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It's Brittany, Bitch | Ερις (eristic) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2011-09-05 10:24:00

once a year we celebrate with stupid hats and plastic plates
Who: Rylee & Charlie
What: Charlie takes Rylee to a movie for his birthday. Things go downhill from there, but not in a way you’d expect.
Where: Regal Island 7
When: Saturday afternoon, Ry’s 29th bday!

The ride to the movie theater was uneventful, at least in Charlie’s mind. She’d insisted on being the one to drive, which meant taking her Suzuki, a suggestion that did not appeal to Rylee in any respect. And yet here they were, whole and in once piece, despite him having clung to her in the manner that gum sticks to a shoe. Maybe she’d taken a corner a little too tightly, but in all reality she’d respected all of the speed limits and only lane jumped when the chance was wide open and available. Still the blond had to be peeled off of her bike, hands shaking as though he’d gone through the most traumatic experience of his life.

“Come on, yah big baby,” she ushered him, taking her spare helmet from him and sticking it into the hidey hole in the bike’s seat. It was only big enough for the one helmet - hers she’d have to carry, which she didn’t mind. Charlie grabbed Rylee’s hand, more wrapping her fingers around his wrist, and started pulling him toward the box office to try and provide a distraction in order to move him along past his trepidation.

She had appeared at his apartment door a little past noon with a nicely wrapped gift, a small, square box that, once opened, had turned out to be an antique pistol, the real kind used in American wars. Charlie had found it, of all places, on eBay, and had no qualms about spending a ridiculous amount to stop any other bidders from procuring the item. The look on Rylee’s face had been well worth the money spent, not to mention assuaging her guilt over missing four previous birthdays anyway.

“So whadda think about Shark Night? It’s in 3D!”

Rylee’s hands still shook slightly after the terror that was the drive to the movie theater. He never wanted to be on Charlie’s bike again. Ever. The back of the Suzuki had a small bump that was meant to be a passenger seat. But it sat a good three inches higher than the driver’s seat. Add on to the fact that Rylee was over six feet tall and Charlie being relatively short, the entire time he felt as if he was about to go head on into the traffic in front of him. If he could have wrapped his body around Charlie any more, he would have, and not once did he think of the sexual context of their closeness because he was simply too terrified.

“Uh,” Rylee managed to squeak out after a few moments of awkward silence on his part. “S-sure... what is it about? Sharks?” He blinked and looked down at Charlie. His hair was even messier than usual due to the helmet and he had little bits of bugs that had had stuck to his shirt. He would have been more than happy to have just stayed home and played with the pistol Charlie gave him. Hell, he would’ve been happy to have sat at home and argued with Charlie that she shouldn’t have spent the money on him. But she insisted on taking him out and she seemed happy to do so, so of course Rylee agreed, and now she was ready to drag him into a movie he never even heard of.

“Yeah, kind of,” was her short reply, and then she was already paying for the tickets. She wasn’t going to hear anything about spending too much - it was her money, she could spend it how she liked. And it was his birthday, and she wanted to spend her money on him. In Charlie’s mind, it was perfect sense. She never spent a lot on herself, aside from her bike’s maintenance, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have the cash to use for this outing.

Once the tickets were in hand, she grabbed Rylee’s wrist and led him into the lobby of the theater. It was cool, much cooler than the outdoors even in September, and it looked very fancy, at least to Charlie’s eyes. High ceilings met walls that looked like they were made of marble and decorated with the various movie posters of what was being shown, and all of it came down to the tiled floors that were swept clean.

“Yah wanna get some popcorn, or a soda? ‘Member, it’s my treat.”

Rylee looked up at the walls of the movie theater and gave a brief nod before slowly pulling his attention away from the layout of the theater and back to Charlie. “Yeah, popcorn and a soda. We could get a big popcorn if you want to share.” He smiled weakly, still shaky from the ordeal of the bike ride. “I haven’t gone to this theater before. It’s a lot better than any of the theaters they had at our base in Iraq or even in Bull Creek.”

His smile grew, returning to the normal grin that he usually had as the last of his fears were left at the doorway. He twisted his wrist around to loosen Charlie’s grasp and grabbed her hand. He was the birthday boy, wasn’t he? So he could demand some hand holding. Quickening his step he began to be the one leading Charlie towards the concession stand.

She frowned at his manipulation of her hand, but let it slide. Not like anyone they knew was going to see them at the theater, and if it made him feel better about her driving, what was the harm? Her feet hurried to catch up to his larger stride, coming up to the concession stand where she quickly ordered a large popcorn and two drinks, a Dr. Pepper for herself and whatever Rylee wanted. Nothing like a bunch of junk food to go with a stupid movie - and as long as the birthday boy was enjoying himself, that was all that mattered to her.

