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A movie here was about the cost of a soda I don’t even knohy I argued about paying my way If I really meant for Noah to be deterred, I should act like I didn’t care Arguing over everything and ignoring hi too hard I resolved to try to be friendlier and less bitchy I wanted to project an" I don’t care" attitude, not an" I’m so hurt that I can barely stand to look at you, yet I don’t want to be away fro around, I was surprised by the nuht, early on in the year I figured everyone would be at some house party, or over on Greek Street, or in one of the cairl next to me "What’s the movie?"
She looked at me like I was crazy "Lust, Caution"
"That doesn’t sound very French"
"It’s not It’s Chinese Directed by Ang Lee," She bit out each word as if I was five years old
"I thought it was a French filo of the fact that it wasn’t a French filot subtitles" With that she turned away and resu to do with half-wits and how they shouldn’t even come to subtitled movies if they weren’t serious film students
I pulled outon" Lust, Caution," but I heard a coet through to the seats I had picked out
Mike led the way, followed by Noah and then Bo When Mike started to seat hiht
"No, you sit over there," Noah directed Mike to the seat I was in "Grace, sit here" And then, as if he thought his orders would sound better, he added, "Please" I wasn’t planning on , but Mike stood there uncertainly, with Noah’s hand still gripping his other arirl," I heard from behind me "The rateful sigh and moved one seat over Everyone collapsed in their chairs, and I heard a" finally" behind us
Noas in the worst position I could i next to Noah, so I leaned into Mike as far as I could without et intimate with him I tied to portray a certain nonchalance over the fact that I was going to watch a Chinese-subtitled film with Noah Jackson I probably looked like I had overused the distortion or blur tool on ht now
"The fil Mike here, so I tried to ie I had
"Oh yeah? I just heard that it had subtitles and assuave hiht? look Then, he offered ave ato suck on the same straw he had in his mouth Who knehat kind of backwash Mike sent into the soda? Now, Noah’s drink? A couple of years ago I’d have paidhe had touched Cripes Who was I kidding? I wanted to suck on that water bottle of his until you couldn’t tell where his DNA started and an I sunk lower in the seat
The nearly three hours of sitting between Mike and Noah in the dark watching an extremely erotic film was possibly one of the most uncomfortable situations of my entire life The movie was about a female spy sent to seduce an opposition leader It was scene after scene of sexually explicit and forbidden love The first sex scene was fairly violent, and I could see Mike shift restlessly besideI could feelof e point of view, separating le of the shots and the placement of the shadows It didn’t work
As the raphic, I stopped watching I was acutely aware of Noah At one point, he propped his arm on the armrest, and I could feel the war sensation of his hair against ainst him, place my cold nose into his throat I wanted to pull his arh But I remained in my own space, arms tucked close to ht send tointo his lap to try and act out soe tension began to seep intohis hand fro up and down her with each pass, until his fingers tucked right under the fabric of s made me shift Discos
My inability to sit still didn’t go unnoticed Mike looked athis enjoyment I clenched my hands in my lap and closed my eyes, which only made it worse, because now all I could hear were sounds of the rustling sheets, the fall of the cloth onto the floor, and the crescendo of sounds, both human and instrumental The air felt thick and heavy around us, like I was breathing underwater Each breath felt labored and sounded harsh to ether
At the ht I would explode out of e, warm hand cover mine Noah’s touch was co me more anxiety, Noah’s hand soothed me I unclenched my hands The block in my throat dissolved, and I was able to take a few deep, cal breaths Each muscle that had tensed up seemed to unknot and relax
The movie went on, but I noticed little of it Instead, I focused on the tendrils of warmth that curled outward from the hand in hout the entire lanced to see if Mike had noticed, but he wasn’t paying any attention to me
The heat, the dark, the sudden cessation of panic--it all made me drowsy Noah shifted and I felt his shoulder close to my head like an invitation I looked at hiht ahead It was like his arm was detached from his body Perhaps it was ainst the shoulder that was inabout what Mike would think and allowed ness
The noise of dozens of spring-loaded seats being snapped back in place woke er in htened and tried to look like I hadn’t spent the last half of the h, as Mike was standing up and looking down at me with a puzzled expression
At least he didn’t look angry that he’d found his" date" asleep on the shoulder of another guy I wiped the sides of my mouth as surreptitiously as possible and stood up To Mike I said, "So do you want to go to the CoffeeHouse?"
Mike looked surprised, and I heard a choked-off noise behind nored both reactions and s not practiced this in front of the rimace
"Sure" Mike was either baffled byto place himself in my company for at least another hour
"Great," I heard from behind me "I’d like a coffee"
I turned then and looked at Noah "I’ll call you toht I needed to oing to do with Noah
I turned back to Mike and ht away, I pushed hihtly and his inertia dropped away
I don’t knohere Noah and Bo went, but when Mike and I exited the san the twenty-et to the coffee house on the other side
Suht air was sultry instead of cool Tall, wrought iron laency call boxes