When Friday night rolled around, Michelle found herself at her open wardrobe, considering all the possible outfits she could wear.
“It’s a date, Mich,” Haley’s voice traveled through her phone, which she’d set on her nightstand. “You’re supposed to dress nice.”
She had been on a group call with her best friends. As the time for the outing drew near, Michelle had put them on speaker to free her hands for getting ready.
“You can just dress normally, I think,” Sylvie, Queen of I-Wear-Whatever-I-Feel-Like, said. “It’s not like she’s a total slob on a regular day, right?”
“I mean, does Caledon care?” Haley said. “If not, I guess it doesn’t matter if you dress like a slob.”
“Hey,” Michelle said. “Can you guys wait till I get off the call to start judging my everyday wear?”
“Why did you wait until fifteen minutes before the date to choose your outfit, anyway? Don’t you normally pick them the day before?” That was Autumn.
Fishing out her favorite black jeans, Michelle held it at an arm’s length to examine it.
“No way,” Sylvie said. “You do that? I just wear whatever I feel like. Jordan says he doesn’t care what I wear.”
“But even if he cared, wouldn’t you just wear whatever you wanted anyway?” Haley said.
Sylvie laughed. “True.”
“But fifteen minutes is just too last minute!”
“Should I wear jeans?” she contemplated aloud.
“You wear that almost every day at school,” Haley said.
“And your point is?”
“Dates are where you switch things up, you know? When you wear something people typically don’t get to see you in, and then your date is like, wow, you look so different today,” Autumn said.
Haley laughed. “Hey, remember that time you gave this exact same advice to Sylvie, and then she showed up on her first date with Jordan in that bird mascot-style costume?”
Michelle grinned at the memory of her friend recounting the whole situation to her. Jordan had been so confused the whole time, especially when Sylvie popped off the costume head to consume a crepe.
Amusement tinged Autumn’s voice. “I know I’ve asked this question a lot of times already, but seriously, what were you thinking?”
“I don’t know! You said wear something different!”
“Yes, but I meant like in a nice way, not in a bizarre way.”
Haley chortled. “You put so much effort into the weirdest places!”
“Okay, I’ll switch it up,” Michelle announced, rummaging around her hanging clothes to find her vermilion midi flared skirt.
“Ooh, what are you going to wear?” Autumn said.
“A shirt and a skirt.”
“I think the last time I saw you in a skirt was last year,” Sylvie commented.
“Stop exaggerating. I know I wore one just last month.”
While her friends chattered on, she searched for a suitable white shirt to match it. Once she found it, she began changing into her new outfit.
“I’m going to the toilet for a bit,” Michelle said.
“’Kay,” Haley said.
In the bathroom, she popped in her signature purple color contacts with practiced ease, covering up her light brown eyes. Since her freshman year in Waterbrook High, she’d been wearing them to correct her myopia instead of glasses.
It was boring to only wear plain contacts, so she decided to try wearing colored ones. Unlike the other common eye colors like blue, practically nobody was born was purple eyes, and it would be interesting to have them. That had been her reasoning for choosing purple contacts, and she ended up sticking with it well after two years.
“I’m going to leave now,” she announced when she returned to her room.
She’d gotten a text notification from Caledon, stating that he’d just arrived.
“Okay!”
“Have fun!”
“Thanks, I hope I will!”
If the movie was good, at least she’d be able to have a good time.
“Wait, what did she just say?” she heard Autumn say before she left the call.
He was waiting for her in his dad’s car, which he’d pulled up outside her house. She waved and hurried over.
Michelle opened the car door and got in, saying, “Hey, thanks for picking me up.”
“No problem,” he said with an easy smile.
She scrutinized his outfit while he was still seated in the driver’s seat, noting his gray tee and jeans. He didn’t look any different from how he normally looked at school.
Why had she even bothered dressing up in the first place?
Rachel, Jennifer, and Scarlett were happy to see her when they showed up at the movie theater. It made Michelle just that little bit more comfortable around Caledon’s crowd, and she smiled back at him when he asked her what she wanted to eat.
“We’re sharing that large popcorn, right?” she said. “I’ll split the cost with you.”
“Thanks. Do you like buttered or salted popcorn?”
“What do you like?” she asked.
Michelle generally liked both but occasionally had cravings for a particular coating. Tonight, it was salted popcorn.
“Buttered,” he said. “I don’t really like salted popcorn. It doesn’t taste as good.”
Llyod, who had evidently overheard him, said, “Yeah, but that’s because you have bad taste.”
She snickered.
“Anyway,” Caledon said in a louder voice, “what about you?”
There wasn’t any point in them sharing if he had to eat something he didn’t like. She considered asking for a mixed bucket but decided against suggesting it because there was something about the inconsistency in taste that turned her off. While she would have mentioned her current craving to any of her best friends, she wasn’t that familiar with Caledon yet.
She nodded. “Okay, buttered it is.”
He looked pleased. “Really?”
“Yep,” she said. “I like it too.”
They waited in line together for their food and drinks. When it was their turn, Caledon placed the order as she nodded absently, sending the huge glass display of salted popcorn wistful glances.
She would get that the next time, she told herself.
