We Can't Run From Fate

“I don’t want to do this” Jack said.
“You’re the one who asked him out”
Jack sighed, looking at himself in the mirror. He was getting ready for his date with Alex and he’d invited his friend Rian over just to have someone make sure he actually went.
“You keep saying that” Jack said.
“Yeah because it’s true? Why did you ask him if you didn’t want to do this?” Rian asked.
“I don’t know, I thought I had to try at least” he replied.
“That’s what you’re doing, you’re trying this whole soulmate thing to see how it goes”
“I’ve never wanted a soulmate, I want to be free to do whatever I want and I can’t do that with him always around” Jack said, straightening his tie.
“You don’t know that and besides people have soulmates for different reasons, maybe the universe it trying to tell you something” Rian argued.
“Yeah like stop having fun”
“Jack just shut up and go, I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you think”
Jack frowned, he still didn’t want to go but Rian was right. He was pretty stuck, there was no running from it no matter how much he wanted to.
“I hope you’re right...” Jack admitted reluctantly.
“I know I am, you better get moving or you’ll be late” Rian said.
“Whatever”
“Have fun!” Rian called as Jack left his apartment.
As Jack began to the drive to the movie theatre he hoped Rian was right, that it wouldn’t be as bad as he thought. Alex seemed nice at their meeting the other day but they’d barely talked and he still knew nothing about the guy.

Alex arrived ten minutes late and slightly out of breath from running to meet Jack. The theatre was at the top floor on the Mall which was a lot of stairs of him to run up. He would have been on time but Grace refused to settle down with Zack so he’d stayed longer than he should have. Not that he told Jack that of course.
“Sorry... Traffic was shitty”
“No problem, what do you fancy watching?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know, what do you like?”
“Pretty much anything, but action-y stuff really” he replied.
“How about a horror?” Alex asked, it wasn’t his normal choice but it had been forever since he’d seen a movie that wasn’t made by Disney.
“Sure, what you thinking?”
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” Alex said.
“Sounds good, you’re not going to scream like a little girl are you?”
Alex tensed at the words little girl, he hoped Jack hadn’t noticed.
“I think I can handle it” Alex said, elbowing Jack.
“If you say so... I’ll get the tickets, you get the sweets”
As Jack paid for the movie he looked over at Alex eyeing up the rows of candy. The whole date thing felt awkward, like neither of them really knew what they were doing. Well Jack didn’t really, he hadn’t been on a prober date since high school and he didn’t think taking a girl from History to a Blink concert she hated really counted.
They found seats in the middle of the screen, a big bottle of coke between them and a few packs of candy on their laps.
“I always end up eating most of it before the movie starts” Jack said, putting a handful of M&Ms in his mouth.
“It’s not that hard” Alex replied, eating a few pieces of popcorn.
Jack couldn’t help but notice Alex literally had the smallest tub of popcorn he could and though he was dressed quite smart in skinny jeans and a shirt his clothes looked a bit too small for him or had been made to last him quite a long time. Jack was about to ask him what he did for a job when the lights went down and the screen lit up, maybe it was a question best saved till later.
During the movie more laughing went on than screaming. Though around them other people screamed as a girl got chopped up Alex had to try not die of laughter at the obviously fake legs waving in the air. Jack actually found himself enjoying it, Alex was actually quite fun to be around and liked to point out all the bad special effects to Jack so they were both laughing. They ended up being asked to leave for laughing too much and annoying the other viewers.
“I can’t believe they threw us out” Jack said.
“That’s the fourth time I’ve been thrown out of a movie” Alex said.
“What were the other three times for?”
“The first one was laughing at Saw, the second was yelling at Darth Vader for being a bad farther and the third time was... Well...” Alex trailed off.
“You had sex in a movie theatre?!” Jack exclaimed.
“Yeah... Turns out they really don’t like you doing that”
Jack laughed so hard he was crying, his hand resting on Alex’s shoulder as he regained his breath.
“Fancy going for dinner? All that laughing made me really hungry” Jack asked.
“I’m okay” Alex said but Jack heard his stomach grumble.
“My treat, come on” Jack said, holding his hand.
Jack still couldn’t help wondering if Alex struggled with money but it didn’t seem the time to ask so just made a note to pay for things in the future.
“Alright” Alex took his hand and let him lead him toward the food court.
The first part of the date had felt so uncomfortable and awkward for both of them but as they sat opposite each other with a large pizza between them things finally began to feel okay.
“So what’s your favourite movie?” Alex asked.
“Home Alone”
“Really? That movie’s so dumb!” Alex said laughing at the look the horror on Jack’s face.
“No way! That movie’s hilarious!” Jack argued.
“It has its funny moments”
“What’s your favourite movie then?” Jack asked, folding his arms.
“Fifth Element” Alex replied.
“How can you call Home Alone dumb when that’s your favourite? That movie makes no sense!”
“It does you just have to pay attention”
“If I wanted to pay attention I’d read a book” Jack said.
Alex started laughing again, nearly spitting out his coke. It had been so long since he’d laughed like that, he’d spent so long looking after Grace and making sure she was happy he’d forgotten to do it for himself.
“You know what Jack? I’m actually really enjoying this, I wasn’t expecting to”
“Me neither, I thought it was going to be horrible and awkward and though it started off like that I started really liking this time with you”
Alex smiled, a blush creeping up his cheeks that Jack found kind of cute. There was just something about Alex’s chocolate eyes, little nose and smile that Jack found sweet. He never thought he’d admit it but maybe the whole soulmate thing wasn’t going to turn out as bad as he’d thought. Damn Rian for being right all the time.