Love for the Librarian

When I get to the theater I see Katelyn and Kevin waiting out front for me. I quickly park and come over to them. Katelyn is looking around for my other half. “He isn’t coming. He said something came up. Do you know what it is, Kevin?”

He looks at me shocked. “If any one should know it is you.”

“He was just fine when I left him at the field but then when he met me at the truck everything was different.” I state as my defence for not knowing.

“He seemed ok. He got really quiet after he talked to Brittney. He seemed a little sick. He didn’t talk about it though.” Kevin says.

“He didn’t get a call from his dad.” I look at Kevin for confirmation. I swear that is what Dylan said.

“Not that I saw, but if he did it would have been discreet. You know Mr. Harman doesn’t like phones in class. Most of us just leave them in our locker. Maybe it was in the locker room, but it would have been after I took off.” Kevin knows something is up, but he wants to give his friend the benefit of the doubt.

“Now I know something is wrong. He told me it was something with his family, but I am not so sure. I can’t shake the feeling that he was not telling the truth.”

Katelyn sighs and throws an arm around my shoulder. “That boy loves you. He will tell you when he is ready. Don’t worry about it so much. Now let’s go watch someone get their guts ripped out.” She gives me a maniacal smile that makes Kevin cringe a little bit.

I give her a smile. “Alright let’s do it. Death on screen always makes things better.” I can feel Kevin on my other side putting his arm around my shoulder too.

“That’s the spirit girl.” Kevin laughs. “As long as I am not the one being eviscerated I am fine.”

We start to head to the ticket booth when we are flagged down by Brian, the guy who asked me for my number but never called. “Hey, are you going to see a movie?” He asks as he greets me.

“Yep. We are seeing the scary one.” I smile at him.

He kind of gets a nervous look and then asks. “Care if I join you?” I am not sure if he is scared to ask or scared to watch.

“Um, sure. We’re all friends here.” I turn back to the ticket booth and we all get our tickets. Kevin gets the snacks and then we all head in to find seats. It is still lit up because we are a little early. It looks like they are just finishing up the clean up from the group before. We find some good seats in the back, it is a nice angle where we aren’t craning our necks. Once we are all seated, I ask Kevin, “I thought you were going to get here early to get the snacks.”

He looks at me sideways. “I was going to, but then I decided to wait for you. I didn’t know what you wanted. Glad I did now because I would have gotten you sour patch and apparently you are not a fan.” He smiles at me. I did say that, but I don’t think that is the reason.

Brian on my other side questions me. “So what made you want to watch a horror movie?”

“I like them. I have for a long time. My mom always said that secretly I was a vampire or something. I am not morbid by any means but I do like a good scare on occasion. I find horror more refreshing than other movies.” I know it seems weird for some girl to like this kind of thing, but really it has been my favorite since I was little. When I say little, I am talking younger than ten. My mom was not too keen on letting me watch them then, so I had to sneak them. I guess after a while she stopped objecting, as long as there was no boy girl action on screen.

“Wow, so you don’t get scared too often do you?” He looks genuinely surprised and maybe a little disappointed. Maybe he thought some horror movie would have me jumping in his arms, however they are not Dylan’s arms so even if I was to get scared that wouldn’t happen.

“Nope, sorry this will probably be a scare free event for me. I have seen it all.” At this point the lights start to dim so that the movie can start it’s previews. A few more people have joined us, but I didn’t really expect a whole hell of a lot of people, considering it is Wednesday and late afternoon, not even evening. Plus a lot of us students still have one more final to study for.

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, I pull it out real quick, the movie hasn’t started yet so it’s ok. Dylan: How is the movie?

Me: I wish you were here.

Dylan: Next time I promise.

This makes me smile. He isn’t pushing me away, something is just really bothering him.

Me: Brian from class joined us. Since we are all just friends.

Dylan: The guy who asked you out last week.

Me: I made it clear it was only friends.

Dylan: Are you sitting next to him?

Me: I am sitting next to Kevin too.

Dylan: Trade seats with Katelyn.

Me: Alright Mr. Possessive.

I look at Katelyn and then decide how best to do this. I decided to try the bathroom technique. “Katelyn, come to the bathroom with me real quick before the movie starts.” She nods. She knows something is up, she has known me too long to know that I would never risk missing the beginning of a horror.

We slide out of the seats and leave the theater room. “I need you to switch seats with me.” I blurt out as soon as the doors close behind us.”

“Why?”

