— A NIGHT TO REMEMBER —

"WANNA WATCH A MOVIE?"
•

~THE CEDARWOOD SISTERS' NIGHT OUT~

IT HAD BEEN AN EXPONENTIALLY LONG DAY FOR THE CEDARWOOD SISTERS.

    Like always, They had spent the entire day working at their respective jobs, and needless to say, they were beyond exhausted.

It was tedious. Every day seemed to follow this pattern;

Wake up,

go to work,

deal with more than fickle customers,

leave,

And last, but certainly not least;

wallow in their sadness.

It proved to be an exercise in futility to strive for anything else at this point, so like young adults in America, they took their fate. Call it pathetic, but they were working smart, not hard.

Well, actually, they were forced to do both. In all honesty, they weren't doing either very well.

However, this night would be slightly different.

You see, every Friday night after work—and I mean every Friday night— Monica and Bella would get their personal bowls out of their barren pantry, as well as some popcorn, and they'd sit down on their ratty brown futon in their dubiously habitable foyer to watch their absolute favourite movie of all time;

The Princess Bride.

It was the only –ONLY– thing that the Cedarwood sisters had. Even after losing everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING, they never lost that 1987 classic. It was a boost of serotonin, and a proverbial wind in their sails. Frankly, it was the only thing keeping them going, besides each other, of course. It's not like there would be any other reason to live another friday.

After their parents had kicked them out for, Y'know, having dreams, they were left out on the street with nothing but a few articles of clothing, and a DVD of the astute movie. You'd think they'd throw out some clothes, or some amenities, or, y'know, literally fucking ANYTHING. But no, they left their old life with the hair on their head, prior clothes on their back, and a blu-ray in their hands.

If you couldn't tell, their parents were horrible.

Yet the movie helped the girls forget that fact. When they put on that movie, nothing else existed. They were enthralled, nearly transported, into the world of fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, and miracles.

Call it crazy, and you would be right, but that movie was probably the closest thing to home that existed for the girls.

And while they would still be watching The Princess Bride, they would not be doing it in the comfort of their own home.

With all the tip money she had gotten that week, Monica had gone behind Bella's back and bought two tickets to a screening of the adored movie. Bella had been talking about how they hadn't gone anywhere in a long while, and what better than to kill two birds with one stone? The venue wasn't far, and it seemed like, by the prices, it wasn't very popular. So, an enjoyable movie in a non-crowded theatre.  Now, all she had to do was let her sister know.

So, that was what she was going to do.

She knocked softly on Bella's door.

"Yes?" She heard her sister say softly. Unable to contain her excitement, Monica entered the room with a grin from ear to ear. The blonde was reading on her green tinted bed, sitting on her stomach with her feet swinging in the air. She looked peaceful, until she caught the mischievous glint in her older sister's sparkling blue eyes. Bella eyed her suspiciously, an eyebrow raised.

"Hey... Mon... what's up?" She drew out. Monica still tried to keep her excitement at a low detection. She walked into the room with a jovial saunter, eventually making her place known on her sister's bed.

"Well... you know how you've been saying you've been wanting to get out of the house..." She explained, leaving Bella in suspense. She furrowed her eyebrows, still not quite understanding why this was pertinent?

"..Yes??"

"Well..." Giddily, she held up the tickets as she bent over slightly in anticipation of her answer. Bella elicited a small gasp, unable to contain it. Monica only giggled.

"Wanna watch a movie?" She asked, mostly out of courtesy. She already knew what the answer was. Bella smiled.

"Please! if I ever say no, shoot me!" Bella said, excitement laced in every syllable of her joke. With a giggle, Monica ran up to her sister, grabbed her hand, and rushed her out of her room, much to Bella's surprise, leaving with only enough time to grab a scarf.

