Falling Slowly

Pt.1|Ch.7

Friday

•••••Benjamin's Perspective

"Do we have a two show-day tomorrow?" Josh asked.

I nodded. "No staying up till two a.m ."

"Aww, I wanted to watch 'Julie and Julia' again tonight." Sky mumbled, glaring down at his smoothie.

Josh narrowed his eyes. "Wait, is that Aiden's smoothie?"

Sky looked up at him, slowly bringing the straw closer to his lips.

"Did you steal it from her?" I asked, taking a step towards him.

He took a step back, blinked, and took a small sip.

"She's gonna kill you." Josh warned.

Sky's expression deepened into a scowl as he continued to angrily sip the smoothie.

"He's dead meat." Josh said, ending the conversation and turning to me. "You're going tonight, yeah?"

"Yeah." I replied with a nod.

"You'd better get going." He showed me his phone, which was displaying the time.

"Okay." I grabbed my jacket off the couch and slipped it on. "You're coming too, aren't you?" I asked, noticing he hadn't moved.

"I'm gonna hitch a ride with Sky." He answered with a smile. "We'll see you there."

I shrugged. "See you." I slid my phone into my jacket pocket and headed outside, stopping my the door to tie my shoes.

The drive to the cinema wasn't too lengthy of a ride, but it was long enough for me to listen from 'Work Song' to 'I Dreamed a Dream' before I pulled into the parking lot.

I gladly stepped inside the theater and enjoyed the warm air conditioning as I scanned the lobby for my friends' faces.

For a minute, it looked like I was the only one there, until I spotted a familiar head of chestnut curls in the back left corner.

I crossed the room to where she stood, lightly nudging her shoulder. "Hey."

Austyn jumped and swatted my arm. "You keep sneaking up on me!"

I took a step back, laughing. "Sorry."

"No, you're not." She rolled her eyes, but there was a faint smile on her lips. "I honestly didn't think anyone else was gonna show up."

I tilted my head. "I thought everyone was coming."

She pulled her phone out. "Have you not been following the chat?"

I looked down at the message thread she'd opened.

Group:

(Sky changed Josh's name to Joshy)
(Sky changed Ben's name to Benji)

-Joshy:
«Game on sucker»

(Joshy changed Sky's name to Skybelle)

-Skybelle:
«Curse you»

I looked back up at her. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Not that, stupid. Scroll down."

I dragged my finger across the screen, scrolling down to the most recent conversation.