Chapter 211: The Cinema: Head Game
"What do you mean you want to become my fighter?"
Elena’s voice was calm. Completely calm.
The kind of calm that wasn’t relaxed but was very much in control of itself. She set her glass down on the table and looked at him across the candle.
"Stiles made me an offer," Liam said. "I want to take it. But I want to do it through you."
"Do you know what you’re asking me."
"I know."
She looked at him for a moment. "I don’t think you do." She kept her voice even. "I saved you from him, Liam. I walked into that restaurant and I used my family’s name to get you out of that chair. And now you want me to hand you back to him voluntarily." She tilted her head slightly. "As a fighter."
"I need to get close to him," Liam said. "This is the only way I can think of to do that without getting killed before I even reach him."
"You could get killed after you reach him," she said. "In the arena. Which is arguably worse because you’ll have gotten yourself there on purpose."
"I understand the risk."
"No." She put both hands flat on the table. "You don’t understand me. If you go into that arena and something happens, I cannot help you. Not from the outside. Not from the inside. Not at all." She looked at him directly. "You will die and this time there will be nothing I can do about it."
"I’m not going to die."
"You don’t know that."
"I promise you I’m not going to die."
She looked at him for a long moment. Then she pushed her chair back and stood up. She picked up her clutch from the table, her movements precise and unhurried, and looked at him one more time.
"I’m going," she said.
"Elena." He leaned forward. "Please don’t leave." He kept his voice low. "I know you care about me. I know the thought of losing me does something to you. But everyone I care about who isn’t me is going to keep getting hurt if I don’t start doing something about this."
She stood there with her clutch in her hand and looked at him across the table and the candle and the white linen.
She didn’t say anything.
Then she walked away from the table, through the restaurant, and out through the entrance without looking back.
Liam watched her go.
He looked at the table after she disappeared. At the candle. At her empty chair. He brought his hand up slowly and closed it into a fist on top of the linen, squeezing once, and then let it go.
’Okay,’ he thought.
He sat back in his chair.
’Okay.’
---
He was standing at the curb outside when Kelvin’s Range Rover pulled up.
The window came down and Kelvin looked at him from the driver’s seat with an expression that was somewhere between surprised and genuinely pleased.
"I was not expecting you to actually call," Kelvin said.
Liam opened the passenger door and got in. "Why not."
"Because when you’re with you know who," Kelvin said, pulling away from the curb, "you tend to disappear for the whole day. Sometimes two days. Once it was three."
"That’s not true," Liam said. He reached for his seatbelt and clicked it in.
"It is extremely true."
"It’s happened maybe twice."
"It has happened more than twice."
"Also why did you describe her like that instead of just saying Elena’s her actual name... are you really that scared of her?."
"So Elena is her name."
The voice came from the back seat.
Liam turned around.
Two women were sitting in the back. He had not registered them when he got in and now they were right there looking back at him.
Jane was on the left, sitting with her legs crossed, wearing a fitted cream coloured top with a low neckline and dark high waisted jeans that sat snug across her hips.
Her blonde hair was down and loose, falling past her shoulders in soft waves.
She was already looking at him when he turned, her eyes finding his immediately, her expression giving nothing away.
Priscilla was on the right, wearing a dark rust coloured shirt, slightly oversized and tucked partially into dark shorts that showed off the length of her legs.
Her dark wavy hair fell past her collarbone, a few strands across her face that she hadn’t pushed back.
She had a small smile already in place when Liam turned, warm and easy, her hand already up in a small wave. "Hi Liam."
"Hey Priscilla." He looked at Jane. "Hey Jane."
Jane turned and looked out the window.
Liam turned back to face the front.
Kelvin was looking very deliberately at the road ahead of him. He leaned slightly toward Liam without turning his head and said under his breath, "Awkwaaaard."
He pressed the accelerator and the car moved.
Nobody said anything for a while.
Liam looked out the passenger window at the streets going past. Kelvin drove with both hands on the wheel, unusually focused on the road for someone who normally talked constantly while driving.