“C’mon, I wanna get good seats,” were her fleeting words as she carried off the large tub of buttered popcorn, leaving Rylee to carry the sodas. If it was his birthday, she sure wasn’t necessarily acting like it. Maybe she was just avoiding more handholding.

Rylee thanked the man at the stand and picked up the sodas, following Charlie closely as she made her way to the theater. With a quick pause to have their tickets checked they slipped inside the darkened room and found it decently filled. “Can we sit in the center? I’d prefer to be among everyone and I think those are the good seats,” Rylee asked quietly into Charlie’s ear. There was in fact a group of seats completely available in the center of the theater, as if they were waiting for the pair specifically, and Rylee didn’t wait much for Charlie’s answer before he slipped past her and began to climb the steps to the awaiting seats. He paused outside of a row, turning to Charlie to see if the row was Charlie-approved.

She gave a nod, and made a beeline directly for the seats in question, which were in the process of being eyed by another couple. Moving around Rylee, she walked straight into the aisle and sat down, putting her feet up on the seat in front of her and balancing the popcorn in her lap. Rylee quickly followed, taking the theater chair next to her. The same couple who had almost taken those seats edged into the aisle below them, then pointedly stared at Charlie to move her feet so they could sit down. She finally did so after a moment of what seemed like hesitation but was really just aggravation on their part, amusement for her. Looking at Rylee, she held out her hand for her soda, putting it in the cup holder to her right.

“Yeah, these are great seats. Good pick,” she acknowledged, popping a few kernels into her mouth and then offering the bucket to Ry for his pick.

“Thanks,” Rylee replied with a grin. He accepted the popcorn and tossed a handful in his mouth, settling back into the seat and banging his knees into the seat in front of him which caused the couple to turn. “Sorry, I’m kind of tall.” They muttered and Rylee frowned, inching up in the seat to back his knees away. He ate some more popcorn and was relieved when the trailers began to roll. He glanced at Charlie and then the person in front of her.

“Can you see okay?” He already was starting to feel apprehension as it dawned on him that any movie with the word ‘shark’ in the title was more than likely not a happy film and he was going to have to sit through two hours of horror.

She scooted up in her chair, then slumped back down with a nod. “Yeah, I’m fine. And don’t fret, it’ll be funny and kinda gory. You’ve watched enough war documentaries to not get upset over a little fake blood, right?” Charlie jabbed Rylee in the shoulder, then reached to dig her hand into the popcorn bucket for handful that she then proceeded to fit into her mouth in one go. The movie played out the typical slasher fare - a bunch of college coeds packing up for vacation, going to one kid’s relative’s summer house for a few weeks of swimming, drinking, and enough sex to make anyone red in the face.

It didn’t really even get good until the movie rolled around to a wake boarding scene, where the character being trailed along behind the boat went down under the water in a flood of red.

“Here we go!” Charlie squirmed in her seat excitedly, continuing to reach over Rylee for more popcorn - in the few aisles below them, nervous titters of laughter broke through the assumed seriousness of the scene, followed by someone throwing popcorn.

Rylee at first slipped further down in his seat. He wasn’t particularly enjoying the movie. Watching the near sex scenes was embarrassing with Charlie right beside him and the actors kind of sucked. But then one of the characters died and the ripple of nervousness in the audience made Rylee feel somewhat... better. He sat up in his seat a little, smiling as he crammed his hand into the bucket of popcorn, tossing it back into his mouth before sipping on his soda.

The friends of the dead guy were acting rather dramatically and you could almost feel the pity people were exhibiting in the theater. To Rylee, he only found it funny, and he let out a slight laugh as he offered the popcorn to Charlie. “Wow, yeah, you’re right Charlie. It’s not too bad and the blood is definitely fake.” Aside from the fact that obviously they would use fake blood in the film there was something that told Rylee that the liquid didn’t release from the dead body correctly. It didn’t spread through the water like it was meant to. He somehow knew, and this wasn’t from watching too many war documentaries, the way the blood should have been shed.

As the body count began to climb, Charlie found herself immensely enjoying her movie selection. A wide grin had spread over her face, garishly so, and since her attention was on the screen, she was completely missing the slowly growing chaos in the theater itself. Someone had sucked in a strawful of soda, only to spit it at the person next to them; another person was lobbying Sour Patch Kids into the rows behind them, one hitting someone in the eye for a direct hit; and a few others were curled up in their seats, looking much too frightened for a movie of this caliber, R rating or not. She leaned in closer to Rylee, her head cautiously near his shoulder, almost as though she were going to rest it there.

