Survival Of The Fittest

Darius went out of the supermarket, putting energy drinks into his bag. Sleep was overrated. There were turrets he had to defend.

But before he went home, he had to chill a bit. He still had plenty of time.

Standing next to the doorway of the supermarket, he was ready to relax himself after that stressful day.

His index and middle finger dragged a cigarette out of the cigarette box. Darius also took out his zippo he calle- no, he wasn't the guy who named zippos. Lightening the cig and dragging it a bit, he enjoyed the moment. Then he spit on the ground, to take another drag afterwards.

Ah, this evening will be good.

Where the heck were the eggs located?

Mia stood, hands on hips, in the middle of the pet food isle, looking around for some sign – hopefully an actual sign – of where she was supposed to be searching. She didn't normally go grocery shopping. The only time she really ventured in here was when she went to buy something like a bottle of water or a protein shake before a run, both of which she'd been able to find easily. But they were out of quite a lot of stuff, and for probably the first time in her life, Mia had been the only person who wasn't busy in the house.

Mia tutted, and dug the crumpled, dog-eared shopping list from her shorts' pocket. The eggs were the very last thing she had to pick up, so of course they had to be hidden in some mysterious corner of the supermarket. She'd already got the bread and milk and everything else she wanted, so it'd be real nice if the eggs could just come out of hiding, now.

Well, she wasn't going to find them staring at pouches of cat food, was she? Mia made her way out of the aisle, turned into the next one, and found herself staring at rows of egg boxes. She stood, stunned for a moment, before shaking her head. Despite herself, a grin managed to find its way onto her face. She grabbed a half dozen box, gently putting it in her shopping basket, and made her way to the checkout.

It was a beautiful evening. The sun was still setting, and if Mia had been more artistic, she probably would have been able to wax lyrically about the orange hue bleeding into the blue sky, or paint some beautiful watercolour. But she wasn't, and so all she really cared about was the fact that it was a clear, crisp evening, and pretty much perfect running weather.

Mia placed her bag of shopping on the ground, and stretched out, feeling a satisfying click in her back.

It was then that she noticed a far-too familiar smell, lingering in the air, coming from nearby.

She turned to see her classmate, Darius, smoking right outside the entrance of the supermarket. There was still smoke fading away from his previous drag, and suddenly it became a thick cloud covering a blanket of flames on the ground.

"Put that out."

Mia spoke without thinking. She didn't realise she was visibly shaking.

Darius saw Mia coming from the supermarket, which was no surprise, as the two of them saw each other inside the supermarket and greeted each other more or less.

What Darius did not expect was Mia coming to him while shaking and telling him to stop smoking. As if Darius committed a horrendous crime. Geez, he did not know that she's worse than Adelaide.

He turned to her, still smoking the cigarette. Inhaling and exhaling the smoke.

"Huh. Why?"

He just began the stick. It was worth money. He couldn't just stop smoking for the sake of Mia.

In lieu of an immediate response, Darius blew a fresh cloud of smoke directly at Mia instead. Frantically, she flapped her hand at it, trying to get it to disperse. Her brain was screaming at her to just leave the supermarket, to get back home, and to give Darius a piece of her mind when she next saw him at school, but her feet felt glued to the floor.

It just felt all too familiar, even though she knew at the back of her mind that it wasn't anywhere close to being on the same scale. She hadn't had any way of avoiding it; Darius had been loitering outside the only exit to the supermarket. All she could do was stare at Darius, her wide eyes, so normally seen full of twinkling joy, were now filled with fear. Stare at Darius, at the fading cloud of smoke, and the faint, orange glow.

Mia could tell, just from Darius' tone of voice and his enquiry, that he wasn't about to put the cigarette out. She supposed it was understandable to ask why she wanted it gone, but it wasn't as though cigarettes were a widely respected thing. Everyone knew the health risks associated with them, they smelt godawful, and if you knowingly smoked around someone with, say, asthma, you were officially a terrible person.

Most importantly, Mia was not prepared to talk to Darius about her issues with the cigarette. Not in this state, not in any. She wanted the whole thing dead and buried, but it kept on rising up, tormenting her. When Mia spoke, her voice was low and shaky, a far cry from its usual confident tone.

"Just put the goddamn thing out. I'm not gonna ask you again."

Darius continued to smoke.

"Yeah, that's a preeeetty good reason why I should stop now. You convinced me."

Mia sounded weak and Darius sounded sarcastic. That's how things went. He exhaled slowly for her to see the smoke long enough before it faded away. He could go away, but why should he? He could be friendly by sacrificing this one cigarette for almighty Mia, but what had she done for him?

"Just go away or wait till I finish, if it annoys you."

Oh noes, I am Mia and my skin is allergic to smoke. It instantly kills you if you don't wear a magic astronaut suit that lets you survive the smoke of doom.

Hah.

Mia could manage a single step back, as Darius blew another cloud of smoke in her direction, and even then, only just, almost stumbling and falling backwards as she did so. Her entire body felt numb. Her feet felt rooted to the floor. Darius wasn't budging, and she physically could not move. They were at an awful, unexplainable impasse.

What was wrong with her? She hadn't seized up like this for a long time, and over such a tiny little flame and a small amount of smoke, too. Maybe that was it, actually. Maybe she'd forgotten what it was like to experience fire and flames in close proximity? No, forgotten wasn't the right word. The memories of that night had come flooding back to her almost instantaneously, the second she had smelled smoke. It was likely to stick with her for the rest of her life.

