The theater wasn’t all that crowded. Skylar, John, and Emily found their seats, Emily fiddling with the headset provided by the theater. John and Emily were chatting about the movie, while Skylar seethed, crunching the popcorn a bit too hard.
Their mind kept going back to the two girls in the bathroom, pointed words which Emily had shrugged off.
“Skylar?” Emily nudged them with an elbow. “Are you breaking your teeth on the popcorn?”
“No.” Skylar put their hands on the side of the bucket, drumming their fingers on the soft cardboard. Their eyes scanned the seats of the theater, the lower level. A few heads poked above the seats, ice clinked, popcorn shuffled as people passed buckets.
“Are you okay?” Emily’s hand first found the armrest, before trailing up Skylar’s arm and finding their shoulder.
“Why are there people so…” Skylar waved their other hand, popcorn tilting and nearly spilling over. They brought their hand back down quickly, squeezing the bucket and bending the cardboard. “So mean.” Skylar scowled.
“Because not everyone is nice. And no one is perfect.”
“Didn’t what they said bother you?”
“Skylar, if I let other people’s words bother me, I’d be irritated all the time.” John snorted at this. “Give John a whack for me.” Skylar did a limp imitation of Emily’s bats to John’s shoulder when she was a little irritated with him.
The theater started to dim, and the speakers crackled to life, and Emily pulled the headset over her head, pausing just before covering her ears. “Forget those two and their nashgab, and enjoy the movie.” She said before fitting the headphones over her ears. She leaned back in her seat, folding her hands in her lap.
“Yeah.” John added. “It’s best to forget about it. Take heart from the old saying, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’.”
“But… how?”
The first preview rating came up, for a pg-13 movie masquerading as a documentary of the skater boy subculture.
“Your mind. You have to let words hurt, because it’s not a… physical kind of pain.”
“SHHH!” Why a single movie goer chose to sit behind a group of teenagers, but they had and they decided it was best to quiet the kids now before the movie actually started.
“Sorry sir.” John twisted to look at the man behind them. He rolled his eyes and as John faced forward again, he took a handful of popcorn. “We can talk more after the movie.”
Word count: 418
