Tyson POV

It was Friday a.k.a. date night and we were going to the movies. I was supposed to pick Gloriana up but she approached me today at school to tell me to meet her there instead.

“Hey, Tyson!” Was what she’d purred licking her lips during lunch. “There’s been a slight change of plan. Can you meet me straight at the mall instead?”

“Sure,” I answered not really caring.

“I promise to make it up to you!” She winked flirtatiously and walked away.

I’m sure you’ll try to!

So now I was at one of the places I hated the most in this town: the mall. I was waiting for Glory in front of the movie theater when I saw a few familiar faces approaching with popcorn in their hands. I walked straight to the group consisting solely of girls, grabbing the one I was aiming for and twisting her around to face me.

“Where the hell is Tallie?” I asked curtly.

“Guys…” Alex turned to her friends. “Why don’t you go wait in the theatre?”

Some of them appeared hesitant, probably worried that I’d hurt her, but in the end the small crowd did as they were told.

“I got Tallie a babysitter.” Alex explained calmly.

“What? Who?”

“That freshman that got knocked up a few months ago. She needs money for the baby and she could use the practice. I’ll pay her to watch the baby tomorrow as well if you agree to come with us.”

“I’m not going tomorrow.”

For days now, Alex and Angel had been trying to convince me to go dancing with them on Saturday evening.

“Oh, come on, Ty! It will be fun. You’re obviously trying new things.” She was referring to me being in the mall, knowing how much I disliked the place.

“Don’t think so!”

“So you can go on a date with the WWV but you can’t go to a club with you best friend and me? No rhyme intended.”

“The what?” I was perplexed.

“WWV - the Wicked Witch with the Vest. That’s Gloriana. ‘Cause she’s the preppy type that likes vests, and she’s wicked, and I’m pretty sure she’s a witch.”

I held back a laugh but Alex wasn’t done.

“Maybe we should tie something heavy to her, push her in the water and see if she’ll float…” She suggested thoughtfully as if she was really considering doing it. I couldn’t help it any more and chuckled.

“Tyson, baby…” I heard Glory’s voice behind me. “Sorry, I’m late!”

I turned to face the newcomer and my laugh only increased as I imagined Alex pushing her from a bridge and dancing merrily while grinning like the little imp she was.

“What’s so funny…” Glory began again but her gaze fell on Alex. “Oh! It’s you.” She didn’t even try to hide the disdain in her voice.

“Hey, Gloriana!” Alex greeted cheerfully. “What took you so long? Couldn’t find a parking spot for your broom?”

I had to bite my tongue not to laugh again.

“What?!” Glory spat furiously at the little brunette in front of her. “You better take that back, you little…”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot: you’re a modern girl. So are you using a vacuum cleaner instead?” Alex kept her tone sickeningly sweet.

“Gloriana, let’s just go!” I interrupted, seeing where this was going. I didn’t want them causing a scene in the damn mall.

“Whatever!” Glory said haughtily. She turned to me. “She’s not worth wasting our time with anyway. See ya, looser!” And she walked away.

“She’s worth a lot more than you!” I thought while trailing behind with a frown on my face.

*****

We went to buy popcorn and soda for me and only water for her because apparently she was not going to “have those greasy things anywhere around her mouth”. We proceeded to the theatre. During the whole walk Gloriana didn’t stop flirting and coming on to me. She had wrapped both her hands around my arm, gluing herself to me, and talking almost non-stop.

I was already regretting this.

We went in and looked for our seats. The ones next to them were already taken.

Three guesses by whom!

Alex was sitting in the last row with four of her friends to her right. On her left were the only two still-available seats; the place was packed.

“Must be a popular movie,” I thought. Only now did I realize I didn’t even know what I came to watch tonight.

“Oh. My. God! I can’t believe we have to sit next to her!” Glory’s rather annoying voice reached my ears, making me grimace at the mere sound of it.

“I’ll sit next to her and you can take the other seat.”

“Oh, Tyson, you’re so sweet!” She said, running her manicured fingers up and down my arm.

“Yeah…” I trailed off, deciding not to tell her that I actually wanted to sit next to Alex.

