Falling for a Superhero

Okay with Lunch

Not only had Dastan Vega ruin my day yesterday, but he had the decency to text me renditions of “hey” twice after the fact. Who the hell does he think he is? He still went ignoring me while Mickie made the comments towards me so bad I wanted to fight her. Fighting wasn’t even in my immediate nature!

“I don’t know why you’re wasting your time,” Nik commented as the four of us waited in line to get lunch.

“I agree,” Sebastian said. “Especially when Kenneth is still—”

“Kenneth hasn’t called her since Sunday,” Cheyenne reminded.

“Well Kenneth doesn’t need to track her every move,” Sebastian responded.

“Well maybe Kenneth doesn’t consider that it—”

“Stop,” I ordered because they were being ridiculous for absolutely no reason. I finally got to the area to grab a tray but then it was taken from me and two bodies cut in front of my group.

“It makes me wonder why you even cut in front of us to get lunch when you just throw it up every day,” Nik said harshly to Mickie.

“Food is better being eaten and thrown up than wasted on feeding trash like you,” Mickie retorted. Dastan just stayed quiet and paid for his food.

“Oh, ouch,” Nik faked. Suddenly, when I could actually grab a tray that was ready with food, I was being hauled away from the cashier.

“Hayden, can this wait? I may look like I don’t need food, but I do. I’m hungry. If you don’t mind—”

“That’s why I pulled you away,” he smiled. I wasn’t following his logic, but he frowned. “I want to take you to lunch.”

“Um…okay.”

“I know you’re with Kenneth, but—wait, okay?”

“Okay,” I smiled. He returned the genuine grin and we walked out of the cafeteria. He led me to his ninja motorcycle, which was parked by another familiar one, and I was eager to hop on.

“Wow,” he commented.

“What?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Usually girls are scared to get on my bike,” he commented. “But then again…”

“What?”

“You’re not like usual girls,” he said in a complimenting voice.

***

When I was with Hayden, things were different than with other boys.

I didn’t feel constantly protected and held to a pedestal of innocence like when I was with Kenneth. Nor did I feel like I was in constant danger of impulsivity like I was with Dastan. Hayden may have been a big badass to everyone, but to me, he was a big teddy bear who was consistently trying to win me over in whatever way he could. I could laugh without it being forced. I could speak without thinking he was judging my opinions or accent. I could also breathe normally around him. And the best part? He was being himself around me, no matter what. I just didn’t know if he was like this to win me over as a potential date or if he got the picture about me and Kenneth and opted to begin a genuine friendship.

“So how have you been?” he asked.

“Just conflicted most of the time,” I sighed. It was the truth though.

“What do you mean?” he asked, carrying our food to a window booth.

“Nothing. Never mind,” I lied. He placed the tray down and then when he sat across from me, I felt him put a hand on my knee.

“You can talk to me, Angela.”

I had talked to him about whatever we wanted to up until this point, so why not this?

“Well I mean, I get to this town and I’m already shocked that there’s some alleged superhero lurking around—not to mention Kenneth chose then to act like the protective boyfriend,” I started. Ugh. I’m not even going to start on the latest Proliator news. “Then I get to a new high school and I—and my brother—already made the top of the Most Hated list of the great Dastan Vega by calling him selfish…and whatever Sebastian did. Not only that, but I’m partnered with him for Journalism and I thought we spent the game and weekend trying to be friends, but then Monday came around and he accused me of being a thief mostly because Mickie was around. And then lo and behold he turned in our Journalism assignment a week early, claiming that I deserved all the credit and he had nothing to do with it! And in all of this he’s still ignoring me like I did something wrong.”

I realized that I was over-obsessing, but my concerns made sense.

“Why?” he asked. I didn’t even know what why he was really asking. Why was the city obsessed with Proliator? Why did Dastan hate me and Sebastian? Why did Mrs. Hayes partner us together? Why did Dastan’s behavior keep changing towards me? Why did Mickie insist on hating me too? Why did he give up and turn in our assignment? Why did I care?

Considering this was a boy I was talking to, I assumed he was asking the impossible question of why Dastan was doing what he was doing despite me not being a mind reader.

“I don’t know?”

“No,” he said. I raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so conflicted about that?”

