Cinematic

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

He couldn't help it. She was so cute when she was angry. Thankfully it wasn't real angry, so he'd get away with laughing. The pucker of her brow and the pout to her lips were just too much on their own, but partnered with those words and that tone! He just couldn't stop the booming laugh from exploding.

"Hey, your parents never told you that Santa is your uncle? It's in the jeans babe," he joked, giggling again when when poked him. "Also, I'm pretty sure your real name is Kelly, but you secretly wanted to be a boy so you renamed yourself Kellan during middle-school. Those times can be quite confusing, I understand. I was always a boy though, never thought differently..." It was getting hard to bullshit so much with such a huge grin pulling his cheeks up.

"But why don't you like Kelly!" He added at last, "You don't like it? I thought it was pretty cute... I mean, sexy. I told Old Man Sid over the break that I was dating someone, and when I said 'name's Kellan' he gave me a really, really wierd look and told me his brother's name was Kellan," he gave Kellan a cross-eyed salute.

"When I think of it now, I might have saved Old Man Sid the confusion and the heart attack if I'd just said 'Kelly'. Huh. I'll keep that in mind next time..."

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Ugh, he wasn’t going to let that one go, was he? Kenneth would probably just keep calling her Kelly simply because she hated it. From that moment, she decided that after tonight, her new mission was going to be to find something that bugged Kenneth to no end and keep annoying him. Everyone had a pet peeve: gum smacking, pen clicking, feet shuffling. Once Kellan found out what Ken’s was, she was going to turn into the most irritating girl on the planet.

“I did not want to be a boy!” Kellan defended herself. Okay, so maybe she used to play with Tonka trucks and Transformers instead of Barbie dolls and Easy Bake Ovens, but that just meant that she was a tomboy, not that she wanted to be a boy. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t want to have a girly name like Kellan. And what kind of name is Kenneth anyway? Do you realize that your parents named you after overpriced clothing?”

She left him with an immature ‘so there!’ look before she turned and started down the hallway to the screening room, not bothering to grab Ken’s hand this time.

“You know, you’re lucky that you’re cute, because you’re not as funny as you think you are,” she had to add, calling the words over her shoulder. She took the last few steps to the swinging doors of the theater and swung one of the sides open, stepping inside. It was a small theater with only twenty or thirty seats, but it was more than enough room for just the two of them.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked. It wasn’t exactly nicest, warmest, or cleanest places in the world, but it was still exciting to break into an old abandoned theater in the middle of the night.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Kenneth grinned.

"How did you figure out my middle name was Cole?" He accused. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not; the grin was infuriatingly non-revealing. And when she accused him of not being all that funny, he stuck his tongue out at her back.

"I'm hilarious," he decided, following after her into the theatre. But he kept quiet just long enough for her to ask a question, and then he was chatting again.

"It's cool. Really eerie. Are you going to try and freak me out with a horror film? Because I've seen 'Dawn of the Dead', which probably came out about the same time this movie theatre was abandoned," Ken took the prime make-out seats; back row centre. It was automatic, and he didn't even think about it. Something about teenage boys and the back row was magnetic and innate...

"You going to join me, gorgeous?" He asked, taking his seat and putting his arm around the one he'd obviously 'reserved' for her.

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Kellan just smirked when Ken asked about how she found out his middle name was. She had been lying in bed one night, unable to sleep, and it popped into her head that she didn’t even know her boyfriend’s middle name. The next morning, she went on a mission to figure it out. She may or may not have told Jon that she would never speak to him again if he wouldn’t tell her.

“You just want to watch a horror movie so I’ll latch on to you during all the scary parts,” she accused, though the idea really didn’t sound so bad the more she thought about it. Who wouldn’t want to bury their face into Ken’s chest when they were scared?

She tossed her backpack, which, besides the lock to the front doors and her flashlight, consisted of nothing but junk food, into the seat next to Ken.

“What, do you think the movie is going to start itself?” she asked. She gave Ken a quick kiss on the cheek before she walked over to the door that let up to the film room. “Don’t go anywhere, okay? I’ll be right back.” She opened the door and her feet made a loud clunk clunk clunk as she climbed the metal staircase.

It was the only sound that could be heard for a good three or four minutes before Kellan made the same clunk clunk clunk coming down the stairs, this time slower and a little quieter. When she emerged from behind the door, she wasn’t all smiles like she had been when she went upstairs. In fact, Kellan looked like she was about to throw up. She slowly made her way over to Kenneth, and the closer she got, the more dejected she looked.

“They’re gone,” she said to him, offering no explanation to what the heck she was talking about. Her voice was shaky, like someone who was trying so hard not to cry. She wouldn’t cry in front of him. She couldn’t cry in front of him.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Ken chuckled at her accusation, which wasn't really too far-off from the truth.

