Cinema - Free Seats

Why, oh why, do some people feel such an urge to sit next to strangers in an empty cinema?  Do they enjoy the sound of rustling popcorn while they watch the film?  Do they wish to steal some of said popcorn?  Whatever the reason, it's annoying!

Luckily, no one sat next to me and my boyfriend yesterday when we finally got the chance to go and watch the new Harry Potter film.  It was close though.  We'd booked our seats at the IMAX and purposely chose two seats that were furthest away from the other people in the cinema.  Not that we want to be unsociable, we just don't want to invade their personal space unnecessarily.

So, there we were, loving the blissful silence eminating from the surrounding seats.  Then, to our horror we saw a family of four get up from the middle of the cinema and move towards the back row, where we were sat.  I watched them with my beady hawk eyes, daring them to sit next to us so I could ask my well rehearsed sarcastic question: Do you want to sit on my lap?

But they by-passed us.  Phew!  I watched after them as they moved toward the end of the row, asking another couple further down to stand up so they could get past (why the other way in the first place remains a mystery)...that's when they sat down.  They sat in the next four seats next to the poor couple they had already disturbed.  I was baffled.  WHY would they do such a thing?  That could have been a first date for the couple - now they had to share their romantic time alone with a family of four.  I was seething and it wasn't even my problem.  How I wished they could have sat next to me so I could have made a point of there being about a hundred spare seats in the cinema.

Why do people do it?  WHY??