Fun fact: Immy is a living garbage disposal. The girl was currently carrying a jumbo popcorn, two bags of M&Ms, licorice, and a large coke. "Hey, Prom Queen, could you grab the door for me?" Dylan chuckled a little and held the theater door for others. Ruben was the last one through, stopping just inside and crossing his arms. Her eyebrows drew together, "Can I help you?" He just glared in response so she rolled her eyes and walked around him.
She caught up with the others just as they were taking their seats. Immy looked up as Dylan sat down next to Dallas. She thought the other girl may have smiled to herself and Dylan frowned at her. Ruben plunked down in the next seat as the trailers started. He leaned over, "You and I need to have a little chat after this." He leaned back and gave her a smirk before turning his attention to the screen.
She scooted as far away from him as she could in her seat. She didn't remember who she sat next to until she had practically glued herself to Dallas's side. He flinched at the unexpected contact and looked down at her, surprise evident in his expression. Her ears on fire she scooted away, centering herself in the seat, trying desperately to ignore the urge to curl into a ball. This was a terrible, horrible mistake.
By the time the movie began, she realized that it was highly unlikely the chair would actually swallow her whole so she would just have to pretend that she was completely comfortable. It was easier to pretend once she became engrossed in the explosions, fight scenes, and trying to figure out who the bad guy was before the movie revealed it.
At around halfway through the film, Tom's character crept down a dark hallway, gun in hand. It was obvious a jump scare was coming and she reached for the arm of the chair only to find it already taken up by a much bigger arm. She glanced over and drew her hand back, hoping he hadn't noticed, when the scare came.
She yipped in fright, jolting back and latching on to Dallas's arm, no longer caring what he thought of her. He shifted under her death grip but didn't say or do anything so she stayed like that for the rest of the movie.
The lights came up as the credits started and William jumped up from his seat and darted to the other side of Ruben as a shower of popcorn and licorice flew over their heads. "I swear, Will, drink out of my cup one more time I dare you," Immy growled at him. She stood up with her popcorn tub and occupied the seat Will had vacated. Dallas rolled his eyes and reached into the tub, pulling out a hand full of licorice pieces, popcorn, and M&Ms. "Hey, buy your own," Immy snapped, smacking his arm.
Dylan let go of Dallas, thinking this was a great time to pretend that never happened. She slid away from him, looking over at Ruben as he snorted. He gave her a pointed look, arching a brow, and she glared at him. She stood and stretched, "I'm going to the restroom."
She shimmied around Ruben who refused to move his legs and trotted down the steps. It crossed her mind that this might have all been an elaborate ploy to strand her at the movie theater and she mentally berated herself for being so mean as to judge them by the rumors when most of them had been nothing but nice to her. Most being the operative word.
What had Ruben meant when he said they need to chat? Was he planning to threaten her to stay away from them? This was the only possibility she could come up with because, well, what else would he want to talk to her, of all people, about? She decided there was no use in worrying about what Ruben wanted, whatever it was she'd find out sooner or later.
She was washing her hands when a group of girls from the volleyball team came in. One of them, a tall, Hispanic girl named Camilla, was in her English class. She spotted Dylan over one of her friend's shoulders, "Dylan, hey, what's up?"
Dylan gave her a smile, "Hey, Cam, not much, how are you guys?"
"Oh, we're great," she chirped, "We're about to go see that new romcom."
Dylan's eyes lit up, "You mean the one with Kristen Bell? I've been dying to see that."
One of the others, Jenny if Dylan remembered right, piped up, "You should totally join us."
"Sorry, I'm actually here with some.. er, friends or people, I guess," she said, unsure exactly what she should call the members of WEIRD, "We just saw the latest Tom Cruise movie and their my ride, so I gotta get back to them, but we should totally do something some other time."
Jenny nodded enthusiastically, "Of course!"
Dylan grinned at them and pulled out her phone, "Let's exchange numbers and we can organize something." Jenny took the phone and put her number in. After she handed it back, Dylan gave them a parting wave.
Exiting the bathroom, she spotted Dallas sitting a few feet away. He was concentrating on something on his phone. She twisted her hair up in a bun as she walked over. Looping a hair tie around her hair, she bumped his leg with her foot. After that she realized that they were definitely not at that level of friendship. Or any level of friendship.
He looked up at her with a light scowl. He stood up, tucking his phone in the back pocket of his jeans, "Come on." She didn't bother asking where they were going, figuring she'd already made enough of a fool of herself. They headed for the small arcade attached to the theater. They found the others playing a couple pinball machines.
Ruben and Immy were currently playing while Will watched over their shoulders. "Come on, Immy, you have to win this time," Will plead, jabbing Ruben in the side.
Ruben threw an elbow back into Will's stomach, "Never gonna happen." Immy tried to hip check him but just ended up almost missing the ball. "What's happening?" Dylan asked nobody in particular.