"You'd like it," He accused right back, grin in place. When she didn't come though, he frowned a bit until she gave her reasoning. Oh yeah. Well... staring at a blank screen didn't seem all that boring with a hot blonde sitting next to you in a vacant movie hall... His mind began wandering as Kellan disappeared. In his head, he was imagining a heady make-out session with his girlfriend on his lap... then his girlfriend was back, snapping him out of his reverie.

She didn't sound... she didn't sound nearly as happy as Ken had just been, which instantly worried him.

He was going to ask if she was okay when he remembered the context of her words.

"What's gone?" He asked instead, leaving his seat to get to her. He stopped in front of Kellan, pretending not to notice how upset she was. It wasn't because he was insensitive. It was because he knew Kellan, and although he'd never seen her cry before, he knew that was because she wouldn't cry. Guys saw crying as weakness, and Kellan was like the guys in that aspect. And a dude didn't call another dude out during his sensitive moments unless they hate each other. Even then, it's cold.

Kellan was his dude, and Kenneth was not cold. He even let a small smile play on his lips, to try and show her that everything was okay.

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Kellan had to take a few deep breaths before she could say anything. Her breathing was shaky, and it took a few tries before she was able to swallow the giant lump that had formed in her throat.

“The movies. They’re gone,” she finally began to explain. “The last time I was here there was a whole cabinet up there full of classic movies and, and now the only thing that’s in there is a stupid spider web.”

She had looked all around the film room, but the stupid movies were nowhere to be found. She didn’t know where they could have possibly disappeared to, but apparently Reese and his friends weren’t the only ones who knew about the treasure that was the old theater.

“I just… I wanted this to be a fun night that you would always remember and prove to you that I could plan a fun date but obviously I can’t and I should have come here earlier to make sure that everything would work out but I didn’t because I’m dumb and it’s quarter to two in the morning and I dragged you out here for no reason and now you wish that you never agreed to let me do this in the first place.”

The more she rambled, the more upset Kellan got. By the end of her stressful monologue, her eyes began to well up and she could feel the moisture behind her eyelids. She turned away from Ken because if those tears were going to fall, she’d be damned if she let him see. She was so mad at herself. Mad for not coming to the theater earlier in the day to make sure that everything was alright. Mad for making Kenneth come downtown in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Mad for being on the verge of tears in front of him.

The poor girl had turned from all smiles to an emotional train wreck in a matter of minutes. Kellan may have been tough, but she was still a seventeen-year-old girl.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Someone had taken a whole crapload of shitty old movies? Ken made a face without even realizing he was making a face. But he couldn't think that much about it. Kellan was upset, and he didn't get why at first. It wasn't her fault; she hadn't stolen the movies. She couldn't be mad at herself. But she was, and for the stupidest reasons. She was really that concerned about impressing him? Ken's heart did something funny, but instead of wasting time figuring out what the hell it was, he went and wrapped his big arms around Kellan when she turned away.

"Kel... Kellan. Don't worry about it. I honestly don't mind being here with you... fuck, that didn't come out right. Kel, there is nowhere in the world I'd rather be than here with you in an old theatre with no movies. You really think I'd wish that? Shhhh," his tone was soft, soothing, the baritone lulling rather than booming, "what happened to my girlfriend? My crazy, never-back-down girl? Come on, I dare you to be happy," he tried, knowing how much she prided herself on taking any dare. He squeezed her gently.

"We could even make our own movie," Ken suggested, grinning into her hair, "of course because of limited budget it might have to be of the adult variety but I'm sure it would be a hit..." Kellan always loved to hit him or scold him when he talked like that. He was offering her a distraction, something to take her mind away from her spoiled plans. Plus, the teenage boy in his head told him it couldn't hurt to at least make a provocative suggestion. Who knows when he'll say it at the right time?

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Kellan had two options. She could either break free from Ken and go cry her eyes out in some dark corner of the theater (which she would rather have a root canal that actually do), or suck it up and try to make the best of the situation, even though her plans were completely ruined. Kenneth, with his comforting arms and soothing words, made her decision so much easier.

She threw her arms around the boy’s middle and rested her head on his chest. She clamped her eyes shut as tight as she could, and when she opened them back up a moment later, any traces of tears that might have been ready to fall almost completely vanished.

“Sorry,” she murmured, the word still a little muffled. It wasn’t clear what she was apologizing for: dragging him out in the middle of the night, getting upset, or not being the girl he was used to seeing, but it would be safe to assume that it was a little bit of all of them.

It was the second time that night that she had let her guard down majorly around Ken. That obviously said something about how comfortable she felt around him. She had wanted so badly to make this night an awesome one, and when it didn’t go how she imagined it would, she was filled with more disappointment than she remembered feeling in a long, long time.

