در سینما

CHAPTER FOUR - At the Movie Theater

At eight thirty that evening, Joey was leaving her house. Her sister stopped her by the door.

At first, Joey looked angry. Was Bessie going to start a quarrel? But Bessie smiled and held up a lipstick.

“Before you leave, let me put some of this on you,” Bessie said. “It’s a good red color. You’ll look great if you wear this.”

Joey was surprised. She never wore makeup. She never thought about it. But Bessie was trying to be nice to her. Joey didn’t want to make her sister unhappy. “OK,” she said.

Bessie carefully put some of the red makeup on her sister’s lips. Then she gave her the lipstick. “You’ll probably need it again later - if someone kisses you!” she said. And they both laughed.

A few minutes later, the four friends were walking to the movie theater together. Jen was walking with Dawson. Behind them, Joey was walking with Pacey.

Joey didn’t want to be there. Jen was trying to be nice to her, but that made Joey angry. Every time Jen said something nice, Joey said something nasty. Why? Well, she didn’t want Jen to be nice to her. She wanted Dawson to be nice to her. And she didn’t want him to be nice to Jen.

“Joey, I like your lipstick,” Jen said as they stopped in front of the theater. “It looks wonderful on you. What’s the name of the color?”

“I don’t know,” Joey replied. “What’s the name of the color of your hair? It comes from a bottle - I know that!”

“Joey!” Dawson said angrily. “Stop this!”

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Jen said. “Joey wants to be nasty to me. I want to make that very difficult for her.”

The four friends bought their tickets for the movie.

“Do you want anything to eat?” Dawson asked Jen.

“Yes, will you get me some popcorn, please?” she replied.

Dawson bought some popcorn for Jen. Then they all went into the theater and sat down. Jen sat down first, then Dawson sat beside her. Joey sat between Dawson and Pacey.

Pacey looked around. After a few seconds, he saw Tamara Jacobs. She was sitting in a seat near the front of the theater. Next to her was an empty seat. She was keeping the seat for him!

Pacey stood up.

“I’ll be back soon,” he told the others.

At that moment, someone started switching off the lights in the theater. The film was beginning. Joey saw Dawson move his left hand towards Jen’s right hand. Soon, his hand was covering her hand.

“Oh, Jen,” Joey said. “Are you going to kiss Dawson later? You must be very good at it. You must have kissed hundreds of guys. You had lots of practice kissing boys when you lived in New York!”

Dawson stood up suddenly. He grabbed Joey’s arm and held it tightly. He was very angry.

“Come outside for a moment, Joey,” he said. “We have to talk about something!”

“Be quiet!” said a man behind them. “We can’t hear the movie. Sit down and be quiet!”

Dawson pulled Joey out of the theater.

“What’s wrong with you, Joey?” Dawson shouted. The two young people were standing in the street. “You have a problem. What is it?”

“Oh, are you speaking to me now, Dawson?” Joey replied. She was angry too. “You haven’t spoken to me this evening. Your new blond friend arrived in this town. Then you stopped speaking to me. That’s my problem, Dawson. You only think about her and you behave badly to everyone else.”

“OK - yes, I talk to Jen,” Dawson said. “Is that wrong? I like her. Why aren’t you pleased about that? Aren’t you my friend any longer? Don’t you want me to be happy? Don’t you understand me any more?”

“Oh, Dawson,” Joey said. Suddenly she felt very tired. ‘I understand you. I understand you very well. I have always understood you. And now, I’m going to stop understanding you. I’m going home!”

Joey turned and walked away.

Pacey sat down in the empty seat next to Tamara Jacobs.

“Hi, Tamara,” he said.

“Pacey, what are you doing here?” Miss Jacobs asked him. She looked surprised. Then she looked worried.

“I came with some friends,” Pacey replied.

“Oh, that’s good,” Miss Jacobs said. Suddenly she smiled. “It’s good to see you. But why aren’t you sitting with your friends?”

“Well, I came with some friends,” Pacey said. “But I don’t want to sit with them. I want to sit with you. Why are you surprised? You invited me to come to the movie. It was your idea.”

“Pacey, you don’t understand,” Miss Jacobs said. “When we talked earlier, you misunderstood me.”

At that moment, a middle-aged man came up to them. He was Ben Gold, the teacher of film class at Capeside High. He was carrying a large box of popcorn. He looked angry.

“Is this kid making trouble, Tamara?” he asked.

“Be quiet!” said a man who was sitting behind them.

“No, Ben,” Miss Jacobs said. “He isn’t making trouble. He’s a boy from one of my classes. He saw me here and he came to say hello.”

“Well, you’re sitting in my seat, kid,” Ben Gold said.

“It’s not your seat,” Pacey said angrily. “Tamara invited me to come to the movie.”

“That isn’t true, Ben,” Miss Jacobs said. “Pacey didn’t understand something that I said. He got the wrong idea.”

“Be quiet! Sit down and be quiet!” the man behind them said. “I can’t hear the movie.”

Ben Gold grabbed Pacey’s arm and pulled him from the seat.

“You must find another place to sit,” he said. “I’ll help you. Stand up.”

Suddenly, Pacey pulled his arm away from Mr Gold. The teacher fell forward. His popcorn flew out of the box, into the air. Most of the popcorn fell on the angry man who was sitting behind Miss Jacobs.

The angry man stood up. He was very big. He hit Pacey in the face - he hit Pacey very hard.