The Moment I Knew

It was a few days after my birthday and I decided not to leave Dylan. I couldn’t. He meant too much to me. I realize that by making this decision, I’ll most likely end up hurt in the end. But hey, if it meant I could hold on to him for that much longer, I was okay with it. After the long conversation we had that night, he asked if it was okay if he came over. He could obviously tell I needed comfort. He showed up about 15 minutes later and brought my favorite movie, She’s The Man. We watched it together and it felt like nothing changed. But I think we both knew nothing was going to be the same.

Every Saturday night we went on a date, and we took turns choosing what we would do. It was Dylan’s turn. He decided it would be fun to go see a movie since we rarely do that anymore. Usually our dates consist of either going out to eat, bowling (Dylan’s favorite activity), or just taking a long drive somewhere and talking. Personally, I loved just talking to him. His mind was the most beautiful thing. I loved the way he was passionate about so many things. He could go on for hours about anything, if you got him started. And it was the most adorable thing when he would start to tell me a story; he would situate himself so he’s sitting up straight and start with,”Well,”. I don’t know why, but that made my stomach turn inside out.

Since Dylan got to chose the date, I got to chose the movie. I hated thrillers to the point where if it were up to me they wouldn’t even exist. But, knowing it was Dylan’s favorite, I chose a thriller to watch.

“Hey, sweetie!” Dylan called to me from the concession stand. “Do you want sour patch kids or crunch bites?” I laughed and held up my pointer finger to signal him to wait. I turned back to the ticket booth.

“Two tickets to see A Cabin in the Woods, please.” I smiled at the elder lady. She nodded and handed me the tickets.

“Enjoy, you lovebirds.” She smiled at me. I politely smiled back. I skipped my way over to Dylan, handing him his ticket.

“Which do you want?” He asked as he took my hand in his, intertwining our fingers. My heart skipped a beat.

“Both.” I smiled sweetly and pecked his cheek. “If that’s okay, of course.” I pulsed my hand into his. He looked down at me and let a smile play on his lips. He nodded.

We got our candy and beverages and made our way into the dimly lit cinema. Dylan took my hand and led me to the back, where he always liked to sit. Not only because in his opinion it was the best view of the screen, but also because it was private. The lights soon turned out and the booming sounds of horror music started playing, making me nervous. I don’t know why these kind of movies bother me so much.

Not very long into the movie, Dylans’ arm was already around me and my face was buried in it. Seeing gorey kind of stuff made me nauseous. Next thing I know, Dylans’ phone was going off like crazy. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. He took a glance at the screen and sighed.

“I have to take this,” He said. “I’ll be right back.” He pulled his arm away so quickly I almost fell into the armrest. I felt like my comfort-zone was gone. I looked at the screen for a quick moment and looked away as fast as I could. Gross. I sulked in my seat and covered my eyes with the sleeves of the sweatshirt I was wearing. Dylan gave it to me senior year in high school. He was on the basketball team, and one of the rules during the championship game was to give the team sweatshirts to your significant other. I will never forget that night.

I sat there in the dark room for what seemed like forever until he finally came back. He seemed off. He didn’t put his arm back around me. He was stiff. I looked up at him, my stare demanding him to look back. He didn’t budge. I poked him on his shoulder and he barely blinked.

“Hey,” I whispered, inching closer to him. “Is everything okay?” He continued to stare straight ahead as he answered me.

“Yeah, but I kind of have to leave.” I saw him fidgeting around with his jacket. Next thing I know he was standing and half-way out of the aisle. He turned around and mouthed ‘I love you.’ I mouthed it back, though it didn’t feel right. Why did he just leave me here? In the 2 years we’ve been dating, he’d never done anything to this extreme. Leaving me stranded in a theatre during a horror film? He knew how these things made me. When it comes to being left alone I get terrible anxiety. He drove me here. How was I supposed to get home?

I gathered my things as fast as I could and got my ass out of there. I stood outside of the theatre as a light mist was showering my face, cooling me down. I scrambled my hands inside my pocket, trying to find my phone. I called my mom and dad and neither of them answered. Shit! I forgot, tonight’s their date night, and we agreed not to try and call each other and ‘disrupt’ each other's’ time. I continued to look through my contacts and my head was spinning. If I were to walk home, who knows what could happen. First of all, it was starting to rain. Downpour, even. Second, it was pitch black on the road I lived on, which would make it more difficult to get home. Third, I’m scared.
Brian! I doubt he was doing anything at the moment. No offense to him or anything. I quickly dialed his number and breathed a sigh of relief as I heard him say,”Hey, Elle! What’s up?”

“Brian,” I felt my throat forming a lump. I coughed slightly. “Do you mind picking me up? I’m sort of stranded here at the downtown theatre..” I trailed off. I heard some fuzzy noises and it sounded like he was breaking up. I started to panic.

“I’ll be right there.”