Sunshine (23 page)

King Kong
in black and white. He’s not lame like a lot of guys are on a first date. He doesn’t try to pull that oh-no-I’m-just-yawning-oh-look-at-that-my-arm-is-behind-your-back-now thing.
Though somewhere, rational Sophie is thinking that it’s not such a good idea to let my guard down so much, the not so rational one just wants to act normal, have fun, and punch the rational Sophie in the face.
“Ready to go?” Myles asks when the movie is over.
I hold out my hands in front of me so he can help me get up. I smile as he takes them and pulls me up. “Where are we going now?” I ask.
He lets go and shakes his head.
“Oh yeah. The surprise.”
“The
best
surprise,” he corrects me.
He goes into his room for a second and emerges with two black trash bags. They look kind of bulky, so I can tell there’s a lot of junk in them.
“Don’t tell me,” I say. “We’re going to make clothes out of trash bags and run around the mall?” I joke.
He laughs but doesn’t answer me. Instead he hands me what I assume to be my bag and says, “You’re not allowed to open it until we get there.”
We hop in the car and drive. After about thirty minutes, Myles tells me to shut my eyes. I don’t exactly know where we’re going, but I remind myself that I trust Myles. That he just wants to surprise me and if I ruin it, I’ll just suck the fun out of everything. So I do as I’m told and I shut my eyes and cover them with my hands. After about fifteen more minutes of driving, the car finally stops.
I hear Myles get out, but I figure I’m supposed to wait here with my eyes still shut, he comes around to my side and open the door. Yeah, I know, but we’re on a date, so I give it to him.
“Keep your eyes closed,” his voice says in my ear as he helps me out of the car.
I can hear the sound of waves in the background, but they sound far away. I tilt my head in the direction I hear it coming from to be sure.
Myles laughs. “No, we’re not at the beach.” He hooks his arm through mine. “Ready?”
“Are we there yet? I ask.
“Almost,” he laughs.
We walk for less than a minute when I hear people talking to each other. A lot of people by the sound of it, because I can’t make out what one person is saying.
“Okay. You can open your eyes,” Myles instructs.
The first thing I see is rotted wood under my feet. The boardwalk; the waves make sense now. It’s just starting to get dark out, there’s a reddish glow from a huge neon sign above me that proclaims “Famous Factory,” and there are people around me. At first I think they’re all drag queens, but it registers when I read under the brightly lit red sign where there are black and white letters spelling out, “
The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
”
I’ve heard of these. There are people who go around putting on the floor show for
Rocky Horror
. They act out the show and make it interactive for the audience as the movie plays on a screen behind them. I’ve always wanted to go to one, but I heard they were more popular when the movie came out, not so much anymore.
“Open your bag,” Myles interrupts my thoughts.
I carefully un-knot the black plastic in front of me to find it full of props: a newspaper, umbrella, noise maker, tons of stuff. Along with a very familiar gold sequined hat.
“Columbia’s your favorite, right?” he asks.
I can’t stop smiling back. “This. Is. So. Awesome.”
“I thought you would like it.” Myles’ eyes seem to brightened when he smiles back.
We walk past the waiting crowd into the lobby. Two security guards nod at us as we walk in. “Aren’t we supposed to wait outside?” I ask Myles.
He smiles and shakes his head no.
The inside of the lobby looks like an old movie theater. All of the carpet is red and there are neon signs everywhere. The lighting is pretty dim, but not to the point where I can’t see.
I reach into my bag and place the gold hat on my head.
“Very nice,” Myles says, slipping on a black top hat of his own.
“Same to you,” I say.
We continue walking toward these huge dark wooden doors, which I assume is where the show is going to take place.
“So how did you find out about this?” I ask.
He smiles and adjusts his hat. “A friend told me about it.”
“So this was all your
friend's
idea?” I joke.
“No,” he plays innocent. “I thought it was perfect.”
I nod, not even trying to hide how impressed I am anymore. “I’ve always wanted to go to one of these.”
“So you like it?” Myles smiles again, knowing my answer already.
“It’s going to be a bitch finding a seat though,” I say as we get to the doors.
Myles places his hand on one of the huge doors’ golden handles and stares at me. “You underestimate me.”
I roll my eyes as he opens the door.
It’s even more gorgeous inside. Even in the dim lighting of the room I can tell that it’s huge. Everything is spray painted gold, even the chairs. All of the walls are draped with heavy red velvet curtains. It looks like some kind of orchestra should be playing here. And at the front of the enormous room, there’s a stage with a white screen. There are curtains on either side that match the ones on the walls.
“Awesome,” I restate.
Myles holds out his hand for me and I take it. The minute he wraps his fingers around mine, I feel a little uneasy for no particular reason, but it’s there. It gets slightly better when I figure out that the reason he wanted to grab my hand in the first place is so he can guide me down the dark aisle to our seats.
