It was a cold November evening when Cody Hedges decided he wanted to be a filmmaker when he grew up. He was about 14 years old, and his best friend, a chubby, slightly older boy by the name of Mike Parks, had talked him into sneaking into an R-rated movie with him on the weekend. Cody normally tried to avoid the type of age-inappropriate antics Mike tended to end up involved in, but in this case, was persuaded by the promise of full-frontal nudity on the big screen.

           Cody arrived at Mike’s house at five, and after waiting ten minutes for him to finish watching a wrestling match he’d taped the night before (and another ten for him to use the toilet), the two of them headed off, Mike’s mother giving the usual platitudes about staying safe and being back before ten. The theater was about half an hour from Mike’s house. Typically, on a walk as long as this, the two of them would pass the time with inane chatter regarding naughty urban legends and whatever was on TV last night. That evening, however, his nerves had gotten the better of him, leaving him uncharacteristically on their way to the theater. It wasn’t until the two of them had reached the parking lot that he’d decided to finally speak up.

           “I’m a little nervous.” Cody admitted, burying his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

           “What for?”

           “Well, I’ve never snuck into a porno film before.”

           Mike looked at him with the exasperation of a father whose baby had been crying for the past six hours. “No man, I told you, it’s not a porno, it’s a movie about porno.”

           “Ah.” The answer momentarily satisfied Cody, who fell silent again as the two moved aside to let a passing SUV through. Eventually, though, another question came to the forefront of his mind. “So why are we even seeing it then?”

           “I told you at school, they show lots of tits in it.”

           “…But you just said it wasn’t a porno.” Cody questioned as they stepped into the theater.

           “A movie isn’t a porno just ‘cause it’s got tits in it.” Mike claimed confidently.

           “Well, then what…” Cody started, before dying down as he noticed they were nearing the ticket booth. Not wanting to blow their cover, he quickly changed the subject. “Shit, what’d you tell your mom we were seeing?

           “Just let me do the talking.” Mike advised as he stepped up to the ticket window, which was being manned by a young metalhead-looking type with long hair and a vacant look on his face. “Hey.” Mike said, hoping to grab his attention. A few moments after most people would, the man took notice.

           “Yeah?” the man mumbled lethargically; his mind clearly somewhere else.

           “Two for Bean.” Mike said calmly, any hint of his true intentions going unnoticed by the clerk as he printed their tickets off and placed them on the counter.

           “That’ll be $10.58.” the clerk said, prompting Mike to nudge an inattentive Cody, startling him. Brought back to reality, Cody digs a $10 bill from his pocket and swaps it for the tickets, quickly powerwalking away from the either unaware or indifferent ticket clerk. The two moved deeper into the lobby proper, settling in at the rear of the concession line as their ears adjusted to the ambiance of arcade noises and muffled Top 40 radio playing over the P.A.

           “So if the movie has tits in it, how the hell isn’t it a porno?” Cody asked, eager to return to their previous topic of conversation.

           “There’s no penetration.” Mike explained as they slowly made their way through the queue. “I read in Entertainment Weekly once that they can pretty much show whatever they want in a movie as long as you never actually see anything go into anything.”

           “You read Entertainment Weekly?”

           “I was waiting for the dentist.” Mike elaborated. His curiosity quelled for the moment, Cody nervously turned back towards the ticket booth.

           “You think that guy noticed I ripped him off for the tickets?” Cody asked, half bragging and half concerned.

           “Whaddya mean?”

           “The guy asked for 10.58 and I just gave him 10.” Cody admitted to Mike, who seemed visibly unimpressed that Cody would even care about something that insignificant.

           “So what, you expect the guy to chase you down over 58 cents?”

           “It’s his job, isn’t it?” Cody said sheepishly.

           “Even if he cared enough to go after you for that, that guy looked like he’d been sniffing glue between customers, there’s no way he noticed.” Mike assured Cody.