+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+

It had been a few minutes that had been mostly centered around grabbing their bags, and getting down the stairs of their vintage apartment. The girls were so excited that Monica tripped a few times, but they were too happy to care about some extra bruises. After all, they were going to see their favorite movie! Bruises weren't even a little bit of a setback. However, it caught the attention of the old woman, Ms. Schitz, who ran the apartment.

She was a short woman, with scraggly gray hair, undefined face, and frown lines from here to kingdom come. She wasn't horrific, but when she opened her mouth, she might as well have been.

"Shut the fuck up!" She shrieked. The girls looked at her, unimpressed. Bella tried to diffuse the situation, with a small smile that said 'Sorry', but Monica really didn't care.

"You first, Hagatha!"

The look on Schitz's face was priceless! However, Monica didn't have time to revel in it before Bella was pulling her away, with a huff that basically said 'I'm trying not to laugh, stop it.'

"Do you always have to insult the woman?" Bella asked. Monica scoffed absent-mindedly. "That's what the bitch gets for raising the rent."

Monica only looked forward, but she could sense her little sister nodding her head in silent agreement. As soon as it was cut short, Monica was dragging Bella along once again. Bella squeaked in surprise.

"Mon, relax! We'll get there on time!" Bella giggled. By now, they had gotten down the stairs and were on the street. Monica scoffed, as her pace did all but slow.

"I'm not taking chances. I paid good money for those tickets, and I'm poor!" She half-joked, but really, she was still being relatively serious.

"Well we're gonna get there early. It starts in about an hour." Bella informed her, with a look at her watch. Monica tutted her head in silent agreement.

"Yes, but it'll take a while to get there. It's cold outside and you always get slow in low temps." She teased her little sister, only to get flicked in the arm as the blonde scoffed. Monica chuckled before nudging her sister teasingly.

They got to the connecting street rather quickly, and luckily, they only lived a few blocks away from said theatre.

Surprisingly, it only took about 20 minutes to get there, but it indeed would have taken a shorter time if not for the snowy weather. The girls were not generally warm-dressed, really the only thing that could classify as insulating was Bella's green scarf.

As they crossed the final street, they could tell the difference in atmosphere. The streets were clean, almost as if nobody walked them at all. It smelled like something the girls had never inhaled before, but it was aromatic. Better than the constant smell of weed that surrounded their apartment complex.

But what really made it such a vast difference, was the emanating warmth as they got closer to the street, along with a golden-yellow light emanating everything they could see at 9 p.m. darkness.

Monica could hear Bella muse a small 'wow', as they felt themselves stopped in their tracks as they looked around.

It couldn't even be classified as a street that had been lived in. There were apartments, obviously, but they were far too beautiful and clean to be used. They were green lined with a soft brownish-beige, and the shops around the complexes were odd, to say the least. Monica swore she saw a blacksmith sign up in the corner of her eye.

It's Odd... She thought. 'But we can find out about that later.'

She shoved away her intrigue as she and Bella finally came face to face with it.

In the forefront of the otherwise confusing but remarkable street, Monica saw the theater. It was rustic, and almost looked like it was made of varnished chestnut wood and rouge bricks. The awnings were perfectly clean of snow, and it caused Bella to tilt her head in supple confusion. That wasn't going away any time soon.

There didn't seem to be anyone coming in or out, but there was still a brightly-lit beige sign outside, that only had "The Princess Bride" plastered on it in black Monochrome letters.

Monica's smile grew ear to ear.

"Bingoooo." She said in a sing-songy voice. Bella squeaked.

"Oh my god! I can finally throw my popcorn at a life size Wesley! Dreams really do come true!" Bella said enthusiastically. The aspect of that beautiful fact washed away any of her suspicion.

The soft-spoken blonde had always hated Wesley. Monica truly never knew why, even after Bella gave her more than enough unintelligible reasons. Monica never loved him—she was too busy placing her attention elsewhere—but she never had an issue with him.

"Remind me why you hate the hot blonde again?" Monica asked facetiously. Bella scoffed.

