She's the One

The rest of dinner was incredibly smooth compared to the few rocky starts we’d been having prior. Viola had me in a fit of hysterics that caused our neighboring diners to turn and stare, as I nearly fell out of the booth from laughing at her Eunice impersonations. At one point, she was pretending to be both Eunice and Mr. Gold out on a date, and alternated between the two of them fawning all over each other.

We were having so much fun; I didn’t want to spoil it by bringing up prom and risk making things awkward all over again. I resolved to talk to her at the end of the night, so that if she did get freaked out and think I was crazy, at least we would be saying goodbye and I could run away.

Needless to say, we didn’t leave much of a tip for our pathetic waitress, who continued to exhibit awful service throughout the meal. Just before 9 o’clock, we tossed some change (total of 39 cents exactly), onto the table and headed out to the car.

“You’ll have to play guide with me, I have no idea how to get to the drive-in.” I called out to her as I unlocked the doors.

“Don’t worry, it is way easy. Up the hill, past those funky founders statues, and then hang a right before the housing complex.” She tossed her hand up in the general direction of Orlando Heights.

“Nice, it’s up there? Must be some view then.” I’d been to the Heights neighborhood only once before, and I remembered being awestruck by how much of the cities and landscapes down below could be seen. That had been in the middle of the day, and my mother had driven me up there to drop off some pamphlets to a fellow Avon-seller like herself. I think I was meant to be learning something about business sense, who knows?

At any rate, I was unprepared for the sight before me when Viola and I reached the parking lot of the drive-in. The giant screen was blocking anything directly to the front of us, but on either side of it I could see a silhouette of mountain ranges stretching across the sky. Below them, the lights of residential areas, moving traffic, and shopping centers. Fortunately everything looked so far away that I couldn’t make out anything familiar, making it feel even more as if we were isolated far above the world.

“It’s beautiful up here.” I whispered, afraid to break the serenity.

Viola was busy fidgeting with the handheld speaker that we had been given by the drive-in’s attendant. She attached it to her window and looked rather proud of her achievement. “We could go for a walk, if you want. They let you climb halfway up the ladders on the screen. It’s really great. The movie won’t start for 20 minutes.”

“But didn’t you want to get popcorn?”

She shot me one of her famous grins; the ones that had made her known as a legendary lady-killer when she was at Illyria. “Don’t worry, they bring it to you during the movie. We won’t miss anything.”

We walked across the parking lot to the screen (which looked even more gigantic close-up), and ascended the ladder halfway up, to a fenced platform. When I turned around and saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The beautiful cityscape seemed almost unreal.

“Hellooooooo!” Viola shouted out to the empty air. She turned toward me and flashed me a sheepish look. “I’m kinda afraid of heights. Can’t tell, can you?”

“No, I had no idea. You seem very composed. Especially considering that it feels as though we could fall off at any second!”

“Right…” she nervously backed away from the side, “well, it only looks like we are certain to plummet to our violent deaths. In reality, this platform is above some grass and stuff. If it breaks, we likely won’t go over the side. At least not, probably. Maybe.”

I giggled at her sudden change of attitude. “Well, thanks for bringing me up here. I’ve never seen something so gorgeous. I could stay up here all night.”

“But if we did, you would miss Night of the Living Dead!”

We looked out into the horizon for a few more minutes until we began to see flickering lights behind us, indicating that the projectors were warming up for the film. Somehow breathing the cool night air and feeling so high above everything had exhilarated me. Maybe that’s why I found myself letting go of my inhibitions more and more. I felt so relaxed and free, like nothing I did could possibly go wrong for me. When we got back into the car, I suggested that we lounge in the backseat together and recline the front seats so we could see out the windshield. Viola raised her eyebrows slightly at this, but went along with it willingly.

Neither one of us spoke hardly at all for the beginning of the movie. She sat poised on one side of the bench seat, holding onto her popcorn like a newborn. About halfway through, I laid across the seat, putting my feet up and resting my head on her shoulder.

“Are you comfortable? Do you want to move?” I asked, looking up at her.

Was it just my imagination, or did she gulp at that?

“No, I’m all right. Peachy, really. Kinda cold though, are you cold? Maybe they have blankets or something in the little booth.”

