58 At the Movies

Midterms were over and Justin and Emily stood in front of the movie theater when Alexa waved them down. She was in the middle of a group that consisted of Zack, Kristi, Dominic, Rick, three other people from indie game club whose names he couldn't quite remember because they hadn't really talked, two girls that were completely unfamiliar, and a very buff man covered in tattoos.

"These are all your friends?" Emily whispered.

He shook his head. "No, I only know about half of them. The other half are Alexa's friends. She's the one who initiated this get together."

"Oh."

"Hey, Justin!" Zack greeted cheerfully. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Emily, she's my downstairs neighbor."

"Nice to meet you, Emily. I'm Zack! These lovely people are Dominic, Kristi, Mandy, Rick, Steven, and Angela." He pointed to each member of the indie game club as he said their name.

Alexa butted in and did the same thing to her friends. "You may have seen these guys around the arts building, Emily. This beauty is Leilani, the flower child is Vivian, and Mr. Muscles is Colton but we all call him Colt."

Colt rolled his eyes. "You know I don't like it when you call me Mr. Muscles."

"But it's so much fun," Alexa said with a wink. "Anyway, I already bought the tickets so everybody cough up their share. Twelve bucks each."

Emily fumbled for her purse but Justin was two steps ahead of her. She had barely gotten past the ramen dilemma, how could he let her pay for a movie ticket? He handed $24 to Alexa and softly said "I've got you" to the now bewildered girl next to him.

The noisy group filed into the movie theater before Emily could even protest. As they were about to find seats Alexa turned to Justin and called, "Can you go get me some popcorn? And a drink. And a box of sour candy! Pretty please? I'll pay you back."

Pay him back? That was surely for the benefit of all of her other friends. Alexa had never paid him back before. But he responded mildly. This must be part of her plan.

"Sure, Alexa. Emily, do you want anything?"

"I couldn't possibly—"

"I'll get a large popcorn and some candy to split," he said cheerfully and rushed to the concession stand before she could turn him down.

Returning with so much food was tricky. The candy could fit in his pants pockets easily enough but he was worried about dropping the drink or either of the two popcorns he carried. The god of coordination must have been smiling on him because he made it back to where the group sat without incident.

Alexa was the female filling of a male sandwich. Colt and Zack were directly on either side of her but the remaining guys in the group were also flocked around her seat.

The rest of the girls filled up the other side of the row and Emily was off on her own, saving a space for Justin between herself and Kristi. Not wanting to walk over so many people and risk tripping, he had everyone pass Alexa's food to her like an assembly line before plopping down in his seat.

Emily did not seem happy. He offered her some malted chocolate balls to cheer her up. "Candy?" She took some without saying a word.

The previews started and people talked amongst themselves up and down the row. Alexa was the center of attention, holding court like the queen members of the indie game club proclaimed her to be. She held a conversation with four different guys sitting near her. The art department girls and video game girls held their own side conversations.

Kristi turned to Justin with a pleading smile on her face. "Can I have some of your popcorn?"

He held it out to her. "Sure thing. There's no way I can finish this much by myself. Emily, make sure you have some too." Emily nodded absently and reached a hand into the bucket after Kristi grabbed a handful.

Bits of other conversations up and down the row drifted over to Justin's end. "Can you believe how hard Mendelsson's test was?" "Don't eat all the popcorn before the movie even starts!" "No way, they couldn't beat Miss Marvelous in a fight…maybe if her powers were temporarily blocked—" "Zackie, catch!"

Justin's head whirled around at the nickname 'Zackie.' Alexa was throwing pieces of popcorn towards his mouth, trying to get him to catch, as the rest of her man posse egged them on.

A crunching sound brought his attention back to Emily. She had crushed a handful of popcorn in her fist. Was this part of Alexa's plan?