“What?”

I wasn’t sure whether my ears were deceiving me or Mike really wanted to go to the cinema. Standing there, I only blinked; my eyes were staring at him, looking for his face expression. Who knows he might be joking? But no, he wasn’t. He seemed serious although he was grinning like a fool.

“You heard me. Let’s go to the cinema,” he repeated.

And the next thing I know, I was following him from behind as he got into a dark blue car and sat on the driver seat. Confused, I raised my eyebrow and asked, “Are we going by car?”

He started the engine and then turned to me with a smirk, “Of course. What do you expect? That we’re flying? Sorry Turtle, I ain’t got helicopter. Now, get in.”

“Sheesh,” I muttered under my breath as I got into the shotgun and sat beside Mike who already had his hand on a steering wheel. I was about to take the seatbelt when he stopped me by shaking his head.

“No, you don’t use seatbelt here. That’s no fun.”

“You rather chose fun than safety?” I snapped back, pulling the strap but he stopped me again.

“Are you seriously going to wear that? Come on, Turtle, we’re not gonna die today. We’ll be fine, I promise.”

My mom always told me to wear the seatbelt no matter what but then again, when I thought of it – it’s not like my mom’s going to kill me, right? It’s just a fucking seatbelt, for fuck’s sake! But somehow, my thought drifted from the seatbelt to my mom. I wonder if she’s going to flip out if she found out I’m not at the school library.

Well, obviously she would be mad but I think it is okay to go out once in a while, right?

So I let go of the seatbelt. Then Mike started to drive. I actually started to regret not putting on the seatbelt because Mike was a fast driver. I was scared that we might hit a tree or something and he even drove with just one hand. What kind of fuckery is this?! I, on the other hand, have to hold on the cushion on the seat just in case I might fly forward if he suddenly brakes.

He must’ve noticed that my knuckles went white because of me gripping on the cushion too hard so he smirked and said, “Chill, Turtle.”

I wanted to reply but I was too scared to talk. But I ended up saying, “Wow, you must have been driving a lot.”

“Nah, it’s my first time driving somewhere far away from home.”

I could only pray to God that I can still see tomorrow.

---

Somehow, we ended up safely and when I finally opened my eyes – for god knows how many minutes (because I was scared to look at the road, he was driving so fast!) – we were at the parking lot already. I turned to him and he was already staring at me.

“Scared?”

“No, I was just sleepy,” I lied as I averted his gaze.

He knew I was lying. He was about to open his mouth but I assumed he thought it was better to not argue with me. I think it was a miracle that he hadn’t teased me or else I wouldn’t know what to answer him.

Mike opened the door and get out of the car and I did the same too. I looked at the surroundings and realized we were at an old cinema where no one ever actually goes. The cinema used to be so great though and I remembered back when our family was still together, dad would bring me here to watch movies. But ever since the mall was built, people prefer to go there.

It had been like what – eight years? Probably, ten years, since I came here.

I looked at Mike who had a huge smile on his face. He probably had seen the delighted look on my face that he said, “You like?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Now let’s get inside.”


Although I have to admit that the cinema looked obviously old, I still like it. There weren’t many people around here. So far, I’ve only seen an old man, an old couple, a few couples and two families. We went to the counter and that was when I realized I didn’t have any money with me. I was about to panic and I tugged on Mike’s shirt, wanting to tell him that it was better to go home (although I really wanted to stay).

But he didn’t bother to look at me. Instead, he took out his wallet from his pocket and took out two tickets and gave it to the ticket man (or whatever you called it). I was astonished for a second so I stared at him. I wasn’t sure whether I was touched or amazed or both.

I had a really bad impression when I first saw him and now here he was, already buying the ticket for me.

Me.
Me, aka Tony Perry.

“Cinema 2, sir,” I heard the ticket man said. Mike thanked him and took the ticket. He turned to me, gave me the other ticket while the other one he kept it in his pocket. He raised his eyebrow as he realized I was staring at him.

“What?” he snapped, causing me to finally get back to Earth and stop staring at him.

“Nothing,” I answered.

I wanted to thank him but I was embarrassed to do so.


The great thing about being in the old cinema was that not a lot of people watch the movies with us which means there were a lot of empty seats and the popcorn tastes amazing. Mike wanted to seat in the middle but I insisted – I wanted to seat at the backseat, just to know how it feels watching the movie without having me to look up every second.

And hey, he didn’t actually complain. We sat at the back in the middle. Soon enough, the lights went out, only the lights from the screen were illuminating in the dark. I had no idea what we were watching at first and realized he had chosen the 80’s movie – The Breakfast Club. I had no idea that this was still showing in the cinema.

I turned to him, “Wait, is this The Breakfast Club?”

“Yeah,” he answered, his eyes were already glued to the screen, not bothering to look at me. “I requested James to play this one here today.”

“You requested? Wait, what?” I asked. I’ve never heard of cinemas that actually take request for movies but I assumed maybe the cinema was long forgotten that the manager decided that they’re taking requests from customers.

Mike nodded.

I guessed he really wanted to watch the movie so I let him anyway. I’ve watched The Breakfast Club once and it was good. Halfway throughout the movie, I had this weird feeling and I just wanted to turn around and stared at Mike. But at the same time, I had this weird feeling in my stomach and thought that maybe if I stared at him, I’d creeped him out so I decided to just glance and then look away.

And I did it but I failed at the looking away part because I just stared at him. I stared at the way he was sitting up straight and his eyes, oh god, those beautiful eyes were just staring ahead, not caring that I was staring. Have I mentioned that his eyes seemed softer than how it was supposed to be? It seemed like he was enjoying the movie so much.

