Everywhere, All At Once

Chapter 11 - A Deeper Blue

"Hey," Aaron said, hands in his pockets as he and the kids walked up to her.

"Hey," she said quietly, then turned to the kids with a grin. She was glad to see them all, even if seeing Aaron brought back that stupid, aggravating sad feeling.

"Dad, I gotta go pee," said Brayden, bouncing up and down. Aaron rolled his eyes, and smiled at her as if to say, "kids".

"We'll be right back," he told Kenna and Fiona.

Kenna took Fiona with her to the booth and got their tickets, and they waited for the boys by the entrance to the theaters.

"How's school, Fi? Haven't talked to you in a bit," Kenna asked.

"School's fine. Why haven't you come over? I asked Dad but he seemed mad or something when I asked him and he just said you would come over soon. Are you guys fighting?"

Kenna held in her sigh. Some kids were too damn observant for their own good.

"No, honey, we're not fighting. We're all here together now, right?" Kenna said, only lying a little bit. They weren't fighting, not technically.

"Right," Fiona said, her smile brightening some. Aaron and Brayden came from the bathroom and Brayden ran over to them.

"I just need to get our tickets," Aaron said to Kenna and turned to walk toward the ticket box.

"I already got all of them," she called, and he turned on his heel with a funny look on his face. He nodded and they gave their tickets to the attendant and followed the excited children to their theater.

"So I can't buy you lunch but you can buy me movie tickets?" Aaron whispered once the kids were out of earshot.

She shot him a glare but didn't deign to answer. Mainly because she had no valid argument. He only smirked at her when she didn't respond, which irritated her more.

When they entered the theater, Kenna instructed the kids to pick where they wanted to sit. It was, after all, supposed to be a treat for them - though she was super excited to see the movie, too, A Wrinkle in Time. She'd grown up on the books and might have been even more excited to see it than Fiona was. Brayden, he just seemed to be along for the ride, happy to get out of the house.

The kids ran about halfway up the rows of seats and halfway down to the middle of the aisle, whispering to each other. She nodded in amused approval. So young and they already knew how to pick good theater seats. Kenna moved to sit on the far side of the children with the hope that Aaron would understand he was to sit opposite her, but Brayden stopped her.

"No, you're supposed to sit there," he said, pointing to the empty seat beside Brayden. "And Dad there," he added pointing to the seat right beside it.

"No, I want to sit here," Kenna said in her best sweet-grownup voice, but Brayden pouted.

"But I picked the seats right in the middle. If you sit there, it won't be even. We won't be right in the center." He looked so worried about not being in the symmetrical middle of the row that it baffled Kenna. This kid was only like eight. What the hell did he know or care about being centered?

"Oh, it'll be fine if I sit here, we'll only be one off," Kenna said, once again trying to edge past Fiona to get to the seat she desperately wanted.

"But I counted and everything!" Brayden whined, pouting harder. "I counted the seats so we would be even."

Jesus Christ.

Kenna looked back at Aaron, silently pleading for him to step in and pull the parent card but he just shrugged.