“Because I don’t know what to do here because it’s so different than back home! Boys are so confusing and I have no idea as to why. I’ve never worried about boys other than Kenneth in the first place,” I whined, resting my cheek in my propped hand.

“Well there’s one good thing in your rant,” he shrugged. And what was that? “I wasn’t mentioned in any bad way.”

I stared blankly at him. He chose now to be selfish? Clearly his niceness was due to ulterior motives. When he realized I wasn’t taking too kindly to his focus of choice, he waved off what he previously said before continuing.

“Okay so there’s a guy who you shouldn’t even concern about—two actually…a guy that is hundreds of miles away…and then a freaking awesome stud that just wants a shot with you,” he spelled out. “That doesn’t sound confusing. It just sounds like you’re a wanted girl. You should actually be used to this because I don’t see any way people didn’t fight for you back in Kentucky.”

“You’re missing the point.”

“Look, stop worrying about all the extra s**t and just focus on you and what you want,” he advised. I took a deep breath and nodded. He touched my chin and then I started to blush. “A girl as beautiful as you shouldn’t have douche bags ruining your days.”

“Keep in mind that douche bag is your best friend,” I giggled.

“Vega?” he asked. “We’re not best friends. We’re more like punching bags for each other.”

“Meaning what?” I didn’t expect punching bags to be so chummy with each other.

“Meaning exactly what the title implies,” he said, his voice changing into a tone that made me shudder.

“Angela?” a familiar voice called. I looked over to see Veronica with a coffee in her hand.

“Hey,” I smiled. She walked over.

“Who’s this?” she asked politely.

“This is—”

“Hayden Marshal,” he introduced with a gorgeous smile. Veronica looked to me with a readable expression.

“He’s just a friend from school,” I assured.

“Good. I thought I was going to have a fight on my hands in three weeks,” she laughed.

“Three weeks?” I asked. Her face fell.

“Your father and I are getting married, Angela, remember?” she reminded. Oh shoot. That meant Kenneth would be there considering it was being held in Frankford.

“I completely forgot about that,” I admitted.

“I don’t know how, but that’s fine,” she feigned a smile. She glanced between me and Hayden one last time. “Well you two have a nice day. Get back to school in time.”

“Maybe—” Hayden began to joke, but considering Veronica’s annoyance with me, I didn’t want any chance of her telling my dad about Hayden’s little joke.

“Of course,” I covered, sending Hayden a glare that would hopefully send his cocky smile away. Veronica left while texting on her phone and then I continued eating my food. I could tell Hayden was inquiring something with his newly found frown.

“That’s not your mom?” Hayden asked.

“Clearly.”

“You look so much alike,” he said just like dozens of other people for some reason.

“Not really,” I lied.

“Well how long has she and your dad been together?”

“They’ve been going out for a couple years and when he proposed, it was time to shut down our business back in Frankford and move up here.”

“Lucky me,” he winked. I smiled and rolled my eyes playfully. “So…do you have any plans this weekend?”

“Not that I know of,” I answered, looking down.

“Can you come watch my game?” he invited. I looked up to him.

“Yes,” I smiled. I knew from Cheyenne that this would be the last football game…well for this high school’s district anyways. It had been clear that our team was going to playoffs due to their dominating game play. I couldn’t miss the game if he personally asked me to go…I also couldn’t imagine the run-of-the-mouth Cheyenne would give me if I said no.

“And, uh…” he started awkwardly. “Would you be willing to come to the after party with me?”

“I don’t know…” I said. A party was something entirely different.

“Come on. What’s the worst that could happen?” he asked. Incredible intoxication? A police raid? Date r**e? Injury? Crippling persecution by peers?

“Sebastian doesn’t really want me to…”

“Screw Sebastian. He had fun last time,” Hayden insisted. Last time? Is that were Sebastian disappeared to last weekend? I grinded my teeth because he was the one to explicitly tell me not to go. “And plus Cheyenne will be there and so will I...”

He was giving me wide, blue puppy-dog eyes that I could easily give into.

“Fine,” I allowed. “Under one condition.”

“Anything,” he promised.

“You can’t diss me in front of your friends,” I said, biting my lip. He stood up from the booth and then walked over to me, closer.

“Sweetheart, I would never do that to you,” he said honestly. The corners of his lips turned up. “And plus, my friends are such doofuses that we can spend all night dissing them instead.”