Rating: PG 13
Genre: Romance
Webpage: http://www.utopiandream.cjb.net


Illusive Angel
Cherrymable@hotmail.com

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Days Like These
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His day was gradually becoming worse by the minute and he couldn’t
seem to figure out why?

Darien trudged down the pavement gloomily, failing to gather his
daily kick from displaying his usual proud stance, similar to that of a
peacock. Instead, in his place was a dejected man in a seemingly sorry
state for himself.

	People walking past glanced at him confusedly. What could he
possibly in such a glum mood about? It seemed that the man had
everything spanning from looks to taste.
	He absentmindedly bumped into a middle-aged man, who had
continued, muttering about “today’s ungrateful generation”. Darien, in
turn, was about to give the man a good piece of his mind, but held his
anger in check. The poor man was probably having just as a bad day as he
were and he couldn’t possibly understand what his day had been like-

Maybe it was because it seemed to have been daylight saving and he
failed to notice the night before during the news, because he was busy
typing up an assignment for physics?

Maybe it was because, once his clock radio had woken him up this
morning with the news presenter, finally and too chirpily announcing this
vital piece of information to him?

Perhaps it was because he had failed to down his breakfast and most
importantly, coffee in 15 minutes, which allowed him exactly 40 to get
prepared and walk down the street to be bowled over by his blond
sweetheart? That fact managed to steep him in greater misery than
humanly possible, causing an even grimmer expression on his handsome
face.

Or maybe because he had turned up to his physics lecture late and
missed half the notes, which were required for another project and failed
to hand in his assignment which he had slaved over the night before
because he was running out the door in a frenzy?

Or even……? If he were to think about today’s harrowing events even
more, he was sure that his brain would positively explode with all the
misery which he had suffered today. Not mentioning that he had also
missed his shift today at work, while trying to copy down notes from a
fellow student. . .

Darien looked up to the structure which his feet had thankfully taken
him. He breathed a sigh of relief and began to walk into the Arcade.
Maybe Andrew’s cheerfulness would rub off on him today, while scoring
some free coffee in the while.
Once he entered the building, he heard the familiar sound of the bell,
but again managed to overlook the speculative gazes of many females
occupying booths and stools. Their eyes lit up with the prospect of
consoling him, because today he seemed to be in such a bad mood and it
would probably be easier to get on his good side. They scampered to sit
next to him in a fake attempt to order, while he sat in his usual spot on 
the
stools. Why bother to even look around for her today? He wouldn’t be in
very good assault mood, anyway. . . but just to check. His eyes roamed
the booths, but failed to see any golden head. A sigh escaped his lips,
they weren’t in their usual booth.

Andrew turned around from chatting to another customer and prepared
his usual greeting for Darien, who today seemed to have been 10 minutes
late. A fact not lost on him. But was quite amused when a stampede of
girls seemed to be fighting for a position on the stools.
He was 99% sure that they were not there when he had his back
turned. His gaze landed on a dejected ‘Best friend’ who was gradually
becoming more irritated with the overzealous attention from the hordes of
females.

Uh-oh, looks like someone’s not too happy today.
His fan club didn’t normally annoy the ‘ever-cool’ legacy. It seemed
that today, they grated on his nerves more than usual.

He quickly prepared Darien's usual decaffeinated and placed the jug
under his nose. Darien looked up with ‘thanks’ written all over his eyes
but also indication of a storm brewing within the depths. No doubt it was
due to all the girls which were hanging on to him like monkeys at a zoo.

‘Darien, are you feeling OK today?’ He asked quietly as he was
leaning down on the bench. The girls surrounding the poor chap listened
with much interest and grabbed at the chance to offer condolences

‘Maybe you should go home?’

‘Yes, do you want me to drive you?’

‘Do you want to lie down for a while?’

‘Yes, you don’t look to well. . .’ With that comment, a round of ‘oh
you poor thing’ and ‘Do you need anything done?’ was repeated.

Darien sank lower in his stool giving him the ‘I want to be anywhere
else but here’ look.
Andrew gave them a friendly warning glance and the girls seemed to get
the message that he wanted to talk with Darien alone. They sighed and
separated from the one group to return to their booths.

