Day 14
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Something came up, maybe next time.
Dejection was a familiar feeling, especially with her sort-of-but-not-really boyfriend: Sasuke. He seemed to make a pastime of only doing things on his schedule and dropped plans at the last second like they were going out of style. They hadn’t been official or anything, making it hard for her to confront him about his flakiness, but she had hoped that her invite to the movies might’ve given them a chance to see if this was going anywhere.
“I guess not...” she mumbled to herself as she slid further down the movie theater chair.
Sakura had arrived at the movie theater thirty-five minutes before the start of the film – at his request – gotten the biggest bucket of popcorn they had, a fizzy something to quench her thirst, and had saved the best two spots in the theater for herself and her…well, date. She’d been waiting for a text from him, or to see him file in with the rest of the crowd, but got stood up instead.
“Could’ve let me know before I paid,” she huffed to herself, a fistful of buttery popcorn shoved into her mouth before she mumbled around her food, “Whatever.”
She settled into her seat, the rows slowly filling in around her, and resigned to watch the movie alone.
…
He had thought that he recognized her.
Walking in with his siblings, Gaara had noticed a woman in the middle of the theater; hood of her sweatshirt pulled over her head and sunk down into her seat like she was trying to become one with it. Bucket too big for just one person, jacket thrown over the seat next to her, and a distinct fray of pink hair peeking out from the edges of her hood, Gaara immediately recognized her as a good friend of his colleague and the cutie that had been at his buddy’s birthday celebration the month before.
With his brother and sister climbing the steps to their usual spot at the back of the theater, Gaara stepped into the middle rows and walked up to Sakura. Temari and Kankuro were confused but went to their seats before someone else took them.
“Hey stranger,” he greeted mildly, grinning at her a little when she looked up at him.
She looked hesitant at first, but then she appeared to recognize him, and she smiled back. “Oh, hey,” she said as she sat up in her seat and pulled down her hood. Her hair was a mess under it and she tried smoothing it out. “Gaara, right?”
“The one and only,” he said in jest, earning a little snicker from her. “How’ve you been, Sakura?” he asked, wanting her to know that he hadn’t forgotten her name. “It’s been while.”
She shrugged, a polite smile still held on her face, and her eyes flickered over to the jacket in the empty seat at her side. “It’s been good, you?”
Gaara nodded. “Been good,” he said before pointing over to the very same seat. More people were starting to file in around them now and seats were quickly filling. “That one taken?”
“Uh…” Sakura said as she studied the jacket, her hand gripped around her cellphone and thoughts passing clearly behind her eyes. “No,” she eventually settled on before repeating herself with a little more certainty. “No, it’s not. Care to sit?” She began to gather her jacket in her arms and pulled her knees in so that he could get around her and sit on her other side.
“Thanks,” he said as he removed his own jacket and took his seat. He grabbed a handful of popcorn from her and made himself comfortable. “You usually watch movies alone?” he asked. He knew the answer, she had been saving a seat for someone and he’d expected to be told that it was taken, but when she gave it to him without protest, he figured someone must’ve cancelled.
She looked down at the bowl of popcorn and pursed her lips. “No,” she admitted quietly, but didn’t want to say that she’d been ditched by the same guy for the third time since trying to date him. “I just felt like it.”
Bullshit, Gaara thought, but he wasn’t going to complain. “You must be really big horror fan,” he pondered.
Suppressing her grimace, she nodded with a forced smile. She had only suggested this movie because she knew how much Sasuke liked them, she wasn’t really a fan herself. If she hadn’t already purchased her ticket and overpriced food, she would have left the moment her plans fell through. “Love it.”
From the back of the theater, Temari and Kankuro had found their seats and watched as Gaara chatted up the young woman below them, then she moved her jacket, then he sat down. “Who the fuck is that?” Kankuro asked, dumbfounded, and Temari shook her head and pulled out her phone.
We watchin this or nah?
From his jeans pocket, Gaara’s phone chimed and they saw him pull it out to look. He opened his texts, paused a second, then typed something before he put it back in his pocket.
“I think he responded,” Kankuro said, and looked over to his sister’s phone when the reply came though.
