Falling for a Superhero

Well Jaime Looks Well...

“He saved me one night—which I told you about—but I was being so rude to him because…I don’t know. I guess it was a combination of still not wanting to believe in him and also being kind of scared about what he could do and the entire situation. Yet he came to my bedroom to check up on me and then asked about you and Kenneth.”

“Aw. Well that’s sweet.”

“Only because I left out the point in which he said he happened to remember your names and he said he’s known Sebastian and Kenneth for a while now,” I said. She shrugged.

“He’s a superhero, he probably knows everything,” she assumed.

“I wish I had that right,” I scoffed, blowing a strand of hair out of my face.

“So he saves you and says he knows us…and then you have wild fantasies about him?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Oh no. You haven’t even heard the best part…he wants me,” I told her. She froze.

“He wants you?” she asked as if the term was foreign. I nodded with my lips pressed together.

“He said he wanted me and that I was different and I know that’s such a bottom level pick up line, but the way that he is around me—”

“So what you’ve been saying is…there’s something far more than just your fling with Hayden that you’ve been holding out on?” she asked, taking it offensive that I hadn’t told her. It’s not like I had a choice. I didn’t think I could really put it into words on the level I needed to, but I guess I could now that my subconscious got me caught by sleep-talking.

“Yes,” I admitted. “The Proliator…he’s just on my mind all the time and even when I’m broken he’s there and he’s just…amazing without question.”

“But…?”

“But…he’s the Proliator,” I sighed. She waited for a clarification. “That means that we can’t be together—I don’t even know why I’m over thinking it in the first place…”

“You can’t be with him, Ang,” she said with wide eyes. Her eyes told me the context and concern of her comment.

“I know…” I groaned despite not wanting that to be the truth.

“It’s dangerous and you don’t know who he is and—you know?” she asked.

“Yes, I know,” I sighed. But I knew now that I wanted to be. When I get back to New York, I know what would probably happen. “So now, I have to make a choice about him and Hayden and your brother—”

“Well one decision sort of depends on the other, don’t you think?” she asked. I guess she was right. If Kenneth and I decided not to be together, Hayden and I would be. Thus, resulting in mine and Proliator’s discontinued relationship. But if Kenneth and I were officially together, Hayden and I wouldn’t be…but still where would that leave me and the Proliator if Kenneth said me to “live my life” in Manhattan? I still didn’t really know what that meant other than a copout reason to clue me in that the chances of us being together were lower than any time I lived in Frankford.

“I guess so,” I sighed. I saw her bite her lip as if she had something to say. “What is it?”

“No matter what happens with my brother, we’ll still be best friends right?” she asked in a small voice.

“No, of course not,” I stated. “We’re sisters.”

She smiled and then threw the pillow at my face and told me to go back to sleep. However, that’s when my brain decided it wanted to do some thorough thinking instead.

“You really need to realize the effect you have on me and how dangerous it is. Because then I need to be healed just as much as you do,” Proliator had said, making it all sink in for me that maybe I had weakened him enough that night that it lead into him being injured and caught bleeding out.

“Well one decision sort of depends on the other, don’t you think?” Kylie’s words reminded for more than just the scope of all three boys I seemingly had wrapped around my finger. I had to shut down the tangents of that topic before I would truly go in a craze.

Thankfully, I didn’t have another Proliator dream because I couldn’t really fall asleep. However, I still remembered every part of my dream previous to mine and Kylie’s conversation, as if I lived it. Clearly by subconscious thought it was something to revisit.

***

“Angela?”

“What?” I snapped. I wasn’t mad or frustrated, but…anxious. The time I wanted to spend with Kenneth was wanted more than anything at this point and as we sat here thirty minutes after rehearsal should’ve started, Kenneth still wasn’t here.

“Can you go run back to the house and see if Kenneth is finally ready?” Veronica asked, tossing me the keys to the truck. Immediately, like some psycho ex-girlfriend, I got in the truck and drove back to the Bergen house. I noticed another car there, but assumed it to be Louis’. I opened the door to the main house and jogged up the stairs to Kenneth’s room. I heard him talking to someone.

“I’m already late…” he sighed. “I spend way too much time with you.”

“Well I hope it’s not only me that wants to spend more time than that,” I heard a girl’s country-stricken accent say. I ran through all the voices I had grown up with and stopped at a possibility.

“You know that I can’t,” Kenneth whispered after a brief silence. The girl scoffed pathetically and forced a laugh.

“We both know she got here last night, Kenny,” the girl reminded with a louder voice. “That means you had an option to tell her but you were—”

“—busy last night with you,” he finished. That crushed my heart. Even though he was basically saying that he couldn’t be with her because of me, it hurt that he was with her last night at all. I quietly made my way down the hall and purposely walked back heavily so they knew I was coming.

“Kenneth, Veronica wants you to—” I started to say as if this was the first time I got here. I stepped in his room and saw that they weren’t pressed together as I thought. He was contorting his gold tie in the mirror while the girl, Jaime Macmillan, was sitting on his bed. Of course I knew who she was. She was a gorgeous and smart girl that was in her first year of college an hour away. As soon as Kenneth saw me, his face lightened and he smiled widely. I nearly returned it, if Jaime wasn’t sitting there. But then I figured it’d be odd if I didn’t so I eventually forged the grin.

“Hey, Angela,” she smiled. She started to stand up, remorse not once slipping into her face. “I guess this is his final warning to get to rehearsal. I’ll catch you later. Nice seeing you again, Ang.”

“You too,” I said as she brushed past me. I looked over to Kenneth and his smile had fallen. He already knew what was about to happen. “Well Jaime looks well.”

“Yeah…she started coming back here when her old man was in and out of the hospital,” he informed, walking over to me. He wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed my cheek as if nothing was wrong. “How was your flight?”

“Better than yours, I must say,” I commented. He smirked, but I still couldn’t return the favor knowing what I had heard and dealing with what I was dealing with here and in Manhattan.

“So how much has Veronica been stressing about this wedding?” he asked in a laugh as he grabbed his coat and started to make his way out of the door.

“I don’t really know,” I shrugged. “I’ve been sort of busy.”

That was an understatement. Regardless of the constant transitioning into the city lifestyle, I had a plethora of other issues. I had Hayden who was trying to woo me any chance he got. I had Dastan on a constant rollercoaster of association that was entirely to his discretion. I had Cheyenne and Nik as two friends who completely clashed with the aforementioned people. Not to mention I still had my family on edge with the upcoming wedding and Sebastian who was just about losing his mind all on his own and magically forgot how to communicate with me or anyone else.

“I heard,” he commented after we had filled the distance to the front door with silence. He took the keys from me and hopped in the truck that rightfully belonged to him and opened the passenger side door for me. Of course I was stressing and thinking of a million different ways I could start this conversation about us. I opened my mouth to turn and speak to him once we were both settled in the truck, but he didn’t start the engine. He just sat with his hands on the steering wheel and fought himself to not look over at me.

“We can talk when this rehearsal is over,” he promised. I nodded and then he started the truck and drove off.