My partner and I decided to catch an early screening of Wicked:For Good last night. I live in Canada (weed is legal here), so we had a quick smoke before heading in. I don’t love being stoned in public as I’m prone to getting anxious, so I smoke a very modest amount. We head into the theatre. Our assigned seats are in the middle of a row. I tend to avoid these seats since I hate shuffling past people, but there weren’t many open seats remaining when we got the tickets. We were going to a big theatre where the walking space in each row is quite spacious, so I thought it’d be fine.
We walk into our row (my partner in front), and one of the other attendees sitting two seats away from us has a large, brown paper bag sitting on the ground perpendicular to the seats. It’s taking up the entire width of the walkway. My partner stops for a few quick seconds to give her a moment to move her bag, but she stays scrolling on their phone. My partner decides to take a big step over the brown paper bag & I stupidly follow suit. I step over and as my foot hits the ground, it catches the edge of the paper bag and it turns sideways. The owner of the bag shouts "NOOO!!" and stands up. She has her back to me as she fidgets with the bag for a few minutes. She has tons of friends around her who now look extremely concerned. I awkwardly stand there waiting for a chance to apologize. She is making tons of frustrated noises, and I’m thinking "Oh no, was it food that spilt everywhere, or something delicate?" I was wearing boots so this might not be accurate, but I don’t recall my shoe making contact with anything besides the edge of the paper bag.
Once she turns to face me, I vehemently apologize and offer to re-imburse her. She tells me not to worry about it, but then informs me that the bag held a specialty light-up Galinda bubble popcorn holder. She tells me that it cost lots of money & she got the last one. She then proceeds to loudly make comments for about 5 minutes to her friends like, "It’s scuffed," "I think it’s broken", "My life flashed before my eyes", etc. It might’ve been the weed, but it felt like an eternity of this. Everyone was looking at me like I killed someone. She asks her friend to compare their Galinda popcorn bubbles to see if hers is broken or not – her friend suggests they check after the movie since theirs was packed away, but eventually pulls theirs out to compare. The movie starts and I want to run away. I tell myself it’ll be worse if I try to go past them again to leave, so I stay put.
I hate that I ruined her night. I can’t imagine that I did any significant damage to the popcorn bucket since I’m pretty sure I only tipped over the bag, but I definitely crushed the vibe. Once I sobered up, I started to wonder if the scale of her reaction was warranted – or why she would have left it on the floor, blocking the walkway? I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable or not. Should I have insisted more on re-paying her? I feel terrible. AITA?
NTA she should have moved the bag.
NTA. Placing a collectible bag completely blocking the aisle is reckless; while you apologized, the blame lies with her.
YTA. That was a lot of words for you to say you were stoned and not paying attention and your boyfriend doesn’t know how to use his mouth and say pardon. I smoke weed, I get it…but I don’t go around stepping on peoples stuff because I’m too stoned to speak. Also, I sure hope it was a cartridge pen type thing you were smoking and not just blazing flowers and stinking before you took your stoned, boot wearing ass into the movie theatre.
NTA. A fundamental rule of life is, if you value something, don’t set it in the middle of where people are walking.
“Oh, no, I left my baby on the railroad tracks and a train almost hit it!!”
NTA – she was rude to put the bag where people walk and not move it for people trying to get to their seats
NTA – I mean, maybe you could have asked herto move her bag rather than just waiting and assuming she would, but she was responsible for taking care of her own belongings – she could have made sure that the bag was under her seat, or kept it in her lap until all the seats were filled.
One thing I couldn’t share due to the character limit is that these theatres in Canada don’t have a spot underneath them since they’re full-on recliners. She kept making comments like “where am I meant to put this??” so the only options were either 1) on her lap or 2) tucked away a little more discretely in the aisle (i.e. up against the space between seats, if that makes sense?). I guess she could’ve put it away in her car?
If this is real, and it does not feel real, NTA
You didn’t ruin her night. It’s a fucking popcorn holder. She is not a child. “my eyes flashed before eyes”. No. No, it didn’t. If it was that important to her life, she wouldn’t have left it on the floor.
God, I wish it wasn’t a real interaction I had. This woman was presumably in her late 20s/30s… the reaction was just so big. Maybe she was a collector or something? idk…
If it was so important, why didn’t she tuck it under the seat or put it on her lap or look up from her phone when people were trying to get past? When people are walking into the theater, you need to keep the aisles clear, or at least leave them a little room to walk.
NTA, this is 100% on the AH with the “special” popcorn blocking the aisle.
NTA! You were not wrong, stoned or not. This member of the drama royalty foolishly placed her precious thing on the floor in a walkway. You owe her nothing.
NTA. Anyone who has something important to them and is very breakable does not leave it in a random paper bag in the middle of a walkway on the floor unless they’re on the hunt for a dramatic interaction with a stranger
NTA She knew people were trying to get through, but continued to block the row and scroll through her phone. I probably would’ve said sorry and continued walking. It’s not your problem; it’s hers for blocking the row. What if you’d fallen and been hurt? She would’ve been liable because she created a tripping hazard. It was her negligence.
If it was important to her, she should’ve done more to protect it. She ruined your night.