All About Cherry

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

     A t l a s   C h e r r y  was unsure where this courage came from but decided not to question it and enjoy the night. He kept perpetuating the fact that it was time for a change in his head for years, but now, he could finally say that things were truly set in motion.

     Despite his skittish self, Atlas kept expanding his extremely narrow comfort zone bit by bit, and as he looked at Daxton Holloway being animated over the littlest of things, his heart swelled.  Cherry was a calculated person, he enjoyed surveying his surroundings, studying other people's reactions, but never his own. Truthfully, he did not know how to react to being the center of attention, because it was rarely ever the case.

     "Come," Daxton rose out of his seat with bounding enthusiasm, almost startling Atlas with it. "Let's go watch that movie, yeah?"

      Atlas nodded in response, suddenly feeling a little too overwhelmed, he had been fine just a moment ago, but it appears that he had completely turned his brain off and let his mouth do the talking earlier. He was coming back to his senses, which meant that inevitably, doubt would resurface.

      "Make yourself at home, you know as they say su casa es mi casa." Daxton butchered the saying as he led Atlas out of the kitchen.

     "Don't you mean mi casa es su casa?"

     "That's what I said." He grinned dismissively and entered his living room area, his eyes immediately set on the remote to his flat-screen television. "What do you wanna watch? You pick."

     Atlas scratched the back of his neck and cleared his throat. "I don't—I don't really know any good movies at the top of my head right now, you pick." He trailed awkwardly. The real truth of that statement was that Atlas knew jack shit about movies and media as he rarely ever had the patience to watch them.

     Dax narrowed his eyes at him and rubbed his chin in thought. "What do genres do you like? Horror? Comedies? Action? Romance?" He stared at him quizzically, trying to get to know him better by the looks of it. If this friendship was supposed to work out, Atlas felt like he should have done the same.

     "Horror sounds good, but really I'm okay with anything." Atlas was humble, unnecessarily so, his guard coming back in full swing and his courage evaporating.

     "Okay then, spooky boy. Let's get scared shall we?" Daxton decided to stop the torture with a glint in his eyes. He put on a random horror movie on Netflix that Atlas did not care enough to remember the name of and that would remain as background noise for the rest of the evening. With the opening sequence out of the way, Atlas took the further possible seat away from Daxton just so he didn't impede on his personal space. In return, he got a frown.

     "Am I that terrifying?" He cracked a smile and shook his head at the distance between them. "You don't have to sit a mile away from me, you know, I won't bite you or anything. Not unless you ask me to." He grinned at his off-hand comment and Atlas raised a brow at it, his guard slowly dropping again.

     "Sorry." He said as he scooted closer a couple of feet, still keeping his distance. He felt like a skittish dog and in a way he was, he had to warm up to people and opportunities like this didn't arise all that often. Who was he kidding? As a twenty-three-year-old young man, he hadn't had such a basic experience as this. He didn't know how to react, what the etiquette was, what he should say to keep the conversation going. Atlas wasn't exactly known for his astounding social skills, simply because he didn't have any.