“No, but it does look pretty,” she responded, the sentence spoken in a dreamy voice until Charlie snapped back and actually thought about what she’d said. Maybe Rylee hadn’t heard - she shifted back into her seat, noting that one of the couples in front of them had taken to hiding under their chair. Instead of being concerned, Charlie put her feet back up.

Rylee grinned and kicked his feet up onto the chair in front of them as well. Awkwardly so, due to his long legs, but he didn’t really care. “It is pretty,” Rylee cooed, completely unaware of what he was really saying. “I love how frightened people are.”

His grin widened as he looked over the audience and there seemed to be a collective shiver of the patrons. The quiver of the people around him made Rylee feel liberated. He turned to Charlie, his eyes bright from the light on the screen, and smiled to her while he leaned close. He felt an urge to kiss her, bite her, and the urge wasn’t entirely his own. As he realized that, that his sudden need to be in contact with her skin was certainly a need that seemed... natural... he pulled back slightly. His attention turned away to a man who was throwing handfuls of popcorn at everyone and as each kernel hit a person close by they’d shout and quiver. Rylee’s mind wanted to think this was weird and uncalled for but those ideas only morphed into the opinion that this was perfect.

Charlie glanced at him and grinned, feeling as though someone else had taken over her face. Pure pandemonium had erupted in the theater, evidenced by several people suddenly making for the exits at a fast pace, bottle-necking and even crushing one person underfoot. She laughed as the scream emitted by the unfortunate person matched up with one on-screen, and then suddenly everyone was on their feet, excluding the two friends.

People were running into one another, climbing over chairs, laughing and crying and just generally moving. Most were making an escape, the rest were crawling on the floor or throwing whatever came to hand at the nearest person to them. Charlie watched this all with perfectly calm eyes, though was a little sad to see the theater slowly emptying out; she reached over Rylee once more and grabbed a handful of popcorn, her shoulder brushing up against his. She made no move to remove the contact, instead content to be touching him amid all the madness.

Rylee had all but forgotten the movie by this point. The theater was in mayhem and that was by far much more interesting than the movie. The movie was fake but this was real. “Look at the couple at the bottom of the theater,” Rylee cooed into Charlie’s ear. He was suddenly close to her, his lips brushing against her ear and he felt no anxiety from the close proximity. The couple were screaming at one another, hitting each other, then exchanging angry kisses.

The man who was sitting in front of Rylee suddenly got to his feet and yelled at another man a few rows down. They screamed at one another then lunged over the seats to begin hitting each other all while the man’s girlfriend curled up in a ball in her seat. Rylee’s hand slipped down the length of Charlie’s arm and gripped her hand.

Her eyes slid to the point Rylee mentioned, the grin on her mouth curving wider, if that were possible. At some point during all of this, her mind registered the fact that she ought to be finding all of this a little odd, if not downright strange, but she merely popped a few more pieces of popcorn into her mouth as she watched the newly formed entertainment.

“Oh, that looks like that hurt,” she uttered back, the hand still grasping a few kernels of popcorn pointing a finger toward two men, one of which had just pushed the other rolling down the stairs of the theater. Lights bobbed and reignited as he rolled past the lit walkway, a thudding noise erupting every few seconds. Charlie winced in amusement, then giggled.

“Do you think...any of this is strange?” She turned completely back to Rylee, one brow raised as she asked the question; her tone was sarcastic, as though telling the beginnings of a joke.

Narrowing his eyes slightly he studied the people who had fallen down the steps and turned his attention back to Charlie. “I feel like it should be strange,” he replied and then blinked, the familiar worry line appearing on his forehead as he realized what he had just said. “But I also feel like... we’ve seen this before?”

Then a vivid memory of a dream Rylee had not very long ago where the sense of chaos and smell of fear still lingered in the air. Charlie had been there and they had been...

In a very Rylee-like showing of emotion, Rylee’s cheeks turned red and he let go of Charlie’s hand. He leaned back in his seat and quickly glanced at the movie screen, they were pretty far into the film by now and the theater was quickly emptying, but then Rylee caught the smell of fear and the flush to his skin drifted away as he searched the theater for the cause of it. He enjoyed the fear and didn’t question how he could smell it. But it excited him in ways that made his more sensible mind thankful that they were in a darkened theater.

Something in her was surprised to see the flush on his face; it was him, and it wasn’t him. Charlie sighed, suddenly bored of everything going on around them, and flicked a few pieces of popcorn at two people who were barrelling down the stairs to the exit, attempting to make them miss a step and fall but failing.

