Date Night

From Candypedia
Date Night
Chapter118 of 129 (list of chapters)
PublishedJanuary 25, 2023 (2023-01-25)
Page count24
Major charactersMike, James, Paulo, David, Daisy
Minor charactersAmaya
LocationsRoseville cinema
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James finally has Mike all to himself for a night at the movies. Before the walk home is over there will be a kiss, a gentle rejection, an impromptu footrace with a date on the line, and one brand-new crush nobody saw coming.

Synopsis

James arrives at the Roseville cinema in a frazzled sprint, horrified that Mike somehow beat him there.[1] In the ticket line he gushes about the film’s director, Pierre Melennec, while Mike listens with amused patience.[2] Inside, James works up the nerve to lay his hand over Mike’s on the shared armrest, only to yank it back with a yelp because Mike’s hand is freezing. “That’s just my circulation,” he blurts.[3] By the credits the two are laughing and teary-eyed side by side.[4]

On the walk home, Mike tearfully thanks James for the past couple of weeks. He admits he’s had a bad year and, worse, that he thinks he deserved one.[5] Mike takes James’s hand. He tells James he’s “changed everything” and thanks him for giving him a chance. James cups Mike’s cheek and kisses him.[6]

Mike lets him down gently: “I’m sorry. I have a girlfriend.”[7] James admits he knew about Sandy and hoped to change Mike’s mind anyway. Each of them briefly offers to quit the track team for the other’s sake, and neither will hear of it.[8] Instead they shake hands on staying friends.[9] Mike even begins to open up about his past, hinting at a best friend he lost through his own fault. James, who only transferred in September, realizes he knows none of it and tells Mike to stop beating himself up.[10][11]

Then David, Daisy and Paulo appear behind them, fresh from the horror movie “Plight of the Zombie,” and catch the pair holding hands.[12] David throws himself into wingman duty for a mortified Paulo, which ends in a demand that Paulo race Mike and “WIN YOUR MAN RIGHT NOW.”[13] James, rather tickled by the whole thing, offers the winner a trip to that zombie movie tomorrow.[14]

Mike blows past Paulo almost immediately.[15] Then David sprints up alongside Mike to scold him for winning, keeping pace without even trying, and James falls for him on the spot. “Who is HE?”[16] By the time David taps the goal streetlight, James is begging him to join the track team, and it’s Paulo who talks him into it.[17]

Paulo is the only one who notices Daisy quietly slipping away, fur frizzing and smile forced.[18] Her hair only goes “bird’s nest” when she’s really stressed, he tells Mike, worrying that he did something wrong.[19] Mike waves the worry off.[20] Daisy walks alone on the snowy path, then flips open her phone to ask her mom for a ride home.[21]

Character dynamics

James cups Mike's cheek with his eyes closed and kisses him, while Mike blushes with his eyes wide in shock.
James reads a little too much into Mike’s heartfelt thank-you.
  • James and Mike: James has been carrying a torch since before he even transferred,[22] while Mike has come to lean on him as the one friend with no stake in his awful year.[23] After the kiss, James says he won’t sit around hoping things with Sandy go south, but offers to stay friends. Mike accepts his handshake.[9] Mike even starts letting James in on the past he’s been hiding.[11]
  • James and David: After watching David keep pace with Mike mid-race, James falls head over heels and begs him to join the team.[17] David, for his part, mostly wants to know whether falling in love with Mike is a membership requirement, and volunteers to do so “for the good of the team” if he must.[24]
  • Paulo and Daisy: The two of them are nursing secret crushes on each other, and this is a rough night for Daisy in particular. She ended the previous chapter crying into her pillow over Paulo,[25] and tonight she watches him race another boy for a date. Paulo is the only one who reads her distress correctly, right down to knowing what her frizzing hair means, though he never guesses why she’s upset.[19][20]
  • Mike and Paulo: Mike flops his head on Paulo’s shoulder as they commiserate over everyone else’s romances.[24] Later, when Paulo frets over Daisy, Mike talks him down.[20]

Trivia & observations

David runs framed by sparkles and floating pink roses while James clasps his hands together and asks "Who is HE?"
James finds a new favorite runner in record time.
  • This chapter took BCB down from three pages a week to one. Per Veronica’s commentary, the authors were feeling “a little overwhelmed and need to take a breather” and planned to update weekly “for at least this chapter, maybe more.”[1]
  • The chapter picked up two member-only what-if comics while it was still running: “Another Direction,” in which Mike says yes to James, and “Another Date,” in which Paulo wins the race.[18]
  • Veronica worked out a backstory for Felix and James in her head while writing, calling it “a fun thing to tackle in the future” and comparing it to how Matt grew beyond being “Rachel’s friend.”[26]
  • James’s first good look at David is drawn as a full shōjo-manga parody, sparkles and floating pink roses included, while an arrow labels Paulo “Ego at rock bottom.” Veronica captioned the page “bara wa bara wa,” an apparent riff on the Rose of Versailles theme.[16]
  • Daisy’s flip phone was a Christmas present, with Veronica’s commentary noting “the cast should start getting phones, right?”[21]
  • Amaya’s silent shift at the concession stand keeps up her recurring job at the cinema. She’s been serving Paulo and company from behind that counter for years.[26][27][28]
  • The best friend Mike won’t name is Lucy. He says as much in New Year’s Resolution, counting her among the friendships he’s lost.[10][29] His startled “You really DON’T know anything, do you?” is also word-for-word a line he once snapped at Zachary, another outsider with opinions about Mike but no knowledge of that history.[30]

Related chapters

  • Good Enough: David proposes that the group “happen” to see “Plight of the Zombie” at the same time as Mike and James’s date. It’s also where Paulo admits his crush on James to Daisy, and where Daisy’s miserable night over Paulo begins.
  • Link Play: During the mall trip, James bashfully invites Mike to a weird French indie film on Saturday. That chapter also shows how much time with James has been keeping Mike afloat.
  • New Year’s Resolution: Mike spends New Year’s Eve breaking down over having had to reject James and counting him among the friendships his love life has cost him. Paulo, for his part, snarls that James is obsessed with Mike.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 1
  2. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 2
  3. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 4
  4. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 5
  5. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 7
  6. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 8
  7. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 9
  8. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 10
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 11
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 12
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 13
  12. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 14
  13. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 15
  14. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 16
  15. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 17
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 18
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 19
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 20
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 22
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 23
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 24
  22. ↑ Chapter 116: Link Play, page 5
  23. ↑ Chapter 116: Link Play, page 32
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 21
  25. ↑ Chapter 117: Good Enough, page 10
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 3
  27. ↑ Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 23
  28. ↑ Chapter 87: Boy Toy, page 13
  29. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 33
  30. ↑ Chapter 44: Intervention, page 4
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