He slammed the car door shut with enough force to rattle the vehicle, not caring if it damaged the old piece of crap or not. If anything, the car should be sorry for existing.
Tearing his eyes away from the metal abomination, Kevin stomped inside the dirty old Walgreens on the corner of Crappy and Smells Like Shit.
"Mornin'," the brain-dead employee slumped over the checkout counter drawled out. And the longer Kevin glared at him, the more he learned about the freak. Like how his eyes blink out of synch.
"Fuck you," Kevin muttered under his breath, shoulder checking a Bounty paper towel display and watching the precariously stacked tower tremble out of the corner of his eye as he passed it by.
"What'd you say?" The zombie called after him as he wrestled a shopping basket out of a large stack of them, very nearly picking up six at once.
He turned to face the pile of scum sat behind the register, his permanent scowl no doubt frightening the most likely stoned beanpole. He grit his teeth and released a slow, shaky breath. "I said, you too."
Without a second glance, he headed toward the discount Valentine's Day section, wanting to get to the Hershey's kisses before some fucktard took them all.
But something- or rather, someone, stopped him in his tracks. He bumped face first into some random shelf and swore under his breath, wanting to keep quiet so that he could hear that laugh again.
"Man, do I love me some discount candy!" The voice belonging to a goddamn angel said, laughing once more, followed by some shuffling sounds.
Kevin squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his back against the —he glanced upward— chip display he'd bumped into. He took a rattling breath and released it slowly, repeating the action thrice more before he attempted to follow the path his thoughts led him down.
As any normal, hormone-fueled human being would've, he'd been on dates over the years, had been in a few relationship, some good, some bad, but he could never quite say he'd ever fallen in love before.
Until now.
His grandmother —Meemaw, he called her— had once, when he was but a little boy, sat him down in the living room beside the fireplace and told him the story of how she met her late husband. How it was love at first sight. Well, it was more like love at first listen, you could say.
She had explained to a young Kevin in great detail how she was having lunch with a few of her classmates, gossiping mainly about boys and some drama one of her friends was having with some girl named Ruth, when the most melodious, beautiful, breathtaking laugh she'd ever heard rang out in her ears and she dropped her fork that had been halfway between the cafeteria table and her mouth.
She'd politely excused herself and rose from her seat with shaky legs that suddenly felt like cooked noodles. She'd smoothed her hands over her skirt and took a deep, steadying breath before making her way across the room to the owner of that laugh.
George was his name.
Kevin had never met his grandfather, but he'd heard only good things about him. His grandmother spoke about him quite often, though he knew how much it pained her to do so. He saw it in her glassy eyes.
He placed a hand over his heart and knew with certainty that that was what love felt like. That loud, painful, continuous thump that Kevin could only compare to a heard of buffalo stampeding through the desert.
Slowly, he peeled himself off of the Dorito display his back had been pressed against, steeling himself, preparing himself to come face to face with the owner of that laugh and that voice that sent shivers down his spine and threatened to set him ablaze all at once.
He somehow managed to calm his breathing so that his chest no longer rose and fell like a man who'd just run a goddamn marathon, and schooled his countenance into something that gave off a semblance of normality, before turning the corner and keeping his head down low as he passed up colorful teddy bears and cheap candy.
He came to a stop beside a pair of black and white sneakers, not daring to let his eyes trail up the lean and tall figure of the man with the angelic voice and laugh.
He swore internally, biting down on his bottom lip and forcing his eyes away before they could catch sight of the man's face. He grabbed a bag of Dove chocolates, stuffing them in his basket, then grabbing another. He had multiple different kinds of chocolate in his basket by the time he made it to the Hershey's Kisses.
He'd been so focused on not looking in the direction of the angel who also happened to like waking up hella early the day after some convoluted, depressing 'holiday' made for sickeningly lovey dovey couples with their heads stuffed so far up their own asses that they can't see that the holiday is a scam created by corporate to make shit tons of money, that he nearly jumped out of his fucking skin when his fingers touched the bag of Kisses and a hand touched his.
Kevin backed up a foot and dropped the bag of foil covered chocolates like he'd been burned. Whether it was by the candy or the man stood across from him, he didn't know.
