"So how did your meeting with Emily go?" Layla asks, as chipper as she ever is, smiling brightly at him.
"Alright." Warren grunts, heading to the computer room.
"That sounded not so alright." Magenta judges, coming up from beside Layla.
"Sounds like you should shut your trap."
"What, is she not falling for the badass charm like she used to?" Magenta scoffed to herself.
"Do you have a death threat?"
"Come on, both of you, be kind to each other." Layla pouted. It was always dangerous when the two of them spoke to each other. Their tempers were both so short.
Warren rolls his eyes and makes a beeline right to the computer.
"Whatcha looking up?" Ethan asks, rolling over, and Warren is fed up with all of the people and his back bursts into flames, effectively driving away all of the pests surrounding him.
And then types in the Human Torch.
Johnny Storm.
Noted womanizer. Thousands of pictures of models hanging off of his arm. Even more pictures of him posing shirtless.
"Super's Most Sexy Smile"
How many GQ covers?
TMZ pops up at the top of the news feed, and it's a picture of Emily and Johnny both in shades and trenchcoats, each carrying a cup of coffee in their hands.
Emily is smiling.
The headline pisses him off.
JOHNNY STORM: FROM MODELS TO DESIGNERS?
"Warren. Warren! You've melted the keyboard already! Cool down before you burn down the whole database!"
"Well, technically-"
"Shut up Ethan and get me the fire extinguisher!"
He is doused with his least favorite material in the world, his fire temporarily quenched, and he glares at Magenta for daring to even be in the same room with him after that stunt.
"Now what's got your panties all up in a bunch?" She asks, fire extinguisher at the ready.
He stands up, looking tall and menacing and not at all hero-esque, and does nothing but snatch the fire extinguisher from Magenta's hands and throw it across the room before stalking out in a trail of steam.
Ethan squints at the screen.
"Why was he looking up the Human Torch?"
Magenta connects the dots, "Because he's the jealous type."
Emily is thinking about life.
It's very rare for her. She hasn't been introspective since high school, and boy wasn't that a drag. She is watching Priest, despite the utter cheese that it is (and isn't it beautiful that Bill Compton was attacked by vampires of all things?) because Karl Urban is sexy. That is the basis for movie night with Janice, and it works beautifully. A night filled with beautiful men on a large screen charming the pants off of the two of them.
But the pretty faces fail to capture her attention tonight. Instead, she is wrapped up in thoughts of the pretty faces in her own life, and it is sucking mightily.
"Oh my God bite me please." Janice begs the screen, crawling up to it and almost hugging it.
Emily does not notice.
Janice frowns, expecting some witty remark from Emily, and turns to stare at the best-friend-and-business-partner that wasn't even looking at her. She felt a little bratty for it, but she needed attention.
"Em?"
"Oh, yeah?"
"What's on your mind? Obviously it's not Karl Urban sex."
"What? Yeah, of course it is. Sexy as fuck, that man is."
"Mhmm. Now what's on your mind?"
She considers lying.
But even though Janice isn't a telepath, she's pretty good at reading her mind.
"I think I'm being pursued." She admits reluctantly, and breathes a sigh of relief as if a heavy weight is being lifted from her shoulders.
"What? That's it? I could have told you that. Look how sexy you are, idiot. Of course you are. It's the Torch, isn't it? Johnny Storm is all up in your yard for that milkshake."
"Yeah. But, I think I'm being pursued by multiple men."
"Ooh, spill that gossip juice."
"That sounds disgusting."
"As if you aren't."
"True." She sighs again, "I'm designing for Warren Peace."
"Well, even small up-and-coming—oh. Sheeeit. High school Warren Peace?"
"Yes."
"And he wants your goodies?"
"I don't know."
"I don't even know why I'm asking. Of course he does. And now you've got two flamethrowers but you don't know which one sparks your fire?"
"Basically."
"Well, close your eyes."
"Alright."
"Clear your mind."
"My life is in your hands."
"Which flamethrower do you want?"
"What? I don't know! That's why I have a dillema!"
"Which one popped into your head first? When I say lighter, who do you think of?"
"I've known Warren longer, that's not fair."
"And so he's the one with the biggest shelf in your heart."
"It's not that simple!"
"Um, yeah. It is."
She pouts to herself.
"Which one would you pick?" Emily asks, and Janice rolls her eyes.
"That's not even a question. The Human Torch."
"What? But you told me-"
"I'm not you, stupid. Yeah, the man can pull of a sixpack, but I'm not much for depth. It bores me."
"Johnny has depth!"
"Don't turn me off, man."
"Jerk."
"Bitch."
They're both silent for a moment.
"Supernatural?"
"Get the French Mistake out first."
"You're back early for once." Is the rough greeting Johnny hears when he enters the Baxter Building. A soft laugh and a 'Be nice' follows in record time, and while Ben's chick is cool, he's just not in the mood.