“And you’re out of your mind if you think that I’m having sex with you in an abandoned movie theater,” she let him know. Her words weren’t as threatening a they usually were when he made some kind of disgusting suggestion like that because she was still really upset. But there was just enough kick behind them to let Ken know that as serious as she was, she still appreciated his humor. Well, what he thought was humor.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Ken squeezed when Kellan needed a squeeze, and stroked her hair when she needed it to be stroked. When she apologized, he just shook his head and chuckled softly.

"I think we established a long time ago that I'm out of my mind. Yeah... the first day we met, I'm pretty sure you called me insane," he laughed, taking her back by singing the first verse of the song he'd been belting out in the halls.

"Here's how it goes,
You and me
Up and down but maybe this time we'll
Get it right
All it takes is some trying..."

He ran a hand over her hair again, noticing that it smelled really nice. Whatever shampoo Kellan used, he really really liked it. Or maybe it was perfume. Which reminded him that Christmas was coming up, and he should probably get Kellan a present. And by 'should probably' he means 'definitely must'.

"You smell funny," He accused, inhaling loudly and burrying his nose in her hair.

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Even though she was still upset and embarrassed and forty-two other emotions, the pout on Kellan’s face slowly reversed itself into a smile when Ken started singing. She hadn’t heard him sing in a long time, and it made her think back to their first day in the halls, then to when he took her to the hospital on their first date. She had thought that he was insane (part of her still did sometimes), but she had learned that that was just Kenneth being Kenneth. She didn’t just accept it, she embraced it.

“I don’t smell funny!” she defended. She took a step back so she could actually look up at Ken. He couldn’t be serious, right? “First you called me fat and now you’re telling me that I smell? Some guy you are.”

And just like that, not having a movie to watch was no longer the worst thing in the world. Kellan might have still felt like crap if she was standing there with anyone else but Ken, especially if they were telling her that she smelled funny, but that crazy boy always knew how to throw the best distractions at her.

“I smell good and you know it,” Kellan corrected. She had always been a fan of her cherry-almond shampoo, and could tell that apparently Ken was too. She brought a hand up and traced the letter K on his chest with her index finger.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Ken was grinning at her already when she looked up to catch him lying.

"Okay, you smell good," He admitted, catching the hand on his chest in his own, trapping it there, "Good enough to eat, actually."

He kissed her again, his smile adding a little bit of teeth, a little bit more vigour. It was the kind of kissing that made ten year-olds turn away from the screen and thirteen year-olds peek through their fingers. He might have also been a little more liberal with his tongue.

"You happen to taste good too," He commented, planting a wet kiss on her ear. Experimenting, he used tongue and tooth to test her sensitivity, and the hand being used to hold hers to him loosened so she'd be able to swat him if she didn't like it. Personally, Ken went wild (thought definitely not as wild as Dorian) when a girl latched herself to his ears. He was also very partial to head-massages... any massage actually, if he thought about it.

His other hand, which was already around her, spread wide over her lower back, thumb and little finger spanning nearly from one hip to the other. It probably wasn't an accident that her sweater lifted as his palm shifted.

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Sometimes Kellan wondered if Kenneth was aware of the fact that he made her feel like her legs weren’t strong enough to hold up the rest of her body. Did he know that she had to remind herself to breathe whenever he kissed her like he just had? Because she was sure that he knew exactly what he was doing, and that he was sent to her for the sole purpose of turning her into a huge puddle of nothing. Or to suffocate her; whichever came first.

The feeling of Ken’s mouth on her ear alone was enough to make her knee buckle, causing her to lean into him even more than she already was, thought she honestly doubted that he’d mind.

Ken loosened his grip on her hand, and she did pull her hand away, but to slide it down his rib cage and let it rest at his waist, not to smack him away. Before she even realized what she was doing, she daringly let her other hand slip into the back pocket of Ken’s jeans.

“So do you,” she mumbled, though it would be a miracle if Ken could understand her because as soon as she thought the words, her lips were trailing up his neck. She wished so badly that she was a few good inches taller so she wouldn’t always have to stand on the tips of her toes whenever she wanted to kiss Ken, but she wasn’t going let her lack of height get her down. Literally.

It wasn’t until then that Kellan realized just how alone they were. Sure, they would hang out in her room whenever Kenneth came to see her at school, but someone was always knocking on her door with ‘Hey Kel, can I borrow your hair straightener?’ or ‘I heard Ken was here. Hey man, what’s up?’, but they were never really alone alone. Here, in the dusty old theater, no one was around to interrupt them. Kellan didn’t know if that was the most exciting feeling in the world or the most terrifying.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

Mmm, so she liked that, did she? Ken grinned, even wider as her hands did a little exploring of her own.