	“Thanks, Drew. Came a little late though, don’t you think?”

	“Hey, you’re lucky I saved your sorry ass at all! So what’s bugging
the un-buggable Darien today?” Andrew asked.

	“You don’t even want to know. I could sit here all day and moon
over it with you. Let’s just say . . . It was a bad day.” He concluded, 
while
guzzling down another mug of coffee.

************************************

Her blue eyes seemed to rest on his figure almost automatically
when she exited from the washroom. Her eyes traced over the familiar
musculature unconsciously, and sighed. The khakis and navy T-shirt
complimented him flawlessly in every way. But hey, didn’t everything
look good on him? He was almost too perfect for the human eye.
Anyway, who could miss the flock of females cooing over the one person
who seemed to least desire the attention? His stormy eyes seemed more
concentrated on gulping down that beloved black liquid of his, more than
anything else. She smiled to herself. He seemed to be in a horrible mood
today and hoped that he was ok. She weaved her way around the crowd
into her booth in the corner with her friends. Today they had chosen a
booth tucked away in the side, not their normal, but just something
different.

Once she had sat down again and nonchalantly picked up her straw
to her vanilla malt, she felt the eyes of more than one on her. She looked
around the booth and found four different pairs, which were arrested on
her figure.
She looked down at her shirt and expected to see a stain. No luck
there.
Her hair? No, she just checked that.
Her face? Impossible, even for her in such a short time.

“What?” she asked. Exasperated with trying to figure out what they
were all looking so innocently at her for?

Mina piped up first, giddy at the prospect of something unknown,
which meant that it did not bode well. Especially when she seemed so
excited about something in particular.
Serena once again, began sipping on the vanilla malt and shrugged.
She hoped that she hadn’t forgotten anything of critical importance.

“Serena, remember last night’s slumber party?” Mina almost sang.

	How could she forget?

The five of them had caused such a ruckus at Raye’s house, that
her grandfather had demanded compensation money for putting up with
such hooligans. She snickered to herself at Chad’s futile attempts at
cleaning up after each destination they had shifted through, but ended up
again at one which he had just cleaned.

	“ - remember truth or dare?” Raye’s cutting voice came through
her thoughts. Her eyes collided with that of Ami’s which also seemed
suspiciously eager.

	Truth or dare? Did she remember truth or dare? They had played
lots of games last night like Pictionary and Twister, but did they play
truth or dare?
She sipped absentmindedly.
After they had watched movies they had told ghost stories then. . .
Yes, truth or dare!
	What had happened again? She couldn’t quite recall.

Mina was made to eat a concoction of honey, Soy sauce, milk and
Tabasco.
She spent the remainder of the night fluctuating between pale and green.
She shuddered with the thought.

Lita had to call up an old boyfriend and profess her love to him over the
phone, whom had promptly hung up in her ear after they had all cracked
up laughing too loudly.

Raye had to walk down the street in some bizarre outfit of thermals, ear
muffs, cape and leg-warmers. She had gathered a few catcalls and hoots,
much to her amusement.

Ami was forced to go outside and shout ‘I am the king of the world’ at
the top of her voice, which was pretty hilarious, if it weren’t for the
neighbors swearing back incoherently. This resulted in a red faced Ami
returning sheepishly.

	Now what was her own dare……? She strained her brain to recall
but couldn’t quite grasp the memory of what they had dared her to do.
Her puzzled glance indicated to them that she had forgotten, truly, and
they all stared back with a wicked gleam.
	Oh, that look couldn’t possibly be good for her health or her mental
stability. She waited with abated breath at the knowledge of discovering
her dare. She hoped it wouldn’t be anything too embarrassing. . . . .

	“You’re going to kiss, Darien.” They all replied simultaneously.

	Her face paled instantaneously to the color of paste white and her
throat constricted tightly. So there was her dare? The ‘ultimate’ of
embarrassing dares.

“Huh?” she responded dumbly. Serena almost choked on her straw
and began sipping at world record speed. Was it just her, or was the room
becoming mighty stuffy?

