Solace Ch.24

— Darius Johnson (Later That Day) —

“Well, look what we have here.” Titan’s lips twitched upward as his dark brown eyes stared into my own.

“Don’t.” I practically growled out in warning and leveled a glare at the man. He chuckled darkly and held his hands up in surrender.

“My fault, my fault, it’s just not everyday the ever-terrifying Solace goes on a date.”

“This is why I keep things like this to myself, who the fuck gave you permission to tell him?!” My eyes darted over to the corner of the room where Isotope was standing. The man at least had the decency to lower his head.

“I’m gonna be honest, Boss, I didn’t think he’d be so…playful.” He apologized as he rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

“Eat a dick.” I spat out and stood up from my seat. The moment I did, a woman who was wearing a very tight purple dress that clung to her body, offered me a glass of wine, which I took.

“Calm yourself, it was a joke, man.” Titan smirked my way as I gulped down the contents of the glass and handed it back to the woman who smiled mischievously at me. “You ain’t gotta feel embarrassed. Hell, I remember my first date with Vanessa, that woman’s quick thinking is the only reason we even enjoyed ourselves.” The large man let out a sigh as his eyes glazed over, seemingly recalling that moment in his life.

“She’s a good woman.”

“Yes…a much better partner than I’ll ever be, but I try.” Titan nodded, taking a sip of his own glass of wine. “But I guess your life will be a bit more exciting from now on.”

“Something like that.” I breathed out a heavy sigh as Eve filled my mind.

To say I wasn't attracted to her wouldn’t be true, and to say I don’t like her in that way would just be plain out wrong.

My problem stems from the mental age difference we have.

I wasn’t exactly an old man in my past life, I was still very young with a great deal of my life ahead of me, hell I was not much older than I am now.

That being said, Eve is someone I grew up with, and as beautiful as she is, I often recall the time we first met.

It just makes me feel odd.

“I’m leaving.” I said suddenly and pushed myself out of my seat, placing my drink down on the small table beside me.

“About damn time.” Titan grinned, and I ignored him as I walked over to the elevator and excused myself without saying another word.

As the elevator brought me down, I realized that thinking about what I want tonight is irrelevant.

Eve has had a thing for me for years, yet I have done nothing to bring her closure. Tonight is the night I would, regardless of my own thoughts and feelings on the matter.

— Samantha Eve Wilkins —

“Your house is super quiet.” Beth breathed out as she threw her back on Eve’s bed. The red-haired girl glanced back at her friend from her place in front of the closet. “Is it always like this?”

“Yeah, sadly.” Eve frowned as she pulled on a black jacket.

“I’m sorry to hear that, but hey, I’m here; why don’t we liven this place up?” Bethany sat up with a sly smirk, which caused a small smile to tug on Eve’s lips.

“And what did you have in mind?” Eve turned around to face her friend and placed her hands on her hips. She was wearing a new pair of black jeans that clung tightly to her long legs, a white blouse, and white heels that made her appear taller than she was, topped off with her black jacket to keep her warm in this cold weather.

“What else? Boy talk!”

“I’ll pass.” Eve shook her head before making her way to her bed to sit beside her friend.

“Oh come on Eve~” Beth sing-songed in her ear, making a light blush form on the red-head’s cheeks. “You finally have the date you’ve been waiting years to go on, and you don’t even want to talk about it?”

“Last I checked you're going on a date you’ve waited for too.” Eve narrowed her eyes.

“Which is why I wanna talk about it~!” Beth threw her body back and stretched out her arms, accentuating her womanly figure. Eve spared only a glance at Beth’s body, but that was enough to make the blonde smirk triumphantly at her.

Eve turned her gaze to the door, to her it was a better idea than fueling Beth’s ever growing confidence when it came to teasing her.

Beth pouted in response and sat up. “You’re no fun.”

“And you love to have fun at the expense of others.” Eve shot back.

Bethany shrugged her shoulders and stood up. “We’re young, Eve, the youngest we’ll ever be, and I plan on enjoying every second of it!”

Eve met her friend’s blue-eyed gaze and let out a sigh as a smile began to overtake her face.

“You’re right about that.”

“Then let’s enjoy it!” Beth offered Eve her hand, which she took. “Get excited because I have a feeling tonight’s gonna be everything you are hoping for and so much more~” The blonde practically purred out, and Eve rolled her eyes at Beth’s antics.

“...I hope so.”

— Later —

A slender hand went up to her brow as she brushed aside loose strands that had fallen down to her smooth pale face.