"Please, everyone knows the hot blonde is Buttercup. And I hate Wesley because he's insufferable, short-tempered, and not even that cute. I mean, why couldn't you put ol' butters with someone else, huh? It's crazy to me.."

Monica laughed humorously. Everybody has their own opinions, and Bella always had some outlandish ones.

"Well, enough about that." She waved Bella off, before giving a devilish smirk. "On the bright side, you can kiss a life-sized Fezzik." She teased her sister. Bella gasped as she pushed her. It didn't do much, but Monica humoured her with a stumble to the side.

If there was anyone Bella did like in that movie, it was the gentle giant.

Well, it was more than a tiny infatuation. Instead, it was a life-long admiration of the tall, brooding, and in Bella's words: "hottest guy ever".

"I will not be judged for my taste in men!" Bella demanded. Monica scoffed.

"You mean more than you already are?" She joked. Bella looked at her, with confusion on her face. Monica laughed boyishly.

"You think I haven't had my opinions on the guys you date? You once dated a guy who dressed up as 'André The Giant' for a living." Monica jogged Bella's memory. She blushed in embarrassment.

"I'm not even gonna talk about the fucking MOUNTAIN you dated last year." She joked again. Bella scoffed.

It was true. The love she had for Fezzik had impacted all her relationships. Bella would usually have a boyfriend a foot taller than her, or even more. Though, it wasn't hard, as she was pretty short to begin with.

"Okay... what about you wanting to screw Mandy Patinkin?" Bella pointed out, hoping it was an 'Aha! I got you' moment. Monica only looked at her.

Ah, yes. Where Bella had her mountain, Monica had her Spanish sword fighter. Because she wasn't as adamant, or quite frankly, loud about her attraction, it seemed to everyone else as if he was just a tiny crush.

Not true. Not even a little bit.

Yes indeed, Monica was very in love with a character from an eighties movie. She had never dated a guy she kept for more than a week or two, because they could never treat her as well as how she saw Inigo treat people.

She would never admit that. After all, she was a tough, rough-around the edges kind of girl, and tough girls didn't have crushes on movie characters. They also didn't let a fictional man control their standards

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry for liking the conventionally attractive, average heightened man who doesn't have acromegaly! I'm so sorry about that, I know I let you down." Monica put on a fake pout. Bella rolled her eyes as she smiled.

"Oh please, You like him now. He's.... Old!"

"And?" Her sister rebutted. Bella groaned at her sister's stubbornness. Monica, however, found it hilarious.

"Come on, mountain climber. Our dream awaits." She pulled Bella, who gasped at her new nickname.

👑

At this point, the sisters had headed inside to find that besides them, there were no movie goers except the two. The lobby was empty, not even a speck of concession trash, or anything at all. The floors seem so clean, as if you could eat off of them, yet so aged to the point where you could tell the linoleum was in need of repair.

"Are you sure they're open?" Bella asked sceptically. Monica furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she looked around.

"I have no idea, but we didn't come all this way to just come this far, right?" She smiled, which Bella found to be infectious, as her sister grabbed her hand and they walked forward.

When they came into view of all the workers—Or, just one—, the person manning the concession stand stopped cleaning the popcorn machine when he heard the bell on top of the door ring. When he turned around, he had nothing short of a shocked expression on his face. The man looked to be about in his mid 40's, with chocolate brown hair, thin lips, and very distinct smile lines. When they had caught his attention, his brown eyes lit up, like someone seeing an old friend.

Monica looked at Bella, unsure who should go up to ask. With a disgruntled sigh at her sister's shyness, Monica had found herself walking up to the man.

"Hey, sir." The man had a dazed look on his face as she spoke. Monica didn't notice yet.

"I'm not sure if my ticket was wrong, but I bought a ticket for tonight... and no one is here." She said matter-of-factly. Suddenly, the man had snapped out of his daze looking at her, and flashes such a genuine smile it was almost warming.

"Yes! You did buy tickets for tonight. Princess bride, right?" He asked, curiously. Monica looked at him in confusion as Bella came up from behind.

