The Best Seats In The House

“Should I get up? Should I say something?”Eric whispered in my general direction from the seat to my left,

“No, no, I’m sure it’s fine,”Julia answered from my right, forever not wanting to make a fuss about anything,

“The credits have been over for like…5 minutes now, the movie for like 20, so?” Eric complained not bothering to whisper anymore. The theater was pitch black all around, soundless without a movie playing, and blind without the theater screen or any lights on inside of the giant room. 

“Just give it a minute I’m sure somebody just fell asleep in the projection booth or something?”Julia argued, never wanting to be impolite. Eric scoffed,

“Babe, come on. You don’t gotta be nice to these people, they don’t give a shit about you, so you don’t have to give a shit about them,”Eric said quite brashly,

“Eric!”Julia hissed, “Language!” Julia covered my ears quickly. It startles me for a second, but her hands are cool against my temples and comforting. They smell of her Beach Nights hand lotion. I envy her whenever she gets to buy such pretty looking and smelling things for herself. 

“Oh cool it, Julia, Jupiter’s cool. Aren’t you, Jupiter?”he asks, though I can feel this is a little demeaning him asking like I’m a dog, I giggle, because he ruffles my hair. I like it when he ruffles my hair. Though I can’t see my sister or her boyfriend, I know he’s smiling like a court-jester, and she’s rolling her eyes. 

“My mother will kill me if I come back and my little sister’s spouting cuss words like she’s back from war.”My sister says, “Don’t repeat that word, Jupiter.”she reminds me. I nod and say something to the effect of: mhmm. It really is dark in here, I can't see anything, not even my own hand in front of me. I’ve never really been afraid of the dark, I think that’s because I never had a reason to. And there was no one to be afraid of. There was no one else in the theater except for the three of us all the way up in the second to the top row. In the center, “best seats in the house” Julia had rejoiced when we arrived there.

“Ugh, this is taking fucking forever!”Eric whined, it echoed loudly in the empty and silent room. 

“Eric, oh my goodness, you do not need to be so lou-”Julia started to say

But the lights flickered on for a moment, but we were plunged back into the dark just as fast. I was relieved, I liked this moment, it felt nice. Being between my big sister and her friend in this theater, just us. It makes me feel like I’m a big kid, which is all I want to be. Because being called “too young” all of the time at age ten sucks. My sister got to do whatever she wanted, and drive cars, and hangout without supervision with her friends.

“Okay, maybe it is some kind of power outage?”said Eric aloud still to my left

“Yeah, let’s just wait for someone to come in, though, okay?”

“What? No, let's just leave. Get your candy, Jupiter.”Eric argued, I could hear him start to move, the crinkle of his jacket on the leather seat,

“Eric, come on, let’s just stay put, okay?”she moved and I’m pretty sure her arm swished in across me to attempt to grab Eric. The bag of popcorn that had been in her lap, I heard it fall to the ground, “If it is an emergency, someone will come and get us,” she said 

“Julia, it’s not a big deal, we’ll just leave,”

“I mean, would it be a big deal to stay, though?”she said

“Oh my god, babe, get your bag. We’re fucking leaving-”

And then, I guess, he stood up, I felt the familiar swish of air as he did. Then I expected him to grab my hand or crossover and take Julia’s hand and we’d try to descend the stairs in this expansion of darkness. But, but, something felt different in the air after that. 

“Eric?”Julia whispered in confusion. Did she feel the same thing as I did?

There was no response.

A knot tied itself in my stomach.

I reached my arm out to where I believed he could have been standing…but there was nothing there but air and layered shadows.

“Eric, this isn’t funny!”my sister cried out to the empty theater

There was still no response.

It was cold, chilly in the theater. I was getting tired of not looking at anything. It was unnerving, I felt along the armrest until I found my sisters hand, I slid my hand into hers and said,

“I love you, Julie,”

“You don’t need to say that, Jupiter, Eric is just trying to scare us. He thinks it’s funny,”she tried to explain to me. But honestly wasn’t quite convinced herself,

“You hear that! Huh? You fucking jerk!”she screamed into the void in front of us, again her voice shook. She let go of my hand, something grazed the backs of my ankles,

“Ahhh!”I squealed

“What? What?!”

“Something touched my ankle!” I said, swinging my legs up onto the seat and hugging them to my chest. 

“Oh my god! Eric, I swear-”and I heard her stand up on my right side. Before I could protest, she was already gone. The only thing I had left of her was the scent of her lotion and the popcorn on the floor.

“Julie?”my voice cracked, why was I even talking? I knew she wasn’t there. 

“Eric?” I knew he wasn’t there either, I just thought I’d try.

I sank back farther into my movie theater seat, tried to meld myself into the chair, so that if there was something watching me it wouldn’t take me. I covered my mouth to hide my crying. Even though I wanted to scream. There was nothing but darkness around me, nothing but shadows, and a void. Was I even in a movie theater anymore? I don’t know, I can’t see, I can’t see. What’s worse is that now I’m alone, all alone.

The lights came back on. They stayed on.

I was still in the movie theater. My eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, spots everywhere. I could see, I could finally see what was around me. But there was no joy, as the theater was still empty. I was still alone. All alone.