This one's for you Nicole!
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In a Dark Theater
by st0rmbringer
The four of them got together at least three times a week at Melissa's house.
She lived with her grandparents, her mother's parents. Melissa's mom and dad died in a car accident when she was just a baby. Her father didn't have any family and her mother was their youngest child so they took her in and raised her.
Her mom was the youngest of seven. She'd been a surprise pregnancy late in her grandparent's middle years. Her next youngest brother was in his late 20's when she was born.
The old couple owned a small ranch where they raised horses and a small herd of sheep. There was a large stable, a barn and half a dozen sheep pens. Their house was at the edge of town and it was amazing. It was large, rambling and airy with half a dozen bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.
Two of her uncles and an aunt lived and worked at the ranch, helping their father run it. They had homes and family in different areas of the spread. The rest of her aunts and uncles moved on to different parts of the country and had families and careers of their own.
Over the years, the four girls spent a lot of time there, hanging out, riding horses, having slumber parties, exploring the surrounding grasslands, and helping Melissa with her chores so they could go to the mall or do whatever they wanted afterwards.
They were a diverse group. Melissa was Hispanic with raven black hair, Nicole was a slim blue-eyed blonde, Anna was tiny Asian and Leticia was tall and black, but their differences only served to unite them because each of them brought a different cultural and personality dynamic to the group.
On one particular weekend, while lounging in the enormous living room in their pajamas after a sleep-over, the four girls decided to go to the movies to see the new Barbie movie. Melissa's grandma happened to overhear them from the kitchen and volunteered to pay for their tickets and snacks if they brought her and her husband along.
When they readily agreed, Grandpa's shoulders sagged and he let out a long suffering sigh.
He was a short white-haired Mexican man, with brown weathered skin, a sweet disposition, kind merry eyes, and a wide smile that made his dark wrinkled cheeks curve upwards to nearly hide his small twinkling eyes. He was stout, square and grizzled, but as active and energetic as a man half his age.
Excited at the prospect, the four girls ran to get dressed since the next showing was scheduled to start within the hour. They had just enough time to get ready, drive to the theater and settle for whatever seats were available.
Melissa's grandma was just as excited as the four girls and somehow finagled her way into Melissa's compact car. There wasn't enough room for all five of them, so one of them was the odd man out.
Nicole was left standing, gazing in consternation at Melissa's chubby white-haired grandma who smiled at her from the passenger seat and pointed at grandpa's rickety old Ford truck where the old man sat waiting patiently behind the wheel with a patient half smile on his wrinkled old face.
Nicole was the group's introvert. She was slim, athletic and very beautiful, but a bad case of acne several years before destroyed her self-confidence. Her peaches and cream complexion eventually recovered and now looked as flawless as a model's, but her insecurities lingered. She still felt like an awkward, zit-faced nerd.
She trotted around to the passenger side, opened the squealing door and sat down gingerly on the hot seat. The truck had a vinyl bench seat that had been patched so many times it was hard to tell its original color.
She clipped the seatbelt but had to stand slightly to pull her dress down as far as it would go so the vinyl seat didn't burn the back of her legs. She wore a lavender drop waist dress that hugged her slim torso and fell loose and airy down to end just above her pink knees. It was sleeveless and had a square neckline, revealing a freckled cleavage and the firm round tops of a set of perky young breasts.
Pushing her large glasses up the bridge of her nose with a long slim finger, she turned to glance shyly at the old man next her and happened to catch him staring at her long shapely legs before he snapped his head forward to stare straight ahead. She saw his brown face flush dark in embarrassment at getting caught peeking and felt her own face flush bright red in mortification.
The old man was stereotypically Mexican. He was short, maybe five foot four, several inches shorter than Nicole, dark-skinned, dark-eyed and as wrinkled as an old dried prune. His short bushy hair was as white as new fallen snow and his gnarled old hands were unnaturally large and looked as hard as iron. He had a large nose that curved down like a bird's beak.
Nicole was as excited as her friends at the prospect of watching the movie, at seeing an empowered Margot Robbie in the lead and Ryan Gosling in all his handsome glory.
Of the four girls, Nicole was the one who was still in her shell. She'd never had a boyfriend though she'd been asked out many times. The few dates she'd been on had turned disastrous so she stayed out of the dating scene. She'd never even kissed a boy and believed she'd probably stay a virgin until the day she died.
They drove after Melissa's little compact car, bouncing and swaying in the old truck as the old man gunned it hard to stay close.
Neither of them said a word.
She didn't know why, but Nicole felt unexpected butterflies in her stomach when she caught the old man stealing glances at her legs. She didn't know what to make of it. She'd never experienced something within her coiling and uncoiling, never felt that shuddery nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach and below every time she caught the old man staring at her legs.
Before long, Melissa's car was completely out of sight, lost in heavy traffic. The old man eased up on the gas and they followed more leisurely.
When they finally got to the theater, Melissa's car was parked near the entrance, but they didn't see the group standing by the ticket booth waiting for them.