Fuck off.
Temari scoffed and Kankuro snickered, “What a dick.”
While they waited for the movie to start, the two of them tried their best with the movie trivia scrolling over the screen, Gaara made a couple jokes – terrible ones – and helped Sakura to laugh a little again and relax. When the lights dimmed, Sakura sunk into her seat as the resonating surround sound of the title screen filled the room; the movie was starting.
She should’ve just left. Sasuke was supposed to sit next to her, maybe even offer some comfort during a difficult scene or hold her hand when he saw her get frightened. Now she just anticipated making an embarrassment of herself.
Not just a horror movie, but a thriller as well, Sakura spent most of the two-hour run time with her hood pulled up around her ears to muffle the sounds and had squinted her eyes as to avoid the scariest parts. She didn’t outright want to cover them in front of Gaara, how silly would that be? They shared the popcorn, Gaara mooched off her drink, he had a habit of putting his feet over in her space or bumping her elbow with his own. There was once during a quieter scene that she had whispered a question about the plot to him – no doubt due to her lack of actually watching the movie – and he’d leaned over to whisper back. The warmth of his skin so close to hers and his breath against her ear made sure she hadn’t heard a word of what he’d said. She nodded anyway, pulled on the drawstring of her hood, and stared straight ahead at the screen after that.
When the credits rolled and the theater lights came halfway back on, the people around them started to get up, the quiet space now echoing the murmurs of the everyone filing out. Sakura leaned forward, about to grab her jacket, but Gaara put a hand on her arm and halted her.
“Wait,” he said, still looking at the screen. “There’s usually an after-credit scene.”
She sat back down and waited for the credits to finish, taking sidelong glances at him from beside her.
She’d been surprised to see a familiar face approach her before the movie, and for a split second she had thought his greeting may have come from Sasuke. But she supposed it being Gaara was for the best, she was still upset and felt hurt over how she kept feeling strung along and, maybe, if it had been Sasuke, she would’ve said something choice that she might come to regret. In the dim light of the theater, though, after watching through the movie with him, Sakura came to notice that Gaara did have a certain appeal.
The credits ended and the scene began; an old truck slowly driving down a dirt road through the woods, it was dark, and the driver got out of the vehicle upon being stopped at a gate in the road. The headlights of the truck shown on a sign affixed to the gate; Private Property! Trespassers Beware! Sakura groaned quietly and looked away. From her side, Gaara tried not to laugh at her. The driver tugged on the chain that bound the gate to the post, and then, once the scene changed, all that could be heard over the forested mountains panning to the setting sun in the distance was the sudden and terrified scream of the driver before all went silent, and the screen went black.
“Tsk.” Sakura glanced over her to see Gaara looking disappointed and shaking his head. “Of course, they’re gonna milk this for a sequel,” he muttered before stretching his arms over his head and kicking his feet out in front of him.
Sakura twisted the end of her straw between her fingers, the soda long since gone and the ice already melted and drank. “Didn’t you like it?” she asked.
He looked over at her, head lolled to the side, his expression skeptical. “Did you?”
Sakura looked down, an embarrassed little smile threatening to show. “It was fine.” She grabbed her jacket and put the empty soda cup into the popcorn bucket, it was nearly gone anyway. “Thanks for sitting with me,” she said. “I’ll see you around?”
Gaara had stood with her and wrapped himself in his jacket. “Well, sure,” he said casually. “But I was going to ask if you wanted to grab something to eat.”
She pondered this for a moment and took out her phone. The time shown as 7:42pm, she’d missed a phone call from her mom during the movie, and no one else had texted her. Not even to say he was sorry for missing their date. Sakura felt her heart sink a little, could she even call it a date if he didn’t seem to want her? At least Gaara had sat with her so she wasn’t alone through the whole film, maybe having dinner together wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“Okay,” she said, having not noticed the way that Gaara discretely peered at her phone screen to see her notifications. “Where to?”
Gathering their jackets and their trash, Sakura led the way for them out of the theater. As she descended the stairs and he followed after her, Gaara turned around to where his sister and his brother were standing in the back of the theater watching him leave, the both of them with hands up in the air in question with it written all over their faces; dude, where are you going?
