Hello!
This is an idea I got when I was forced to sit next to a stranger in a movie a couple of weeks ago. Of course the stranger was not, in fact, Daryl.
This story is only a oneshot for now, but may become a series later depending on response from you guys and/or my general mood.
Be warned though, while this oneshot is rated T, if a series is to be made it will most definitely be an M-rated series.
Daryl waited in line for his ticket at the movie theater. The line was long, he was bored, but this was the one thing he'd indulge himself on. Every few months he'd save up some spare cash, hide it from Merle, and go watch a movie he knows he'll enjoy. He'd always kept it hidden from his brother for several reasons, lord knows what Merle would do with the fact that Daryl enjoyed going to the movies like a normal person.
This time it was an R- rated action flick he'd seen the advertisements for. There were prostitutes, Russian mobsters and a bad guy killing other bad guys, and that was enough for Daryl to know that he'd enjoy this particular film.
He always went alone, and always chose a seat away from everyone else, but by the time he got to the front and went to pick a seat the entire room was booked and only a few single seats here and there were left.
The room was separated into three parts. On the right and left sides of the room there were rows of two seats each and in the middle were rows of 10 seats. He picked a seat on the right side in the room, by the wall with only one seat beside him, on his left.
He didn't get anything to eat or drink as he walked to screen 6. He was there slightly early, the previews hadn't even started yet. But he had nothing to do so it didn't really matter how early he was.
The room was half empty when he got in his assigned seat, including the one next to him. He didn't know why he was so anxious to sit right next to a stranger but he figured it was just because he didn't want that person ruining his entire movie by talking or spoiling it or just generally being an annoying fuck.
A couple of minutes later people started trickling into the room, but it was well into the previews when the person next to him showed up.
She was being led there by an usher holding a small flashlight. She had a bag from the theatre in one of her hands; in her other she had her ticket. She said a small thank you to the usher before placing her paper bag down and sitting in her seat. Almost immediately, a pleasant floral scent surrounded him.
He faced the screen, still glancing at her from his periphery vision. She sat down and grabbed something from her bag; she tried to put it into the cup holder on her left, furthest from him, but noticed that there was no cup holder and placed it, instead, in the cup holder between their seats. After that she grabbed her popcorn from the bag as well and started watching the movie.
Daryl tried to look at her face using his peripherals, but it was too dark and so he too sat back and started watching the movie.
He watched for a full twenty minutes before his resolve broke and he was back again to glancing at her. She ate her popcorn and drank her whatever, never once looking at him.
At some point she had reached out to grab her drink without looking and accidentally brushed against his thigh, causing him to jump away. She turned her head at his sudden action and immediately apologizes to him.
He didn't hear her though; he was too busy looking at her face. Even in the darkness of the theater room he could still discern the bright green color of her eyes. Anything else of her features was barely distinguishable. He could vaguely see her nose and lips. Moving lips. She was talking to him. He snapped himself out of his distraction and finally understood what she had been whispering to him.
"Are you okay?"
Her voice was soft and he could hear genuine concern behind it, concern he didn't think a stranger should have for another stranger. He just nodded his head and grunted out an 'm'fine' and turned his head again towards the screen. Seeing that he basically let go of the whole thing, she too turned towards the screen.
Throughout the remaining time of the movie Daryl faces forward while still glancing at her from the side and, in all honesty, not paying a single ounce of attention to the movie and instead completely concentrating on her.
He studied her side profile for a while, her small nose, her full lips, her large eyes, her long curved eyelashes. He studied her as if he was an art student studying the Mona Lisa.
He was watching her face and had, somehow, become unaware of that fact that. So much so, that he is now just full on staring. She seemed to have sensed his gaze and turned her head to look at him. The minute his eyes caught hers, he turned again and completely ignored her and the faint heat he felt in his face.
A few minutes, that felt like hours to him, later, the movie ended and he was free to leave. Which he did as fast as he could. He took a deep breath after he exited the room, and proceeded to beat down his overwhelming feeling of embarrassment. 'Good lord, t'fuck was I doin'? Starin' at her like some kind o' creep' he resisted the urge to face-palm himself at his own stupidity.
As he stood there wallowing in his embarrassment, he caught scent of a floral perfume that he grew familiar with over the past two hours, a scent that captivated him and held his attention.
His head started turning around before he noticed that the source of the scent was getting closer until it was right next to him. He watched the girl walk beside him, not even looking in his direction, towards a group of people. He didn't know how many because he honestly wasn't paying attention to them, but instead his eyes were on the girl as she walked by.
For the first time he noticed what she was wearing, a black cropped tank that reached a bit above the edge of her pants and very tight skinny jeans that allowed him to fully appreciate the sight from behind. In the movie, he couldn't really tell if her hair was brown or black but now he could see it was as black as midnight and completely straight. He was still mesmerized by the sight of her when he suddenly heard one of her friends call her.
"Audrey! Where were you?!"
The girl, Audrey, went to her friends and started talking to them. He saw how her friends were dressed; seemingly well off with some of them wearing designer clothes. 'Get a fuckin' grip, she'd never even look at ya twice' Daryl grumbled in his own head, unaware of the fact that right at that moment she was whispering to her friends about the attractive man she was sitting next to. And so, overwhelmed with his own insecurities Daryl did nothing to approach her and just left the theater and headed home, and throughout the night, and unbeknownst to him many more nights to come, he only had one thought.
Audrey.