15 Movie 2.0

Once off the train, the three of us exited Nocisinis Station and walked down the busy streets in front of the station. We walked down the wide sidewalk and passed by numerous shops that were opened for business. From the glass windows, I could see the different stores' specialties. Almost all of these stores near the busy Nocisinis Station were stylishly furnished, and sold a variety of merchandises from clothing to accessories. In addition to clothing stores, there were also bakeries, cafes, and restaurants serving food from various regions.

I glanced into the windows as I walked, occasionally catching a glimpse of myself and the city around me through the faint reflection that was visible in the window. However, seeing that all was peaceful and well in the stores, I returned my focus back onto the road ahead of me. Loyd and Muria walked not too far before me at a distance that one could tell that I was with them. A silence enveloped the two of them, almost as if me forbidding them to talk about my past led to the death of their conversation.

Don't they have anything better to talk about? There's literally so many things to talk about. For example, you could talk about the weather. It isn't as hot today as yesterday, so that is good.

After walking down the familiar streets of Nocsinis, it would appear that we finally made it to our destination. The location of this movie theater was oddly familiar. The theater was located in a ten story tall mall building. At the front of the mall building, and in the small clearing before the escalators that led up to the entrance of the mall was a metal painted statue of the mall's mascot, and by the escalators was the map of the building. I've visited this place before with Muria...

"This place?" I muttered in disappointment.

"Come on," Loyd said to me as him and Muria stepped foot on the escalators and started for the mall's entrance.

Unwillingly, I followed them.

We made it to the third floor where the movie theater was located at, and we before we made our way over to the kiosk machines to buy tickets, we stopped in front of the many large monitors that shuffled through advertising posters for the many movies that were on in the movie theater.

"What do you want to watch?" Loyd asked us as he kept his eyes on the alternating pictures on the monitor.

"I'm fine with anything," I said nonchalantly, almost as if I didn't care at all what we watched, which I really didn't.

After perfunctorily responding to Loyd, I took my phone out of my pockets and checked the newest notification I received. It was a response from Loriana for my earlier message.

Got it. I have a company dinner today hosted by the other professors so I won't be eating dinner at home as well. I'll send you the location just in case.

After seeing the message, I slipped my phone back into my pocket and let out a sigh. It was a sigh of relief and also as sigh that mourns the extra efforts that I will have to exert later today. To be honest, Loriana isn't the best with alcoholic beverages. Therefore, I'll have to go to the site of the dinner and help her home. But, that is something that I'll have to worry about later.

"Umm..."

Muria stared at the screen in thought. Looking over, I could see the screen reflecting in those big, watery, azure eyes of hers. It was almost as if seeing a beautiful painting of some sort that just captivated one's attention by a supernatural force.

I followed her gaze and towards the screen. I was thus surprised to discover that the movie she was contemplating whether or not to watch was an animated film similar to the one we watched together alone.

Is she...into these type of films?

Muria noticed my staring, and her blue iris shifted over to the corner of her eyes in order to look at me. She noticed my stare and possibly mistaken it with a judgmental stare. Therefore, she blushed as she broke eye contact and looked away.

"Let's watch this movie then," Loyd pointed at the image on the large screen, the movie that Muria was eyeing earlier. "I'm quite interested in it. Could we?"

"I don't care," I said as I looked around. There were many people at this place, from couples to family to even other students from the other high schools of Palisia.

"I'm fine with it," I heard Muria say. I looked over and realized that there existed a faint glimmer of happiness on her face.

Why is it that she could be so normal sometimes? Like if she's like this all the time, then she can be thought of as a perfect girl.

As for Loyd, you gotta give him credit where credit is due. He was able to tell that Muria was interested in that movie, and he even made it seem like he was the one that wanted to go see it, thus saving face for Muria while making her happy.

"Alev," Loyd turned to me as the three of us walked over to the kiosk machines to buy our tickets. "Since this is a buy two get one free, let's buy the tickets and give the free one to Muria."

"I'm fine with that," I said, taking my phone out of my pocket so as to pay.

"Just transfer me the money," Loyd said as he scanned the coupon on his phone to the machine and purchased the tickets.

"Now," Loyd said, "since I bought the e-ticket, I'm gonna need your numbers to send it to you."

God damn! So this is how you do it? This is how you ask for people's phone numbers and not be like a creep?! You learn something new every day...