At the payment stage, he brought out his wallet. “I can pay for it first.”
“Thanks. I’ll pay you my share later.”
She hugged the large bucket of popcorn to her. “I’ll hold the popcorn!”
“I’ll get the drink then,” he said, taking the large cup off the counter. “Are we sharing a straw, or do you want your own?”
She shrugged. “I don’t mind sharing.”
She was used to sharing beverages, especially off-menu drinks, with a couple of her coworkers that she was close to at work.
“Alright.”
They left the counter with their food to rejoin the others. Scarlett and Marcus were trying to break a candy bar in half. Next to them, Jennifer and Llyod were already taking turns to share their large drink. Rachel was holding onto Dennis’ arm, snuggled up against his side. She smiled at Michelle when they locked eyes.
“She was pretty cute,” Caledon said, picking out a piece of popcorn from the bucket Michelle was holding.
He popped it into his mouth.
“Wait, who?” she asked, mildly confused.
She’d been eyeing the salted popcorn glass section so intensely that she had no idea who Caledon was referring to.
“The girl behind the counter. I think I’ve seen her in school.”
“Oh, really?” She craned her neck to try to catch sight of the aforementioned cute girl.
Her attempts were blocked by a bunch of guys who were crowding the front of the counter.
Beside them, Scarlett’s and Rachel’s jaws dropped. Even the guys looked a little stunned by his offhand remark. Compared to the rest of them, Llyod and Jennifer recovered quickly from their shock and had tiny grins of amusement on their faces.
“You don’t say that in front of your girlfriend!” Scarlett hissed, looking extraordinarily offended. “What is wrong with you?”
Michelle started, caught off-guard by everyone else’s reactions.
“Um…” she said, but nobody seemed to have heard her.
“Why would you say that?” Rachel demanded.
“Huh?” her boyfriend said.
As he shook his head, Marcus placed a hand on Caledon’s shoulder. “Oh, dude…”
Dennis spoke in a lower volume, but it was still very audible. “R.I.P., man.”
“What? What do you mean?” Caledon said, clear bewilderment on his face.
Scarlett gently pulled her off to the side and said, “I’m so sorry, Michelle. Caledon’s a nice guy, really. I don’t know why he said that.”
Rachel followed them closely. “Yeah, I hope you’re okay.”
Touched as she was that they were paying her so much attention—this was the most she’d gotten from friends in months!—Michelle was also nonplussed by everything. They both peered at her with concern in their eyes.
“Yeah,” she said, taking the opportunity to eat some popcorn, “yeah, I’m okay.”
“Dude,” she heard Llyod saying behind them, “you don’t say that another girl is cute in front of your girlfriend.”
“What? Wait, really?”
“And especially not without following up with saying that she’s cuter in your eyes than anyone else,” Dennis said. “You dead, man.”
“This is such a basic relationship thing. I can’t believe he doesn’t know,” Rachel hissed, glaring at Caledon from the side.
“I don’t get it,” Michelle said. “What did he do wrong?”
Everyone heard her because, except for Caledon, they turned to stare at her like she had grown another head. Llyod sniggered, throwing an arm around Jennifer’s shoulders.
“He called some other girl cute to your face, Michelle,” Scarlett said incredulously.
She scrunched up her nose. “So what?”
“You don’t care that he’s calling someone else cute?” Rachel asked.
“It’s okay.” She shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
“Really?” he said, sounding a bit relieved. “Good, I’m glad you’re not mad at me.”
“I knew it,” Llyod said, and he received a nudge in his side from Jennifer.
“Know what?” Marcus asked him.
“Nothing,” Jennifer said. “Right, babe?”
The wide boyish grin on Llyod’s face didn’t change. “Sure thing, Jen.”
Rachel and Scarlett still looked horrified, so Michelle said, “It’s not a big deal right? I mean, I can do it too.”
Taking a step backwards, she scanned the crowd in the theater lobby. Leaned against a wall was a handsome, lean guy who looked to be around their age. He was looking down at his phone, tapping away at the screen. She liked his short blond hair that looked carefully mussed and his sharp facial features.
She pointed to him. “Look, Caledon, that guy’s cute.”
“Oh, so you think guys like him look cute?” her boyfriend said, following her gaze.
Another boy showed up and approached him, munching on a hotdog bun in his hand.
He was more even more attractive than his friend, and Michelle said, “Ooh, that guy is cute too.”
“I am so confused right now,” Scarlett said.
“There,” she said, turning back to everyone else. “I pointed out other guys who are cute, too, so now we’re even!”
Rachel was gaping at her. “That’s … that’s not how it works.”
Frowning, she said, “Huh? Why not? If he can point out cute girls, then I can point out cute guys, right?”
Why was everyone behaving so strangely?
To her ears, Llyod’s laughter kind of sounded like a hyena’s.
“I don’t think that’s supposed to be the premise of the argument,” he said, “but, sure, go for it.”
“I guess you’re not dead after all,” Dennis said to Caledon, who still seemed just as thrown off as Michelle was by everyone else’s reactions.
With the odd atmosphere of confusion mixed with amusement hanging over them, the group entered the darkened movie auditorium without further conversation.
