Until You...

As Darren stepped back out in the sunlight, he looked up and down the sidewalk searching for the girl in the coffee shop. He saw some of the people who had handed out the flyers but he did not see the girl he was looking for. He decided to take a chance and started walking left of the coffee shop, searching the downtown crowd for the girl. Would he even recognize her if he saw her up close? He didn’t even know if she would still have the blond wig on and surely wouldn’t pick her out without it. If Darren had any hope in finding her, he had to remember what she was wearing.

Darren thought back to the performance and was upset with himself when he realized he had been too busy watching the performance and not noticing what she was wearing. With a deep disappointed sigh, Darren decided to turn around and head back to the coffee shop to apologize to Frank for running out before he went back to his flat and forget about the girl. He had been silly for running out chasing her. What had he expected? He didn’t even know what he would have said to her. Darren was deep in thought that when he was a block away from the coffee shop he was caught off balance as something ran into the side of him and almost knocked him over.

“Sorry! Oh, Sorry!” a voice told him while grabbing on to Darren’s arms for balance.

“It’s fine. No worries.” Darren told the person and looked down to see it was a girl who was now picking up her belongings that had fallen out of her purse.

“Here let me help.” Darren said and bent down to help the girl.

“Thanks.” the girl told him as the last of her things were stuffed back into her purse.

They both stood up and Darren got his first good look at the girl. She was wearing a pale yellow dress and a white cardigan giving her a look that was better suited for the 50s than modern day 2011. The girl was fairly pretty, nothing really special. The most significant thing about her was her green eyes but other than that she just looked like an average day-to-day kind of girl.

“No problem.” Darren said dismissively and started back towards the coffee shop.

“Oh, my wig!” he heard the girl call out in dismay.

Darren snapped his head back to look at the girl who was looking at a blond wig that was now being run over by a large truck in the street. Excitement raced through Darren as he made his way back towards her. He had found her! To his horror, the girl raced out in the middle of the busy L.A road heading towards her now obviously ruined wig. Darren raced out into the street without a second thought and grabbed her arm, pulling her back on the sidewalk just as a sports car ran over the wig again.

“Are you crazy?” the girl screamed at Darren.

Darren’s mouth flew open in shock. He was not expecting this reaction when he had just clearly saved her. He thought she would be impressed and he would offer to buy her a late lunch if she hadn’t eaten and then he would get to know this girl. Darren’s fantasy did not include her being upset.

“Wh-What?” Darren asked her.

“You pulled me back before I could get my wig!” the girl pointed towards the wig laying in the road.

“Because a car was coming!” Darren said defensively.

“I would have moved.” the girl said unconvincingly and gave a small smile.

“Right. I forgot Superman was a girl and could out run a car.” Darren laughed.

“Damn straight Superman was a girl! How else do you explain his awesomeness?” the girl told him seriously.

“If Superman was a girl wouldn’t he just call himself Superwoman?” Darren asked teasingly.

“Well… she did go by that but Marvel was sexist and made her into a man.”

“You are telling me that you think Superman is a transvestite?” Darren asked and starred at her incredulously.

The girl gave a laugh and smiled up at Darren making his stomach give a lurch.

“Okay, maybe not. Thanks for saving me.” the girl told him still with a smile.

Darren could shoot himself for ever thinking this girl was average. Her fair skin was giving a faint glow as if it was shimmering that would have made any Twilight fan jealous. He noticed that her green eyes had flecks of gold in them and her smile was the whitest he had ever seen. Darren was so fascinated at finding these new details that he forgot he was staring at her.

“Um… well… bye!” the girl said with a small wave and turned to start walking down the sidewalk.

“Wait!” Darren called, “You’re the girl from the coffee shop, right?”

The girl stopped and turned around to look at him. He felt uncomfortable as she looked him up
and down as if she was trying to see through him.

“…Yeah...” the girl finally said with hesitancy.

“That was amazing.” Darren said and instantly felt like a dork but was grateful that the girl smiled again up at him.

“Thanks. I really can’t sing but I’m doing an internship at a counselor’s office and was so surprised that so many people are really depressed that Harry Potter is over so I put this together to give them hope. Most of the people in there are patients.” She explained.

“Still the whole concept was really cool. I’m a big fan of Harry Potter myself.” Darren told her with a cheesy grin.

“Me too! The songs we sung were from A Very Potter Musical. Have you ever seen it? It’s really amazing!” the girl asked.

“Yeah, I think I have.” Darren said amusingly.

“I think they are geniuses. I think the guy who played Harry Potter in it, Darren Criss, actually wrote most of the music for it.” the girl told him impressed.
This made Darren’s stomach give another lurch. She was impressed by him!

“Yeah, I think he did.” Darren agreed.

“He’s on Glee now. Did you know that?” the girl asked dreamily.

“Uh-huh.” Darren said simply while admiring how her eyes were lit up.

“I love him with Kurt. He would be my favorite character if I didn’t feel bad for liking him because he’s with Kurt. Kurt deserves someone.” the girl said earnestly, “Oh, you probably think I’m
crazy. Getting so into a T.V show.”

“No. I’m a big fan too.” Darren reassured her with an amused smile. He liked how this girl could jump from topic to topic, it was really entertaining.

“Really? I don’t get to hear guys admitting that every day.” the girl laughed.

“Well, I’m not like most guys. I have pink Ray-Bans.” Darren said with an over serious voice.
The girl gave another laugh making Darren proud that she thought he was funny.

“What’s your name?” Darren asked.

The laughter instantly left her eyes at this and she gave him a scrutinizing look, her eyes full of distrust.

“Why?” she asked uncertainly.

“Uh…because I want to help out with the Potter Project.” Darren lied.

“You got a flyer in the coffee shop, right? That’ll tell you how to help.” the girl said dismissively and started walking again.

“But what if I need to get in contact with you?” Darren asked while following her.

The girl stopped once again and gave him a look over.

“How do I know that you don’t work for the coffee shop and you just want my name so you can tell the owner?” the girl demanded.

“I promise I’m not. Have you eaten? Let me take you out to lunch and you can tell me more about the movement.” Darren asked hopefully not really caring if they talked about Harry Potter
or not. He just found this girl interesting.

The girl gave him another look over this time curiously before staring up at his eyes. Again Darren was thankful that he was wearing his Ray-Bans or she would have seen the desperation in his eyes.

“Okay. That sounds great.” the girl finally said.

“I know a place couple blocks away from here.” he said trying to contain the excitement in his voice.

They were silent a few moments as Darren led them down the sidewalk. He decided he was going to try again to get her name.

“So what am I supposed to call you if you won’t tell me your name?” Darren asked. Darren snuck a look at her when she didn’t answer right away. Her eyes were in squinted as if she were in deep thought and he could almost hear her arguing with herself on what to tell him.

“I’m afraid the only name I can leave you with is Countess Nicole Delong Cray.” the girl finally said, “And yours?”

“Henry. Just Henry, please.” Darren laughed.

“You’ve seen Ever After? And your real name is Henry?” Nicole asked surprised.

“How could I ever love a pebble in my shoe?” Darren mocked with an evil witch’s voice instead of answering.

Nicole laughed along with Darren and gave him a peculiar look that made him stop laughing at once.

“You might just be Prince Charming.” Nicole laughed.

“Like I said, just call me Henry.” Darren smiled back but couldn’t help but feel a pang in his chest that he was still lying to her.