“So what are we watching?” I queried Glory but got my answer from the other girl instead.

“Tangled.”

“What?!” I jumped from the seat I’d taken as if it was on fire.

“As if!” Came Gloriana’s disgusted voice. “We’re watching a romantic comedy about…” And she briefly explained the plot.

“So we’re watching a chick-flick?”

“No,” she contradicted slightly annoyed. “A romantic comedy.”

“Same thing if you ask me.,” I stated at the same time Alex muttered:

“Pretty much the same.”

We looked at each other with a similar amused smile on both our faces.

*****

The lights were off and we were about fifteen minutes into the movie. I was already bored out of my mind.

“I bet you wish you were watching anything but this,” Alex’s voice came from my left. She sounded pretty weary herself.

“Suddenly Tangled doesn’t sound that bad,” I muttered and heard her giggle.

Half an hour later I was seriously contemplating on telling Glory that I was sick from the popcorn so I could get the hell out of there. Not only was the movie one of the worst things I’d ever had the misfortune to see, but the black-haired girl on my left kept coming on to me. Her hand had accidentally covered mine and since that didn’t get me to pay attention to her, she, again “by accident”, let it fall to my lap. When I pushed her away the girl glared at me! As if I was suppose to find her advances appealing. Okay, maybe I was… After all we were on a date but…

Why, oh, why had I agreed to this date?!

At least now Glory had given up on flirting with me and her attention was transfixed on the screen. She was currently raping the male lead with her eyes.

“Psst, Ty!”

“What is it, Alex?”

“Do you still have your soda?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I have some?”

I gave her the soda. After a few loud slurps, she called out to me again.

“Psst, Ty!”

“Yes, Alex?”

“Can I have some of your popcorn too?”

I gave her the popcorn. She stayed silent for a minute, champing on the salty snack.

“Psst, Ty!”

“You already drunk my soda and munched all of my food.” I was getting irritated. “What is it now?”

“I’m bored.”

“Well, so am I.”

“Let’s do something!”

“Like what?” I asked skeptically.

She kept quiet. I should’ve known this wouldn’t end well!

*****

“Freedom!” Alex shouted dramatically when the two of us got kicked out of the theatre.

Alex had made a scene. No, she hadn’t started a fight with Glory. This was how it went:

We were still in the theatre. Alex was quiet now. Too quiet. I knew she was planning something… But what? I watched as she finished the last of my soda. And then she let out a piercing scream.

“Spiders!” Alex sprung out of her seat. “Spiders! Spiders!” She kept on shouting out of the top of her lungs.

Hearing the word, all the girls in the theatre (who were a majority here due to the type of movie) jumped out of their seats and started screaming. Security came in, ready to react to whatever the threat was and were almost trampled on by the horrified, frantic girls. I looked around: it was as if a tornado had hit the place. There were sodas and popcorn and all sorts of other snacks all over the floor and seats. The theater was empty apart from me and Alex and the security team. I turned to her. She was now back in her seat, calmly munching on what was left of my popcorn.

“I think the show got better, don’t you, Ty?”

Before I could respond the two guards came to us.

“Are you responsible for all this?” One of them queried incredulous.

“Yep!”Alex’s self-satisfied answer was accompanied by a wide grin. The two men gaped at her, not expecting such a reaction.

“Get out! Both of you!” The second staff member ordered once he got a hold on himself.

“Both? But I didn’t…” I started to protest.

“Come on!” Alex grabbed me by the hand and led me outside.

And here we were now.

“What the hell were you thinking, Alex?”

“I was bored,” she answered simply and we began walking.

“So you just started screaming bloody murder in the middle of the theatre?” I was shouting now. God, I needed a smoke!

“Oh, come on! Aren’t you glad that you’re out? The movie sucked. Or are you upset that I ruined your date with the Witch?”

“I’m not upset because of that.” I admitted. “I’m actually glad that you did.”

“Was it that bad?” She questioned joyfully. Did she find my misfortune amusing or was she simply happy that she’d ruined Glory’s night?

“Worse! I shouldn’t have agreed in the first place.”

“Then why did you?”