And that’s kind of nice.
As we walk through endless rows of seats, I keep thinking with every passing row that we’re walking past our own. I guess either Myles notices or he just feels like explaining. “I’ve heard the front rows are the best,” he says.
Hell no. We’re not seriously sitting in the front row, are we? “How did you…” I can’t ask the rest of the question because I’m too excited.
“I know someone.” He shrugs. The stage is literally a few feet from us. We sit in the middle of the front row where there are two available seats. The rest of the front row is roped off with red velvet fabric.
“Are these seats reserved or something?” I ask him.
“Yeah.” He smiles. “For us.”
“Uh. What?”
“I thought you wouldn’t like if there were strangers sitting next to you in the dark,” he explains.
I cock my head at him and think this through. Had he actually thought that I’d get uncomfortable if some random guy sat next to me? It’s probably true, but the fact that he went to this extra measure for me is both weird and thoughtful.
He opens his plastic garbage bag and starts taking out his props. They’re the same ones I have. A newspaper, water gun, noise maker, among other things.
“So, I was told to bring all of this stuff, but I’m not really sure how it works,” he admits.
All I know is at certain parts of the movie you use certain props and yell certain things at the performers. “We’ll catch on,” I assure him.
Soon the people who were waiting in line outside are allowed to shuffle to their seats. A lot of people don’t look at us as they sit to the right of us on the other side of the aisle where the front row is not “reserved.” But once those are filled up, a few people give us dirty looks. They’re all people I don’t know, so I really don’t care.
Soon the lights go out and the show begins.
A spotlight appears on the stage at the same time the movie starts. A pretty tall girl about my age dressed in barely enough to cover herself, and a very high, Elvira-like black wig, mouths the words and dances to “Science Fiction Double Feature.” She lip syncs as the credits roll on the screen with the familiar red lips against a black background. She's kind of gross; she flashes her ass every once in a while, and wiggles a little too much. Myles and I both have the same idea to pretend we're preoccupied with our props until she's done.
We catch on pretty quickly that we’re supposed to repeat any of the lines we know. When we get to the scene where Brad and Janet get stuck in the rain, we’re supposed to put the newspaper over our heads like Janet does. During any other scene where it rains, we’re supposed to squirt the water guns at people and use our umbrellas. At one point, someone starts throwing toast at everyone, which I don’t get, but it’s funny.
When we get to my favorite song of the movie, Tim Curry’s final song, everyone seems to quiet down and just watch the movie and the performer on stage acting it out. Everyone must have the same respect for him that I do. Or maybe everyone just loves this song.
At some point it occurs to me that I should probably be uncomfortable sitting next to Myles in the dark theatre, basically by ourselves as far as the front row is concerned. But I’m not. And I don’t try to convince myself that I am.
So when Myles places his hand on top of mine as Tim Curry sings, I only feel a little bit freaked out. My stomach only turns in knots once, I only break out in a cold sweat for half a second.
No matter how proud I am of myself for this small thing, Myles seems to notice I’m a little uncomfortable. He lets his hand fall. I glance at his face to check his expression. He smiles sweetly at me; I smile back.
When the show is over, Myles and I walk around for a while. It doesn’t matter to us that it’s past eleven o’clock on a Sunday and that we have to be awake in about six hours for school. I think we’re both just having a good time, and we’re not sure if we want it to end yet, which is fine.
Myles takes off his hat and studies it as we walk. “So did you have fun?” he asks.
“Of course I did,” I say. “It was awesome.”
We walk a little further towards the railing at the edge of the boardwalk; stare out at the beach below us, the ocean crashing onto it.
“I’m glad we did this,” he says.
I’m not sure if he means the floor show thing or the whole day. Either way, I agree. “Me too.” I turn toward him so he’s in front of me. “So you think we’re ready for that dance?” I ask, laughing.
Myles shrugs. “I think so.”
He stands in front of me so I’m leaning against the railing. Not to get away from him or anything, because he’s not that close. Just leaning casually, like a normal girl on a date.
“Do you think
you're
ready for the dance?” he asks.
I shrug back. “I think I’m…more prepared? Or something.” I laugh because I don’t want to think about the dance. That’s a whole other can of worms. I just want to enjoy this right now.
Myles turns his head slightly, like he can hear something in the distance. Before I can see him move or know what he’s doing, his hand snatches my hat off of my head, and his arms are around me. My face is against his chest, like he’s shielding me from something.
Immediately I feel like I’m going to throw up, but he’s too strong to shove him off. So much for the nice-not-uncomfortable feeling.
“It’s okay,” he whispers in my ear.
I try to pull away but I can't. He's not holding me so I can't move.