“Because something is wrong with Dylan and I don’t want to add anymore to his plate. He thinks Brian has the hots for me.”

“Well, he’s not wrong. That guy can’t take his eyes off you.” Then she rolls her eyes. “Alright, but you owe me one. Tell Kevin to take a chill pill. He keeps trying to butter me up, I know what he is thinking will happen, but like I said that is not happening.”

I give her a half smile. “It wouldn’t be so bad, he has changed.”

“No! I am not going there.” She shakes her head adamantly.

“Alright, I will tell him. Just switch seats with me.”

“Your man better appreciate what I do for him.” She rolls her eyes and leads the way back into the theater. Thankfully the movie is still doing the previews. Katelyn slides in where I was sitting and I take the edge seat that she had.

Kevin gives me a little weird look. “I have an upset stomach.” I say it loud enough that I am sure Brian heard me. I don’t want to hurt the guy’s feelings. But I also have to put my man at ease. I raise my phone and do a selfie, not my thing, but anything for Dylan. I make sure that you can see all the way to Brian in the shot. Everyone looks at me. “Just wanted an end of year shot, you know, for when I leave town.” I hope they buy that. I quickly send the photo to Dylan and then shut off my phone because the movie is starting.

I think during the whole movie I jumped maybe once. Kevin however seemed to be sitting on tacks the way he was jumping. At one point I took the popcorn because he was starting to spill it on the floor. I held back the laugh that I clearly wanted to aim at Kevin. I mean it was a ghost flick, nothing really that scary. Kevin was looking like he had actually seen his own ghost. At one point I looked at Katelyn to see if she was seeing it and of course she was, she was holding back just as much laughter as I was. Brian seemed neutral, but I didn’t miss the glances he kept shooting me. Katelyn was right, I needed to nip this in the butt.

After the movie I couldn’t help but laugh at Kevin. The ghost of course did not go away, just moved out of the way to let the last few stragglers leave. The look on Kevin’s face was too much. I burst out. I can barely catch my breath. Then he rolls his eyes at me. “I said the bad guy better get it in the end.”

I catch my breath, “No you didn’t you said you were down, Dylan said the bad guy better die. Besides, they were already dead.”

“I agree with Dylan then. To top it all off, neither of you jumped into my arms. This was the worst movie ever.”

I can see the look on Brian’s face as he is trying to figure out the relationship between us. It is as I said just friends, move on. I link my arm through Kevin’s and pull him up. “I’ll treat you to a burger, will that make you feel better.”

“Only if there is fries.” He states as he grabs Katelyn’s hand and pulls her up after us. Brian is left to trail behind us. Katelyn pulls her hand out of his and comes to my other side and links with my other arm. “That hurt.” He looks at her like she just kicked him in the balls.

“Time to set some boundaries with you.” She nods at him. “Or else I will take you to the nearest haunted house and leave your ass there.”

“Do not threaten like that. Ok I admit it I hate ghosts.” Kevin rolls his eyes. “They always freak me out. Call it a phobia if you want. Plus I think I know my boundaries with you just fine. I am your friend.” Then he flashes a cheesy grin to Katelyn. It looks a little painful to me. I know they will get past this but it will take time. I just hope that Kevin is patient enough to wait.

“What ever, where are we going to eat?” Katelyn pretends that she can’t see Kevin.

“There is that diner down the street from here, we can walk.” I start pulling them along then I notice that Brian is looking at us strangely. I turn around to look at him. “What?”

He gives us a quizzical look. “Am I invited?”

“You joined us for a movie, I don’t see why not.” I shrugged and then kept moving. Katelyn and I continued to jab at Kevin on the walk about how he jumped at the movie.

“Ha, ha, ha. Laugh it up. I will find out your fears and make you pay.” He mocked us.

The Diner was only a five minute walk from the theater. It was slow too. It was going to pick up soon I was sure because it was hitting the dinner hour. We managed to secure a booth. A friendly waitress brought over some menus and took our drink orders, two waters, an orange juice and a coke. They looked at me weird, “Yes I like orange juice.” I pulled out my phone and turned it back on to find two texts from Dylan.

Dylan: Good girl.

Dylan: Text me when the movie is done.

I shot him a text back.

Me: The movie is done, it was alright.

Dylan: Where are you?

Me: At the diner getting some burgers.

Dylan: Is that guy still there?

Me: I didn’t want to be rude, so yeah.

Dylan: You better tell him that you have a boyfriend

Me: Of course.

