The Courtship of Cerridwen Circe Whitethorn
Chapter 3: Movie Date

Plaza Twin Cinema located at the end of Main Street is the last of a dying breed, it's one of the few remaining mom and pop owned cinema's. Locally owned and locally operated. It has served Benton faithfully since it opened in the late sixties some sixty something years ago. Anyway if you wanted to see a movie in town this was the place to go.

It was your average Saturday night in Benton. The lobby of the cinema was crowded with rowdy teenagers all eager to spend their weekly allowance on overpriced popcorn, boxes of candy, and cheap hot dogs. The air outside was hot and humid and the air inside thankfully air conditioned.

And there I was standing beside the boy whom I would have loved to call my boyfriend, but right now I felt I could only call him a friend. Yes, a friend who happened to be a boy. I mean if I'm honest, I was not ready to call him my boyfriend, not in my heart anyway. And so, I saw us seeing this movie not as a date or anything, but just two friends going out to see a movie about cloned dinosaurs breaking out of a zoo and eating everything in their path.

Yes, anyway this was just two friends going out to see a movie. Despite the fact I had decided to dress up, meaning I had decided to wear a cute dress I had found on clearance at Hot Topic about a week ago. The dress was a black velvet dress white collared dress that reached down to my thighs. It kind of reminded me of the dress that Wednesday Addams wears. Running with the Wednesday Addams theme I decided to wear my long raven colored hair in two braided pigtails with minimum makeup. White stocking and black leather pumps with a two inch heel completed the look.

What ruined the look however was me clinging to Daisy's arm. Daisy, was dressed in dust colored chinos, a white button down shirt, a black leather bomber jacket and pair of brown dress shoes. His long brown hair was pulled back in a nice, neat ponytail. He looked handsome okay.. and he smelled good. God I wanted to kiss him so bad.

“Hey Cerridwen.” He said with a smile as we neared the counter. “Get anything you want. This is my treat.” He said smiling. Now while it was common on a date for a guy to buy everything. I was not fond of the idea of Daisy spending all his hard earned money on me.

“Only if you let me buy yours.” I said, smiling sweetly.

Daisy blinked and turned around and looked at me.

“I'll let you buy mine, and in return I'll buy yours, and no getting just a small. If I get an extra large popcorn, extra large soda, plus a hot dog. I want you to get an extra large popcorn, extra large soda, and a hot dog too. Or nacho's if you want.” I said in a firm, commanding tone of voice as we stepped up the counter.
.

“Okay..” He said, blinking as he stepped up to the counter. I followed suit.

There were two girls working the counter, one I'm going to assume was somebody they hired to help out for the weekend, Plaza Twin Cinema was famous for hiring kids from around Benton to help out when the weekend rush came. The owner George Honor was a well known tightwad and could be something of a bastard. The only upside that came from working with him was the fact that he paid you from the cash register and he'll pay you minimum wage.

Anyway one of the girls working the snack counter seemed more concerned with painting her nails, all twenty of them than scooping popcorn into plastic buckets or filling paper cups with brown sugar water. Or wrapping cheap hot dogs in foil. And the other one seemed to be swamped. Finally though the girl finished painting her nails and peered toward Daisy and I.

“Can I help ya'll.” She said, peering toward us.

Daisy nudged me up to the counter. I turned around and gave him a look, he only smiled and then cleared my throat I started to say.

“Yes, I would like extra large popcorn, with extra butter please. A extra large coke-cola please ma'am, and a hot dog with just meat and bun.” I said.

“This is just for you and y'all boyfriend or are you two going to order something else?” She said, rolling her eyes. “Cause Its fifty cents extra for straws and a dollar more for refills.” She added. As she started to scoop the popcorn up into a large plastic tub. Soon she was placing the tub on the counter. My drink soon followed along with the hot dog.

“Just for me, he's buying mine and I'm buying his.” I said, smiling sweetly as Daisy reached into her pocket and pulled out wallet.

“Fine.” The girl said punching the order. “Y'all know we only take cash, our card reader machine is down and Mr. Honor don't want to put out the money to get them fixed caused the company that does the machine is an yankee company right?” The girl informed us as finished punching in the order. Now there are two kinds of southern accents, there is the nice refined one, the one Daisy uses and then there is the one that makes you sound like you've come from the sticks. The girl was using the later. And it made my skin crawl.

“Right.” Daisy said

“Anyway y'all total comes to.. twenty dollars..” The girl said as she peered toward Daisy. “You must be that new kid that moved from Vicksburg to Benton cause he got expelled from some super private school cause he got into one to many fights. Some talk is going around school about a prince and all.” She said as she watched Daisy unfold his wallet he then pulled out a folded twenty dollar bill and handed it to the girl.

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Daisy said with a shrug.

“Right.” The girl said. “So anything else for you two, cause there is a line. And the movie is about to start in like ten, maybe fifteen minutes.” She said as she blew out a stream of hot air.

“I'll take the same thing.” Daisy said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. I beamed. It seemed Daisy was good at following instructions. I like it when a boy follows my instructions.
“Sure, buy it all out of popcorn and soda while you're at it. Cause you know other people might want popcorn and soda?” The girl said, rolling her eyes. “Oh and you might as well empty the butter machine too.”

