breathe [timothée chalamet.]

SEVEN

Half an hour later, Timothée and Athena are standing in front of an arcade that he had seen online and wanted to try. Reaching for Athena's hand, fingers intertwined, they went through the doors and were met with neon lights.

Turning to look at Athena, noticing she was looking around at the gaming systems like an excited kid, he knew he'd made the right decision.

"This is alright for you ? I really wanted to come and I didn't know whether you'd like arcade-" Athena cut him off mid sentence from his rambling and smiled.

"This is more than alright, I haven't been to an arcade in years" She said, excited.

Timothée turned to her and playfully bowed, adding "Away we go then my lady." Athena just shook her head, what a dork she thought. a cute dork, her sub conscience added.

She pulled Timmy in the direction of a PacMan machine and they took it in turns, each of them trying to beat the others score. They had gone on almost all of the arcade games, the place was getting quieter as it was later in the evening and Athena had just spotted a photo booth hidden in a cosied corner at the back of the arcade. Grabbing Timothée's hand again, they walked to the photo booth, she looked up to find Timothée just shaking his head and smiling. She smiled back.

Timothée placed the right amount of money in the machine and pulled open the curtain to find a small bench, barely big enough for two people. He sat down and patted his knee as to tell Athena to sit down.

She sat down gently and titled her head backwards to ask Timothée if this was ok. "I'm ok if you're ok." He replied.

A countdown started on the screen and Timothée and Athena smiled for the first one. For the second pose they both stuck their tongues out and crossed their eyes. Timothée started to slip on the bench so the third photo was of Athena laughing with her head back and Timmy trying to keep balance whilst also laughing. As the timer got to 3, Athena kissed Timothée's cheek and that was the final photo.

Stepping out of the booth, Timothée grabs the photos from the slot on the side and shows Athena.
"I love them." She says, grabbing her own strip of the four they had.

Not wanting the night to end, Timothée asks Athena if she wanted to get something to eat. She nods and says "There's a diner not to far from here that do the best pancakes." So with that, they get back into the car and drive to the diner.

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Timothée and Athena sit in a cream coloured booth, towards the back of the diner. A waitress soon notices them and goes over to take their orders.

"Hi there" She greets with a warm smile "What can I get you both this evening?" looking from Athena to Timothée.

"Hi, could I have a strawberry milkshake and the pancakes please?" Athena ordered first. The waitress nodded before she turned to me.

"I'll have the pancakes too but with a chocolate milkshake please" I order. She nods her again and tells us she'll be back soon.

We begin to talk and not long after our food arrives.
Thanking the waitress, we carry on talking in between mouthfuls.

"These really are the best pancakes." I tell Athena.

"I know right?? Apollo and I found this place a couple years ago so we come from time to time, Bea has come once or twice as well." She says, talking about her brother and best friend.

And so it goes on like this for a while, Athena talking about everything and anything and I talk about the upcoming promo I'll be doing for Call Me By Your Name. I love the fact that I can talk about my job with her and she doesn't judge me, she genuinely cares and is interested.