Now she remembered. Last night, they had dared her to go over to
Darien's apartment in the middle of the night, which seemed overly
suspicious, even to her own gullible ears. She had outright refused and
they threatened that if she didn’t, they would make her kiss him.
She had chuckled to herself at that exact moment, believing that
they would easily forget by the next day - just her luck that they hadn’t.

A dare was a dare and she knew that she couldn’t back out of this
one, but it didn’t make it any easier. Judging by the looks on her friend’s
faces, little could be done on her part to even try and convince them of
her case. It seemed that they wanted her to suffer more than she wanted
the suffering herself…not that she would exactly call it suffering, more
embarrassment rather than anything else. It just seemed ridiculous, she
had barely ever done anything this outrageous, but here she was.

She could almost picture the imaginary Darien with a stunned look
on his face, shoving her roughly aside and demanding ‘What the hell was
going on?’ and stating that he already had a devoted girlfriend which was
some type of model or other. Who would at that exact moment come
floating through, looking like a million dollars and leaning in for a
passionate kiss with the man of her dreams. She glanced over to Darien.
There were still girl milling about his presence, talking quite loudly in
order to gain attention. He and Andrew didn’t seem to notice one bit.

Her own concentration returned to her friends, which all seemed
ready for action. Action which she herself, was to cause.  Oh, brother.
There really was no way which she could get out of this one, was there?

“So . . . who agrees that Serena should pash Darien for 30 seconds?
Say I.” Lita volunteered cheerfully. A round of “I’s” could be clearly
heard within the vicinity of the booth and Serena squirmed, visibly
uncomfortable with the situation. So much for friends!

“But, guys!” She whined. “That wasn’t apart of the dare last night.”

“Yes Serena, but technically, ‘last night’ is not ‘now’ and the
inference is that we should be able to compromise further with your dare,
this due to the fact that you did not complete the task at the set time.”
Ami added. “Besides.” She shrugged. “It seems only fair.”

Serena gaped open-mouthed at her quiet friend.
She personally thought, that Ami of all people would least
encourage this ludicrous mission, which Lita seemed to have gotten into
their heads.
She scrunched up her nose.
Well, at least she wouldn’t have to do it in front of the Arcade or
anything. They didn’t specify that they’d actually want to see it. She
smiled secretly. Yes, all she had to do, was pull him away and pretend to
kiss him when in actual fact they would just be talking!

“Oh and don’t get any funny ideas, Serena. We actually WANT to
see that you kiss the guy. Do it in front of the arcade.” Raye stated
smugly. Serena gritted her teeth. Well there went her brilliant planning
with Raye's stupid common sense.

“No….we shouldn’t do that.” Mina shook her head for emphasis.
Serena smiled triumphantly, maybe someone was to pity her after all!

“They should stand right there!” Mina excitedly exclaimed while
jabbing her finger at the pane of glass, just beside their booth. Many
shoppers and pedestrians frequented the footpath outside and Serena
cringed with the thought of kissing in a place so public.
	The spot Mina had pointed out, was even worse than at the doors
of the arcade!

	A round of nods and “yes’s” indicated the approving numbers,
which came to a grand total of four. Serena muttered darkly, reminding
herself to never ever think of taking the ‘dare’ anymore in the stupid
game.

*****************
	A tap on his shoulder brought him out of his reverie in dream -
land. This had better be good or else he would be yelling the socks off
some annoying person.
	He swung around in the swivel stool and his steady gaze met those
of sky-blue. Serena! A smile unconsciously touched his lips, by merely
being in the presence of her. A beam of sunlight shot through his gray
clouds and he couldn’t help but feel lighter.

	She stood tantalizingly close, so that he had to hold himself from
grabbing her by the waist and hauling her against him for an embrace.
Excitement of seeing her was just the tip of the iceberg, apart from his
other feelings. His mind whirred with a hundred questions as to why she
wanted to talk to him of all people. His brightening mood left him
unnoticing of her rising discomfort and nervousness.
The scent of jasmine and vanilla almost instantly brought him into a state
of euphoria. Just standing next to her brought therapeutic relief to his
senses, even better than a massage.

