NMSN: Part 5b
When we last left off, Race left Ducks' house to go pick up Spot.
And now, the part you've all been waiting for;
The Newsies dun belong to me. *disclaims* NMSN Index -----
Race leaned on the steering wheel, mentally trying to calm himself for the evening ahead. Then, realising he couldn’t really stall anymore, he took a deep breath, and walked up to the door of Spot’s house. He pushed the doorbell, and hoped Spot wouldn’t answer the door. Murphy’s law decided to pick on Race at that moment; Spot opened the door almost right away. He was wearing a light pink shirt, and black pants. His hair looked clean, and like he’d spent a long time styling it. Race didn’t notice the silver chain necklace Spot was wearing until later that evening. Spot saw Race, grinned, and polled Race into a hug. It was really just a friendly hug, but Race felt awkward about it.
“So, uh,” he said, “are you ready to go?”
Spot nodded. “Ma! I’m going out!” He called inside the house.
“Bye, Honey! Have fun!” Race heard the reply. Spot smiled again; this time halfway between a genuine smile and a leering smirk. Race didn’t pick up on this, though, and led the way to his car.
“So, he said as soon as they both got in, “We only have enough money for either good food, and a movie at Denton’s, or a movie at the normal theatre, and cheap food.”
“A Touch of Pink is playing at Denton’s tonight. Let’s go for the good food.”
“Alright. What kind of food?” Race asked, as he started the car.
“How about Italian?”
Race nodded, then looked at his watch. “I don’t think we’ll have time to eat before the movie. Is that ok?”
Spot nodded, and Race started the car and began driving in the direction of Denton’s Cheap Theater.
As Murphy’s law would have it, at least for Race, Crutchy, Blink, and Jake were all on shift at Denton’s. Blink being on shift meant that Mush was there too, hanging around near wherever Blink was, or trying to.
Crutchy wasn’t so bad; they bought tickets from the other ticket seller anyway. Jake too was bearable, though Race thought that his grin was slightly too mischievous as he gave them their concessions and told them to “enjoy the show”. However, Blink was taking tickets. Race hoped he wasn’t still angry about being involved in a bet against his knowledge and will. Blink was sullen as ever, and muttered, “I can’t believe you got me into this!” as he took Race and Spot’s tickets. Mush was grinning like a maniac as Spot put his arm around Race’s shouldr, and guided him into the theatre.
They found seats on the side, near the back. This was the part of the theater where most of the armrests were broken, as was the case with the armrest between Spot and Race, which made Race feel slightly uncomfortable. What made Race feel more uncomfortable, though, was that Spot’s arm didn’t stay around his shoulder. By the time the movie started, Spot had his arm around Race’s waist. Race was uncomfortable about it at first, but then he realised it was only uncomfortable because he was telling himself it should be uncomfortable. Race decided he didn’t want to think about that, and focused on the movie.
Spot seemed to be focusing on the movie, as well. His arm didn’t move from around Race’s waist, but Race could tell from his peripheral vision that Spot was watching the screen. It wasn’t long before Race stopped noticing his surroundings, and started enjoying the movie. About halfway through the movie, though, this was interrupted. Almost without warning, Spot leaned over, and sniffed Race’s hair.
“Your hair smells nice,” he whispered. Spot then leaned his head on Race’s shoulder. Race took this as some odd quirk of Spot’s, and tried to ignore it by focusing back on the movie.
----- Meanwhile, Jake and Crutchy were on break. Crutchy was writing out some coding or other that he’d thought of while he was working. Jake was bored. He thought announcing so would be a good idea.
“I’m bored,” he said, and leaned back. Crutchy looked up just in time to see where Jake was standing.
“Jake! That’s the breaker box! You’re going to cut the…” but it was too late; there were several popping sounds and the lights sputtered out.
“Wha…” Jake said, and he heard Crutchy sigh somewhere close.
“You broke a bunch of the fuses. Now we have to find replacement fuses. And a flashlight.”
“Well, there was a flashlight in the cupboard, wasn’t there?”
“Can you see to *find* the cupboard?”
“I can try,” Jake said, and started fumbling his way around the room, searching for the cupboard. He found a door that seemed to be a cupboard door, and opened it.
The cupboard was overstuffed, though, so a bunch of stuff fell out with the opening of the door. There was a crash, but Jake managed to catch a flashlight. He turned it on, and saw the box of spare fuses on the floor, along with some other stuff that had been in the cupboard.