The girl said as she filled Daisy's order.

“Hey! Why don't you change your attitude?” I said as I pulled my purse over to my side. I quickly reached in and fished out my wallet, a moment later I was pulling out a folded twenty dollar bill.

“You know.” The girl said smirking as she placed Daisy's order on the counter. “Halloween is next month right?” She said as she peered toward me. “Anyway, enjoy the movie.” She paused, “And that would like twenty dollars too.”

I quickly paid the girl and motioned for Daisy to collect his food, food in hand we both walked toward the darkened theater. Now let me tell you a little more about Plaza Twin Cinema first off they can only play two movies at a time. Our movie was on the left side by the railroad tracks. Second, the floor is sticky, like you can sometimes feel your feet getting stuck to the concrete floor. The air inside was stale and stuffy and always smelled like body sweat, stale popcorn, and farts.

The seat were old, broken, some even had stuffing coming out. Fifty years worth of chewed up gum was stuck under them. This somehow added to the charm of the place. Oh and the bathrooms always smelled of bleach, piss, and puke. But it was the only cinema in town and neither Daisy or I could drive. So going to the nicer one in Yazoo City was totally out of the question.

Anyway, once we found some empty seats the movie started. So Daisy and I had very little time to chat or you know kiss maybe, instead we ate our popcorn, drank our soda, and munched on our hot dogs. Though halfway through the movie I found my hand going into his hand. And soon we were holding hands. Now something strange happened, the moment his hand touched mine was a moment the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up and my heart started to race with the speed of a late freight train trying to make up time again.

I'm not sure how long we held hands. But the movie was three hours long and we started holding hands thirty minutes into the movie. So a good two and a half hours. Now I know holding hands is nothing major, but it's a small step, but for me, but to me, it was a major step. Anyway the movie played on and at the end Daisy turned to me and smiled.

And so we enjoyed the movie and enjoyed each other. Once the movie was over and the crowd started to empty, Daisy and I, still holding hands, started to move with the human wave. It was pushing nine when Daisy and I finally stepped out into the crowded parking lot. It must have rained while we were watching the movie because the pot holes in the parking lot were filled with rain water.

“That was fun.” I said smiling. “I've never seen a movie with another boy before. It was almost like a real date.” I said joking a little.

“Hey Cerridwen, how are you getting home?” Daisy asked as he peered over at me.

“Mom and dad are away on business.” I said. “So I'm staying with the Potters. Mom used to work with the Potters when she was a teenager, and babysat Lily and Jamie when they were little for extra spending money.”
“Cool!” Daisy said, pausing. “The Potters live on Town Creek, I'm staying with Taylor and her two moms, they live on Croft Street. The two are a stone's throw from each other.” He said peering up at the starry heavens.

I blinked, I was kind of confused and I was unsure what Daisy was driving at. Boys could be so confusing at times, it was really hard to read them. That coming from somebody who use to be a boy. Then again I think it I'd had remained a boy I would have remained asexual, you know not choosing to be attached to either boys or girls. But that was the old me, not the new me.

“Because I was hoping to walk you home.” Daisy said at last as he peered toward me.

I blinked and blinked again. I felt my mouth starting to go dry.

“Sure!” I said blushing. And with that we started to walk off into the night.

As we walked, Daisy and I once more found ourselves holding hands, but we said nothing to each other, we just walked, side by side, keeping in step with each other. Our eyes said it all though. And soon the glittering lights of downtown Benton vanished and soon we found ourselves walking down the old concrete sidewalks that ran beside the grand old houses that marked the residential area of town.

And before I knew it, I was standing in front of the small creole style cottage the Potters called home. The front porch light was on, so I knew that either Lily or Jamie or maybe both of them were in the living room, watching the old grandfather clock in the hallway, counting down the minutes till I returned.

“I enjoyed it Daisy.” I said at last as I peered toward the front porch. “We should do it again!” I quickly added.

“Sure.” Was all he said. At that moment I had hoped he would lean in and kiss me, I hoped he would, I was ready to block him, I was not ready to kiss him yet. I wanted to, I really wanted too, but something was stopping me. After all, I heard you were not supposed to kiss on the first date. And maybe this counted as a date.

“Well, I hope to see you at school on Monday.” He said as he turned away.

“See you Monday..” I said and with that I watched him vanish into the darkness. Once Daisy had vanished into the darkness I started to climb the steps and soon I was walking into the living of the Potter's house. Sitting on the sofa was of course Lily and Jamie both were dressed in nightgowns.

“You fifteen minutes late young lady.” Lily said she stood up from the sofa. “And you and Daisy had better not done anything fishy!” Lily bellowed. “I promised your mom I would look after you!”

“Calm down sis.” Jamie said as she turned toward me.

“Did you enjoy your date Cerridwen?” Jamie asked me again.

I rolled my shoulders and said nothing as I started to climb the stairs toward the guest bedroom. I left a confused Jamie and Lily behind me. Anyway that's how another stone in this long, winding road was laid. I never knew being in a relationship would be this confusing or hard.
To be continued.