"Pinball competition," Dallas replied.
"It's a tradition of ours, Immy, Ruben, and Eli usually play. They all start their machines at the same time, last one playing wins. No rules. Ruben's never lost a game," Will supplied as Immy attempted to stamp on Ruben's foot after he tried to sweep her feet out from under her.
She managed to get the ball to one side so she could shove Ruben away from his machine. He almost lost it but managed to hit the button to spring the ball back up. He then snagged Immy by the waist and tossed her away. She shrieked at him and he stuck his tongue out at her, "You're the one that suggested no rules." Immy bared her teeth at him then stalked towards the exit grumbling and William hurried after her. Dylan giggle, glancing up at Dallas who was watching Immy go with a grin. He looked down, eyes sparkling, "We better catch up or she'll leave without us."
They turned to go but Ruben put a hand on her shoulder, "You go on ahead, Dylan and I need to talk for a minute." Dallas narrow his eyes at Ruben for a moment then turned his attention to Dylan. He looked like he would say something for a minute but then he turned and walked away. Ok then. She turned to Ruben, "Sooo.. what do you want?" His stare turned icy, "What's your game?"
"What?"
"What's your angle? Why are you hanging around us?"
She crossed her arms and squinted at him, "No offense, but what the heck are you talking about? First of all, I'm not hanging around you guys, Immy invited me to come so I came, I've literally only spoken to you guys one other time. Second of all, I don't have an angle, I'm not some super villian or whatever you think I am, and lastly, why are you being such a jagweed?"
His eyes widened and he stared for a minute, "Did you just call me a jagweed? What the hell is a jagweed?"
"I don't swear," she huffed.
Ruben snorted, "Of course, you don't swear, why would little Miss Perfect swear."
"Don't call me that."
"Don't call you what?" he said, stepping towards her, "Little Miss Perfect? Golden Girl? Prom Queen? Elle Woods? Does it bother you when people call you on your crap?"
"What are you even talking about! I never said I was perfect, I am definitely not perfect," she said, a little taken aback, "And what crap are you referring to?"
"Your whole damn high and mighty act," he said, waving a hand in a wild gesture, "You walk around like you own the damn school with your little friend whose so lucky as to be graced with Her Majesty's time."
"I sure hope for your sake you aren't talking about Rebel because I don't care who you are or who you're friends with, if you ever insult her, I will rearrange your face," she growled at him, shaking a little.
He rolled his eyes, "Oh please, you expect me to believe your actually friends with her? She follows you around like a sad little lost puppy."
Dylan suddenly felt a wave of calm wash over her, her breathing was still jagged but her shoulders relaxed, "You know what, I'm sorry my presence in your pathetic, hateful, little life offended you so greatly that you feel the need to attack my best friend over it, so I'll tell you what, I'm gonna go get in car, I'm gonna get a ride back to school, and then you're," she jabbed a finger in his chest, "never, ever going to speak to me again and I, sure as sunshine, am never going to speak to you, but if I ever hear about you spreading crap about Rebel, there will be no rock you can hide under where I won't find you, you got that?"
He stayed silent, possibly as stunned as she was by her out burst. But there were lines you didn't cross, and insulting the people she cared about was one of them. "I'll take your silence as a yes." She whirled on her heel and stormed out of the building. She got into the back seat, finding the others already waiting. Perhaps sensing her foul mood or realizing simply by reading the 'talk and you'll die' sign currently blinking above her head, no one said a word the whole ride back to school.
Once they pulled into the parking lot she unclipped her seatbelt and did her best to smile, "Thank you for inviting me, I had a really good time." It came out a bit more forced than she would have liked but it was the best she could manage at the moment. She got out of the car and rounded to the trunk. She heard a door open and close as someone else got out of the car. Dallas silently popped the latch and grabbed her backpack. He handed it to her and she met his eyes just long enough to thank him. He, once again, looked like he might say something but she turned and muttered goodbye before he got the chance.
To her surprise, she actually made it the whole way to her car before she started crying. The tears made it difficult to get the key in the door of her old bug but she managed regardless. Leaning her head against the steering wheel, she waited for the unusual fury she felt to pass. She was rarely angry and hadn't been driven to the point of tears since she was a preteen. She felt stupid just sitting there, crying her eyes out because someone had said some mean things to her. But there she was, never the less.
Come on, Dylan, you're a big girl, she chastised herself. She sighed pulling out her phone and reading the notifications on screen, something she'd somehow neglected to do earlier.
A big girl who forgot to tell her family where she was.
She took a couple deep breaths, preparing herself to deal with the wreckage she'd undoubtedly, accidentally caused on account of her phone being on silent all afternoon. She decided it was pointless to call now and tossed her phone in the passenger seat before putting the key in the ignition.
Here we go.