The Sister Within
By Jennifer Beichner
Chapter 1
I like to go to the movies by myself. Although, I am always a bit relieved when the lights are turned down and everyone in the theatre, whether they came alone or with a date, becomes an anonymous viewer. Everyone’s identity fades into the dark and is forgotten in the attractive glow of the flashing screen. I love the movies.
When I was 16, I worked at a movie theatre. We wore blue polyester pants, red, white and blue plaid long sleeve, button down shirts with blue bow ties and fitted red vests. At the end of the day your clothes and your hair smelled like buttered popcorn. No matter how many times I washed my uniform I couldn't get rid of the smell. The butter topping must have melded to the polyester fibers. I actually was kind of proud that I looked so cute in my uniform as dorky as it was.
It was then working at the movie theatres that I finally noticed that boys were beginning to notice me. It was there that I met Reese. We didn't wear the same uniform. When I first saw him he had already graduated from dorkness to a semi-professional polyester bound business suit as an assistant manager. Reese was older, 17 or 18 I think. It was the epitome of love at first sight, on his part any ways. For me, I couldn't help wondering what the hell he was staring at? Then my friend Susan clued me in and said,
“He was staring at you idiot!”
I really knew all along but when he passed the concession counter heading towards the projection room, whilst his eyes were locked on mine, I honestly thought I had imagined it. No boy or young man had ever made his intentions to me so clear without ever saying a word. And boy was I naive.
My best friend Susan was adorable, from the 5th grade on she was a heart breaker and I only ever felt tall and awkward. By 16 with no love interests other than silent, unmentioned, unnoticed crushes at school, my steady experience with teenage dating was zilch. Except of course for what I witnessed vicariously, being friends with Susan, I had excused myself to the back of the shelf and fantasized about being the THE UGLY DUCKLING.
When Reese’s eyes first locked mine and then he faintly smiled and shyly turned his head back towards the direction he had been walking, I began to understand the life of the swans...
