MOVIES

Agreeing on a movie to see with a friend
is a challenging and rewarding activity in itself.
(Remember this when you get
to the end of this story.)
To start with,
it's almost a given that your friend has already seen
the one movie you're really dying to see.
And vice-versa.
The negotiation begins.
First round:
I saw that one, friend saw that one,
I saw that one, friend saw that one.
Second round:
Not in the mood for a romance
(comedy, action movie, foreign language movie).
Third round:
My mother said it was awful,
the reviews were terrible,
I promised my boyfriend (girlfriend, cousin)
I'd go see that with him or her.
Fourth round:
It starts too early, it starts too late,
I don't feel like going all the way downtown
(uptown, east side, west side).
Okay, you finally settle on something
neither of you really wants to see.
One of you gets there so late,
the only seats left are singles
so you end up sitting separately.
As the trailers begin
and you sit alone among the couples,
you feel like announcing,
"but I'm not all alone on Saturday night,
I came with my friend."
And you wonder why you went to all that trouble
to go to the movies together.


© Ellen Azorin