.Basil Leaves.


.x.


Darby groaned in pain as knuckles upon white wood hammered at her ears. With her rather pale hands, Darby struggled, but eventually found her ears and tried to snuffle the sound with massive clumps of her dark hair, which fanned around her on her lime pillow. Strings of her almond locks still clung to the massive amount of hairspray she had used before attending a party for the restaurant employees.

But by being a bit more radical with her fellow waiters, in terms of drinking, she was paying the price now. It only took a little alcohol to get her dizzy. Afterwards, she had drunk a lot of water so she wasn’t as hammered as she was before.

But why? Why was she even awake at this hour?

Hold on, what time was it?

Darby squinted through foggy eyes at the blurry blue digits next to her single mattress bed.

4:37 AM.

Darby moaned. She had just gone to bed 30 minutes ago! No wonder her head resembled a splattered watermelon, the remnants baking in the hellish heat of the sun.

Darby groaned again when someone knocked on her door, in quick furious knocks.

Who the hell would be at her door at 4:37 in the morning?

Yawning, and rubbing her fingers over mascara dried eyelashes, Darby stumbled out of her matching lime green sheets, and blindly tried to find her slippers with her feet.

The only thing her toes felt were dust balls and fibers, a result of her being too lazy to actually sweep the floors once in a while.

Getting more frustrated by the minute, Darby rose and took a moment to stabilize herself. She still felt a little bit woozy, and felt uncertain of her footing.

The knocking persisted once more, even more hastily and loudly than the last time.

“I’merrr…comm….ing,” Darby mumbled, tripping over her dress clothes from the party into the door.

“…ouch…” Darby muttered, slowly rubbing her right eyebrow.

Making sure the knocking would finally cease, Darby found the nearly broken knob and opened her door slightly.

Light burst through the crack as if the sun was her neighbor. Darby felt her pupils burn and she immediately put her hand up to shield the light from her squinting eyes.

“Hello? Uh, Miss?” came a voice from the sun.

“Fuck…light…what do…you want.” Darby’s vision slowly adjusted and she was now able to see how had knocked on her door several times.

She almost choked on her spit when she recognized him. Why, he was the angel who actually did live next door to her. Zen.

Her next door apartment neighbor who she had been drooling over for months. It was always just a smile, or a nod of the head, but inside she always nearly collapsed because her pain was so intense.

“Uhm, oh, hello,” Darby said intelligibly.

“Darby, right?” Zen wasn’t smiling. In fact, he looked like road kill before it became road kill.

“Yes…” Darby caught herself staring into his blue eyes. She thought pensively that they weren’t the dark blue ocean color, but rather, an icicle shade mixed with a gray hazy morning color. Though catching herself gaping, she didn’t mind enough to stern her stare.

“Look, I have a huge favor to ask. I feel terrible, but I’m freaking out!” Zen grabbed the ends of his dusty brown colored hair with a hand in panic and bewilderment.

“Uh huh.” Darby just nodded her head up and down. She was looking at his mouth now. It seemed very…soft.

“You see, god this is so embarrassing, but my parents are actually visiting my apartment, and they’re freaks, well mainly my mom.”

Darby smiled, enjoying his story.

“And you see, they just came in from their flight to my apartment. They want to stay over at MY place even when I told them I don’t have enough room! My mom just wouldn’t budge on the issue, and well- yes, to the point. My mom is determined to make me dinner, or I guess breakfast, and she is going CRAZY because I don’t have dried basil leaves in my cupboards. She’s hella pissed, and rampaging about the kitchen.”

Darby chuckled when she finally looked away from his face, and observed his multicolored stained white tee shirt.

“So you see, I actually heard you come to your room pretty recently as I was waiting for my folks, so I was hoping that perhaps you would have what I’m looking for?”

He clasped his hands together, and raised his eyebrows in plea.

“Please?”

Darby smiled and patted his head.

“What-cha looking for?”

“Dried basil leaves.”

Darby thought, and put a finger on her forehead.

“You know what? I have just the thing! I’ll go get it!”

Excited, Darby then ran back into the darkness of her room, and tripped over something hard and fell completely sprawled.

“Owwww!” Darby sighed as she rubbed her heal.

Zen flipped on the light switch next to the door, and hesitantly made his way over to Darcy.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked, lifting her up.

“I’m...perfect,” said Darby, staring into his eyes.

She could see his cheeks redden a little, and also observed that he avoided eye contact.

“Uhm, so…good. So yeah, so do you have the basil?”

“Oh...Right! Yeah...” Darby then with Zen's help stood up and went to her spice cupboard.

The kitchen, any kitchen, was her true home. Her passion was to be a professional chef, and to get to the top, she had to start from the bottom. AKA, working as a waitress and not being paid enough.

Darby peered through the numerous spices she owned and finally found the dried basil leaves. She reached in, for it was near the back, and then closed the cupboard.

“Is that it?” Zen said from behind her.

Darby thought she might have imagined it, but she thought she could feel his light breath on her neck.

Oh…dear lordy.

Darby looked down at her outfit and nearly cried out, had she not bitten her lip before doing so.

She was wearing a shrunken t-shirt top that showed more skin than she would normally be comfortable showing. And to top it off, in a drunken stupor she had decided to wear the Cookie Monster from The Sesame Street pajama shorts.