“I’m going to get fired for this, aren’t I?”
-----
No sooner had Race turned his attention back to the movie screen, when it went black, and all other lights also went out.
Some girls shrieked, people called out to each other, and Spot woke up.
"Uh, what happened?" He asked.
"Not sure," Race replied. "All the lights went out. Probably a power outage of some sort."
People were still calling out wonderings of what happened. Race heard Spot chuckle. "If Ducks were here, she'd be taking a flashlight out of her bag."
There was a pause in Spot and Race's conversation, before Spot spoke again. "Uh, Race? When did you put your arm around me?"
Race was sure he was blushing; he hadn’t realized his arm was around spot until just now. “Uh, while you were asleep.”
"Oh."
Race felt Spot's head on his shoulder again. "I wonder how long it'll take before someone comes in and tells us what's going on," Spot murmured.
As if on cue, there appeared several lights from flashlight beams, and a voice shouted from near the lights. "Ladies and Gentlemen! We are sorry to say that we've had a problem with our main breaker, and the damage is too serious to be fixed in time for you to be able to finish your movie tonight. Ushers will come around to help you leave the theatre, and to give you passes to get into another movie free, as a condolence for any inconvenience that this may have caused you."
People could be heard making comments of relief. Spot turned his head, and whispered in Race’s ear.
“Race?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not still in denial, are you?”
“Well, I, um…” Race wasn’t sure exactly what to say to that question. Luckily, he didn’t have to think long for an answer, as light shone on them just then.
“Ahem!” Both boys turned to see Blink, looking very annoyed, and holding a flashlight. “I’m supposed to help you two lovebirds out of here,” he hissed.
Race blushed. Spot grinned, and let his hand slide away from Race’s waist. They both stood up, and Spot grabbed Race’s hand. Blink scowled impatiently, to which Spot grinned even more.
“Well, escort us out, then, please?” Spot asked, feigning innocence.
Blink turned around, and led Spot and Race out of the unusually dark theatre, sulking the whole way, and muttering about pirate wenches.
Outside the theatre, it was a lot lighter, mainly because it was still a time of long daylight hours. Spot didn’t stop until they reached Race’s car. Then he looked at Race.
“You’re blushing.”
“I…well… I…”
“It’s cute. C’mon, let’s go get food.”
Race sighed, and walked around his car. Once inside, he put the key into the ignition, but didn’t start the car right away.
“So, you know of anywhere specific you want to go for Italian food, or are you just trusting that I, being Italian, will know of a place?” He asked, and in his peripheral vision, he saw Spot shrug.
“You can pick the place; I’m not a fussy eater.”
“Alright,” Race said with a half-nod, and started the car. He drove them to a small place called ‘Ristorante Italiano’, because it was the best place moderately nearby.
The meal, and the rest of the evening, was uneventful, aside from a discussion on why in a dinner for two, the two are always seated across from each other. Race then drove Spot home and said goodnight. When he arrived at home himself, his mother was waiting up for him.
“Did you have a good night? Did you enjoy the movie?” about a million other questions were asked, but Race was lost in thought, and tuned his chattering mother out until he could escape to the basement. Sleep decided that it didn’t like Race, and as he lay awake, cursed with insomnia, Race came to the conclusion that he must be having an identity crisis.
---- Notes that no one will read... The Ristorante Italiano is an actual Italian Restaraunt in my city. It's near the comic book store, and every time Books and I go past it, I comment that I'd like to go in there and speak Italian, just to see if it's really as Italian as its name. Of course, I have to learn enough Italian to do that first.
And I don't hate Jake. I heart Jake. I wrote that in because I thought that the world needs more Jake.
Interesting thing about the date; I originally had Race stop being in denial, but a)it seemed contrived to me, b)Denial!Race is just too fun, and c)[spoiler for NMSN part 6]
So, tell me it sucks, tell me they're OOC, tell me it's brilliant, tell me it wasn't worth the wait, tell me they're marvelously characterised, tell me it was worth the wait, tell me anything. Comments make me happy.^^
Important notes... Next up: Mush's computer is PMS-y, Blink and Ducks argue, and other hilarity ensues.
To do before the next update: Link all the entries to each other, and put a link to the archival post in the menu.
And before I forget to mention it again, Fridays are update days. This means, check in every Saturday, and there should be an update. I say this because the update could come any time on Friday, and because my timezone is behind most of the world. It won't usually come right at the start of a Friday like it did this time.