Movie Night

June 13, 2020

Hi y’all, how are you doing? You know what I love about this time of year? The weather is finally warm enough for me to enjoy my evening coffee outside. The days are longer, seven o’clock feels like the new five o’clock. And if these are not great enough reasons, I am finally turning brown. During the winter, I turn pale (relatively speaking). But this time of year, I am catching as many rays as I can. I know that may seem strange to some of you, a brown girl who actually enjoys being in the sun? Yes, people like me do exist. 

But today’s post is not about how my mother thinks I am lowering my chances at a good suitor by sitting out in the sun. No, today I want to share a fun story about the time I went to see Iron Man 3 with my friends back in college. So hold onto your hats, we are traveling back to 2013.

Iron Man 3 released early May. Unfortunately, this was right around finals time. If my timeline is correct, this was the last weekend before finals started, my school was weird in that spring finals started on a Friday. As such, I convinced my parents to let me stay at school until Saturday so I could get some more “studying” done. In truth, a group of my friends wanted to go see Iron Man 3. 

At first, I said I was not interested in going. The movie was on a Friday night, and I usually went back home on Friday evenings. You see, even though I dormed, I was expected to come home frequently (read as: every weekend). Plus, being a college student meant that I had a very limited amount of spending cash. $11 for a movie ticket was not something I had at the time. While those were reasons enough not to go, the other main reason was my lack of interest in superhero movies. I had not watched Iron Man 1 or 2, so why would I go watch the third movie?

I was telling these reasons to Kilian one night. Y’all remember Kilian, right? If you need a quick refresher, here is the latest update on him. At this point, we had officially broken up, but we were still seeing each other. This was one of the on/off cycles we went through over the years. That night, he tells me he had already pre-ordered tickets for both himself and me. He said he really wanted me to come. I felt bad that he bought me a ticket, so I called home and made up an excuse about studying for finals and not coming home that Friday. 

Now fast forward to Friday, after class, I came back to my room and tried to binge watch the Iron Man movies. I got through most of the first movie, but I did not make it to the second one. I figured I could manage the main plot of the movie, but I knew I would miss most of the Easter eggs. That was fine, it was more about the time I would get to spend with Kilian and my friends. Well…not exactly.

We got to the theater well before the movie started. Since there were quite a few of us, about fifteen people, we wanted to make sure there were no hiccups with getting the tickets and sitting together. Everything was normal until the doors opened and we were allowed to take our seats. The crowd pushed in and Kilian ended up being a couple of people ahead of me. No big deal, he would either save a seat for me or wait for me at our row. Neither of those things happened. 

Instead, he made sure he got the center seat in that row because he wanted the best view of the movie. I ended up sitting three seats down from him. Even the friend sitting next to me gave this, “what’s going on” look. Now that he had his seat secured and the trailers for upcoming movies just began, he and a friend went to purchase popcorn and drinks. 

While he was gone, I messaged him, “I thought we would be sitting together.” I tried to keep it light because maybe I misread the whole situation. We had broken up and never talked about getting back together. The relationship was casual, keeping each other company and ranting about our lives. When he said he really wanted me to be there at the movies with him, I assumed it was going to be more like a date. Maybe he thought it was more “stay with me because I only tolerate this group.” He was a huge Iron Man fan and in love with Robert Downey Jr. I did not realize I ranked below that. He came back with his popcorn and drink; my text was not answered. 

I could not tell you what happened in the movie. I kept getting lost and had other things on my mind. The only reason I was here was because he bought my ticket without asking me first. Now, I could not even leave because he was my ride. I could not ask anyone else because they were watching the movie as well. Even if I could leave, I would still have to go back to his room to get my stuff. And I wanted nothing more than to just go back home. 

The ride back was somewhat normal. I was not about to bring this up with other people in the car. As soon as we got back to his room, I asked Kilian if he was embarrassed to be with me. That night was just a blatant example of the more passive things he had done in the months since our break up. If he was embarrassed to be with me in public, why be with me in private? He apologized for his lack of consideration. He even said he wanted to get back together.

I wish I heeded the warning signs. I wish I had the strength to say, “it’s over.” I did not. Maybe I could have saved myself six additional years of frustration, confusion, and regret. But I was in love with him and you do crazy, stupid things for the people you love. Things did not work out for us. We broke up again over the summer. We never officially got back together, but things stayed casual and we remained friendly. That is, until this year, when I finally had enough. At some point, you have to take care of your own emotional health. Even if that means making tough decisions. 

I know this post got heavier towards the end, but I hoped y’all enjoyed this flashback. Even though that relationship did not end well, I look back and realize just how far I have come. Sometimes difficult people are put in our paths to help us grow. On that note, I will see you next week!

- Aemi