He had a bright smile, and for a moment it stopped the entire world — for a moment it paralyzed me. I smiled at him, and I did my best to pretend I didn't find his disgrace amusing. I smiled at him, but as soon as I did it, he was no longer looking at me.

My smile faded. I was sad for a second, I was sad because a Cinema's boy did not give me attention. Pathetic. I felt pathetic. And as a result, I told myself I would not give that much power to a random boy.

I was a smart, pretty, and fun young girl who did not need a smile from a handsome boy.

I remember I spent a whole minute with my eyes closed, trying to regain control of my emotions because that was not an American teen movie. And at the end of the day, the beautiful boy was not a good guy — at the end of the day, having a relationship with the bad boy was not a good idea.

I had a goal — enjoy the school break as much as possible.

And right at that moment, the goal was to enjoy “Back To The Future”.

***

When the movie was almost over, my dad sent me a message that he was waiting for me outside the building.

And as soon as the lights came on, I was already gathering my things to leave — through my peripheral vision, I saw that the two boys were leaving through the other hall room too. As I descended the dark stairs, I noticed that he was also descending them at the same time as me.

Cinema's Boy and I walked down the stairs, looking into each other's eyes.

We stopped and stood in the middle of that movie theater looking at each other. He was beautiful. But he looked intimidating with his serious countenance and classic crew cut.

He kept that facade for a second before his face broke into a big smile. His smile was the sun— and it changed his face entirely.

The air changed.

The world has become blurry and lifeless.

That place changed and became something bigger and infinitely better.

And somehow — somehow— he felt so right.

“Hello,” he said with a smile.

I was lost. I was lost and there was no word inside me. My body was not mine anymore.

“Hello,” I ripped that word out of me.

“Did you like the movie?” he ran a hand through his hair. “That was a stupid question, wasn't it? You've probably seen this movie before.”

I could not help but laugh.

“I liked the movie. It was good. And you are right, I have seen it before,” I said, trying to be serious.

He stared at me for a second, tilted his head to the side and asked, “what's your name?” His smile was adorable. He was adorable.

“Elisa,” I said to him. And through my peripheral vision, I saw that my father was waiting for me at the entrance of the cinema. “I need to go. It was a pleasure to meet you. See you never again, Cinema's Boy. Goodbye,” as soon as the last word left my mouth, I was already turning around and walking away.

I didn't care about him, but when I heard him say in a low voice, “See you later”, for a moment — just a moment — I felt bad for being rude.

But my father was waiting for me, thus I needed to go.

“Hey, sweetheart,” my father said. “Are you okay?”

I nodded.

“Who was the boy?”

“I don't know. I literally just talked to him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.”

“Okay. How was your weekend?”