Margaret huffed as she stared at herself in the mirror. Today her and Ted were going out to the movies. The local theater was doing a rerun of Psycho, a favorite of hers. This was no big deal, Ted was her good friend whom she'd hung out with numerous times. So why was she so nervous?
Frankly she was frustrated with herself. It's not like the concept of guy-girl friendships was foreign to her, and going to the movies wasn't inherently romantic. She'd done it plenty of times with her friends. But when Ted had suggested the idea Margaret's stomach became horribly knotted, and she couldn't stop thinking about it the rest of the day. She'd spent more time than she'd care to admit picking out her outfit and doing her makeup. Now her hair didn't look right, which was ridiculous because she had a short hairstyle. How much could she do with it?
The doorbell rang, before Margaret could even think about it she rushed to the door and answered it a little too eagerly. Ted stood at the doorway and blinked, clearly surprised she had answered so fast. Margaret cringed to herself slightly, but Ted just smiled. "You look nice!" He said. "I can't say the same about you." Margaret responded and then immediately regretted it because he actually looked good for once. She pursed her lips "I mean, you look presentable." Has she always been this bad at complimenting people?
Ted seemed to take the insult well, chuckling "I'll take presentable."
They began their walk to the theater, it was the weekend so they didn't have any new schoolwork to talk about. But Ted told Margaret about his new job and his co-workers. Margaret attempted to pay attention, but continually got distracted by the way Teds eyes lit up whenever he got to talk about coding, or the way he threw his head back when he laughed, or the way he smiled talking about his friends. She wondered if he looked like that talking about her. She immediately shot those thoughts down, whatever they meant.
Ted finished his rant and then asked Margaret about her day, to which she realized she'd been so distracted just looking at him that she hadn't even thought about a response. The words got caught in her throat. "Yes it was um, it was fine. Yknow, just caught up on my projects." Her cheeks turned red.
What was worse was that Ted was staring at her as if he weren't endeared by her embarrassment. Margaret huffed "Are you laughing at me?"
"No, no-" he attempted to defend himself, but a chuckle slipped. "Okay, okay, but it's not in a mean way! I've just never seen you like this."
Margaret looked at the ground, trying to find words an explanation that wasn't completely moronic. "I've just had a tiring day, it's hard to get my thoughts together."
Ted raised a brow as if he didn't quite believe her, but thankfully didn't raise more questions. They finally arrived at the theater. It wasn't very packed, which was frankly a tragedy to Margaret. People simply didn't enjoy true cinema anymore.
"Do you want to get a snack?" Ted said pointing the concessions stand. Margaret rolled her eyes "Please, that stuff shouldn't even be considered food."
Ted nodded "You're probably right. That being said I could use a one. We're theater five if you want to head in early." He turned to head towards the stand, and instinctively Margaret followed him. She cursed herself when they got in line, why had she done that?
Despite the small amount of people in the theater, the ones who were there had all had the same idea, because the line still moved agonizingly slow. Margaret tapped her foot. Ted sensed her impatience "You good?" He asked, clearly trying to hide a smile. Why did he always seem so endeared by her?
Margaret rolled her eyes "I just don't understand why everyone is moving at a snails pace. What even is there to order? Theater food isn't even that good. We'll miss half the movie by the time we get back."