	She fiddled with her silver bracelet apprehensively, noting the
dazed look in his eyes with amazement. Darien was almost never ‘out of
it’ and usually sharp as a nail. She felt horribly guilty taking advantage 
of
him in such a state, but as she looked over to her friends in the red vinyl
booth, she knew that she was trapped.
	She would never forgive Lita for shoving her out of the booth and
promptly stealing her spot. Indicating towards her, that she needed to fill
up her empty milkshake glass. She had left, growling her contempt.
They smiled and gestured their encouragement, but it didn’t seem
to lessen the pounding in her heart. She took a deep breath to prepare
herself for the inevitable.

	“How’s it going, Serena?” He drawled softly. She almost jumped
at the sound of his voice and stuffed her trembling hands into the pockets
of her dark jeans. She wasn’t prepared for him to notice her, much less
talk to her. What bothered her most was that, today there was something
different about him-he seemed almost glad to see her. They had always
begun with mockery of some sort.

	He eyed her suspiciously and a growing sense of helplessness
descended upon him. Serena stood almost starkly next to him and he was
desperate for some type of response. Maybe a little goading would gather
a reaction from her. He prepared himself for a usual caustic comment, but
was promptly cut off by her stiff voice.

	“We need to talk.” She hurriedly grabbed his arm tightly,
seemingly afraid that he would run-away. He threw a backward glance at
Andrew, who had shrugged in frank confusion. He stared quizzically at
the golden head which seemed intent on dragging him outside of the
arcade.
	What had he done now?
	The last time they had met, nothing out of the ordinary had
occurred – maybe he had just gone a little too far this time? Maybe she
wanted him to stop teasing her? Or worse - What happens if she never
wanted to see him again?

	They stopped outside one of the windows of the arcade. As he
scanned the area, he realised it was a fairly public place and that Serena's
friends seemed to be glancing suggestively from inside.
Did Mina just wink at him, or was it just his imagination?
	His brow crinkled.
	If she planned on having a full-on feud right there and then, he
would have to commend her on picking the worst possible place.

His mouth twitched, baffled as whether to grin or to frown.
He decided to finally voice his confusion to the bowed golden head.
	“So – What did you want to talk about, Serena?” He inquired
doubtfully. She still refused to look up at him and he stood like a dummy
with and expectant expression plastered on his face. She seemed more
interested in scuffing her feet along the pavement, rather than talking to
him. A few seconds passed and he wondered if she were all right?

	“Serena?” He questioned again, with a note of hysteria creeping in.
The frown marred his forehead and he turned to go back inside to the
arcade. Surely if she had dragged him outside to talk, she would have
something valid to say, but didn’t appear to be so.

	“Wait,” she replied. It wasn’t the small plea which halted him in
his tracks, but it was the steely determination underlying her voice which
truly captured his attention. Like metal clamps were attached to his feet
he remained stationary and rooted to the very spot.

She lifted her head and his gaze read the resolve written within her blue
eyes. Before he could even attempt to figure out more, he realised that
she had closed the small distance between the both of them, leaving no
breathing space.
He swallowed uncomfortably, a mixture of fear and curiosity pinning him
against her. The hypnotizing gaze of her eyes and long length of her
lashes, holding him captive.
His heartbeat had quickened to racing speed.

What proceeded had shocked the hell out of him.

She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled his head down, which seemed
almost willing out of it’s own accord and clamped her sweet lips to join
with his.

-------------------------

	From inside, a glass shattered, which slipped from the hands of
Andrew. Lucky for him, it was empty. As he bent down to pick up the
pieces of glass, a curious thought appeared in his mind. He had expected
that they had just stepped outside to talk. Well gees, if that’s what Serena
called talking –

	From his position, he could hear explicatives and murmurs of ‘how
did she do it’s?” ripple throughout the arcade. He smiled.
Darien had had the longest crush on Serena, he had just yet to realise
within time.

	With milkshakes and soda’s completely forgotten for the current
moment. Girls clamored for a glimpse of the female who was kissing the
‘almighty un-catchable Darien’ as men and boyfriends groaned with
resigned tiredness. He glanced over to Serena's friends. They had
somehow gotten the best seats in the house (funny that) and Ami was
gazing intently at her wristwatch for some reason or other. They were
almost crawling over each other for a better view and each had their
noses glued to the window.

