Chance Encounter
Everyone was busy, so I went to the movie alone. There was nothing particularly special to see. Just an old noir in its perfect black and white. I took a seat far from everyone else, sitting toward the center to have the best view. I wasn’t really a movie buff, but it filled time I wasn’t sure what to do with. Most people thought I really loved black and white pictures. It wasn’t that, not that they were bad, or I hated them, they just always played inexpensively during odd parts of the week, so it just worked out that way. Some of them I had watched so many times I had sections of the script memorized, I suppose there is a useless section of everyone’s brain filled with things like that.
There is a lonely feeling though to perpetually watching by yourself. Some people like being alone and it’s not that I don’t… however, to be always alone had become rather a drag and one of more unfortunate frequency. And the one time I tried to set something up everyone was busy. It just figures.
So, I sat by myself eating popcorn with artificial butter pretending that I didn’t care I was by myself on a Saturday night, with the only blessing of knowing that it would be good and late when it was over, so I could go home and go straight to bed.
-
“Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?” He looked up at the woman who had climbed down the vacant isle to the seat beside him.
“Sure.”
She sat down placing her purse on the sticky floor near her feet, “Has it already started?”
He shifted, “No, not yet.”
“Good, I thought I’d miss it. My name is Saoirse by the way, and you are?”
“Gallagher.”
“Your parents a fan of the comedian?”
“No, well I don’t know. It’s my mother’s maiden name.” A waving sense of stupidity.
“It’s nice.”
There was a muffled shoosh from lower down. Saoirse smiled glancing at him with large round eyes.
“Do you always come to the Saturday night oldies film fest?” Her voice was far more intimate drawing her a touch closer as the opening credits began.
“I think they want us to be quite.”
“Who cares what they want, if they wanted to watch a movie with no noise they should have stayed home. Besides,” her voice grew that much more intimate, “I lowered my voice.”
A puff of air with the accent of a laugh slipped from between his lips, “So, you plan to talk through the whole movie?”
“I think movies are better that way.”
“Forgive my curiosity, but do you always just come up to random people and talk to them?”
“Honestly, this is the first time. Usually, I’m with my friends, but they couldn’t make it. It figures.”
This seemed to cool her off and yet it did something for his own personality, “Looks like we both been ditched then.”
“One of us could be lying.”
“That’s true, popcorn?”
She took a pinch smiling, “I’m going to have to thank my friends when I see them next.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because if they had come with me, I never would have come to talk to you.”
They talked through the entire movie, missing everything other than their own conversation, receiving a few shooshes throughout the show. Afterward they walked to a small diner where they ate and chatted into the wee hours of the morning. When they parted at just past three, they had both forgotten about their friends, making plans to meet the following week.
It didn’t seem much to matter the circumstances behind the origin of their present situation, only the inevitable path that would lead to the end and already they knew they had the same thought, even as they parted driving off to their individual destinations.
End
Thank you so much for reading everyone!!
Prompt Sentence: Everyone was busy, so I went to the movie alone.
Word Count:649
©DecemberKnight 2022
Special thanks to Agnese Laura Nyhuis from Unsplash for the use of the image!
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