Eighteen: The Date Pt. 1

Eero let Philo borrow his car for the date, so it was Philo picking up Rocket this time. He was parked outside Rocket’s house, feeling all the sudden very foolish in his outfit. Eero had also let him borrow something from his wardrobe: a nice dress shirt and a pair of dark slacks. He felt completely out of place wearing them, but he did admit that he looked nice in them. At least, the few quick glances in the mirror told him so. That’s all he could manage now; a few quick glances. Nothing more.

As he was dangling a cigarette for courage out of the car window, abiding by Rachel’s’ strict no smoking in the car rule, Rocket appears out of the front door. He looks nice, too. He wore a simple brown sweater and smooth black dress pants. He had a necklace wrapped around his neck that set easily on his collarbones, a little gemstone encased in gold in the center.

Philo gets out of the car and races to the other side, successfully opening the door before Rocket could fight him for the handle.

“What a gentleman.” Rocket teases, that familiar grin on his mouth. “Are you the same Philo I knew back in college, or did you send one of your clones?”

“Oh, shut up.” Philo remarks, slinking back to the driver’s side. “I can do nice things if I want to.”

“Well, I feel honored, then.” Rocket buckles his seat belt in, looking just too excited about this as Philo pulls the car from the cul-de-sac. Philo can’t help but wear a similar grin on his own mouth. Rocket’s smile was just too contagious. “Where are we going?”

The car pulls out onto the main road and onto simple straight lines and drooping hills. It had been a while since Philo had gotten the chance to drive, and he so badly wished to floor it, but he did not want to risk stressing out Rocket. Tonight was meant to be perfect, and he would do everything in his power to make sure that it was.

“First, I’m taking you to the theater.” Philo explains, and Rocket seems to agree with the idea by the look in his eyes. “There’s this new horror movie called The Ghost’s Resurrection that I want to see.”

“Isn’t that the sequel to The Ghost?” Rocket asks, holding his hands shyly in his lap. He fiddles with them, messing with his fingers and twisting his rings. He seemed to be just as anxious if not more than Philo.

Philo reaches over and takes his left hand, setting them both on Rocket’s thigh. This has Rocket looking out of the window, focusing on the buildings of Nerora instead of their interlocked fingers.

“I guess so. I haven’t seen the first one, but it was either this or a cheesy romance movie.”

Rocket gasps like he takes offense to what Philo had said.

“I love cheesy romance movies!”

Philo bites the inside of his cheek, letting out a little laugh.

“Well, we can see that one, if you want to.”

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽ ☆ ☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ 

When Philo parks the car relatively close to the front of the theater, he makes sure, once again, that Rocket does not have to open his own car door, and then he peers into the backseat. Would now be a good time to give him the flowers he got, or should he have done that when he picked Rocket up? Was he already failing at this whole dating thing? Because it really felt like he was.

Rocket notices his attentiveness to the backseat window and gasps in surprise when he sees the flowers.

“You got me flowers?”

Philo rubs the back of his head, fingers twitching around for another cigarette to which he refrains.

“Yeah.” He says, feeling nervous all the sudden, “But if you don’t want them…”

Rocket starkly cuts him off.

“If I don’t want them? Of course I want them.”

Rocket swings open the car door to get the flowers, inspecting each and every one. He held them close to his chest, letting out a gentle sigh. Then, he leaned over and placed a calculated kiss on Philo’s cheekbone; an action nearly and expertly dodged by Philo if he had moved slightly quicker. Reflex. Because, obviously he would not mind Rocket kissing him. He just felt weird about romance, especially recently.

But he was starting to think that if it was Rocket, then it was okay.

“I’ve never gotten flowers before.”

“Really?” Philo asks, and Rocket picks out a red flower to which Philo breaks by the petals and places delicately behind Rocket’s ear. It was not easy to miss the faint blush rolling over Rocket’s cheeks. Red to match red. “I’m glad it was me who took your flower virginity, then.”

Once the flowers are safely buckled up in the front seat, they head for the front of the building.

“You’re ridiculous.” Philo reminds him gently as they reach the ticket booth, buy two tickets for the romance movie, and make way for the theater.

“Well, just in case.” Rocket explains as they take a seat in the back of the theater, still referring to the way he buckled in the bouquet.

“In case of what, a parked car getting into an accident? The flowers dying from the impact?” Philo’s eyebrow arches, and Rocket reaches into the little bag Philo brought to retrieve a milk chocolate bar and a box of gummies.

“Yeah, you never know.”

The movie starts after around fifteen minutes of boring, overseen advertisements for other movies. Rocket and Philo talked quietly during them, and when the screen grew dark, they both turned their attention to the screen.

The theater had remained mostly empty, and Philo specifically got them seats towards the back so that Rocket would not feel uncomfortable. These were the things only thought of in gay relationships, and Philo had yet to ask about his desired level of openness. What if he preferred not to tell people, to show people? What if he just wanted intimacy behind closed doors?

It was fine for Philo either way because he had waited long enough to go on a date with Rocket. Whatever Rocket wanted, he was okay with too.

So, when Rocket leaned his head over onto Philo’s shoulder, he did his best not to show the pure joy swirling inside himself.

“Comfy?” Philo asks after a while, turning his head to the side to inspect Rocket’s newly found position. He looked incredibly cute like that, cheek pressed firmly against the hard bone of Philo’s shoulder. His eyes were wide, unfocused from the movie and focused onto Philo instead.

“Extremely.” Rocket whispers back, eyes unable to focus back on the movie. Even when Philo has turned away, Rocket’s hardened gaze remains.

They fall silent, and Philo tries his best to pay attention to the movie, but all the characters bother him. And all the settings look like cheap green screens, and the acting is all stiff. Philo thinks to himself then that he could probably make a movie that was better than this one.

“This movie is terrible, Rocket. You said you like these movies?” Philo pesters him with a dramatic frown plastered on his mouth. Rocket just rolls his eyes, snuggling further into Philo’s shoulder, hand wrapping intently around his arm. “I cannot believe I am on a date with someone who likes this.”

“I cannot believe I’m on a date with someone so whiny!” Rocket shoots back playfully, earning a couple glares and hushes from the other people in the theater.

Rocket glances back and forth from Philo to the movie. Philo was right, this one was not too great. The pacing, the editing, the love triangle, all of it was off. And-- they still had forty-five minutes of it left!

So, he decidedly turns to Philo with a flirtatious grin. “How about we get out of here?”