Darby felt her ears redden as she scratched her hair disaster. Undoubtedly she resembled someone she didn’t want to.

Turning around, clasping the bottle in an iron grasp, Darby cleaned up her act, forced a smile and gave it to the guy.

“Uhm…here,” whispered Darby, unable to even look him in the eyes. She self-consciously tugged at her shirt, wishing it were longer.

“Thank you so much, you don’t know how much this saves me.” He said.

Upon receiving the basil, he noticeably became more relaxed and adopted a calmer posture.

“So yeah, uhm…thanks. I’ll get out of your way. I’m sorry for waking-“

It was at that moment, where Darby, groping her hand on the counter for some article of clothing to cover herself while pretending to listen to Zen, touched something furry and screamed in shock.

“Ahhh!!!” Darby screamed and jumped into Zen with fright, shaking with fear. Had it been a mouse? God, a mouse in her kitchen! What kind of a chef abomination was she??

By jumping into Zen, who was in no way ready to receive her jump, both tumbled to the kitchen floor, which was thankfully, and unprofessionally carpet.

Upon opening her eyes, Darby felt her heart pump erratically when she found herself staring into Zen’s ice blue eyes. Ice cold, yet filled with an incredible heat.

Without thinking, Darby leaned down and pressed her lips to Zen’s, to the neighbor who she had thought about constantly in humiliating secret. She had dreamed about a moment like this for months, and now, she was able to live it.

She was surprised when she felt him respond, and more surprised when he grabbed the back of her hair in a gentle caress.

Her sticky hair sprayed hair.

Darby didn’t care though, and certainly didn’t want to. She was eating Zen through and through, drinking him in after being parched for months.

He was so hard, so real, so dominant of all her senses.

He smelled like tomato sauce, felt like a heater, looked too beautiful for comprehension, and tasted like something she’d never experienced, even with her great palette.

Darby rubbed the back of his neck. The lyrics to the song Everlong by the Foo Fighters, played in her mind.

Breathe out, so I can breathe you in.

She breathed out.
She couldn’t stop breathing him in.


“ZEN!!!! Where the HELL is my basil???”


“Oh my god.” Zen breathed and gasped in shock.

Darby became wide awake and then became aware of what she had been previously doing.

She was pretty positive that she had never been redder before.

Both Zen and Darby struggled to their feet and awkwardly avoided each other’s eyes.

Darby was cursing herself, killing herself mentally. Her heart was still pumping so hard, so fiercely in a torrent that she wasn’t accustomed to.

Then looking to the counter, Darby gave an annoyed sigh when she realized that the ‘furry’ object had been a realistic fake cat toy that she had been given by a coworker as a gag gift so that she would now have a ‘pet’.

“Uhm, so yeah…I better go…” Zen said, eyeing the door but looking steadily at Darby.

“Yes. You should definitely go.”

Darby had never felt more wide awake. Damn that party. She would never drink again. She hated feeling out of control. She had only dreamed of being with a guy like Zen. She never actually intended to act on her desire.

“Okay…Thanks Darby…” Zen ended his statement as if he wanted to say something more, or have her say something.

But Darby was adamant.
“No problem.”

She was steadily building brick by brick now. She needed a wall to put between herself and him.

Confused, Darby felt her heart sink when she saw Zen walk away from her and to his room next door. Upon closing hers, Darby sank onto the floor and held her face in her hands.

So…so stupid.

Now he probably thought she was some kind of slut or something. God, just what she needed. How would she ever live this down?

Darby then leaned her rather sore head against the wood and just breathed.

She hated to admit it, but she had felt something surreal when she kissed him.

Something she wanted to feel again.

The way he had leaned in and kissed her- in that slow and addicting method-was a show of affection Darby was slowly but surely growing to need, rather than just want.

Well, any chance with him was shot. No hope anymore, she might as well be content with the single kiss she got. At least she had something to tell her coworkers at the night shift tomorrow.

Atop Darby’s head on the counter, her single telephone rang.

Darby grumbled. Now who would be calling her at this time in the morning?

Reaching above her and finding the phone, Darby pressed it to her ear and said “Hello?”

She heard distant yelling in the background.

“…Save me please?”

Darby smiled upon recognizing it.

“Are they really that bad?”

“Worse,” said Zen as he breathed into the telephone.

“Sure, I’ll come over.”

“Cool! It’ll be fun showing you to my parents. They might interrogate you though.”

“It’s alright, I’m good with folks.”

“And Darby?”

“Yes Zen?”

“Can you please wear your Cookie Monster pajamas here? I think they're sexy.”

Darby did a mini-scream into the phone, while Zen laughed on the other end.

Darby in a humiliated amused manner hung up the phone, and had a small panic session.

So he had noticed.

How mortifying.

Well, one thing was for sure, Darby definitely wasn’t going over there wearing Cookie Monster shorts!

But happy, she went to her drawers and looked for something else to wear.

Smiling.



A/N: Hello all. =] Thanks for reading my one-shot! I wrote this in the spirit of Valentine's Day, and submitted it for the February Challenge. I hope you liked it! (or it at least made you laugh a little bit ;] )

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