A woman ended a night out with him, for a slumber party of all things. She was giddy going back to her house. But more than that, he offered to join her. He was acting like all those other average guys that didn't know how to get with chicks. for the life of them. Has it been this long that he's had to actually work to get a girl?
Sure there was... her, that beautiful unstoppable force of military stoicism coupled with a few condescending looks, but he had other things on his mind. More than just winning over another pretty face.
Maybe he was just saying that. He was the committed type. He loved the one he was with, always. But as soon as he wasn't with someone, even if he thought he loved them, well... He wasn't with them anymore.
They blended into the background a little.
But this one? This one was memorable. This one had him thinking. Not just of her misconceptions about him. Of his shallowness, his playboy attitude, all of those traits of his that have the girls 'unimpressed'. Hard to get. That wasn't a hard tune to swing by these days, although he still loved the chase.
Emily reminded him a bit of his first love, in a way. What was the name...?
Cammie.
Sharp, independent, beautiful, spontaneous, passionate... The list could go on. They shared that spark that set them apart from the background. Illuminated them in a way that they shined brighter than the world around them.
He passed by Sue's room, and she was playing E.T. Go figure.
The girl could complain like no other, but even that was endearing. Few women made complaining a positive trait.
Johnny thought that he was the only one.
"Johnny? Is everything okay?" Sue asks as Johnny situates himself on his beanbag chair, PSP in hand. Honestly, the woman acts like his mother sometimes.
"Yeah." He says absentmindedly, making a sharp turn in the game, "Why wouldn't it?"
"I don't know. Didn't you have dinner with Emily tonight?"
"Yeah. We ate."
"Oh. Right. Of course." She looks at her watch, "You must've had an early start. It's only eight."
Johnny is honest with her sister.
"We got there half past six."
His game is forgotten by now.
"She had plans."
Sue looks almost giddy with the way this conversation is going, and sits down next to him. Emotion talk with her emotionally stunted brother? How exciting.
"With who?"
"The shapeshifter."
"Janice?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"Well, girlfriends are important. It can't all be about you, or else she'll feel smothered. She seems like the type."
"We went to Starbucks for dinner. I made a reservation for a five star restaurant!"
"Did you still have fun with her?"
"The real question is does she have fun with me. Shoot, who am I kidding. I'm me."
Sue looks unimpressed.
"While I hate your ego to a stunning degree, what I'm about to say isn't for the sole purpose of crushing it."
"... Alright..."
"Not every woman is that one faceless girl in the bar you can pick up with a smile and a witty pickup line. Not everyone is going to jump at the chance to hop into your car and into your bed, no matter how shiny your teeth are."
"Aren't you here to make me feel better?"
"That said, Emily is immature enough at times to enjoy you and even participate in your daredevil antics, and if she ever gets bored of you, then she's crazy and you don't want such a destructive force in your life." Sue thinks back to all his past exploits, "Again. You almost lost your ear that one time."
"Her teeth were sharp." Johnny shudders, "It's because they were so tiny, I think."
"So don't worry about it." Sue smiles, "Everything will play out like it always does."
"That's not necessarily a good thing."
"Oh. Right. Everything will play out like... everything will just play out."
"Alright. Thanks for the pep talk. I think."
He's lying. That was horrible.
To Emily:
From Johnny:
Hey, you free tomorrow? Ill take you to some REAL dinner.
REPLY:
dont blaspheme starbucks
RE:RE:
Want me to take you to some real coff too? Baristas, babe. They have baristas.
RE:RE:RE:
what is this foreign tongue in which you speak?
RE:
I come from the land of good food and better coffee. I offer you a passport and a one-way ticket to my country.
RE:
fuck yo cuntry. Amrrica btch.
RE:
I'll pick you up at six tomorrow. Right after you close up.
RE:
aite aite. But I ain't paying fo shit
RE:
it's a date then
"I am such a loser." Emily groans and collapses into a heap of emotional pudding next to Janice.
"It's okay, sweetie, I know."
"So I heard you're having girl troubles." Warren't best friend and idiot asked, the red, white, and blue clad boy patting him on the back as he sat down next to him.
"I'd roast you alive, but it'd probably just tickle you."
Johnny studies Reed, tilting his head and squinting his eyes.
"How the hell did you bag my sister? Millionaires were after her. Billionaires, even."
"It's not what's in your bank account that matters, Johnny."
"And physique doesn't seem to do much either, apparently." He quips, and ducks when Ben takes a swing at him.
Author's Note: I don't know why I keep doing love triangles, when I know I'll get attached to both ends and nothing will go as planned.
I am in a writing trend! Just as bad as writer's block, in which all my romantic plots are the same. I am way too indecisive to do anything but.
