Until Tomorrow

They’d decided to at least try to be friends again. It wasn’t easy. Becca was still hurting, though she’d never admit it, and guilt was taking over Kelly almost completely. They weren’t sure where to start, and poor Whakaio and Jake were stuck in the middle, hearing both sides of the story and trying to offer up advice, with little effect. The sisters were just as stubborn as each other, and no amount of time would fix things if drastic action wasn’t taken. A truce and a quick handshake weren’t going to solve anything.

Progress between the sisters had been slow at the best of times, so Jake and Whakaio had decided to put together a plan to speed things up. A double-date of sorts, although technically, none of them were actually dating. Yet. Becca was less than impressed when she found out she and Whakaio weren’t the only ones seeing the dumb movie he’d picked out.

“I can’t believe you, Whak. How could you do this to me?” Becca complained, crossing her arms over her chest. Whakaio grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her in close to whisper in her ear.

“Just smile and get through just one night with your sister, okay?” He said. Becca rolled her eyes and just looked at him. He smiled at her and raised his eyebrows, forcing her to break her angry façade and smile right back at him. He could always get her to smile, even if she didn’t want to.

They sat down on the chairs opposite the candy bar in the lobby of the cinema as they waited for Jake and Kelly to arrive. “For the record, it could have been worse,” Whakaio said. Becca glanced sideways at him, raising a sceptical eyebrow.

“I could have just not told you, you know. Imagine them just showing up and cutting in on our little date,” Whakaio said.

“Oh, so this is a date, is it?” Becca said, a slow smile spreading across her face. Before Whakaio could come up with a witty reply, Jake and Kelly arrived at the cinema. Jake waved at the two of them excitedly, grabbing a hold of Kelly’s hand and practically dragging her over to them. She hadn’t known about the double date either.

“Hey,” she said, taking a seat next to her sister.

“Did you know about this?” Becca said, choosing to skip the greeting.

“Not until I got out of the car, about five seconds ago,” Kelly said, shooting a look at Jake. He just shrugged and smiled.

“Sorry?” He said. Kelly smiled and shook her head at him.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s gonna be fun. So, what movie are we seeing?”

“Some action movie with blood and guts and explosions,” Becca said.

“I take back everything I just said about this being fun,” Kelly said with a grimace. Becca laughed; a real one.

“Come on,” she said, leading the way to the candy bar. “We’ll stock up on popcorn and hope to God the movie at least features a few good-looking guys.”

Kelly shook her head and smiled at her sister as they got popcorn and started walking back over to where the boys were waiting for them. Becca glanced over at Kelly with a hopeful smile on her face. She had been noticing how hard she’d been trying with her over the last couple of weeks. Actually, ever since she’d been back. Becca knew she’d been harsh on her sister, but had convinced herself that shutting her out was justified by the fact that Kelly had bailed on her for a whole year. As she looked over at her sister, who was talking about British actors with popcorn in her mouth, it was almost like nothing has changed. Almost.

“I’ve missed this,” Becca said, smiling genuinely at her sister.

“Me too,” Kelly replied, nudging her shoulder and smiling.

“See, bro? What’d I tell you? The plan’s already working,” Jake said with a grin, jabbing Whakaio in the ribs with his elbow.

“Becca’s still gonna get me for it later,” he said.

“Without a doubt,” Jake replied with a lopsided grin.

The four of them entered the cinema, and before arguing about where to sit for a few moments, sat in the centre of the very back row. As the movie started, Kelly settled into her seat, stealing a glance at Becca, who was next to her; the boys sat on either side of the girls.

During the movie, Kelly couldn’t help but notice the weird way Jake had rested his hand on the armrest of his seat, right beside Kelly. Did he expect her to hold his hand when the movie got too ‘scary’ for her? Action movies didn’t scare Kelly – nothing much did, except for maybe holding hands with Jake. It was a simple gesture, sure, but Kelly knew better than anyone what such an innocent act could lead to. And she didn’t know if she was ready to start anything with Jake yet. Still, she found herself faking a stretch, and placing her hands back down on the seat, ‘accidentally’ brushing her left hand against Jake’s. He took a hold of hers quickly, like it was what he’d been waiting for the whole time. Kelly couldn’t help but smile, and was dying to look at him, but instead restrained herself and focused on the movie.

Whakaio was much more subtle than Jake, but Becca still noticed, of course. Whakaio could never get anything past her. Becca leaned over to whisper in his ear, a huge smirk on her face. “I think your hand is broken, you should probably see a doctor about that,” she said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, the way it’s just sitting there on the seat right next to my leg. Honestly. It just looks a bit demented. Are you sure you haven’t snapped a finger or two? I hear hairline fractures are a bitch.”

Whakaio laughed and rolled his eyes, before taking Becca completely off guard by abandoning his hand-holding mission to wrap his arm around her shoulders instead. Becca started to laugh and Whakaio covered her mouth with his hand to shut her up before the serious movie-goers started to complain and the cinema staff kicked them out.

This was it. This was the moment Whakaio was finally going to tell his best friend how he felt about her. He looked at her and held his breath for a moment, his heart beating erratically before, just like that, he sighed, and lost his nerve.

“For the record, I think you are great,” Whakaio whispered in her ear. Becca smiled into his hand which was still covering her mouth. She moved his hand away and stared into his eyes.

“For the record, I think you’re pretty damn great, too.”