Chapter 9
The theater was dark, cozy and hot. He'd already taken off his jacket and slung it over the back of his seat, but damn the atmosphere was stifling. He hadn't quite intended it to be just himself and Sophie there. On the contrary, he'd imagined her showing up with her little boyfriend – the Champagne Chimp, as he'd begun referring to him privately – and her friends, maybe even their parents. But things didn't work out that way.
He slouched in his seat beside Sophie, watching in a kind of morbid fascination as she popped pieces of popcorn between her lips and occasionally sucked on the straw. Seventeen, he thought. She's seventeen. You're such a perv. It didn't matter that he had only just turned nineteen himself, his thoughts were entirely improper. More so, considering
