"GUILTY OF MY TEMPER"

SCENE ONE:
Eleven thirty-four in the morning to be exact, stepping out from this dreadful
English class on the first floor near the exit of the building, Powder Maker. Phone ringing and instantly I knew this is the call from my friend Jessica who I always meet up around that time at this circular bench to have cigarette with. I was holding my British Literature textbook along with a cold ice coffee that was dripping and soaked the tissue that was wrapped around my medium size drink. My phone is ringing non stop as I’m walking with my hands full, rushing but pausing every two steps trying to reach for my phone. Finally I reach into my bag, felt my white phone vibrating but by the time I press talk, it hung up on me. Walking with my head down, trying not to drop or spill anything on this concrete floor, a voice call out my name. I look up and notice its Jessica who is right there sitting in this seat with her legs crossed, smiling, and waving her left hand, signaling me to walk faster. As I reach the bench where she is sitting at, I put my heavy bag, thick textbook, and my drink on the empty seat and sit next to her. I pull out the cigarette, pass one to her and light mine up. Its 20 minutes before our second class starts. As I’m puffing the cigarette every minute, sun hitting on my back, Jessica pulls her brown sunglass down from her head to cover her eyes. There was few people here and there passing by us.
“There!” I said pointing at my professor with disappointment that she showed up today. Minutes later, two college girls walk towards our direction.
“Can I get a cigarette?” asks the brunette girl
“NO”. I responded immediately without even thinking.
“I’ll buy one from you”
“Eh No…”, I stare straight at her eyes.
Refusing to leave while my friend Jessica and I are sitting hoping that she and her
friend would leave us alone. She didn’t give up asking, and asks once again for the third time.
“I’ll give you a dollar for it?”
“No!”. I give her that annoyed look and reject her again.
“They’re Chinese”, her friend mumbles while dragging her away from the bench where I’m sitting with Jessica. We stare at them as they walk the opposite direction from where we are sitting.
“Wow, I can’t believe she said that.” Jessica repeats for some reason.
“What a crack head, stupid bitch can’t comprehend the two letter word.”

“Because we’re Chinese?” Jessica asks as she’s staring at me.
“Damn, she said that?”, I said.
“Normally you would have made a scene and for once you stayed calm.”
Immediately it gave me that flashback of the day when I was at the theatre with my friend who also claimed that I have a hot temper.

SCENE TWO:

I was half way through watching Harry Potter at a huge theater in Astoria with a guy friend that I haven’t seen in years. Daniel’s sitting on my right side wearing these glasses similar to the black circle ones that I had on and, the seat to my left was empty. Far from the screen we sat, lights were off, and the only light on was the one coming from the screen. The volume was on high blasting in my ears with Harry Potter’s voice from the movie, mixed with younger girls’ voices behind me talking as they are watching the movie. There were some people sitting behind me and the only thing I was thinking
of was that they might get the wrong impression that he is my date. I purposely let my
left arm leaning on the arm chair annoyed, and not touching my friend at all so that I do
not look like I’m on a date with him. My eyes were not focused on the screen like his,
neither was it on Daniel. I was not even sitting properly and I kept moving around in my
seat. We sat so far from the screen that all I can see is the back of people’s head. Some
heads were bigger than others with different hair styles; curls, straights, shorts, and some
were even bald seated in front of me. Some audiences were taller than others that they were blocking parts of the screen. I quickly sat up straight and tried to be stiff like my friend who barely moved or even noticed me sitting on his left. Unexpectedly, my seat was shaking and realizing that it was not me, my head turned back and sideways to see who it was. As I turned around, I noticed the two teenage girls sitting behind me. Then I realize that it was these girls that were chit chatting and distracting me. Suddenly the shaking comes back and these feet on the seat caught my attention. It was one seat away from me with white sneakers crossed. Those feet were big and right away I knew it was a guy’s feet who did not care to ask if it bother me. The shaking of my seat continuously went on. I kept turning on my left and gave this guy a stare but he didn’t see me because the theater is dark while the movie is on. My head turned several times, and maybe he was pretending not to see me. He kept staring at the screen and laughed loudly. He may have been the oldest among his friends. I was disturbed by the girls behind me talking nonstop and the guy’s feet on the seat just pointing at me as if I was the laughing stock. I picked up my coach bag from that left seat next to me and moved to sit on my friend’s left seat without making too much noise or blocking those girls’ view. I hunched my back when I walked to the seat trying not to annoy anyone while my body was full of anger and bothered by that guy’s feet. These girls are now right behind and are still talking while they both were watching the screen. Without making a fuss I looked at my friend and said
“Arg! You chose the worst fucking seat.”. I said intentionally loud enough for those teenagers to hear.
“What? I didn’t know.”, he said innocently.
“Riiiiight.”

“Sorry Pei.”
From then on the girls stopped or at least had lowered their voice. My friend smiled back and continued to stare at the screen. Before the movie ended, I pushed my friend’s left arm and had to let him know that the movie ended but he just sat there with excitement hoping there would be more of the movie. He smiled and knew that I was dreading the movie because of other’s disturbance. The closest stairs to get out of this theater was on my left but I avoided that and told him to turn right and walk the long way to the stairs just to see the guy who had his feet near my seat. I passed by and saw him sitting with his friends and I grilled at him.
“Excuse Me”,
“Wha…?”
“Was it not rude that you had your feet up there?” I asked with an attitude. His beard stood out and I noticed that he also had a cap on which did not seem to fit his age.
“NoOoOo…”, he responded with a smile. “You need to grow the fuck up!”, instantly I lost my short temper. I turned my back, heading down those stairs with all these thoughts of his rude response, which raged me more in each step I took. Daniel and I finally left the theatre, walking towards the train station.
“It was not that serious.”, he said as he’s trying to calm me down.
“Are you kidding me?”, feeling as if Daniel sided with him.
“Yeah.. it was wrong for him to do that but..”, he paused.
“This asshole acted like he owns this place”.
“I know, I know …but I think you have a short temper”.
It seemed that he knew me better than those knew me much longer by
reminding me that I have a short temper. From then on, I never saw him again.