Loveday Writing

The brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – February 2024 short story competition was as follows:

• Your story’s first sentence must include something being POPPED.
• Your story must include a character who references a FILM title.
• Your story must include the words LEAP, BOTTLE, and SHADOW.

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Date Night?

It was always captivating to watch the machine popping the corn.

It was always funny to think that a vegetable could be transformed into something so light, fluffy, buttery and salty that could be mindlessly eaten whilst watching a film on a large screen, and washed down with a bottle of soft drink.

I’d been looking forward to watching The Holiday even if it was a re-release for a “Throwback Thursday” promo that the cinema was throwing. I’ve always loved a rom-com, even if some of the plots were a bit of a leap from reality.

I kept looking around the foyer as if I was trying to find my own shadow, waiting for my film buddy to show up. All I kept seeing was everything else that I’d already seen around me – the food stand, ticket stand, velvet ropes closing off each movie room.

Just as I started to think the worst, he arrived.

“Ready for the movie? I hear it’s a rom-com, what a great choice for a date night, huh?” Ethan asked me, putting his arm around my shoulder.

So this is a date after all, yay!