Part XXIII

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.”