A Fine Evening

I take a bite out of my banana, which unfortunately turns out to be a rotten bite. I am at Andrea and Paula's apartment. After running into the kitchen and being rather disgusting by spitting it back out into their garbage, Paula and Andrea start talking about Bridget Jones' diary. I come back into the livingroom and tell them I have not seen the second one. We should watch it, we say, yeah.

"Okay, let's go get it," says Andrea grabbing her coat. "We can even catch the 10:35 bus down. What time is it, Miranda?"

"It's 10:33!" I squeal. There is a mad dash for coats, mitts, hats, and wallets. We jump out the door, gleefully shrieking, locking the door when...

... a hagard, young-looking mother opens the apartment door, adjacent to theirs.

"Could you keep it down?" she says, a little annoyed, but mostly tired.

"Ooooh yes, sorry, we're sorry", we whisper through coat shuffling. I think we are loud far too often.

We sprint to the bus stop and make it just in time.

Paula chooses to go to the smaller video store, that is apparently cooler. Andrea pulls the door to open it; it won't budge.

"Oh no, it's locked!" she moans, "they must be closed." She pulls harder. It still won't open. The guy from inside is looking at her, with a smile. The "use other door" sign is flapping in the wind.

Paula lets her know. Andrea opens the other door. The three of us filter in very obtrusively. The guy is half-laughing at us; but what does he know, for he is watching a chick flick.

Within minutes, we find the movie. We go to the counter, and I pay. Since I don't have my bank in the area, I tend to go to stores and ask them for cash back. I attempt to do this here. Too bad I left my brain on the bus.

"Okay", says the jolly looking guy, "that'll be four twenty five."

I pull out a ten, and whilst sliding the bill to him, I ask him if I could have twenty dollars back in cash.

Umm, what?

His hand, that was reaching out to take my bill, is slightly pulled back. He looks at me, terribly confused.

"Okay, I'm paying for the movie, and I want to get twenty dollars back", I say to him, trying to explain, and motioning to him that he should take the bill.
He is utterly confused.

"Um, Miranda...", starts slowly Andrea,"you can't just ask him for twenty dollars."

"Well, I want money back, you know, some cash", I say, not understanding why everyone was so confused.

"Ohhh", said the guy, smiling again, yet finally understanding, "you want cashback."

"Yeah, exactly," I say.

"Oh, well, we don't do that", he says, raising one eyebrow but never stops on the smiling!

"Miranda", says Andrea slowly, "you can only get that if you pay with debit."

Oh, right. Never mind. I'll just pay for the movie and forget about the cashback. I shrug and pay with my ten. The guy is giggling at us. I don't understand why everyone was so confused.

Until after. Way after.

I gave him a ten dollar bill and asked for twenty dollars back, please? He must have thought that I was some kind of a raving lunatic. Didn't we make a fine impression: Andrea wrestling with the door, and I, the girl who tried to get a cashback of twenty dollars by paying for a movie with a ten. Booze or dope, he must have thought.

It is only when we step back into Andrea and Paula's appartment that I realize what happened. Paula said that it's okay, we all forget our brains sometimes. But they both laughed at me.

I moan about how that guy must think I'm all pumped up on drugs or something.

"Oh, that's okay", says Paula, waving it away, "it doesn't matter. Besides, every time I have gone into that movie store, it's always that guy, and he is always watching chick flicks. You can now make fun of him for that."

I don't know what's worse -- watching and enjoying The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants or being on the top of my cloud with my green friend, Zohalasopzee, and my kazoo, and singing and dancing with mangos in our hair.