and started climbing up the rows of stairs, trying their best not to block anyone's view of the running previews. They found their seats on the end of the row and unloaded all their stuff. "Pretty good seats, huh?" Janis whispered.
"Yeah, totally." Cady nervously crammed a small handful of popcorn into her mouth, trying to calm herself down in her head. Of course, the seemingly endless previews for other horror movies didn't help at all. Cady clutched onto the darkened figure of Janis, comforted by the flowery smell of her hair and the feel of the patches she'd sewn onto her jacket. Janis held onto her tightly. "Ha, this is really creeping you out, huh? Makes it fun."
Within ten minutes of the movie starting, Cady was already on edge. Janis stroked Cady's hair as she whimpered at the sudden jumpscares, unaware something was really wrong until she felt droplets of cold wetness soak through her jacket. She took Cady's chin and pulled her close to her lips, whispering as quietly as she could to not annoy anyone else. "Oh, Caddy, I'm sorry if this is too intense for you. I didn't realize. I'm sorry. You wanna go home?"
Cady shook her head, also bringing her voice down. "You're happy, and we already paid a lot of money for this. It's not that bad."
Janis ignored the people behind them shushing them. "Caddy, you don't have to spare my feelings. We can go."
"No, no. It's just a movie. I'll be okay."
"You sure?" Janis looked into her eyes sincerely.
Cady nodded quickly. "Alright, you'll be okay. And I'm right here, Cads. I'll protect you. I love you." Janis kissed Cady's auburn roots lightly, holding her as closely as she could, despite the hard armrest wedged between them. Janis motioned for Cady in silence. Cady obeyed quickly, ducking her head down and clambering awkwardly onto the taller girl's lap, resting her head on her shoulder.
Janis rubbed Cady's back as she nestled further into her, still trying her best to actually watch the movie and make the $50 they paid for the tickets and food worth it so that Cady wouldn't feel worse than she already did.
Janis told Cady every time that there wasn't a scary scene that it was safe to look up, and covered her eyes hugging her right when the scary parts came back. Cady was able to actually watch about 20 minutes of the movie without being too scared, which, for her, was an accomplishment. Eventually, Cady spent the entire time huddled in Janis' chest, refusing to even try to look back up until the credits started rolling.
"Is it over?" Cady murmured into Janis' jacket as the lights came on in the theater. "Yeah, you made it. I'm sorry, I thought you'd like the movie. You always watch horror movies with me and Damian and you seem fine."
Cady picked her head up and wiped her cheeks, staring into her date's dark, loving eyes. "I'm sorry, I guess I should've told you from the start that horror movies aren't really my thing."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out. Now you're traumatized and it's my fault."
"Aw, Jan, it's okay. I'm okay. You didn't know. It's just a movie. I didn't really watch a lot of it anyway," Cady whispered reassuringly. She was telling the truth this time.
"This date would've gone a lot better if we'd just skipped the movie and made out in the bathroom or something," Janis sighed, her tone filled with regret.
"You say that like it isn't still an option," Cady giggled.
"You'd really be up to that now?" Janis asked.
"Yeah, definitely. Anything to get my mind off of the past 90 minutes of trauma. How do they make that stuff look so real?"
"Movie magic, I guess."
"Well then, let's make our own kind of movie magic." Cady got off of Janis' lap and led her off to the bathroom, where they shut themselves in a stall, kissed each other until their lips went numb, and never spoke of anything else that had happened that day ever again.
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Hi hi I nearly forgot the author's note but enjoy the rare glimpses of soft Janis, extremely socially anxious Janis, and weak upset Cady. I love them so much. I have a designated fluff idea person who doesn't have a wattpad that I know of but it came from them. We needed a break from the angst. Anyway enjoy!