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"What a dick. No offence," he said in disbelief as I finished.

"None taken," I replied honestly with a smile and drank the last bit of the lemonade Darius had bought me after I had finished my hot chocolate quite early on in our conversation.

I had told him everything that had happened and he listened to every single word that I said. I ranted to him for at least an hour in the café. A little part of me felt sorry for him, but when I caught myself ranting halfway through and stopped talking, he basically blackmailed me into talking again.

It was refreshing, getting everything off my chest. It almost felt that, because we didn't know each other till now, it was easier telling him everything that I was thinking and feeling. I don't usually go around and off load onto strangers but he practically forced me to.

I wasn't going to disagree; it was a dick thing to do. Quite frankly, I had enough of it all. These last few months have been the strangest few in ages and I just want everything to go back to normal, before I knew Jace. I just wanted to leave that all in the past and move on. For myself, I needed to move on.

"Hey!" Darius called out, clicking his ring covered fingers in front of my face, "Don't go back into your head, I'm literally right here."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Doing what?"

"This! Helping me. You don't even know me but yet you're here listening to me go on and on about my life, which you shouldn't even give two shits about," I said, my voice unintentionally getting louder.

People were looking at me, I could feel their eyes on me. Was I being too loud meaning that they couldn't mind their own business or were they so bored with their own lives that they just had to care about mine?

Calm down. He's being nice to you for God's sake! 

I was getting riled up. About what exactly, I wasn't one hundred percent sure. But what I did know was that I needed to stop causing a scene.

I glanced over my right shoulder, making everyone guiltily turn their heads back to their own table. Lucy, the waitress that had been nothing but nice to me all afternoon, was staring in my direction. She gave me that 'is everything alright' look and I nodded. Everything was alright, Darius had done nothing wrong, it was me who lashed out.

I turned my vision so I was back looking at Darius, not giving myself enough time to see what Lucy's reaction was.

He was looking down in his lap, making his black hair fall over his face. I assumed he was on his phone messaging someone. I needed to gather my thoughts, understand what was actually going on and why I just shouted at a sweet guy, who has been doing nothing but trying to help me. I grabbed my phone off the table and slid it into my back pocket.

I placed my hands flat against the table and pushed myself off the seat. I stood awkwardly at the end of the table thinking of what to say to Darius.

I liked him, he's a kind guy and I felt bad for being so rude especially as he had put up with me talking for so long.

I played with the end of my sleeves, as I plucked up enough courage to say something.

I cleared my throat, making him look up at me, "I'm going to the bathroom. You can leave, I don't expect you to stay after that, but if you do stay, I won't be too long."

He wasn't allowing any type of emotions show on his face. I turned around and walked off. I didn't need anything from him.

I wasn't surprised when I went back to an empty table.

Everyone leaves me, it's just how it goes.

I grabbed my jacket off the seat and was going to leave. I had been here long enough. Shrugging on the arm of my coat, I reached for the door handle.

"Ivy!"

I froze, mid action, and swivelled so that I was facing the other direction. What does someone want now?

"I bought you some crisps. I hadn't seen you eat anything and I know people tend to skip eating because they're too stressed, so I got you something." Darius stood there with two packets of crisps in his hand.

His exterior look contrasted completely with how he was acting towards me. He had this hard-looking exterior with tattoos and the don't-mess-with-me vibe but inside he was a big softy. It was funny to me really.

"Aw he cares," I joked and nudged him with my shoulder as we made our way back to the table.

"Piss off," he laughed handing me a bag of chilly flavoured crisps.

We sat down at the table again, the mood feeling lighter than before. I ripped open the packet and popped a crisp in my mouth. I hadn't really eaten much today so the simple packet of crisps tasted like gold in disguise.

"How'd you know?" I questioned pointing to the flavour. Spicy food was my favourite but yet, I couldn't remember telling him that.

His shoulders shrugged and I was grateful that he swallowed his mouthful before speaking, "I just get that vibe off you."

"Oh really? You can tell what type of crisps people eat by their vibe?" I used my fingers to add air quotes on vibe. There was no way he was being for real.

"Yup, I can. I got you right, did I not?" His eyebrow was raised and I shook my head, laughing at his stupidity.

"Wait-" I just realised something, "where are you from?"

"England," he replied in a curious and wary way. No way.

"No way, so am I."

"You don't have an accent though," Darius pointed out.

"No shit." I rolled my eyes to which he just flipped me off. Yup, we're definitely going to get along. "Anyway, I moved here when I was 14 so that's why I barely have accent."

He screwed up his packet and put it on the table, "Makes sense. I moved here just over half a year ago. That's why I still sound very British." He leaned back into the seat and ran his hand through his hair.

I never picked up on the fact that he sounded different to everyone else here. Maybe I'm still used to hearing British accents.

"I'm surprised I didn't pick up on your horrible way of speaking."

Darius leant forward, picked up the screwed-up packet and threw it at me, hitting me successfully on my chest. I laughed when he sat back again with his arms crossed in front of him. I threw the packet back at him which he caught before landing on his body.

"You can shut the fuck up. I can still hear a twang when you say certain words," Darius retorted. I rolled my eyes and finished off my drink.

"At least it's not as strong as yours."

He sat up, his elbows on the table with his chin resting on his hands, "You'll just have to spend more time with me. Then we'll see the proper English jump out of you then," he winked at me before picking up our rubbish and putting it in the bin. I got my coat on and walked out the cafe with him.

"Thanks for that, you really made me feel better." I smiled at him as we stood outside my car.

If I was honest, if it wasn't for him, I probably would have still been feeling terrible.

Darius leant on my car, his arms folded over his chest and shrugged nonchalantly, "That's just the effect I have on people."

I punched in him is arm for that remark, but laughed with him nonetheless.

"No, I mean it. Thank you," I told him through a smile.

I was surprised when he held his arms out, standing away from my car. What was he doing?

"Stop looking at me like I'm an alien and give me a hug," he demanded so I did.

It was a quick hug, I made sure of that. I didn't want it to linger and then for him to get the wrong idea.

I wasn't here for anything like that, just his company, like a friend.

I pulled back and opened the door of my car when I stopped. Darius must have noticed that as he held the door open for me as I sat down in the driver's seat.

"Do you want my number so we can hang out again?" I innocently asked him. It would be refreshing to have someone like him around.

"I know some girls throw themselves at my devilishly handsome looks but I didn't think you were like that," he smirked so I punched him in the stomach. He groaned and held his stomach for a second. I just sat there watching him, waiting for him to stop being a baby.

"I'm joking. Bloody hell."

"Do you want it or not? I don't offer my number to many people."

"Aw I'm special," he joked, fluttering his eyelashes. I raised my eyebrows at him in a warning way, he stopped instantly. "Yeah, okay." He handed me his phone and I added my number to his contact list.

"Done!" I handed his phone back to him and stretched the seatbelt across my body. He just stood there, looking at me. "Move so I can shut my door."

"Oh yeah. I'll see you sometime in the week then?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Bye," he shouted as he started walking off.

"Bye asshole," I shouted out the window as I drove past him walking in the street. He flipped me off for the one thousandth time today.

Maybe today wasn't such a bad day...  

(A/N) I LIKE DARIUS MORE THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD... NOW WHAT DO I DO?
Jk I still know exactly what I'm going to do.

What are your opinions on Darius? And what do you think should happen between them?