She was wearing her hair up in a ponytail, a style she didn’t typically adopt, but today wasn’t a typical day.

Eve had no idea what style Darius liked when it came to how women present their hair, so she asked her good friend, and Beth had suggested the ponytail, the blonde had said it would accentuate her face more and bring more attention to her eyes.

Eve didn’t know much about Darius’ tastes, but what she did know from years of friendship is how he always favored and treasured her green eyes. It wasn’t uncommon at all for her to earn a compliment from the boy of her affections, simply by just entering his presence.

A delicate blush rose to her cheeks and throughout her face, and a small smile threatened to grow into an overjoyed grin as she sat in the passenger seat of Bethany’s car.

Today her relationship with Darius would change forever. That thought made her mind race a million miles per second, and her heart beat even faster.

For years they’ve been friends, yet in one night, all of that could change!

“Someone’s excited~!”

Eve’s smile suddenly stopped growing as she looked to her left and stared at her best friend.

“Oh don’t give me that look, I meant it in a good way!”

Eve narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “We both know that’s not true.”

“Kay, you’re right, I was totes teasing you.” Beth gave Eve a side eye with a slight smirk. “It’s not my fault though, you make it waaaay too easy.”

“You’re a bad friend.”

“I love you too, babes!”

Just as those words left the blonde’s lips, the car pulled into a spacious parking lot, and Eve quickly realized it was the lot of the movie theater.

Suddenly her stomach dropped, and she felt as if she entered the den of a very powerful drug lord.

Her heart rate quickened as every positive outcome of this double date utterly disappeared from her mind, replaced by all the negative routes.

They’ve been friends for so long, what if he wants to keep it that way, or worse, what if this date ruins any chance of them being friends after?!

The latter thought caused her to sweat, the thought of losing one of her closest friends, and valued hero partner caused heat to rush to her face, and not in a good way.

“Eve.”

She snapped out of the horrid possibilities and looked down to see Beth’s hand was over hers. The slender hand of the blonde ran along Eve’s as if to soothe her. Eve’s frantic green eyes then met her friend’s clear blue, as Beth looked at her with clear confidence and a noticeable smile.

“Everything’s gonna be fine, stop worrying so much, ‘kay?”

Wide green eyes stared at calm blue for several seconds before Eve took a deep breath, calming the nerves that had overwhelmed her.

“Right…thanks, Beth.”

“Of course! I always got your back!” Beth grinned and in quick succession, unlocked the car door.

The blonde opened her door and stepped out of the car, and Eve realized that it was go time.

She too stepped out of Beth’s car and they began their trek across the parking lot. The cold air slapped against their bodies, and Eve let out a breath, thankful for wearing a jacket.

Beth took Eve’s hand in hers and intertwined it, and the latter girl gave her dearest friend a thankful smile.

If all ended well, she would need to thank Bethany for having her back, even when she had prayed for Beth’s failure when she asked out Darius all those years ago.

The automatic doors to the theater opened and let the two girls into the slightly crowded hall where they immediately noticed how much warmer it was inside.

“Ooh, there they are~!” Beth smirked flirtatiously and waved delicately at the right side of the theater.

Eve turned and immediately saw the pair she had been waiting to see all night.

The boys she had grown up with… the first ones to accept her.

“Hey, you girls made it, was the trip okay?” Mark asked as he stopped in front of them. Eve had to admit, the guy looked good. Well-groomed hair with more jell than Eve ever expected to see in Mark’s hair, a white collared shirt with the top two buttons hanging free, giving a view to his Adam’s apple and built chest, and black dress pants, accentuating the look of a slick Italian family member rather than a timid Seance Dog connoisseur.

A soft laugh escaped Beth as she took a step closer to her boyfriend and wrapped her arms around his neck, making the boy blush.

“It was better than we had expected! I hope we didn’t keep you two waiting long.”

“Hehe, don’t worry about it, you weren’t long at all!” Mark rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while avoiding eye contact, which only made Beth smirk harder.

She had dug her talons into the poor guy, and he was hers to tease and mess with all she wanted.

“You were fifteen minutes late, but it’s cool, Mark and I were chilling.” Darius said from beside his friend.

A soft blush grew on Eve’s cheeks and her eyes hungrily drank in the appearance of her date.

Darius was wearing a gray jacket over a tight deep black short sleeve shirt that accentuated his well earned torso muscles, and matched well with his gray jeans and his black shoes.