"Yeah... how did you know that?"

The man gave a soft smile, before scratching the back of his neck.

"I've been working concessions here since I was 15. The only other time this happened was when a man came from Boston to see The Princess Bride as well... Mongroving I think?" He tried to rehash his memory, before shaking his head softly. "Well, anyway whenever someone buys a ticket to watch the film we... close off the theatre for everyone else."

He had said it as if he wasn't telling the truth. Monica tilted her head to look at him suspiciously, but Bella giggled.

"Cool! I've always wanted to watch a movie in an empty theatre!" She exclaimed, tearing Monica away from drawing any conclusions about the man in front of her. She sighed, before smiling at her sister, and then turned back to the man (who's, from the name tag, name was Billy.) and she put down four dollars.

"M&M's please." She said curtly. The man smiled jovially, and had taken their orders with almost indefinite glee. However, he didn't take the money as he gave her the candy.

"It's on the house."

His hand lingered. Confused, Monica looked back up to his eyes.

"Enjoy the show, Monica."

Monica stepped back with her concessions in shock.

How the fuck did he know her name?

She stood there and tried to search his face for anything other than enthusiasm, but she couldn't, before Bella had grabbed her arm.

"Come on, let's get seated." She turned to the cashier.

"Thank you, Billy!" She gave him a kind smile, which of course, he reciprocated.

"Any time for pretty girls like yourself." He complimented. That was the last thing he could say, with a smile on his face, and eyes locked with the only girl who was still looking at him. Monica furrowed her eyebrows, wondering if he was really staring into her soul, or she was just paranoid. However, Monica couldn't stew on it for long before the two girls were heading closer towards their wing of the theatre. Monica looked back at him once more, with a discerning look on her face.

Billy only smiled. they were exactly how he envisioned them.

They were going to have a good time.

👑

A few seconds had passed, and the Cedarwood sisters had found their wing, theatre 555. Monica and Bella looked at the number with confusion. It was the only three digit number in this place. Now, Bella was slightly sceptical, but then they both realised:

They didn't come all this way, to only get this far.

They walked in, and unsurprisingly, the seats were almost abandoned, and the thing was, they didn't even look like theatre seats. They seemed almost otherworldly, as if straight from a fairytale. The seats were a washed teal, with almost golden armrests, and vine details on the fabric.

"Wow." Bella mused. Monica nodded unsurely. Her sister noticed this and sighed;

"Hey. It's a theatre. Let's not think about it." Bella reassured, then, she gave a devilish grin.

"You brought Jack?"

Monica smiled as she rolled her eyes. Then, she opened her purse, and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels. Her sister squealed in excitement.

"Oh, the joys of being 22!" She recanted, as she put her arm around her sister' neck, pulling her down to her height. Monica laughed along, still not entirely free-willing, as she was almost more on-the-fence now.

"Yeah, yeah, we can get fucked up. Come on, let's find our seats." Monica directed. Eager, Bella nodded and followed her caramel haired sister to the middle of the theatre.

When they sat down, they couldn't help but get exorbitantly comfortable. The seats were so soft, and were practically swallowing them.

As they had more than a few drinks, They chattered drunkenly for a few minutes about the movie; how it would look on a big screen, how it would sound... and then,

It turned on.

The excessively large screen lit up with a slight click, and the sisters felt a sense of giddy. As they watched, they had gone through the first scene, where the grandfather had come in. However, as the boy kept popping up on screen, and she saw the colour of his down-turned eyes, Monica couldn't help but realise how familiar he looked now.

Whatever. The movie kept on, and at this point, Grandpa had brought out the book, explained it, and opened it up. Bella tipsily shook her sister.

"Oh my god, it's starting!!" She whispered loudly. Monica's eyes, however, were glued on the boy.

He looked more familiar than he ever had before, and it was all too parallel.

However, as quickly as Monica became uneasy, the boy had gone. She let out a sigh she