From the back seat there was no sound except the occasional small movement of someone shifting in their seat.
The silence lasted the full drive.
Kelvin pulled into the parking lot of a cinema, a wide building with a lit up facade, the display boards showing what was on, a small queue at the entrance moving steadily through the doors.
They got out.
Kelvin looked at the board for approximately four seconds. "Scary movie," he said. Not a question.
"Sure," Priscilla said.
Jane said nothing. She was already looking at the entrance.
Kelvin went to the window and bought four tickets before anyone could offer to contribute, sliding his card across before the total had even finished appearing on the screen.
He collected the tickets and handed them out and then looked at Liam.
"You and me are getting the popcorn," he said. "You two go in and find seats."
Priscilla nodded and nudged Jane lightly with her elbow. Jane started moving toward the entrance without a word. Priscilla gave Kelvin a small smile and followed her.
Liam and Kelvin both watched them go through the entrance doors.
Then Liam turned to him.
"What the hell, man." He kept his voice down even though there was nobody near them. "Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing Jane."
Kelvin was already walking toward the concession stand inside the lobby, hands in his pockets. "It’s not my fault. You remember I told you they wanted to hang out and you agreed. Then you said you were seeing Elena for something so I just went ahead without you." He paused. "And I may have told Jane you were busy with something."
Liam looked at him. "You told her I was busy."
"I didn’t want it to be weird."
"It’s going to be weird anyway."
"Four extra large please," Kelvin said to the person behind the counter. Then he looked back at Liam. "I’m sorry. I genuinely am. Are you good?"
Liam exhaled. "I’m not in a great mood right now. And sitting next to Jane for a whole movie while she ignores me is not going to help."
Kelvin looked at him. "Talk to her."
"She’s not going to want to talk."
"You don’t know that." He picked up two of the large popcorn buckets as they appeared on the counter. "And I’m going to sit with Priscilla on the other side so you two can make up."
Liam raised one eyebrow. "So you can make out with Priscilla you mean."
Kelvin picked up the other two buckets and turned to face him fully. "I hate that you think less of me most of the time. I genuinely do."
"When have I ever been wrong."
Kelvin held the buckets and looked at the ceiling briefly. "Never," he said. "But it still hurts my feelings."
Liam took his two buckets from him.
They both smiled at the same time and started moving toward the screens.
---
Cinema screen four was almost empty.
Two people at the very front row, sitting close together, not talking.
One person alone in the third row, phone out, not looking at the screen yet.
A couple in the sixth row, their heads already close together, sharing something between them quietly.
Kelvin stopped at the entrance and looked at the room. "Perfect," he said.
"Yeah," Liam said.
They moved down the aisle. Priscilla and Jane were sitting about halfway down, two seats together, Priscilla on the aisle side.
Kelvin walked straight to Priscilla and extended one of the large buckets toward her with a slight bow of his head.
"Here you go, my lady," he said.
Priscilla looked up at him and her cheeks went pink. "Thank you," she said, taking it.
Kelvin crouched slightly beside her seat and said something low enough that only she could hear it. She blinked once and then smiled and stood up, holding her popcorn.
"Jane I’m just going to sit back there," she said, pointing toward the back rows. "Come find me if you need anything."
Jane looked at her briefly. Then at Kelvin. Then at Liam.
"Okay," she said.
Priscilla and Kelvin moved past them toward the back of the cinema, their voices already dropping into something quiet and easy between them.
Liam stood at the end of Jane’s row with two large popcorn buckets in his hands.
Jane was looking at the screen.
It was still showing the pre-show slides, rotating through trivia questions and upcoming release posters, the lighting in the room still up.
Her blonde hair was loose around her shoulders.
Her hands were in her lap. She hadn’t looked at him since Priscilla left.
He moved along the row and sat down in the seat beside her.
He held out one of the buckets toward her.
She looked at it for a second. Then she reached over and took it from his hand without looking at him, her fingers brushing his briefly in the transfer.
He set his own bucket on his knee.
"How are you doing?" he said.
She turned and looked at him.
Then she kissed him.