He sent a sneer their way and flicked them the bird, his sister rolled her eyes and Kankuro gave him an encouraging thumbs up.
Not wanting to be too forward, Gaara got in Sakura’s car with her and showed her a spot nearby that had something for everyone. It wasn’t a fancy place, but the atmosphere at night was quiet and the bar crowd wouldn’t show up until the kitchen closed. They opted to sit at the bar, too, it’s not like they were staying all night, and looked over the menu. Gaara had come here often with his siblings, they still did a lot of things together, and he told Sakura the items that his family liked best.
When their food came, they chatted about the movie and Gaara was asking how she liked the other movies in the franchise, if she had a preferred horror director or an old classic that was a favorite. Eventually, after a series of questions she simply couldn’t bullshit her way through, Sakura did end up admitting that no, she wasn’t really a fan of horror.
Not looking too surprised, and appearing to have been dying to ask, he followed up her admission with the question, “Who was supposed to sit there, anyway?”
“Oh, uh…” Sakura looked down to her plate and picked up a french-fry to swirl in her ketchup. Figuring she wasn’t good enough at lying to deny being stood up, she at least wasn’t going to admit it was by a guy. “No one.”
“No one, huh?” Gaara said as he leaned back on his barstool and observed the flustered blush that was settling across her face. “Well, I hope you tell No One that I had a good time sitting in his seat.”
Sakura sighed and forced a smile in fair defeat. She gripped her glass in her hands and sucked her teeth. “I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again.”
“Lucky me,” he said with a smirk, earning him a quizzical look from his dining guest. “I was starting to worry I’d have a jealous boyfriend after me.”
She scoffed and waved the notion away, and not long after, her plate was cleared, and her water was gone. Again, Sakura grabbed her jacket and moved to stand from the bar. “Well, I should probably get going,” she said before asking the bartender, “Can I close out my tab?”
He nodded and went to print her bill.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said turning back to Gaara. He was grabbing his jacket too, had motioned the bartender for his bill as well. “Thanks for the company.”
He threw his jacket on and pulled out his card when the bill came. “Together, please,” he said as he passed over his card. Sakura tried to refuse; he shouldn’t be paying for her. “Consider us even,” he said. “I did eat most of your popcorn, and that stuff isn’t cheap.”
Still a little unsure, she allowed the bartender to take her bill along with his card. “Thanks,” she said while he waited for the receipt. “I’ll see you later?”
Gaara nodded. “Anytime you want,” he offered, a sly smirk forming on his face as he scribbled his signature. But then he looked back over at her, his expression turned down a little, perhaps even pouting. “But are you really gonna just walk out of our first date like that?”
Sakura froze, mind going a little blank at what he had said. “Wha – what?”
Gaara took his card back from the bartender and put his wallet back in his pocket. He adjusted his jacket and pointed to the door. “Come on, I know a good place for cocktails a few blocks away.”
He began walking over to the exit, Sakura was still confused and didn’t know how to respond to him. “Wait,” she managed to say. “I don’t–”
“Do you not want to?” he asked, turning to face her and dropping the casual confidence he’d been directing at her all evening, his expression turning genuine in the face of her potential refusal.
Sakura pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. This was not how she expected the day to go, but she knew Gaara, albeit barely, they had common friends and had been introduced before. It’s not like she was going somewhere with a total stranger, plus…
She turned away from him, half to look through her purse, half to hide her blush. “Let me, um,” she stammered, finally finding her phone and turning on the display.
Sorry, reschedule for tomorrows showing?
With a moment’s pause, she stared at the text notification and weighed the feeling of excitement she’d just had against the sinking feeling in her chest from the text. One certainly struck a deeper chord than the other, yet one had given her the company when the other had not.
She turned around and looked back at Gaara. “Let me call my mom, she likes it when I check in.”
Seeming satisfied, Gaara smiled and threw a playful wink her way, enjoying the way she turned her face to hide the reddening of her cheeks. “Say hi to Mom for me.”
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