DAMN YOUR KISS; ryden

Chapter Fifteen: Can't Take The Kid From The Fight

One thing Ryan had learned that really got to him were couples. Happy, cuddly, linked hands and noses brushing as they pressed their lips together in some sort of symbol of being together. He was always told that he'd feel differently once he was in, or had been in, a relationship. Well. He didn't. Couples were still as sickeningly sweet and froufrou as they'd always appeared to him.

He guessed that would make him a difficult boyfriend. It had certainly been a sore spot in a couple of past relationships. But it wasn't the actual intimacy that bothered him, but more that people were so desperate to show off in public. Love, or whatever passed for it in some relationships, wasn't something to be flaunted, held above the head like a trophy. It was the most private of affairs. It was something that went on behind closed doors. He didn't begrudge people being proud of it ... but some needed to be way more considerate that they were.

Ugh.

Like seeing one of your best friends, hands woven through another's, gazing like some flowery loverboy into her eyes, and giggling and whispering.

The two in front of him couldn't have been more than seventeen, the girl with blue hair and a startling amount of facial piercings, and the boy, an obvious natural dark-haired person, with bleach blond locks, and a lip ring. And they were really going at it, lips pressed together in a way that he failed to imagine as being anything but painful. And tongue. God, the kid used so much fucking tongue. It was like he was an excited puppy, slobbering over her face. Had kids these days lost all class in locking lips?

Jesus Christ, I sound so old when I say shit like that he shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair, sighing.

Really, he had nothing against the couple. But they weren't just a painful reminder - they were annoying the tits off of him. After all, he'd paid to come and see the goriest, scariest, bloodiest film the theatre had to offer, hoping it'd be full - if it was full - of horror fans, shrieking and dropping popcorn as they jumped.

So with an exaggerated groan, and scowl, he lifted his feet, and plunked them down, propping them on the seat in front of him, right between the horny teenagers. They jumped apart at that, and shot him dirty looks. "What the fuck, dude?" the boy hissed.

Ryan reached over, plucked a piece of popcorn from the tub perched in the seat beside him, threw it in the air, and caught it in his mouth. "I don't know - fuck the what?" he replied in a sarcastic drone.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" the girl snapped, at the same time the boy rose from his seat and snarled "Apologise."

Ryan swallowed the popcorn. It tasted like cardboard. He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You heard me, Yoda." The boy leant over and jabbed a finger right in the middle of his chest. "I said apologise. Now."

Ryan smirked. "I'd get your finger off of me, sunny jim."

"Or what?" the boy retorted. "What will you do?"

Ryan lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "Buddy, even I don't know. Hey, on second thoughts, why don't you keep antagonising me - I'd love to see where it goes."

The boy's face twisted. "You're fucking nuts."

Ryan rolled his eyes. Like he needed a teenage boy with rampant hormones and a bad dye job to tell him that. "Please. Shut the fuck up, and sit down. There's a film on, you inconsiderate asshole."

The girl stood now. "Let's go, Saul."

"Yeah, Saul, listen to your girlfriend." Ryan repeated.

"That's it." Saul vaulted over the seats, and grabbed Ryan's shirt by his chest, yanking him to his feet, and pulling him into the aisle. For a scrawny looking thing, he was surprisingly strong. He pressed his face to Ryan's and spat "Apologise now, or this gets ugly."

Ryan smiled.

That's when he got a wicked left handed slug to his jaw, and pain exploded across his cheek. He stumbled back a little, nearly tripping down the stairs, and for a second, everything went black. Then he pressed a hand to his jaw, and shook his head with a laugh. "I've had worse one night stands than that."

The boy threw a punch again, one that Ryan narrowly avoided, dodging just in time. And the kid raised his fist once more, and -

An attendant grabbed it, pulling it behind his back. The girl began to protest, trying to free her boyfriend, but being pulled off by another attendant, and held back. "It's him! It's that fucking freak there! He's the one that started this!" she jabbed a finger toward Ryan.

The attendant that had Saul started to drag him out, and the other released the girl so she could go with him. The one who'd held the girl gave Ryan a sympathetic look. "I'm so sorry, sir, if there's any way we can compensate-"

Ryan shook his head. "Honey, it ain't worth my time." He went toward the door, only pausing to turn and say "The films sucks, by the way. Not nearly enough fake guts and corn syrup blood."

There was no sign of the kid and the girl anywhere when he left the theatre, into the bright sunlight, and Ryan sighed to himself. The film had been a way to distract himself for a little while, and because of those two, they'd shoved him back into the real world an hour earlier.

He patted his pocket for his phone to call Z, before remembering its watery fate. So instead, he got back into his car, started the engine, and

Decided it was the right time to pay Spencer a visit.