I Can Keep a Secret If You Can Keep Me Guessing

It was the school holidays; this meant long days with nothing to do. Especially when you don’t have many friends, and the limited number you have live miles away from you. This added to my constant need to be entertained equalled calling a local cinema and asking if they had any placements. The answer was yes, and I’d be starting the next day. It was voluntary, but I didn’t mind it’d hopefully keep me occupied. It was a Friday morning and I was told over the phone I’d be helping clean the rooms after a film was finished. Fun.

I stared, looking at myself intently, inspecting every inch of my appearance in my sink mirror. My light brown hair was naturally curly coming just past my shoulders when it’s not been curled to death. I hated my hair, it was a horrible colour, and it never went the way I wanted, I always wanted to always have straight hair, but since I was up at the ungodly hour of 6.30 in the morning, straightening it wasn’t my main priority. I applied my eyeliner, thinly spread along the bottom of my eye. I hardly ever put any on the top of my eyelids, it was too much effort. Besides that and some lip gloss I never actually wore any make-up. I sighed at my reflection. I put a flower clip in my hair on the other side of my fringe. I put on my grey skinny jeans and a white strappy top; I was told I’d be given a shirt when I arrived. Something at the back of my head was telling me there was no point in getting ready. It’s not like I was dressing up for anything, or anyone for that matter.

I put on my shoes, grabbed my keys and headphones, and picked up my phone checking the time as I slid it into my jeans pocket. 6.40 am, I had to be there at 7. Luckily I only lived down the road. I made my way downstairs, heading for the kitchen. Grabbing the carton of fresh orange juice from the fridge, and drinking it straight from the carton. I wrote my Mum a note and left it on the counter next to the sink on the black polished surface tops. It was supposedly hot today, but as it ran in my family I was always cold, so tugging at the plain black hoodie that had been haphazardly thrown over the back of our kitchen chairs by myself yesterday, it released itself after being wedged between the back of the chair and or breakfast counter, it startled me as I fell backwards clumsily, cursing under my breath trying not to wake our dog up. I put on my hoodie after regaining my composure, and headed through my patio and out the front door.

The sun hit me like a bullet, piecing me through my eyes. Mumbling under my breath about how I should have worn sunglasses. I plugged my headphones into my phone and started the short walk to my new ‘work’ keeping in time with the beat coming through. I smiled slightly when the song changed as I recognized the familiar beginning melody coming through my earphones. Although I was fifteen I was still infatuated by the boy band filling my head with words and melodies... to me, Busted would never get old. Always a band to make me smile, even when left alone to the deepest corners of my mind. It alternated between songs by Busted and McFly, I was never a fan of the insane loud pop music, and it just hurt my ears. Despite this, I have always been girly and never usually wearing jeans, unless it was called for. Today was one of those days, none of my skirts were clean. So I just had to deal, feeling uncomfortable and nervous enough as it was.

I hummed along in time to the lyrics, crossing roads and making my way to the cinema keeping a steady pace. I mean I didn’t want to look eager for a job you don’t even get paid for. It was 6.55 when I arrived, figuring being a little early wouldn’t kill me I walked inside. I have been in here before, I used to come here as a kid. And I went here with friends because it was cheap and close to where I live. I stepped inside looking around and feeling everyone’s gaze land on me. I blushed, my cheeks went on fire. I hate being the centre of attention, it just makes me nervous. I walked up to an old man behind the counter and told him that I was new, and supposed to be starting this morning. He looked me up and down, nodding, he pointed towards a little deep red door in the corner with the words STAFF written clumsily in a black marker on a piece of white paper and taped to the door. I looked at it, and back at the man, biting my lip out of nervousness. He seemed to understand and glanced at me from the corner of his eye. He started walking towards the door, jerking his head in the direction of the door, suggesting he wanted me to follow him; I did as I was told. Shuffling quietly towards the door.

He opened the door carefully, pushing on it with his slightly wrinkled hands. He told whoever was in the room that I was here, I heard a ladies voice reply, telling him to let me come in. He looked at me and shrugged, pushing the door open wider, and moving back to his place behind the front desk. I walked slowly into the faded yellow room which smelt like old food about to go off. I saw a fairly young lady sitting at the table pushed into the corner of the small room, she was about 30 with straight black hair coming just up to her shoulders. She had a white shirt on and black suit pants and a grey cardigan draped over her thin frame. She smiled warmly at me, and told me to take a seat. “Hi, I’m Christina, the head boss here,” she said smiling slightly, “I know you don’t have any experience here, but to be honest it doesn’t take much to clean up, does it?” she chuckled to herself slightly. “Well, I’ll go get you a shirt, you can leave your stuff on the hanger and make yourself a cup of tea or coffee if you like?” she was genuinely trying to make me feel at home, and I felt the need to reply, as it’s rude not too. “Okay… well I don’t really like tea or coffee… to be honest, but I’ll be fine thanks.” I smiled at her. She looked back at me with a shocked expression her face. “You must be the only teenager I know that doesn’t like coffee, or can go without a morning cup of tea. Well, make yourself at home while I go find you a shirt.” I nodded and smiled politely as she left the room. I dumped my hoodie on the hook, suddenly feeling cold without it. I looked around the room. Not much there, just a few brushes shoved in the corner and a big pile of rolls of bin bags. A big whiteboard was up on the wall, naming the films down the side, and days and times across the top. It was split in a big grid. Random names in each grid. I assumed that meant who was on duty for each film.

I was pulled out of my concentration looking at the names, when Christina came back into the room, giving me a shirt, it was maroon with the name of the cinema printed onto the front of it. I put it on over my white shirt, wishing I’d worn a long sleeved top, because damn, it was cold in here. Christina looked at the board briefly, before turning to me and pointing a long finger in the direction of the room with the biggest capacity and screen, and said “Okay, so it looks like the only two people your age are in there and they’re distracted easily, trust me. They could use a hand. There’s some brushes in there with them, you’ll be fine, and they don’t bite.” She laughed, and I smiled and nodded thanks as I headed in the direction of Screen One. Taking deep breaths before I was going to open the door. I have never been blessed with the gift of making friends easily and I didn’t want to scare any new people away… plus, no one wants to make any enemies on the first day.

I braced myself for the worst, and didn’t know what to expect. I pushed one of the red doors open slowly going through the door and letting it’s springs close it behind me. The end credits of Kung-Fu Panda playing on the screen, and the speakers playing the Kung-Fu fighting song. I smiled as I slowly worked my eyes down to the bottom of the screen. To see two boys, fighting each other with their brushes, and trying to knock one another down. Well… out of everything. I was not expecting that. I smiled, just as the door shut behind me and they immediately turned their heads around to see who was intruding on their fun. That wiped the smile right of my face, my heart started beating faster. This was it. There was no going back now.