           His delusions of guilt mostly shattered, Cody returned his attention to the concession stand, which they were quickly nearing. “Yeah… You’re probably right.” The customer in front of them walked away, and the two boys took their place at the concession stand, which was being manned by a cute brunette in her late teens.

           The girl made her introduction with a chipper smile, obviously a recent hire. “Hi, Welcome to Diamond Cinemas! What can I get you today?” In response, Mike leaned up on the counter and flashed her a grin, trying his hardest to seem as cool as a 15-year-old with an Offspring t-shirt and a bowl cut possibly could.

           “Yeah, could I get two large popcorns, two large Cokes, a thing of Milk Duds, and uhhh…” Mike turned back towards Cody. “Anything else?”

           “Twizzlers.”

           Mike turned back to the counter to finish his purchase. “Yeah, and a thing of Twizzlers.”

The snack clerk smiled and turned around to fill their popcorn buckets. While her attention was elsewhere, Mike leaned into Cody and spoke to him in a hushed but excited tone. “Dude, that chick totally wants to fuck me.”

Cody, despite having seen no evidence to suggest the girl had any intentions other than serving them their food, nevertheless decided to humor Mike a little. “Oh yeah?”

“Totally, did you see the way she was looking at me?” Mike said, braggadociously, before returning his attention to the girl at the counter, pulling a $20 bill from his pocket as she reached beneath the counter the get the boy’s candy.

“That’ll be $14.25!” the girl exclaimed as he handed the snacks over to Mike, who placed the $20 on the counter.

“Keep the change.” He said, attempting to channel his inner DiCaprio as he handed the snacks over to a slightly amused Cody. The clerk thanked him and put the bill into the register. At this point, Cody had began making his way to the theater. Within a few steps, however, he noticed that Mike was no longer following him, and his stomach dropped as he turned around to discover why.

His ego having outgrown his charisma, Mike had decided to linger at the concession booth in the hopes of managing to score with the snack clerk. “So, Angela…” Mike said, as if expecting her to be impressed he could read a name tag. “What time do you get off work?”

Angela nervously laughed and asked him what he was talking about as Cody walked over, hoping to stop Mike from embarrassing himself too badly “Mike…” he said softly, like a vocal nudge to indicate to him “it’s time to go”. It didn’t work.

“Well, I wondered if you wanted to meet after the movie, so we could… You know…” Mike’s confidence faltered, leading him to resort to flailing his arms about in a series of vaguely sexual hand gestures which Angela was only barely able to discern the meaning of, causing her face to take on an expression more befuddled than disgusted. “Y’know, that sort of thing.”

Cody, at this point desperate to get out of the situation, lightly kicked Mike in the ankle. “C’mon, man, the movie’s in ten.” Having been reminded of why they came to the theater in the first place, Mike decided to wrap things up and made an attempt at a smooth exit.

“Look, just meet me outside the theatre in three hours. By the Harrison Ford poster.” Mike attempted to seal the deal by giving her a sexy wink, failing horrifically. With that being done, the two of them took off for the theater.

Once Cody felt the two of them were out of the clerk’s hearing range, he started to lay into Mike. “What the hell was that supposed to be?”

“What?” Mike said, defensively. “I saw she was interested and I decided to make a move.”

“That’s “Making a move”? because to me it looked more like you waving your arms around like a fucking retard.”

“Man, you’re just jealous ‘cause she didn’t wanna fuck you.”

Cody looked at Mike in absolute bewilderment, stunned that he would say something that fucking stupid. “That’s it, now I’m really gonna give it to him.” Cody thought, but before he could retort, he’d realized that they were only a few feet from the ticket-taker. “Shit. Could you hold this?” Cody muttered as he handed the drinks and popcorn off to Mike before approaching the ticket-taker.

The ticket-taker was a decrepit old man, no younger than 75. If an older Cody had seen him, he probably would’ve thought him to resemble Abe Vigoda. As Cody walked up to him, he managed to speak up with considerable effort. His voice was harsh and raspy, as if he were moments away from death. “Tickets, please.”