She had unintentionally let her guard down, that was what she had done. She'd grown comfortable, in a life where she didn't have to deal with fires and smoke anymore. It was like a lightning strike, or being robbed; no-one ever expected it to happen to them. It happened to other people, to worse people than you. It would never happen to you, never in a million years.

And then you got hit by it, and all you could do was stand there and watch it happen.

The smoke had cleared from Darius' last drag. He wasn't going to just stop, though. Not unless Mia could give him a satisfactory explanation for why she was reacting the way she was. There was nothing else for it. Mia took a shaky breath, and slowly shuffled closer to Darius.

"It's… fire. Fire, flames, smoke. I have a phobia, all right?"

She hated telling people about her fear. It made her feel weak, being brought down to nothing by something so simple. She'd only wanted to tell her family and her closest friends, and Darius was neither of those. But she felt as though she was about to break down if she had to deal with this any longer. There wasn't really any other option left to her.

"Now… are you going to put that out before I do something I regret?"

Wha.

Fire? HAH. Bullshit. Like, what. How does she live? She and her family live without fire at all? And that thing in sky, that big ball of fire. She's afraid of that? Mia=Vampire confirmed. Hahaha. Oh god, and her name's 3 letters as well. Darius will be playing Half-Life 3 soon enough.

She wouldn't trick him into destroying his cig long before it has expired its use. At least not with this cheap lie. And wow, that threat she threatened him with right after her 'dramatic revelation' did not destroy he credibility, nono. Yeah, Darius knew that she just wanted him to stop smoking, with the use threats and dramatic lies.

"That's the biggest lie since...since Clinton's faithfulness."

Yeah, maybe he should've used another similie. That one was not that funny. Hm. Darius was curious. And with that, he took out his zippo, activated it and slowly shoved it to in front of her face.

"There's nothing you have to be afraid of. Nobody died from fire."

Well, it was mostly the smoke people died from.

"And this one is not dangerous at all."

See? A lie.

She had warned him.

It was clear now that Darius was just a complete asshole, but the worst part was, he wasn't even an intelligent asshole. He didn't act with any regard for the consequences, didn't have any pre-meditated feelings of antagonism towards Mia. He just did things to see what happened. He was a completely stupid, legitimately stupid, asshole.

But a douchebag was still a douchebag, and fire was still fire. And Darius was not only not about to put his cigarette out, he was going to keep on testing her.

Mia flinched as Darius brought the lighter up towards her, her heart stopping in her throat. She felt faint, like she was about to be sick, and yet still her body refused to run. Maybe it was a lingering sense of pride, not wanting this jackass to get the upper hand over her and to revel in his victory of being a total piece of shit. Even with the panic and the tainted memories flooding her mind as Mia felt the heat of the flame, there was still some reminder that she needed to do something, and suddenly, that broke through to the forefront.

There was only one thing she could do here; put out the source. And now, she had the power to do so.

So Mia launched a kick directly between Darius' legs.

Darius did not expect Mia to kick him in the balls. As a reaction he dropped both his cigarette and zippo to cover his crotch from another kick with both of his hands.

He was certainly not going to pick up the cigarette lying on the ground, now or anytime soon. He planned to pick up the zippo later. But first he wanted to back up away from that crazy bitch.

After gaining some distance from Mia, he cowered.

"Ouch, fuck."

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. He breathed harder than usual.

"Damn you."

The painful feeling will go away sometime. He really regretted not just having been nice to Mia. But who knew she would react that way?

"That's not. Ow."

Goddamn did that kick feel good.

It took a few moments for Mia to actually realise this, of course. After Darius was sent reeling, Mia remained frozen, almost in a trancelike state. Then, as soon as it clicked that the lighter and cigarette had both been thrown to the ground where they belonged, everything suddenly started flooding back. She felt normal again. She was in control; both of herself, and over Darius, now.

Mia allowed herself a moment of smug satisfaction over just how good that kick had been. That had been, like, the sweetest connection possible! She didn't even think she'd kicked anything that well whilst playing soccer! Honestly, the biggest surprise to her was the revelation that Darius did own a pair of balls.

Well, at least he'd be speaking very highly of her from now on.

Mia looked down at Darius, rolling her neck from side to side, feeling the satisfying click. A look of anger flashed across her face, as Darius wittered on about being or pain or something. Yeah, he was definitely the victim in this scenario. Prick.

"The fuck did I tell you, jackass?" Mia stared Darius down, trying to keep her voice as even as possible. There were people inside the store, after all. She'd probably made enough of a scene via kicking Darius directly in the balls, after all. Wouldn't do to look completely manic to any outsiders.

"I warned you how many times? I told you exactly what the problem was, but did you listen? You're hopeless."

Mia shook her head and rolled her shoulders. She was about to just leave Darius where he was, writhing in pain, when two things stopped her. First was her bag of shopping, still lying in the doorway of the shop, which she hurriedly picked up. Second was… well. Darius had just had his fun. Now it was Mia's turn.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though. You obviously didn't listen when your mom told you cigarettes were bad for your health."

With a smirk and a sarcastic little wave, Mia turned her back on Darius and headed home.

((Mia Rose, continued elsewhere))

The mocks did not made Darius feel even more hurt, but it didn't help him overcoming the pain, either. After the devil herself finally left, he slowly walked back to the scene of crime.

That was certainly an experience. Being kicked in the balls for no legit reason. The pain slowly faded away. But it was still there. He picked up his lighter. Hm, it seemed to still work. He put it back into his pocket. Then he stomped on the cigarette to put it out. He coughed and spit more salvia on the ground. He opened his bag.

Opening his first drink, he sipped it while slowly, slowly walking home.

((Darius Van Dyke continued elsewhere))