The Undying Man - Heroic Vol.1

Issue 5 - Everyday Hero

David shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He’d been sitting still far too long.

He was trying very hard not to stare. His date sat beside him, silent. By focusing on random objects and neon signs as they passed by the window behind her head, he was doing his best to appear nonchalant and brooding. He was doing this because ‘it’s what girls like’, or so he believed. Indeed, he believed in the idea so strongly that he had been maintaining his ‘rebel without a cause’ facade for the majority of their date - which he thought had gone… okay.

David had met Sherri at a friends’ engagement party, a party he’d attended under the assumption that any single girls present would be easier targets to nail. Since she’d said yes to the date, he decided he must have been correct on some level.

Or maybe she’d have said yes anyway, maybe I’m just her ‘type’. Ah, whatever.

During the date itself he had been constantly caught between displaying genuine interest in what she was saying – some nonsense to do with her sister and second child syndrome, he couldn’t recall much of it – and trying to act ‘cool'. One moment he would be staring with shiny eyes, listening as she regaled him with a story about her newborn puppy, then: he’d remember not to look too intrigued, and flip his ‘brooding’ switch on. He’d practiced the look for hours in his tiny bedroom mirror, and he had almost mastered it, the perfect ‘I’m-so-cool-and-hot-and-intense-and-how-could-you-not-be-swooned-by-the-very-sight-of-me’ look. Currently, he was giving her full power. Maybe 80%.

He had a game plan, and it was quite simple. He'd decided that the less he spoke, the better off he'd be. What words of value could he even contribute to a conversation? If he could just sit there and look deep and mysterious, then maybe that would intrigue her. Maybe she’d think: ‘Oh, he looks so lost in thought, I wonder what interesting things trouble his mind? It really makes him oh so interesting. In fact, I think I’m falling in love.’

An outlandish idea perhaps, but on that made sense to him. He knew there was something special inside of him; and he wanted her to see it, and if the best was to convey this was through an awkward squint and pout of the lips? Then convey, he would. She deserved as much.

He quickly checked to see if she was watching. She seemed to be regarding him with only slightly more interest than the other people – other strangers – on the bus, which made him frown.

She glanced over and caught him spying on her, causing him to flinch away from her accusing eyes.

Dammit! That’s it! Illusion broken! Mystique gone! Creepiness confirmed!!!

He couldn’t help himself. He’d tried so hard not to stare, but he’d been busted multiple times. There was just something about her that drew him in.

Just looking at her is like taking a quick sip of some coveted nectar. Like getting a taste of something real, something bright, something pure.

Then again, maybe that was just his stalker way of justifying his need to perve. He didn’t feel like he was a perve. But that probably made him more pervy.

“David,” she said.

He snapped out of his daydreaming, immediately trying to appear carefree – as opposed to just plain absentminded.

“Sherri,” he said in a cocky fashion, a slimy grin forming between his cheeks. He hated being slimy, but it was common knowledge that girls liked guys with a bit of attitude. Sometimes they even liked being talked down to. This was just common street knowledge. The basics of the basics.

“Mmm,” Sherri smiled politely, choosing to ignore his response for the most part. “You know, you really don’t hafta’ see me all the way to my front door, it’s not that dangerous in the Lower End.”