Page 12 of Cinematic Destinies
Khalil laughed. “Let me guess, you had a chauffeured limousine take you to school and a fleet of nannies to accommodate your every whim.”
“I wish!” Betty replied with a laugh. She got quieter. “Seriously, though, my parents are awesome. We never had nannies or anything like that. They did everything themselves.”
“Really? How did they juggle that with your father filming movies and your mother doing book tours and university fellowships? I just assumed that . . .”
She shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know how they managed it with three kids, but they did. We never had a nanny. My parents had a rule that we always stayed together as a family. So, we would all travel together when my dad had a location shoot or my mom had a fellowship. Whoever wasn’t working would take care of us, but really, they both always did. They were super hands-on.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Yeah. Even though we lived in a big house and flew on a jet, they tried to make things family-centered and DIY as much as they could.” She laughed. “My mom was kind of extreme. When I was maybe six and Georgia was three, we wanted to make cookies in the shape of butterflies. Most parents would buy a cookie cutter. Not our mom. She taught us how to do it with what we already had at home. We made homemade sugar cookie dough. Then we used a butter knife to cut strips for the butterfly’s body and a drinking glass to cut out circles, which we sliced in half. When faced opposite of each other, they looked like wings.” Betty smiled. “Thecookies really looked like butterflies. We each got to decorate half. I took so much time to make each one perfect. Georgia just dumped food coloring and colored sugar on hers Jackson Pollock style.” Khalil laughed and she continued, “I realize now that my mom wanted us to be able to get by no matter what we had. To rely on our own creativity and imagination, not buying stuff or having it handed to us.”
“What a wonderful gift,” he remarked.
“Yeah, well, when I was a teenager, I would have loved it if they didn’t make us set the table and do our own laundry and all that other kind of stuff that they could have easily outsourced, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t change a thing. I know how lucky I am. In every way.”
He smiled, unable to take his eyes off her. Softly, he whispered, “Betty . . .”
“So, should we clean this food up? You ready for a game of Scrabble? Medical terms only.”
“Sure.”
ALBERT GLANCED OVER AT RYAN ANDtheir friends as their nearly empty trolley whizzed beneath the streets of Cambridge. Ryan bumped his shoulder and said, “Let’s reenact our laser tag battle.”
“Here?” Albert asked.
“Yeah,” Ryan said, jumping up. “We have this car to ourselves.”
Albert shook his head.
Ryan turned to their two friends. “Come on, guys.”
The three began pretending they were in an adventure movie, using their hands as guns. Albert sat watching, a huge smile on his face.
“Come on, Al,” Ryan encouraged, waving his hand. “Don’t miss the moment.”
Albert nodded and rose to join them. Soon it was a full-scale medieval battle, up and down the trolley car. After a series of clever moves that took out his opponents, Albert raised the toy sword he’d won at the arcade and declared, “I am king of laser tag, and you are my loyal subjects.”
Ryan laughed. “See, aren’t you glad I told you to pick the sword and not the stuffed animal?”
Albert had been smiling and laughing for so long, his face hurt. He thought about how many times in his life he had stood on the sidelines, too shy to join in, and how Ryan changed all that. He gazed at Ryan—his chiseled face with coffee-colored eyes and dark hair that effortlessly fell into place—and wondered how he could make everything so much fun, even a ride on the Red Line.
As the trolley turned the final corner, roaring into Harvard Station, Albert, Ryan, and their buddies grabbed onto each other to keep their balance. Albert and Ryan exchanged smiles as they all hopped off the train and headed back to their apartment building, joking and laughing along the short walk.
“Al and I are gonna hang for a while at his place,” Ryan told his roommates, who headed into their apartment as Ryan followed Albert into his across the hall.
“That was so much fun,” Ryan said as they both plopped onto the couch. “Don’t get a big head, but it’s true that you’ve become the king of laser tag. Glad you were my partner. We kicked their asses.”
“I’d never go to places like that if it weren’t, well, if it weren’t for you. I’d probably spend all my time just drawing or reading. I lived in Boston for years before I even knew that arcade existed. I never played laser tag or any of that other stuff before I met you.”
“I’m glad I bring you out of your shell,” Ryan replied. Albert blushed and Ryan continued, “It’s cute how into it you get. You come alive.”
Albert smiled. “It’s fun when we pretend to be characters, like we’re in a TV show or action movie or something. It makes me feel . . .” He trailed off.
“What?” Ryan asked, taking his hand.
“I don’t know. Like I’m not just me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with just being you,” Ryan said, putting his hand on Albert’s cheek. He kissed him softly and added, “I like you the way you are.”