I shook my head and focused to the movie. I should be glad that he was paying $7 for the movie, not to stare at him.

The movie ended an hour and a few minutes later and I have to admit that I’ve forgotten how awesome that movie was. I could hear Mike sniffed – could he possibly be crying? I turned to face him and he had his fingers wiping his eyes. I pretended to not see that (even though I had the chance to tease him about it but nah, I guess I should just stay quiet) and stood up.

The lights were back and Mike stood up, walking to the exit and I followed. Our way to the exit was awkward, only silence were accompanying us. I stayed behind him, observing whatever he was doing.

No longer after that, he said, “It was awesome, right?”

Did he mean the movie? Or the fact that I was watching a movie with him? Because to me, both of them were awesome. I just assumed that he was talking about the movie so I answered, “Yeah.”

“Funny how people just assume that what they see is what we are,” Mike started. Then he let out a sigh as we walked at the hallways, “I really love that movie.”

Somehow, maybe to me, that movie meant a lot to him. The way he just watched it without feeling bothered by the fact that I was staring. The way he just went from loud to calm and the fact that he concentrated only at the movie. I couldn’t help but noticed his softened facial expression on our way outside of the cinema.

“Thanks, I’ll make sure to pay you back,” I muttered as soon as we were outside of the cinema.
The sad thing about leaving the cinema was that I will miss this old cinema and all of the things that happened in the cinema – the things that I’ve got from observing Mike – will just become a memory and also the change of Mike’s personality in 0.08 seconds, from Serene Mike to The-Mike-From-School.

I guess I like Cinema/Serene-Mike better.

“Pay back? Nah, you don’t have to,” he said as he grinned.

“Really?”

“Nah, you have to pay me back somehow. Keep your money, you’ll be paying back with something else,” he smirked as he said those words. I shook all the perverted thoughts outside of my head. After all, this wasn’t the time to get perverted.



I thought after we get onto the car, we would go home and then I’ll show up in my house and my mom will be like, ‘where have you been, Tony?’ and I will be like, ‘Library, mom’ but no, it didn’t happen.

He wasn’t even driving me home. Instead, he brought me somewhere else. “Mike,” I managed to call him out as my hands were gripping on the cushion again. “Where are we going?”

“To a concert, that’s where.”

It was getting darker and my mom knew that I would never stayed outside of the house after seven but now here I am, sitting beside Mike Fuentes inside a car, on our way to a concert. I’ve never been to a concert before (although I wanted to) but the thought of the crowd scared me.

“Will you please just bring me home?”

“Yeah, after we’re done with the concert.”



I was thinking of staying inside the car and wait him but he dragged me to come with him. There were a lot of people – boys and girls – rushing past us as they excitedly enter the area while I was just nervously following Mike from behind, tugging on his shirt and hoping that he wouldn’t notice how nervous I was.

Mike showed two tickets to the man and the man nodded, signaling us to get it. The place still has their lights on and Mike immediately grabbed my wrist and squished through the crowd until we were finally at the front row. I had not imagined my first concert to turn out like this. I was expecting it to be clean, just all of the fans sitting down while watching the band play.

But no, here I was, standing beside Mike with a lot of people and I didn’t even know what band was going to perform. Mike seemed like he was enjoying himself as he kept on grinning as he stared at the stage.

Hand still tugging on his shirt, I called out, “Mike.”

“Yeah?”

“What band is this?”

“You’ll see.”

A few moments later, the lights went off and everyone was screaming in excitement including Mike. I was starting to get uncomfortable with the noise so I gripped on Mike’s shirt tighter. I guess he must’ve noticed that I had been holding on his shirt so he grabbed my knuckles and hold it. Confused, I looked up to him and soon enough, he was holding my hand.

I swear to God I was going to faint because I felt hot. First, the crowd made me sweat but what made me more nervous was the fact that he was holding my hand and he didn’t mind it. Soon enough, my thoughts flew away when the band members started to appear on stage, did their introduction and began to sing.

I have to admit, even though I didn’t imagine my first concert to be like this, I enjoyed it nonetheless. I was having fun, jumping along to whatever they were singing even though I had no idea what song they were playing.

The band ended their performance with an acoustic performance and that was the part that I like the most because everybody just stood there, singing along, without screaming or anything. I could hear that Mike was singing too and I had to suppress my giggle because he was singing while holding my hand.

I looked up to him and he had his eyes glued to the singer. He must’ve noticed that I was watching him so he turned to me, sang the song while holding my hand tightly. I gave him a grin, he replied with a smile and continued to sing as he stared at the singer with respect.

And that was when I realized that I like his smile. I like how he can go from being Loveable-Mike-Fuentes to An-Annoying-But-Adorable-Mike. I like how concentrated he looked when he was watching The Breakfast Club. I like how he made me do things that I’ve never done and convinced me that everything was going to be okay. I like how he made me go to a concert of a band I’ve never listened to before and fell completely in love with the band.

But most of all, that was when I realized how hard I have fallen for him.

Notes

hey guys! i've been updating quickly nowadays, i'm guessing after 3 to 4 chapters it'll end? idk, let's see about that. i still have a few ideas to add though so probably 5 to 7 chapters?

so who likes this chapter? ( it's the longest so far!! )
please leave a comment below, i wanna know what you think!
now that tony finally admitted his feelings, do you think he'll tell mike or keep it to himself?
have you guys have any ideas to why mike was bringing him to concerts and stuff? and the reason why mike first make a move on tony by teasing him?
hahaha, a lot of questions i know. sorry im just excited xD

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thanks, love y'all ♡