Nervously, Cody took the movie tickets out of his pocket and handed them over to the old man, who held them up close to his eyes as to better see the text printed on them. Realistically, Cody knew the ticket-taker had no way of knowing they were planning on sneaking into another movie, but he still held his breath, fearful he may somehow figure out their plans. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the ticket-taker feebly ripped the stubs off of the tickets and returned them to Cody. “Enjoy the show.” He creaked out before sending the two boys on their way.

Having successfully made it past the ticket-taker, Cody began growing more relaxed as the two of them made their way down the hall to the theater, Cody scanning the entrance signs for the correct movie. “What’s up with the Crypt Keeper back there?” Mike cracked in a lame attempt at a joke. Cody briefly considered turning the subject back to Mike’s failed attempts at seduction, but decided it was a lost cause, instead opting to ask Mike for his snacks back.

Eventually, the two had made it to their first destination, Theater 9. The rolling red LED signage above the theater doors simply read “BEAN”. Likewise, a poster of Mr. Bean pulling a stupid face had been hung up to the left of the doors. After pointing the door out to Mike, he and Cody walked into the theater to avoid suspicion, before exiting out into the hallway again after about a minute had gone by.

Mike and Cody moved quickly, but carefully down the halls, hoping to get to the other theatre as soon as possible. growing a little anxious as they passed the entranceway to the lobby, Cody whispered to Mike. “You think he’s forgotten about us by now?”

"You kidding? That guy probably needs to be reminded he’s still alive.” Mike snidely assured Cody, it was just then that a theater employee exited from Theater 13 toting behind her a mop and a pail of dirty water. Cody nearly froze as his fight-or-flight instincts began to kick in before his mind was able to catch up to his body, at which point he simply followed Mike’s lead and walked past her, trying his best to act natural.

         The strategy had seemingly worked, with the woman paying them no mind as she walked past them and into Theater 11, which was playing a movie about fairies. Cody breathed a small sigh of relief and whispered to Mike. “Bitch almost gave me a heart attack.”

         “Relax, you’re being a pussy. Look, Theater 16.” Mike said as he pointed out their destination.

         The dark red steel door of Theater 16 stood tall, the collaged, star-framed poster to the side of it beckoning the two boys in with promises that they’d be witness to 2 hours of sex, drugs, and excitement. The shiny LEDs above the door read out “BOOGIE NIGHTS”. “C’mon, I think it’s about to start.” Mike said as he pushed the door open, with Cody following after looking over his shoulder one last time.

         The boys kept their heads down as they made their way through the theater, eventually settling down in a sparsely populated section near the rear where they felt confident they wouldn’t be noticed. The movie had just started, an orchestral score swelling through the speakers as credits went by on a black screen. “Good, looks like we made it on time.” Cody muttered as he sat down.

         “And you were saying we left too late.” Mike said with a slight smugness.

         “We did leave too late.” Cody said, starting to get fed up. “We literally just barely made it on time.”

         “But we made it.” Mike said as if it made Cody’s complaints any less true.

         “I come over to your place and I have to wait half-an-hour for you to get out of the bathroom after doing whatever the fuck it was you were doing…”

         “I told you I had Mexican for lunch.” Mike weakly protested.

         Ignoring him, Cody continued airing his grievances. “…And then on top of that, I practically had to drag you away from the concession stand since you were too busy trying to get your-“

         Music filled the theater. Loud, hot disco that immediately snuffed out any chance of conversation taking place. On-screen, the bright neon lights of a nightclub shone extravagantly, casting any argumentativeness from Cody’s mind within seconds.

         It was then and there that Cody knew that the movie was something different. It wasn’t something that would serve only as a night’s worth of cheap titillation to promptly be forgotten the following day. It was something that was going to stick with him through the years. Through the crappy backyard home videos shot with his mom’s camcorder, through the late nights spent watching through the classics he’d rented, through the countless arguments about whether film school was a waste of time and through the drunken haze of college house parties such as the one which Mike had invited him to nearly a decade later.