pariah at the grassmarket, sliding scale, half the room was new to it

edinburgh, wednesday, grassmarket community project. dee rees's pariah. 7pm sharp, no trailers, english descriptive subtitles. tickets were £3, £5, or £7, and free if you needed free. i paid a fiver. the room was cold. somebody's jacket smelled like rain.

i'd seen it. the girl next to me hadn't. she flinched at alike's dad and then whispered sorry, like she'd coughed in a quiet room. a lot of the new people came for a cheap wednesday screening. they didn't already love the movie. the talking after was better than i figured. somebody asked why alike's clothes change when her mum is around, and a few people answered at once.

certificate 15. they weren't precious about the rating. they just put the film on.