"Did I frighten you?" The man- the angel sent from above, tilted his head to the side adorably. And Kevin got lost in his hazel eyes. Got lost in everything. "I'm sorry, I just- we kinda reached for it at the same time and- yeah.." the ethereal ginger man stuttered out, bending over to pick the fallen bag of candy up off the floor, holding it out for Kevin to take hold of.
"Are you alright?.." the man drawled, slowly lowering the hand holding the candy. "You look a little pale."
"'M fine." Kevin managed to get out with only a minimal amount of struggle. Though he knew he needed to say more. He couldn't let this man be the one that got away. "And hey, you can- you can keep that." He finished, gesturing toward the bag loosely held in the man's hand. He wished he could be that bag, as weird as it sounds.
"Oh, uh, thank you," he spoke quietly, cheeks tinged a light shade of pink that complimented him. "There are more, just so you know. I just- The day after Valentine's Day is uh, a really great one to go out and buy candy. Since it's heavily discounted and all."
Kevin found himself staring at the stranger, unblinking, wishing oh-so-badly to reach out, take hold of him and never let him go. He was surprised that the man had yet to call him out on it or at least walk off in the opposite direction. Which is what any normal person would've done, considering Kevin wasn't exactly the kind of guy one would consider to be va-va-voom. Or traditionally attractive, for that matter.
After another long moment spent pinning the ginger God under his stare, he managed to blink twice. Hoping it wasn't out of synch like zombie-man at the register.
It was now or never, he told himself. It was do or die. It was say it or watch your entire world you've yet to explore walk away from you and out of your life forever.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and said the first thing that came to mind. Which may or may not have been a huge mistake.
"You know, suicide rates go up around this time of year. Maybe you should save a life and go out with me."
The man's expression changed no less than six times before settling on one of amusement. "That honestly should not have intrigued me as much as it did, but.. yeah. Even though we just met about a minute ago and know next to nothing about each other, yeah, I'll go out with you." The shy, almost flirty smile playing on his lips was nothing short of blinding, bringing Kevin to raise a hand to his eyes to rub at them for a moment.
He'd originally thought that asking the angelic man out in such a.. strange, brusque manner would backfire in the worst of ways. But now.. now that he'd agreed to it, maybe this was the way things were meant to play out. And hey, if things ended up working out between them, they'd have a boss ass story to tell.
"Cool," Kevin managed to get out, though he was rather short of breath. "Uh, I- I probably should have at least asked what your name was before asking you out by basically threatening to kill myself."
The man laughed, the melodious sound causing Kevin to swallow harshly and breathe through the pain rapidly spreading throughout his chest. Focusing most of the damage along the upper left region.
He was perfect.
"Well, I can definitely say it's the strangest way I've ever been asked out. But I have to admit I much prefer it to the cheesy, offensive, overused, pick-up lines," he then made a face, laughing aloud once more. Though it seemed to be aimed more at himself than it was the situation. "Uh, right, I'm Sami."
"Kevin," he said with a small, hesitant smile. Sami... what a perfect name. Now that he was stood less than a foot away from the angelic man, he could study his everything with ease.
From the way the skin by the sides of his eyes crinkle when he smiles to the laugh lines concealed largely by his red-brown beard, he was perfect. He was everything Kevin ever needed and more.
So much more.
"We should probably shake hands and exchange phone numbers. That's what normal people do, right?" Sami said, glancing around at his surroundings as if to look for a normal person to ask for proper dating etiquette.
"Yeah, but if we were normal I think I'd have not threatened to kill myself, and you would have run in the other direction. So how about we buy all this crap and head out for some coffee together?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that."
"Hershey's Kisses your favorite?" Kevin asked, watching as Sami finally slipped the fallen bag of chocolates into his hand basket.
The little dork flashed him a shy grin and nodded. Kevin couldn't help but feel like it was fate that they met by both reaching for their favorite candy. Seriously, what are the odds that such a thing would happen to anybody else?
"Dammit," Kevin swore under his breath, though it seemed Sami still heard him. The adorable ginger turned to face him as they headed toward the checkout counter, his pink lips turned up at the corners.
"Something the matter, Kevin?"
"Yeah," he swallowed around the lump in his throat, allowing the words clawing their way up his throat to come out into the open. "I think I'm in love."
This time, when the cashier told Kevin to have a nice day, he really did mean it when he said 'you too'.