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“One medium slushie cup, please.”
“Coming right up! What movie are you watching tonight?”
“I already bought my ticket online.” Jacob pulls up the QR code on his phone, scanning the crowd behind him while the concessionaire scans the code. He’d waited for ten minutes after arriving before getting in line, then spent another ten minutes in that, but even after all of that time, she’s still nowhere to be seen. Disappointed- but not surprised- Jacob sighs, his face already burning from the conversation that’s sure to follow.
It looks like you have two tickets to Saltburn. Do you have another person coming?
Oh, no, it’s just me. Could I get a refund for the second ticket?
“Here we are! Looks like you’ve got two tickets to Saltburn. Do you have another person coming?”
Jacob grits his teeth, forcing a closed-mouth smile onto his face. “Oh, no, it’s just-”
“I’m here!”
Jacob hears indignant grumbles behind him, already identifying the line-cutter before she’s even finished laying her arm across his shoulders. “Ava Coleman, holder of the second ticket,” she says, flashing a grin to the concessionaire. “Add another slushie cup to that order, please. And a large popcorn.”
She’s here after all. Somehow, Jacob both tenses and relaxes to know it. “And who’s paying for the slushies and popcorn, Ava?” Jacob whispers when the concessionaire turned around.
“If not you, then no one. I expected better from you, Jacob Hill. I can’t believe that you’d stab chivalry in its already-dead heart.”
It’s egregious guilt-tripping, as egregiously guilt-tripping egregious guilt-tripping can get. Jacob still pays for the slushies and popcorn.
Ava fills up the cups for them at the slushie machine, Jacob trailing behind with the popcorn bucket. “I didn’t think you’d actually come,” he says. “I mean, a part of me obviously did, since I bought the ticket, but then I couldn’t spot you in the crowd. I guess I got here too early.”
“Oh, I got here five minutes ago.” Ava fills her cup with a sharp precision, ensuring equal levels of the Pepsi, Blue Raspberry, and Cherry flavors. “Saw you in the line and everything.”
“What? Why didn’t you come up sooner?”
“Because I couldn’t be bothered to stand and wait when I already knew you would do it.” He hardly has enough time to shuffle the popcorn into one arm before Ava’s shoving his slushie into his hand. “Now, come on, I don’t want to miss the previews.”
“You like to watch previews?”
“Of course. It’s one of the many ways I stay in the know. Why wouldn’t I like them?”
“Because you have to show up early to a movie to see them.”
“You’re fired.”
“What?”
“Ugh, fine. You have the rest of the school year to get back into my good graces. Otherwise, you really are fired.” She says it while grabbing napkins, so many that she might as well take the entire dispenser, stuffing them all into Jacob’s jacket pocket. “And just so you know, I will boo if the movie gets boring. No one deserves to live in a world where my opinions are silent.”
“Well, I’ve only heard good things about the movie. That, and some stuff about a scene with a grave…”
Ava walks away before he can finish the sentence, which is honestly a relief, because he did not want to.
She’s already reached the theater by the time Jacob catches up to her. Whether she’s leaning against the door because she got engrossed in looking at her phone or because she’s holding it open for Jacob, he’s not sure, but he chooses to believe it’s the latter. “Are you excited for the movie?” he asks her on the way to their seats.
“I’m excited to see some fucked up shit,” she says with a grin. When they reach their seats, she sets down her slushie with one hand, reaches for the napkins she gave to Jacob with another. “Did you hear about the bathtub scene? That’s some real-”
Through his jacket, Jacob can feel how Ava’s hand forms a fist at the same time she cuts herself off. It’s not until she pulls her hand free, though, that he realizes that the existence of napkins isn’t what shocked her into silence.
“Ugh, Jacob!” His vape lies in her hand, the metallic cover glinting under the theater lights. “Why would you bring this in here? This is a private establishment!”
“Hey!” He snatches back the pen from her, almost knocking down the popcorn in between them in the process. “Look, you might be excited to see some messed up stuff-”
“Fucked up shit-”
“-but I have a very low stress tolerance! I need this!”
“How about you let yourself be stressed so you can build up that tolerance, genius? Damn, what do you do every time you get stressed out during a class? Stick your head out the window and tell the kids you saw a bird?”
The theater’s slowly beginning to fill, and judging by how everyone’s eyes are darting over to Jacob and Ava, they’re making for ample entertainment before the movie starts. Jacob curls his fingers around the vape just in time for Ava to make another lunge for it, using all of her might to try to undo his fist. “Ava- stop it!”
“Put this shit away!” she hisses.
“That’s why it was in my pocket!”
“I swear to God, I’ll call security-”
“You can take my card to buy anything you want from the concession stand if you let me keep it!”
Finally, Ava stops, her nails scratching lightly against the back of Jacob’s hand. “Even one of those stupid three-foot-long marshmallow ropes?” she asks.
“Do people actually like eating those?”
“You really think you get to be in a position to judge what people put in their bodies?”
He digs his card out of his wallet, dropping it into Ava’s hand. “Touché.”
“Somebody giving me free rein to spend their money is supposed to be a happy moment,” Ava sighs. “Feels like I’m just taking advantage of your addiction.”
“I’m not an addict,” Jacob scoffs. “I can stop anytime I want.”
“Which is why you brought the vape with you into the theater?”
“And I bet that I won’t even use it once.”
(He vapes through the entire movie.)
(He considers it a blessing that Ava only charged an extra $50 worth of snacks to his card.)