"You two received it yet?" Loyd asked after sending the tickets to us.

"Yeah," Muria and I said one after the other.

"Here," I said, entering the user interface for money transfers, "I'll send you the money."

"..." Loyd waited as he observed his phone until the notification popped up. "I got it."

"Let's go in," Muria started for the ticket gates that led to the auditorium.

She sure is excited...

As we walked, Muria suddenly halted in her footsteps as she stared at the concession stand.

"You two want anything?" she asked as she walked over to the counter.

"I'll have a popcorn and a soda then," Loyd smiled and responded.

Upon hearing this, I didn't even wait for Muria and walked straight past her to the concession stand. Almost by instinct, I bought the items that Loyd ordered and what I though Muria would like.

"Why...?" Muria appeared quite surprised by my actions.

I made eye contact with her bewildered eyes, but made no big deal of it as I looked away and placed my hands into my pockets. To be honest, I don't even know why I paid for it. Come to think of it, today I sure lost a decent amount of money. The ticket for the movie was 160 Vil, and the popcorn and drinks cost me 250 Vil. God damn it.

The lights in the auditorium were still on when we entered, with the large screen playing some advertisements. The sound blared from the overhead speakers, filling the entire auditorium and creating an immersive 360 degree sound system that seemingly surrounds the viewer.

The other audiences, composed of mostly young couples and girls, took the time before the movie to socialize. To me, the mere act of watching a movie isn't much of a socializing experience because you're expected to sit in silence for about two hours during the movie. Therefore, the time left for socializing is basically whatever time you have before the movie started. However, the one benefit a movie has is that it provides a conversation subject, especially for people that don't know each other too well yet. That is the reason why new couples often choose to watch a movie and go eat somewhere as their date. By watching a movie together, a conversation could be easily had even if the two don't know the other very well. But...it'll probably get stale after the second or third date. That's the one bad thing about this conservative approach, and that is you'll be too frightened to progress and know more about the other person. But what do I know? I never had a girl friend before.

Once the movie started and the lights dimmed down, I laid the back rest of the leather seat back until I'm almost laying down completely. Then, I just laid there with my head resting on the seat as I waited the movie out.

Next to me, Muria has allowed the backrest of her seat to recline as well, but not to the point that it was level with mine. She seemed quite focused on the movie that was playing, which I didn't judge her for. Everybody has their own preferences.

Due to the dim lighting and the fact that Loyd was a seat away from me, I could not see his face clearly. Therefore, I wasn't able to read what was going on in his mind, but if he's still the same Loyd that I know, then he's probably just enjoying the movie as best as he could. He probably doesn't even want to watch the movie. Instead, he's probably seeking a way to socialize, thus the reason why he chose to watch the movie. In addition, he opted to have me here probably because I am the connection point between him and Muria, who he had just met today. I gotta say, he's pretty smart with his moves.

The two hours that the movie played for past by quite slowly. I tried falling asleep, but the loud noise coming from the speakers made it impossible to do so, making it so that the best I could do was enter in a state of half-asleep and half-awake. My eyes watered due to my drowsiness, and I yawned numerous times throughout the movie. Therefore, when the lights finally lit up as the credits rolled, I was quite disturbed by the sudden change in brightness.

"Let's go now," Loyd said as he stood up and stretched. It would appear that he had wiped his face of any signs of drowsiness when the lights were dim or he actually enjoyed the movie because there's no way that he would look that refreshed when the movie is over.

I got up from the comfortable theater chair and stretched my back after Muria had risen. Then I prepared myself for the long hour, maybe even an hour and a half, of the boring socializing ritual called a meal after the movie. I then realized that I'm in big trouble since I didn't pay much attention to what the movie was about.

All I could remember was that the movie was about a guy who could not get over his first love, and that he couldn't fall in love after he was separated from his first love when they were still kids. To be honest, the ending scene was quite emotional. How the two finally met once again after so many years as adults, but the girl has moved on and already has a fiancee...Man that really hurts. Especially when their reunion wasn't even an actual reunion, but rather just a brief second of eye contact as they passed by each other...That god damn train...why did it have to come at that time? And that girl...why did she not wait for the train to pass? To be honest, come to think of it, that movie pisses me off...

God damn this Centimeters per Second thing...