I met Andrew to go see a movie after my shift at the movie theater. I met him outside. It was dark and there was snow on the ground. We went up to the box office, and he took out some money. I told him to stop because I would get him a ticket for free since I work there, but it turned out he was just buying candy. I was about to ask the girl in box office for two courtesy tickets, but then I remembered I had to ask a manager first. I looked at the door to the back room, and it opened. A manager from the other theater came out. He wasn’t wearing his suit jacket. He walked over to Tim and another manager from another theater. They were also not wearing their suit jackets, so I knew they were all off. The girl in box office told me that, since there were no managers and the rest of the staff was new, I had to sign off on the courtesy tickets. I put on my purple uniform shirt, got behind the counter, and punched it into the cash register. I thought about getting popcorn. I got out my money and realized I had all quarters, and I didn’t want to be a pain, so I just left with Andrew.
We were going to see a movie whose poster had Hellboy on it.
How manly.
We walked all the way to the end of the hallway to go into theater three. The entire hallway had a reddish light about it. We got into the theater and took a little time trying to figure out where to sit. We sat down in the row with lots of foot room. I tried to hold onto Andrew’s arm, but he kept moving away. I laughed because I thought he was kidding around, but then he moved over a seat away from me. I thought he still might be joking, but I was worried and upset. A moment later, I moved into the seat next to him and hugged his arm. He didn’t do anything. Then a couple of women walked in and sat down next to me, to my right. One was a heavy-set black woman with her hair in an up-do and a red dress. She looked like Mo’Nique Imes. Andrew and I looked at each other and groaned as though we knew them and they were annoying. They started talking really loudly.
The movie was really weird, and it focused on this thin, blonde preteen. The scenes kept ending abruptly. The girl went down to a river and passed out.
Then I was in the back of the theater with my mom. I was almost choking on a quarter. I tried to spit them out; all but one came out. My mom was about to yell at me, but I told her in a raspy voice that I was fine. The quarter was stuck in the roof of my mouth. With some difficulty, I pried it out with my fingers and it fell on the floor.
