The Cinema

A little less than a week had passed since I first met Denni, and we had spent a lot of time chatting with each other every night online. Turned out that only a few days after we met, she broke up with her old boyfriend. So one night we were talking, and the dreaded "who do you have a crush on" conversation came up. It was I who brought it up, and she wound up dragging it on for a long time because she decided to give me vague clues rather than telling me. She told me it was someone from work, and she gave me list of guys who it most definitely wasn't. The fact that my name wasn't on that list made me nervous. That meant there was a minute possibility that she liked me, but for the sake of my sanity I concluded it wasn't me and she was just keeping me hooked to play with my head. I got tired of her little game and I gave up, to which she asked, "So what about you? We've been talking about my crush at work. Do you have anyone at work that you have a thing for or a crush for?"

Now's my chance!, I thought. "To be blunt and honest, I've taken a liking to you."

There was a long pause and I braced myself for rejection.

"Can I tell you something?" She finally typed.

"Yeah, go ahead."

"My crush at the theater, you know?"

"Yeah?"

"I didn't eliminate you for a reason..."

"Sweet Jesus!! You're not just playing with me are you?"

"No, I'm not."

I couldn't believe what I was seeing typed on the computer screen in front of me. It took a moment for it to sink in, and I was ecstatic. I couldn't have been happier if a playboy model came strolling into my room completely naked. We continued to chat for a while and she reminded me that it was her seventeenth birthday that thursday. She asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her and her best friend, so naturally I accepted her offer. She made me smile bigger than I've smiled in a long time, and I had this big nerdy grin across my face until I went to sleep. It was a good day.

* * *

Thursday morning, I woke up with in my usual groggy stupor, but when I realized what day it was I was immediately wide awake. I had spent a long time trying to figure out a good gift for Denni's birthday but seeing as I had no idea what she would have wanted I had to go with the only thing I could think of, a flower. I knew she didn't like people buying things for her, so I figured a flower wasn't expensive and could mean a lot more than a material gift. I had heard somewhere that the different colors of roses had different meanings, so I spent some time the night before and researched it a bit. There were so many good choices that I wanted to get most of them, but I figured I should probably only get one rose so as not to overwhelm her. So I went out that afternoon in search of roses. I was embarrassed when I had to ask my mom where I could buy flowers. Before she even answered my question she asked, "Who's the girl?" Granted it was obvious I was buying a flower for a girl, but the fact that that was the first thing she said frightened me.

I got to the flower shop and I tried to find a yellow rose with red tips to signify friendship and falling in love, but I couldn't find any. My best idea being thwarted, I fell back on the next best thing I could think of, a white rose, signifying innocence and purity. I figured that if she knew the meaning behind rose colors she would enjoy it very much. So I purchased the flower and drove off to meet Denni at the theater for the movie. She had given me a choice of movies to see earlier that week, The Lake House, or Tokyo Drift. I didn't really want to see either, but I would have done anything just to spend some time with her. I arrived really early, which was a big mistake, and wound up sitting in the lobby holding my flower looking (and feeling) very awkward and uneasy.

After what seemed like an hour, I saw her walking down the mall hallway towards the lobby with her friend. I stood up and walked over to greet her. I extended my flower to her and wished her a happy birthday, all the while with my big nerdy and awkward grin on my face. She blushed as she took the flower, thanked me, and embraced me in a hug. I felt so relaxed with her in my arms. She introduced me to her friend, Lana, and I tipped my hat as was my usual formal greeting. I never went anywhere without my hat. A lot of people thought I was odd when I would wear it when I didn't need to, but to be honest, I felt naked if I wasn't wearing a hat, even indoors. A hat was very useful, and I took advantage of every use it had. The hat I wore at the time meant a lot to me at one point because it was given to me by my previous girlfriend and had a big P on the front for Purdue where I went to school, but since she left me back in high school and I was thinking of leaving Purdue the hat had lost its meaningfulness. It was about time for a new hat. Anyways, it had gotten pretty close to the start of the movies, and we had yet to figure out which to see. After a short debate on each other's movie preferences we decided on The Lake House.

The three of us went and sat in the back row of the theater, which wasn't very crowded. I felt awkward the whole time because Denni's best friend was there, and I wanted to make a good impression. I didn't want her friends to disapprove of me as that would dissuade Denni from dating me. I had wanted to reach over and put my arm around Denni's shoulder, but I thought better of it. I didn't want to seem too forward seeing as this wasn't really a date or anything. Every once in a while during the movie I would look over at her, just so I could see her smile when she looked back at me. However, at one point I looked over at her and noticed her eyes were closed, so I nudged her with my elbow. She awoke and looked at me with a sheepish smile and I quietly laughed. I was kinda glad when the movie ended. I kinda enjoyed the movie, but the fact that Lana was there with us spoiled the plan I had in mind.

"Are you going to the employee preview tonight?" Denni asked, referring to Click, the new Adam Sandler movie that was coming out the next day.

"Are you?" I replied.

"Yeah."

"Cool, I'll be there."

She had other plans for that day until the preview of Click, so we hugged goodbye and went our separate ways. My anxiety left me as I got in my car and started to drive. All the way home I had that same stupid grin, but I had to do something to get rid of it. I didn't want my parents to get suspicious of something that didn't happen, which they tended to do a lot after an unfortunate misunderstanding while I was dating my first girlfriend. Considering my parents are very old fashioned, when they found out that me and my ex-girlfriend had been fooling around with each other for a good portion of our 10 month relationship, they had concluded that we were having sex as well, which according to them was a sin to do before marriage. Ever since, I was paranoid to go farther than kissing with a girl, they tried convincing me that anything more was wrong and shouldn't be done until I'm married, which conflicted in my mind because I had thought that those things were healthy for a relationship. I became very hesitant when it came to intimate actions in a relationship. My parents words caused me to think twice about everything I would do when I was with Denni and I feared what they would do if they ever found out the things I did.

* * *

That night, I arrived at the theater for the preview and was surprised by how many people were there. I had never been to an employee preview and never knew that these previews were so popular. I saw Denni standing in a crowd of employees in the parking lot, so I came over and joined the conversation. Denni greeted me with a hug, and I noticed that I got a lot of curious looks from the other employees. I ignored the looks and the conversation continued. After a good ten or fifteen minutes just shooting the shit with my new friends, the twelve of us migrated inside for the movie. We all crowded in one of the middle rows with me and Denni on the end. Part of the way through the movie, she lifted up the arm rest between us and leaned over on my shoulder. Subconsiously, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her in closer to me. She rested a hand on my thigh until I took her hand in mine. Gently, I rested my head on hers as she rested on my shoulder. I silently wished there was nobody else around. The guy next to me looked over at us with a questioning look. I ignored him and continued watching the movie. I was too happy and relaxed to be bothered.

The movie ended too soon considering my mood, but it had to end sometime. We all got up, stretched a bit and started to file out of the theater. Denni and I waited a bit for everyone to leave first, and we followed behind, hand in hand.