Hunching over to plant his lips on her shoulder was getting uncomfortable, and Kellan's impatience with her lack of vertical blessing was almost whispered to him as though she were telling him herself. So his hands slid down to her bottom, squeezed once, and with not so much as a grunt of exertion Ken lifted her up so they were eye-to-eye. If Kellan wanted to stay at that level, she'd have to wrap her legs around him... part of his devious plan to cheer her up.

Kellan's mouth on his neck made him squirm against her, and he walked with her as steadily as he could to the doors of the theatre. Remembering that you had to push from the other side to open them, Ken felt safe to lean her gently against the wood and administer more kisses.

Kellan wasn't the only one who noticed how alone they were. It excited him just as much, or even moreso than Kel. And even though she'd made it quite clear before that she didn't want him having sex with her in an abandoned theatre, it still didn't stop the thought from entering his head. Her overly horny boyfriend brought one hand under the front of her shirt and slid it up until it met what it sought. He chuckled a low, throaty laugh against her jaw.

He'd go a far as she'd let him go, because with Kellan, Kenneth would take everything she offered. She was intoxicating, moreso than any addiction, and she'd never know how much he wanted to be with her. He'd just told her that he could wait for her, so he tried not to come off as impatient. But when you had someone as hot as Kellan Callahan attached to you, it was impossible to disguise what exactly you were thinking. Especially when his hips ground into her at a slow, steady pace.

It was typical, standard teenage hormones seeking release, but that wasn't what Ken was thinking. In fact, he was thinking that it was something more. Kellan could turn him on sometimes without even trying, and without even realizing it. It was just his luck that he would score the hottest girl in the world nd not be able to touch her the way he wanted to. But she deserved a boyfriend who could wait until she was ready, and although hard (next to impossible in his brain), he was determined that he could be the boyfriend she deserved. Which was why his hands didn't stray, and his mouth stayed where it was beneath her ear. He wanted to do so much more, he did. But he didn't know how far Kellan was prepared to let him take her, only where she wouldn't.

[Kellan Grace Callahan]

Kellan hardly felt herself being lifted from the ground. All she knew was that she no longer had to stand on her toes just to reach Ken, which was a blessing. She hooked her ankles around the boy’s waist, and when she felt her back hit the wood of the theater doors, the blonde let the faintest of gasps escape. Both hands trailed up the back of his neck until her fingers tangled themselves in his hair. Kellan had never been so close to another person before, nor had she ever wanted to be pressed so closely to anyone either.

She knew that Ken had told her that he would wait as long as she needed him to, but sometimes she wondered if one day he’d just get tired of waiting around for her. She knew what he wanted, and sometimes she felt bad for not giving it to him. He had kept his word and never pressured her, and Kellan knew it wasn’t fair to continue to be a tease.

She liked Kenneth. Okay, so she really, really, really liked him. Maybe tonight would be the night that everything changed. Kellan pulled away just far enough to be able to really look at him. She said nothing at first, and just locked her eyes with his, her hands still buried in his hair. She blinked a few times before the tiniest trace of a smile crossed her lips.

“Do you wanna get out of here?” she eventually whispered as if the theater was packed and she didn’t want anyone else to hear what she was suggesting. She wasn’t even sure what she was suggesting, but by the way her stomach was flip-flopping every quarter of a second, she doubted it was something she’d want to broadcast to the whole world, had they been listening.

[҉ Kenneth Lorne]

There were very few moments when Kenneth Lorne's repository of words registered as empty. But as he tried to think of something witty or provocative, his lips couldn't move to formulate the words that hadn't quite yet been put together in his head yet. Kellan's eyes staring into his was like a muzzle over his mouth; he couldn't speak. And at her suggestion, he dumbly grinned at her and nodded. Yeah, he wanted to get out of here.

A little confused and more than a little exhillerated, the older boy gently set Kellan down on her feet, nipping her ear with a tooth and a chuckle before he slid a hand along her lower back. He pulled the door they'd been getting hot and heavy against and held it open for her, pressing his palm closer to her skin as a guide forward. He wasn't really thinking about Kellan's backpack full of supplies, or anything else they may have left. He had no idea what had happened to the flashlight she'd given him earlier.

None of those things really mattered to a teenage boy whose girlfriend was turning him on.

Where would they go? Why would they go there? How far did Kellan want to take this? Ken already started mapping out the steps, promising he'd be gentle and make it memorable and comfortable. He didn't want to be the overeager boyfriend who ruined sex for the girl he cared about because he moved too fast. All this was new territory to Kellan, and he wanted to ease her into it and make her feel at home.