“Seen it again and again and again and - oh look, that shark just tore off his leg!” Her attention was renewed by the carnage onscreen, forgetting the people around them. She grinned happily once more and stuffed her mouth full of popcorn, getting down to the dregs of the bucket. Once it was empty, she flung it and the remaining kernels through the air, letting the seeds shower over any lingering movie patrons. She happily hunkered down in her seat, putting one arm behind her head for a makeshift pillow.

Rylee slipped further into his seat, calming down considerably and feeling the remnants of nerves and fear leave with the last stragglers in the theater. The movie was coming to a close, mostly everyone was dead and the reason for the sharks was being discovered. But Rylee was finding himself growing more and more confused, the memory of all that had been going on beginning to fad as Rylee was left behind and looking around at the near empty theater.

“Lee, what the hell happened here?” He looked to her and realized the popcorn containers was gone and only the soda sat between them.

Charlie stared ahead at the movie, then looked to the theater as Rylee asked. Her eyes widened, a glimmer of shock passing over her face. The theater, even in its dimly lit state, was absolutely trashed - some of the seats had even been torn open, the stuffing inside of them sticking out like someone who had put their finger in a light socket. Slowly she sat up from her slouched position, glancing around her. Whatever had been possessing her before (and that was a good word for it, like a giant hand had suddenly filled up inside of her and used her like a puppet) was gone in its entirety but she could still remember seeing people fleeing around the theater, acting as though they’d lost their minds. The reality simply hadn’t sunk in, or so it seemed.

“You really don’t remember?” Her head swiveled to look at Rylee, concern plainly writ on her features.

Rylee’s facial expression was similar to a child’s that was ready to crumble into tears. Of course he wouldn’t cry, but he felt like he should. There was an intense fear that they would get in trouble for this and Rylee knew, somehow, that they hadn’t lifted a finger to make this destruction occur. But... he felt that they did have a good hand in it all.

“I... I...” He looked around the theater once more, panic filling his features as he looked back at Charlie. “I feel like I must have been asleep or something. Everything is foggy. What happened, Lee?” He glanced at the now empty theater once more and didn’t pay attention to the very end of the film. “We didn’t do this, did we?” But he had a gut feeling that they did do this... somehow.

Charlie shook her head in response. “No, we didn’t. We were sitting here the whole time. Everyone else was going batshit.” She stifled the urge to press a hand to his forehead, testing for fever like a worried mother, and instead settled for touching his shoulder. “C’mon, let’s just get out of here.” Without any other encouragement, Charlie stood and grabbed Rylee’s wrist - after a moment, she shifted her hand down, lacing her fingers with his in a loose grip. She tugged at his form, starting to move down the aisle to the glowing EXIT signs that would lead to the outdoors. None of the theater employees were here yet, which was surprising, considering the stampede that had broken out during the mass exodus, and if they hurried they could make it outside without any questions being asked.

“You wanna go get pizza?” She asked, trying to keep his mind distracted. Rylee gripped her hand and glanced over his shoulder.

He had memories of what had happened, but they were foggy, dreamlike and spread out. Every part of him was saying that he had been dreaming but the end result was scattered through the theater and tossed on the floor. He didn’t need any poking and prodding to get him moving out of the theater, in fact, he picked up speed and began to drag Charlie along behind him.

“Pizza sounds good,” He replied with his voice shaking slightly. He wasn’t sure what frightened himself more: that he didn’t clearly remember what had happened in the theater or that he had the oddest sense that he had pleasure from all that had been going on.

Her steps quickened to keep up with his and then they were outside, in the bright afternoon sunshine. It provided a stark contrast to the dark interior of the movie theater, though a thought drifted through Charlie’s mind that blood in the water wouldn’t look any less pretty in the sunshine versus in the dark. She shook her head, and started pulling Rylee in another direction, taking the lead again. Before the door closed, she could hear the shuffle of employees enter the theater, one of them crying out ‘what the hell?!’. A simple grin passed over her face, and put something of a bounce in her step.

“I saw a pizza place over here,” she added, as though she needed to define and justify her actions to the blond she was trying to coddle in her own way.

Being in the sunlight seemed to shake away some of Rylee’s confusion. He felt a little calmer, more safe, but still he felt that sense of enjoyment trailing after him as they directed their steps towards the pizza place. “Sounds good,” he replied, letting out a sigh and keeping a firm grip on Charlie’s hand. Whatever had happened was in the past. They were quickly approaching the pizza shop where they could eat and ignore what had just occurred, just like the night of the black out, and then they could go home. That was when another horror struck Rylee, something more terrifying than anything which happened in the theater, going home meant riding on the back of Charlie’s bike again.