“Because I had a wet dream about you and wanted to get you out of my head. And for some reason, seeing you with Angel irritated me.”

I was so not saying that aloud. I lit a cig.

“Don’t know.” I shrugged.

“It was the boobs, right?”

“No, it wasn’t because of her boobs; too big for my liking.” I took another drag from my smoke.

“I thought you were trying to stop them,” Alex reprimanded.

“How did you know?” I asked surprised. I couldn’t remember telling her that.

“Angel.”

Angel. Of course it was Angel! Who else?

“You too seem pretty close,” I commented, my mood dropping drastically.

“Yep,” was all the brunette replied.

When I noticed she wasn’t saying anything else I went on; I just needed to know more.

“Do you spend much time together outside school?”

“Nope.”

We were quiet again.

“Does he know about Emily?” I kept on questioning her.

Alex stopped and looked at me puzzled. Her brown eyes examined my face as if she was searching for something. Her gaze made me uneasy. What was she seeking? Realization dawned on her features and she burst out in her typical loud laugh.

“You… You thought…” She tried to catch her breath. “That… Him and I… We… That we…” She took a few deep breaths. “Tyson, Angel and I are not together!”

“You aren’t?” I felt relieved. For him. Not for me. I was just glad that she wasn’t cheating on my best friend; that was all! Really, it was!

“No, we are not,” she repeated and began walking again. “We’re just really good friends. And we broke up. Emily and I, I mean, not Angel and I.”

“Really?” I asked enthusiastically. “When?”

“A couple of days ago. And stop grinning about it! She is a nice girl and we’re still friends.”

“I’m not grinning,” I denied but I could feel the smile on my face.

“Yeah, right!” Alex muttered.

“Who ended it?”

“Does it matter?”

“Just answer, Alex!”

“I did. It was supposed to be a casual relationship… and it was for a while… but lately she started getting more and more attached. I couldn’t return her feelings and I would’ve felt guilty if I had led her on so I just cut her loose.”

“How did she take it?”

“When I told her my reasons she laughed and said that she agrees and that it was probably for the best.”

I threw away the cigarette butt and turned round a corner.

“So… You’re glad to be away from the Witch?”

Uh-oh! Where was she going with this?

“Yes, I’m glad to be away from the Wit… From Glory.” I answered cautiously. She smirked at my almost-slip up.

“So… Technically, I did you a favor?”

Yep, she definitely had something in mind!

“Alex, what do you want?”

“Come with us tomorrow!”

“Why do you insist on that so much?”

“Because… It’s sort of fun being around you. Besides, you like that band. Come on, Ty! Don’t you want to spend some more time with your friends?”

I chuckled.

“Does that mean we’re friends?”

“Did I say friends? I meant friend. As in Angel. As in singular. Without me. Just Angel. And no one else. Without me. Only Angel.”

I raised my eyebrow at her babbling.

“Okay, okay! I said friends.” She reluctantly admitted. “That is if you want us to be,” she added hopefully.

“Hmm…” I pretended to think about it and saw her chewing her lip, nervously awaiting my response.

So she wanted us to be friends that badly, huh?

Maybe I should reconsider keeping my distance from her. Obviously, I didn’t bring her bad memories all the time; I seemed to be able to make her enjoy herself too. And we seemed to somehow run into each other all the time…

“I guess it couldn’t hurt to try.”

“So, is that a yes?”

“Yeah, short stuff, that’s a yes.”

“And about tomorrow?” She bit her lip again.

So cute!

“Fine!” I gave up. “I’ll come with!”

“Cool!” She grinned happily and I returned her smile. “Now, I have only one question for you, buddy.”

“Huh?”

“Where the fuck are we?”

I stopped walking and looked around.

Where the fuck were we?

*****

A/N (and this one is IMPORTANT so pay attention): Starting September (and only during that one month) I’ll be working ten hour shifts six days a week so naturally it might take me longer to update. I’m still going to try uploading at least once a week, but I can’t make any promises. I’m going to have more time when October comes so bear with me!

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and don’t forget to VOTE if you did. I’m also looking forward to reading your comments.

Love and kisses,

CatMint5