----------------------------------

	He stood stock still for the few fleeting seconds which she pressed
her lips towards his and he thought of abruptly pushing her away, but
lacked the strength to do so.
Besides, here was his chance.
Why was he even thinking of throwing it away?
Who cares what the reason was, why she formed the bamboozled
idea to kiss him?

	Maybe she even really wanted to?

	His arms rose to clamp around her, of its own accord and his lips
softened instinctively. He began to rub the small of her back rhythmically
and gently as his lips began to tease lightly. He could feel the tenseness
radiating through her body and attempted to get her to relax.

	Gradually her eyelids became compliant and the death-grip which
she held on to his head loosened. Her fingers began to ruffle his hair and
stroke him at the nape of his neck. He shuddered with appreciation as her
lips responded to him.
	Soft as silk and as tantalizing as chocolate she was.
She tasted like vanilla malt. No, she tasted like an aphrodisiac –
she tasted exactly like Serena.

He couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

	He further pressed her against his chest, leaving not one inch where
they were not crushed again each other. One arm snaked around her waist
as one hand inched up to her cheek. He coaxed her open and she
responded eagerly with a soft sigh. He hesitantly stroked her tenderly as
he ran his palm through her silky hair. The strands felt even softer than he
had imagined.

	The couple seemed oblivious to the audience which they were
receiving in the arcade and the added catcalls and hoots from passing
cars. Pedestrians seemed entranced with the couple’s absorbed state as
elderly matrons clucked their reproof and romantics floated past them
dreamily. Although no one it seems, had the nerve to approach the couple
and remind them of their whereabouts.

	She had no clue what in the world she was doing, but the only
thing she knew was that she was enjoying it, immensely. Ok more than
immensely.
	She hadn’t expected him to accept that she was trying to force
herself on him. She had believed that he was probably sick of females
doing that and would react hastily, reprimanding her on her disgusting
behavior. Her embarrassment grew ten-fold during the few moments of
her dare and she considered pulling away herself, when it seemed that he
was shocked into stiffness.

	But imagine her own disbelief when he responded?

	What had begun, as a forced kiss was becoming one of the most
earth-shattering moments which she had ever felt. Electricity seemed to
sizzle at the joining of their lips and she was but helpless to respond and
focus on that one moment in time.
He seemed to rouse reactions within her which she had never had
the pleasure to experience before and the last thing she wanted, was for it
to stop. It seemed, her heart was almost threatening to explode with the
overabundance of joy he gave her through that one kiss.
	She could only hope that he felt the same way.
The event was momentous and she knew with rising joy, that
things would be more than just different between her and Darien. Who
would have thought that it would be on the footpath in front of the
arcade?

	They had broken apart, only by the call of nature for human needs
to breathe. Darien grinned as he nuzzled her neck tenderly and absolutely
refused to release her from his grip. She was almost just as bad and
relentlessly clung to him by the neck, also in need for support for her
wobbly legs, which he was just as willing to give.
	She leant against his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

	“So that’s what you wanted to talk about.” She gazed up at him
with inquiring eyes at the rumbling of his chest. His eyes beheld her in
wonderment as she had the grace to blush. He chuckled and she snuggled
further within the warmth of his embrace.

	“Pretty much,” came the muffled reply.

	“Well, anytime you feel like talking, I’ll be right here and waiting.
Although – I think you’ll find that I’d want to be talking way more, now
that I know the difference between that and arguing.” He felt a small jab
between his ribs and smiled. “Come to think of it, if you call that talking.
Why don’t we actually try kissing next time –” She gave him a playful
glare.

	“Don’t push your luck, buster.”

	They both gazed at each other in astonishment, as if to confirm
what had really happened was genuine. Darien lifted her chin gently to
stare at her azure eyes in bewilderment. His mood had lightened akin to
that of a feather and his troubles shot out of the window when he
happened to observe the promise in her eyes.

	“Have I told you, today?” He paused.

	At the slow shake of her head he continued.

	“What a great day it’s been?”
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Comments / E-mails to cherrymable@hotmail.com
Thanks for reading.

Illusive Angel