Just then Brian clears his throat. “Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but are the three of you together?” I look across the table at him. Oh, my God he did not just ask that.

Then Katelyn throws her arm over my shoulder, “No I don’t share.”

Kevin cracks up. “Plus if she did it wouldn’t be with me. Boy did you read that wrong.”

“You guys just all seem really close. And the animosity that she shows you made me think it was some weird threesome.” He pointed at Katelyn.

Katelyn scoffed, “I just don’t like people too friendly with my bitches.”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I am not gay Brian. Katelyn is my best friend. Kevin is my friend. Dylan is my boyfriend. I love Katelyn but I do not swing that way. Neither does she.” I laugh, “You honestly thought I was in some weird relationship with them both.”

He shrugged. “It seemed logical in my head. The way you guys hung out seemed too close.”

I shrugged, “Well we are really close.”

“If Dylan is your boyfriend, why isn’t he here?” He questioned as the waitress brought out our drinks.

“Because he had a family thing.” I start gulping down my orange juice. The waitress takes our orders, cheese burgers and fries all around.

I started texting Dylan again. Me: I told him, happy now.

Dylan: No he is still there.

Me: He thought I was dating Katelyn if that helps

Dylan: Oh, boy he has no idea how wrong he was

Me: I told him that I was dating you. I think he was disappointed.

Dylan: That’s cause you’re hot. Or maybe he was turned on that you were into girls

Me: I highly doubt he was turned on by it. Although Katelyn called me her bitch

Dylan: Do I have competition?

Me: Only if you screw up then I will definitely take Katelyn up on her offer.

Dylan: I don’t plan on screwing up. I mean shit happens sometimes though and we will work through it right.

Me: Sure As long as it isn’t another woman.

Dylan: I would never have another woman before you

Me: Are you ready to tell me what’s wrong?

Dylan: Not yet. It is a lot to wrap my head around

Me: It’s ok. Just know I can listen.

At this point I am eating and texting. I haven’t really paid any attention to those around me. It wasn’t until Katelyn nudged me that I realized that they were talking to me. “What? Sorry I wasn’t listening.”

Katelyn rolls her eyes at me. “We were just asking if Dylan was going to the party on Saturday.”

“Oh, I don’t know we haven’t talked about it.” I looked at Katelyn when I answered, I wasn’t so sure that I was supposed to be telling Dylan about the party since neither of them brought it up in front of him. I am looking for a sign from her that I was wrong.

Kevin claps his hands, “Good don’t tell him. I want one more night with just the three of us, then he can start joining at parties. You are too much fun to share. And no cell phone either, you aren’t even here with us now. You are talking to him.”

I roll my eyes at Kevin, Something that I am finding I am doing a lot lately. “You know he is upset, I was just trying to help.”

Brian perks up. “Are you guys having trouble?”

“Not even. We are fine, he has some family things going on.”

“Oh, I heard that Brittney said they were getting back together, so I just thought that maybe you guys were having problems.”

“Brittney is delusional. She thinks she has Dylan wrapped around her finger. I can assure you that Dylan has no interest in her. When did she say that?” I think this is just something that Brittney is just spouting all the time.

“I heard her talking before lunch about how she and Dylan were getting back together. She was sure of it.” He looks like it was definite. That is why he approached me at the theater. He thought I was alone.

“Who was she talking to?” I can’t help but interrogate, that bitch is so sure that she is going to take my man. I am pissed.

“Rachel. She said she had a plan and there was no way that Dylan would refuse her this time. I have no idea what the plan is but it must have been something compelling for her to be so sure.” Is this why Dylan is so distant? Is it Brittney, not his dad? No, push that thought out. He said it was his dad. He must have pushed Brittney off.

I look at Brian trying to discern whether or not he is just trying to start shit or if he is serious. The best I can tell is that he thinks he is serious. Plus a little hopeful. “Well, she did talk to him during our last period, but Dylan assured me afterwards that everything was fine between us. I have no idea what they talked about, but if that was her big plan then it failed.”

Katelyn beamed. “That bitch don’t got nothing on my girl.” I saw Kevin nodding as well. It made me feel a little proud that my friends thought so much of me. I mean lets be honest in the looks department I was nothing compared to Brittney. She was the epitome of perfection, never a hair out of place, perfectly fitting clothes, make-up that blended with her face so well. Hell if I was a guy I would choose Brittney over me, I mean for looks. My personality is probably far better than hers.

We finished dinner and headed home.