As the credits rolled Olivia dried her teary eyes with a paper-thin movie theater napkin and sniffled. The gumball's flavor had lasted the whole movie but she hadn't even noticed. She was chewing vigorously out of both frustration and to stop herself from crying. The theater was practically empty now. Most of the audience had left as despondent as Olivia was. Mack had rushed off to get more napkins and now came back with a handful of them.
"There, there," Mackenzie said, patting her friend on the back.
"T-that l-last s-scene at the a-airport," Olivia whimpered, "when he was r-rushing to catch her before her f-flight, but that evil woman s-s-s-stepped on him a-a-a-and he was s-s-s-stuck on the b-b-bottom of her s-s-shoe as she boarded a flight to R-R-R-R-R-Russia-ah-ah-ah!" Olivia bawled uncontrollably into her fistful of napkins.
"It's just a dumb movie, Liv," Mackenzie said flippantly, turning her head to discreetly wipe away her own tears.
"She thought he cheated on her!" Olivia bawled. "They're separated forever! How could they end the movie like that?! What kind of sick, demented mind writes a story where the bad guy wins and the good guy loses everything?!"
"I don't like it either but not all romances get a happily ever after, Liv," Mackenzie said sympathetically. "But I was rooting for them too. The childhood friends should always get together in the end."
Olivia didn't seem to have heard her as at that moment she loudly blew her nose. "Well, I am going to leave a very negative review online."
"Yeah, that'll show 'em."
"How can you go from crowd-pleasing romantic comedy for an hour and fifty-five minutes of the movie and have the last five minutes be depressing arthouse nihilism?! Nothing should ever come between true love! Don't you agree Andy? ... Andy?"
Olivia's eyes widened as she only now noticed the empty cupholder.
"NO! Where is he?!" Olivia dropped to her knees on gross movie theater floor and began looking under the seats, calling Andy's name. "Oh my gosh, Mack, did someone take him?! Did he fall and get stuck on someone's shoe?!" she asked, new tears shining in her eyes as if at this very moment a woman was boarding a flight to Russia with you under her heel.
Mackenzie had been so wrapped up in comforting Olivia she hadn't even thought to come up with any kind of cover story to explain your absence. Not that she would've even if the thought had crossed her mind. Doing so would only make her friend sadder. For once she decided on telling the truth... well, maybe half the truth.
"Don't worry, Liv, I have no idea where he is but we'll find him. I'm sure if we put our heads together we can... saaay," Mack said trying to sound as casually as possible as if the idea only now just occurred to her. "Are you still chewing on that gumball?"
"What?" Liv asked, confused. "Yes?"
"Haven't you been chewing on that the whole movie? Shouldn't it have lost it's flavor by now?"
"Mack, who cares about a stupid piece of candy? We're looking for my boyfr--" Her eyes widened in realization.
"There we go," Mack thought to herself as all the pieces fell into place for her friend.
"OH. MY. GOSH."
The past two hours had been a painful haze of methodic mastication and saliva soaking, but now your blob-like form was launched like a cannonball out of your girlfriend's mouth and into her palm. You knew absolutely nothing about your mangled form remotely resembled that of a human being but with the lights on fully, Olivia could finally see her "gumball" wasn't pink but flesh-colored and feebly twitching.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, Andy I'm so sorry," Olivia said, sobbing and cradling your chewed, slimy form against her face. "I had no idea it was you! I thought you were a gumball! How did you get into the popcorn? I could've swallowed you whole! Oh my gosh I'm so, so sorry!" she said as she planted kisses on you, not realizing that by doing so she was only prolonging the time before your reformation.
"Liv, maybe don't touch him so he can reform," Mackenzie pointed out, though mostly because the sight of Olivia kissing you sickened her.
"Oh. Right... We'll just wait here until he reforms."
"Maybe you should sit back in your chair instead of the floor?" Mackenzie suggested.
Your girlfriend chuckled and sniffled. "Duh, Liv," she said smacking her forehead with her palm to demonstrate her own cluelessness... which was further emphasized by her using the palm you were lying in, causing you to stick to her forehead. "Oh my gosh, Andrew I'm sorry!"
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. Looks like they'd be here for a while.
Olivia and Mackenzie had been forced to leave the theater by the staff for the next showing and Liv had vaguely warned the women coming into the theater not to get their hopes up. Now they were at a table near the concession stand waiting for you to reform. Liv couldn't be persuaded to leave in the car and let you reform on the way back to your apartment until she was absolutely sure it was her boyfriend she was leaving with. You knew Mackenzie could clear everything up by just admitting the truth, but she kept quiet.
Twenty minutes passed as you slowly reformed, and while the two of them waited for you, Liv told you all about the movie you missed. You weren't sure if you'd agree with Liv's statement that you'd been "lucky" to miss the movie, but it did sound like a fun movie botched by a complete downer of an ending. The tiny hero had steadily become less of an asshole over the course of the movie as he'd fallen in love with his childhood friend, but, after the token romantic misunderstanding ended their relationship, in a display of true love the tiny hero forfeited the executive position he'd been working towards for a chance at a simple life with the woman he loved in their small hometown. Then the business rival he'd been competing with the entire movie basically kidnapped him and destroyed his chances at happiness forever just to be a bitch.
You were almost completely back to normal by the time she started talking about the ending, and tears were forming in her eyes again and her voice was faltering. The bottom half of your face was still mashed, including your mouth so you couldn't do much but hobble over to her hand and pat one of her fingers reassuringly as she started sobbing.
"It's okay, babe. It's okay," Mackenzie said sympathetically, taking Olivia's other hand in hers.
You shot her a death glare but the other woman ignored you.
"Excuse me, I need a minute to myself," Olivia said, standing up abruptly. "Mack, please watch him for me."
"Gladly," Mack said.
You tried to shout in protest but with your mouth still smudged it came out muffled. Olivia rushed to the ladies room leaving you alone with the same person who was responsible for your torment in the first place. No sooner had the door to the bathroom swung closed than Mackenzie picked you up none-too-gently and raised you to her face. You were so angry that you actually swung punches at her nose, but your arms were far too short to connect.
"Alright, listen up, runt," Mackenzie said in a whisper. "I don't like you and you don't like me, but we both like Olivia and that movie destroyed her. She really wanted today to be special and we both know unless we take her mind off of it, she's going to be sad all day. So... I propose a truce," she said through gritted teeth, as if the prospect itself was painful.
"A truuf?" your muffled voice echoed.
"Yes," Mackenzie said. "If you keep quiet about the popcorn incident then I promise I'll... try to be nice to you--"
"TWY?!"
"Okay, okay, fine. I promise I'll be nice to you for the rest of the day. All of our attention will be on cheering Liv up instead. Do we have a deal?" she asked raising her pointer finger for you to shake. Normally she only ever offered you the middle one. This must be serious.
Part of you recoiled at the mere thought of calling a truce with your archenemy, but a far greater part of you really did want your first day living with Liv to be something she looked back on happily. You weren't going to ruin that out of spite.
"Deal," your muffled voice said as you took Mackenzie's finger in both your hands and "shook."
"Good. Now... let's think of someplace we can take Liv to really cheer her up."
The two of you thought and after a minute one of you said...
1) Andrew: The park Olivia raved about while apartment-hunting. Wide open picnic spaces, a wooded walking trail, even a lake where you could go boating.
2) Mackenzie: The new arcade Olivia had expressed interest in. Fun games, fantastic junk food and fabulous prizes.
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