A
half hour later, they stood in front of the box office, surrounded by people
waiting to see this movie or that.
Xander twitched nervously, feeling multiple pairs of eyes on him in the
huge lobby. He was grateful that the
line was moving quickly, and that soon they’d be in the dark of the theater
where no one could see him.
Finally,
they were in front of the young girl at the ticket counter. He looked up at her and involuntarily smiled
with relief. The girl was about
nineteen, with long brown hair and huge brown eyes, with a round face and
chubby body. She reminded him of his
sister.
“Hello,”
she said cheerfully, not even glancing down at his size. “How are you this afternoon?”
“Hi,”
he replied. “I’m okay, how are you?”
“Pretty
good,” she said. “I like when it’s
busy,” she laughed. “What can I get for
you?”
“Two
for the 4:45 of Fire Storm, please.”
“Alright.” She punched the information into the
computer, took Xander’s money, and grabbed the tickets as the machine spit them
out. “There you go. Enjoy the show! I just saw it last night; it’s really good.”
“Thanks,”
he told her, a bit surprised. “You have
a good day.”
“She
was cute,” Cee said as they walked away.
There was a strange edge to her voice.
“I
guess so,” he replied. “She actually
reminded me of my sister.”
“Oh.” Cee smiled and grabbed his hand. Xander glanced down at their entwined
fingers, a bit puzzled. “What are you
going to get to eat?”
“I…I
shouldn’t,” he murmured as his stomach growled.
“Oh,
come on. Let’s at least share some
popcorn and get drinks. I’m starting to
get hungry.”
So am I, he
thought, but he’d just stuffed himself a few hours ago, whereas she hadn’t had
anything since that morning. After
standing in line for about five minutes, he decided on a drink, a large bucket
of popcorn, and four stuffed soft pizza pretzels with cheese dip.
They
were soon on their way to theater number four, Cee carrying the huge bucket of
popcorn and her drink, and Xander carrying the large box full of delicious-smelling
pretzels and his own drink. They were
about twenty minutes early, so the lights were still on as they made their way
into the half-full theater. They chose a
seat near the bottom of the stadium-like seating, in the center of an empty aisle. Cee scurried in ahead of him and, to his
amazement and utter joy, flipped up the armrests on three of the seats.
“See,”
she said happily, “I told you.”
Xander
was speechless. It had been almost a
year since he’d been to the movies, ever since he’d come to see something by
himself and hadn’t been able to sit through the whole thing since he could
barely fit into the seat. After that,
he’d assumed that his movie-going days were over and just waited for things he
wanted to see to be uploaded to the internet.
But now, with this amazing upgrade, he could see movies in a theater
again. The brand new seats were still
narrow, but with the armrests up he could take up two of them and be
comfortable.
“Wow,”
was all he could say. “Thanks.” He placed his bulk down and wriggled around a
bit. He did take up most of the two
seats, he saw with some chagrin, but at least he was comfy. He began contentedly munching on popcorn and
pretzels, alternating between the two as the theater filled up.
It
wasn’t long before a group of girls that he recognized from school came into
their aisle, giggling and talking. They
stopped next to Xander and sat down. He
tried to ignore them, but he soon heard it:
“Oh
my god!” the one sitting next to him burst out.
“What?”
She
made an effort to whisper to the girl sitting next to her, but Xander could
still hear her clearly, even over the rest of the people in the theater.
“This
guy sitting next to me is taking up two seats!”
He
saw the other girl lean forward and look over at him. “Holy crap!” she snickered. “He’s huge!”
Xander
felt his cheeks flame, and abruptly dropped the handful of popcorn that had
been on its way to his mouth back into the bucket. He looked over at it and saw that a third of
the bucket was gone, and the previews hadn’t even started yet. He felt shame bloom in the pit of his stomach
and took a long gulp of his drink to try and quash it.
By
now, the four girls were all laughing, he knew, at him. He debated getting up and leaving, but with a
glance he saw that the aisle on the other side of Cee had filled up, so he’d
have to squeeze past these girls in order to get out, and that wasn’t going to
happen.
“What’s
wrong?” Cee asked, tapping him on his meaty arm.
“Nothing…please
don’t,” he muttered.
“Hey,”
she said loudly, looking over at the group of laughing girls. “Shut up.
We can hear you.” Then, to
Xander, “Don’t worry about them. You’re
comfortable. That’s what matters.” She rubbed his arm soothingly.
The
girls tried to stifle their laughter as the lights dimmed and the previews
started, but then one of them snorted, “oink, oink,” and they all burst into
giggles again.
“Alright,
do you want me to go get the manager?
Seriously, shut the hell up,” Cee snarled.
Someone
behind them said, “yeah, shut up,” and finally, the girls stopped laughing.
But
that didn’t stop Xander from stressing about his size for the entire first half
of the movie. What if I have to go to the bathroom?
he thought bleakly. They’d have to all get up and go out onto
the stairs; there’s no way I’ll fit past them.
What if I break the seats? What if…
Then
Cee set the now-empty bucket of popcorn down on the floor and turned and
snuggled into him, resting her hand on his bloated belly.
“What
are you doing?” he hissed quietly.
“I’m
snuggling,” she told him matter-of-factly.
“Deal with it.”
“Please…don’t…”
“Shh,”
she said. “You’re soft and comfy.”
As
if that explained her bizarre actions.
He shifted around uncomfortably, feeling her hand pressing into his gut
like a knife.
“Stop
moving!” she whispered.
“But
you’re…you’re touching…me…”
“Yes,
snuggling generally entails touching.”
“But
why?”
“I
told you, you’re soft and comfy.”
So
for the second half of the movie, all he could focus on was the way it felt
having half her body squishing into him.
Finally, it was over, and she slowly unwrapped herself from him and
stretched, yawning.
“That
was pretty good,” she said, looking at him pleasantly. “How did you like it?”
Xander
stared at her for a moment, then admitted, “I couldn’t really concentrate on
it.”
“Oh,
you shouldn’t worry about those dumb bitches,” she told him airily.
“You
weren’t helping.”
“What,
because I was snuggling you?” she teased, laughing.
“Yeah,
what the hell was that?” he demanded, as he rose to his feet.
She
shrugged. “I wanted to snuggle with
you. You’re warm and cuddly.”
“I’m
disgusting.” He started walking out of
the aisle and down the stairs.
Cee
grabbed him by the arm and spun him around to face her. “What did I tell you about that? You’re not disgusting. You’re a sweet, handsome, s-“ she clammed
up. “You’re sweet and handsome,” she
repeated.
“Yeah,”
he muttered as they exited the theater, “that’s why I take up two seats.”
Another update? Best day ever. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSEXY! Cee was so going to say sexy!
ReplyDeleteOOOOH I can't wait for Xander to find out she's attracted to him!
YAY!!