“Gross, who even knows where they might have been. I think there could be some blankets in my trunk, my brother sometimes borrows my car for his camping trips and never cleans it out.” I got out of the car and unexpectedly stepped into a near-freezing night air. The temperature had dropped pretty fast, and I was starting to wish I’d worn something warmer, potential bulkiness be damned.

As I had suspected, my brother had left an endless supply of camping gear in the trunk. Canteens, tent stakes and ropes, even fold-up chairs. I dug around and stuck my hand into something gooey (good thing it was too dark to tell what it might be), before coming across a sleeping bag. “This will have to do.” I muttered to myself.

Viola grinned excitedly as I slid back into the seat, holding our ticket to comfortable movie enjoyment in my hands. “Remind me to kiss your brother in gratitude next time I see him.”

“Ew, Vi, he’s sixteen.”

“…on the cheek?”

I tried to undo the zipper so that we could spread out, but it was stuck. “Maybe we should have saved our excitement, the zipper is broken.”

“Seriously? I bet we can kind of rip it, brutally. With our giant muscles.”

5 minutes and 4 tired arms later, it was agreed that the sleeping bag would not succumb to our puny muscles, after all.

“You could just use it, I won’t be too cold.” She valiantly offered to me.

“Come on, there’s goosebumps all over your arms. Don’t give me that tough act, I know it’s freezing-balls in here. We’ll just have to share it. I’ll get in first.” I turned my back to her and began to shimmy into the sleeping bag, trying to hide the huge and proud smile on my face. She would have no choice but to be pressed warmly against me inside the tiny, one-person bag, and I would finally get my chance to see for myself something I’d been wondering all these years. Was she just kidding around when she had flirted with me all those times back at Illyria? Not that I wanted to know for any reason other than selfish flattery, but I really was dying to find out. Judging by the complete and total silence that came from the girl behind me, I was already starting to get my answer.

“Ok I’m in,” I looked at her over my shoulder and stretched out the side of the bag, “just wiggle in next to me.”

“Ok.” She mumbled, avoiding my eyes. It was dark in the car but I could see that Viola was blushing again, as she tried to get into the sleeping bag without brushing against me, unsuccessfully.

Our bodies were pressed completely together in the tiny space, and she was left with nowhere to escape from me. I suggested that we slide up a little way, so that we could stretch our legs across the seat. As we did, I covertly rolled onto my side and slipped my leg between hers, finding a place to rest my head in the hollow of her shoulder. My chin just barely touched the top of her breast as I looked over her body and out the windshield.

“Wow, I think we missed a bunch of it. I’m sorry.” I whispered.

Viola’s heart was beating fast against my cheek, and her breaths were short. “That’s ok, they’re showing four more movies. Plenty to watch.”

“This is a lot warmer.” I said as suggestively as I could manage. Just for curiosity’s sake, I reached out my arm and wrapped it around her waist loosely. I was so bold, I surprised even myself.

“The movie is almost over, then it’s Dawn of the Dead next.”

Frustrated at her total lack of reaction, I pressed further. I unwrapped my arm from around her and reached out of the sleeping bag, down the side of the seat to the floor. This in turn caused me to lean forward so that our faces were nearly touching, and I could feel her rapid breath against my lips. I picked up the popcorn, and slowly laid back into position with my head on her shoulder. “Do you want some?” I whispered.

It was quiet for a minute. Surely this time I had broken her resolve. If Viola Hastings really did have an ounce of bisexuality buried deep inside her, it would be forced to surface now, with my body draped over her and me propositioning her so blatantly.

“Um. Yeah. Ok. Sure. Popcorn.” She grabbed a handful spastically and managed to throw a fair bit around the car in the process of getting it to her mouth. “Oh shit, I’m sorry, I just totally messed up your car. I’ll pick it up when they set up the next movie.”

“It’s all right, I don’t care about the popcorn.” It was true, I didn’t. In fact, the popcorn could have fucked itself for all I cared. Defeated and resigned, I gave up on my attempts to discover Viola’s secret attraction to me before I made a total ass of myself, and settled begrudgingly on watching the screen. At least I was warm and comfortable, and the movies didn’t seem half-bad.