He looked good, and his towering figure over her made for an even more impressive sight.

“You look great, Eve.” Darius complimented, snapping her out of her haze.

“O-Oh, thanks!” She said quickly as she turned her body and rubbed her neck. “You do too.”

“I appreciate your words, but I’m sure my mom would appreciate them more.” Darius practically sighed out, and Eve quickly realized that he was annoyed by his current state of dress.

“Not your choice?” Beth asked with an amused tilt of her head.

“Nah, when my mom heard that I was going on a-” Darius raised his fingers in quotation marks “date, she decided it was time to prepare me in the best way she possibly could.”

“Well it turned out good!” Mark grinned, but Eve knew the guy long enough to know he was poking fun at Darius. “You look like one of those guys who stop girls in the movies and ask them if they’d like to have some fun before getting beat up by the protagonist!”

“I look like a fuckboy, yes.” Darius deadpanned, earning a laugh from Mark and a giggle from Beth.

“I meant it though.” Eve pouted. “I think you look good.”

Darius paused for a second and studied her face before smiling slightly.

“Of course, you’ve never been one to lie, thanks Eve.”

“Momma Johnson can dress!” Beth laughed and quickly took Mark’s arm, making the poor boy blush again. “And now that I have my sexy Italian Marky and Eve has her sexy fuckboy Darry, why don’t we head into the theater?”

Mark settled for nodding his head rather than trying to force out words, and Beth took that as enough. She pulled him along to the booth where the tickets were being sold.

Eve looked to her right and up at her date to see him looking down at her with a small frown.

“You still hate that nickname, don’t you.” Eve questioned with a bit of mirth.

“More than I hate any villain we’ve ever fought, yes.” Darius rolled his eyes.

Even after years, Darius had never liked being called “Darry,” a name Mark had apparently first given him when they were young and Mark first learned about dairy products.

The immediate follow up to Mark’s name calling was to call him “Mark n Cheese,” which while effective to the free spirit that is Mark, wasn’t nearly as effective as Darry was.

“Even after all these years, you haven’t gotten over it?” Eve hummed in question.

“Nope, and I don’t think I ever will.” Her crush answered almost immediately.

“Don’t Viltrumites live for thousands of years?” Eve raised a delicate brow.

“Then I’m in for several long millennia of suffering.” Darius narrowed his eyes at Mark’s back. Eve stared at him for a moment before a soft giggle escaped her. As much as she tried to hold it back, she couldn’t, he was just so serious about it, and that only made it funnier.

“Yes, laugh at my pain, you aren’t the first.”

“And if you’re serious about being so upset about a nickname, I won’t be the last.” Eve teased, and Darius’ lips twitched upward.

“You will be, because you’re one of the only people I would let laugh at my pain like this.”

“Oh hush you big ol’ bully.” Eve placed her hands on her wide hips, a bright teasing smile tugging on her full lips. “Last I checked you were supposed to be a hero, threatening people for a joke doesn’t suit you.”

“And you know what suits me?” He asked with a raised brow, his smile was still in place.

“Of course I do, I know you better than almost anyone else!” Eve grinned, and Darius rolled his eyes.

“Hey Eve, Darius, aren’t you coming?” Mark shouted from across the hall, earning looks from all the people around, “Ah, s-sorry for that.”

“Shall we before Mark embarrasses himself any more?” Darius offered his arm to her with an amused grin. Eve looked at him for a moment before nodding with an equal grin of her own. She wrapped her arm around his and walked with him over to their friends.

“Oh wow, you two sure are close, did we miss something?” Beth teased, and the look she gave Eve was one of playful curiosity.

“Nothing you haven’t seen in the past four years.” Darius shrugged his shoulders. “So the movie?”

“Fine, keep your secrets.” Beth gave Eve one last knowing look before she turned around and the group began their walk to theater twelve where they’d be watching an action packed romance story, or at least that’s what Beth had called it.

In other words, or Beth’s, the perfect movie to grow closer to someone.

Beth and Eve had gone over ways where she can force more contact with Darius, to show him just how much she cares for him and trusts him, and at the time Eve thought those suggestions were great…

But now as she walks, arms wrapped around Darius’ large strong arm, she realized that when she’s herself, and when he acts like the Darius she had known for years, they have the best chemistry, talking to him isn’t embarrassing that way, and it doesn’t feel taxing.

She loves Darius the way he is, and now all she wants is for him to love her the way she is.

— Chapter End —

Beta readers: @Dragonboy1