Then I hear two familiar voices walking past us. “So you called her?” Someone says. It takes me half a second to realize who it is.
Boo.
“I tried a
ton
. She’s not home.” Trei.
Of course they would know about the show. I’m such an idiot. At least from the sound of it, they didn’t see Myles or me there.
“She’s going to kick herself when she finds out she missed it!” says Boo.
Their voices and footsteps fade away eventually, but that doesn’t stop my pulse from beating loudly in my ears.
Myles immediately loosens his grip on me and takes a step back. “I’m really sorry,” he says gently. “There wasn't time to explain.”
I catch a few breaths and try to calm myself the best that I can. I’m not really upset now that I know what he was trying to do. It doesn’t change the way my body and brain react apparently.
“It’s okay.” My voice comes out small. I feel horrible that I freaked out so badly.
“You’re upset,” he says, studying me like he’s broken one of my bones.
“No I’m not. I just…”
“You weren’t expecting it. I shouldn’t have done it.”
Now he sounds like he’s beating himself up. “No. I understand why you did it. I’m okay now.”
He shakes his head and stares at my gold sequined hat in his hands. “Still.”
I don’t know how to make him understand that I’m fine now. I don’t want him to feel bad. I mean, if I didn’t care so much about what people think, or what it would mean if people saw Myles and me together on a date, then this could have all been avoided.
“I should take you home,” he says.
Great, good time over now.
And I want to hold onto it. I want to grab this feeling and never let go.
So without thinking, I latch my hand onto Myles’. “If you want, we can go,” I say, not paying attention to anything but his blue eyes glowing back at me. “But I still wanted to hang out here with you.”
His expression softens and his smile returns in a smaller form. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
We start to walk again. Myles looks down at our entwined fingers. “This is okay?” he asks.
I study my hand against his pale knuckles. It feels weird. And different. Like I’m someone who isn’t afraid to hold hands with someone they’re on a date with. Someone who trusts someone else. Even though I have to shake off my weird uncomfortable feelings about it, I don’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong. I feel like I can conquer the world with my new found courage. Or maybe just my own stupid fears, and that would be good enough.
“Yeah,” I answer, “This is just fine.”
And I smile.

Chapter 22
Secret Show
“It's a silly time to learn to swim when you start to drown.”-Tegan and Sara

“So you missed the most
awesome
thing last night!” I just woke up and dragged myself to school in time for lunch. I'm sure Boo would have explained all of the awesomeness to me in homeroom, had I been there.
If only Boo knew how
awesome
it was from the front row.

I try to stifle a yawn as I drink my coke. Damn school and the fact that they don’t sell coffee. “What?” I ask, trying to sound as interested as I possibly can.
“Only the
Rocky Horror
floor show!” he says.
“Really? No way!” I follow up those questions with, “Where?” and “When?” just to make it more believable.
“I tried calling you,” Trei adds.
“You did?” I hadn’t bothered to check my phone when I got home last night; I just crashed and then woke up for school a few hours late.
“Yeah, you didn’t pick up your phone.”
I shrug. “I must have not heard it. I was home.” This will be my story. I was home watching TV. Simple enough.
Boo bites into a chicken finger and turns toward Myles. “You must have not heard your phone either.” It’s obvious what Boo is implying, and just as I’m about to flip, Myles cuts me off.
“I went to go see a movie last night with Adrienne,” Myles, who seemed way too interested in my cover story until this point, answers. “My phone was off.”
I decide to play along. “What movie did you see?”
“We went to see that new action one. It wasn’t very good.” He smiles at me when he says this, but it’s not suspicious. He doesn’t even make up a name for this imaginary movie of his. He’s just one hundred percent believed. No questions asked.
Now I turn my attention to Boo. “Dude, I am so
pissed
that I missed it,” I say.
Myles and Sophie: World class liars.
Boo and Trei recount the entire show for us until the bell rings. Then we head in our opposite directions, our stories bought. In the hallway, Barbie, clad in her Christmas junk, including jingly bell shoes, spots us. She’s wearing almost head to toe dark green, and her hair is in a pony tail, bobbing as she walks toward us.
I try to mentally prepare myself for whatever she has in store for me today. Will it be the Barbie that wants me to suffer, or the Barbie who wants to know about what Jack was like when I dated him? That’s a whole new level of suffering.
But when she passes by, she smiles. Not in a mean way. Not in a snotty way, not even her, I’m-going-to-act-nice-to-you-so-it-can-come-back-and-bite-you-in-the-ass smile. It’s real.
Fighting off a shudder, I try to stretch my lips over my teeth just enough to resemble a smile. Then she passes us. Jing-jangling away.
“Whoa.” I breathe out.
Maybe she thinks we have something to bond over now. Maybe because she came up to me in the parking lot asking about Jack, she thinks we have something in common.