Falling for a Superhero

iYelled

“Angela, I’ve been calling and calling you,” Sebastian said when I got home at eight o’clock.

“I don’t have my phone,” I said. It was a weird excuse considering back in Frankford, we rarely used our phones in the first place. Mostly because there was never really a signal, but also because we were busy enjoying our lives without the distractions phones provided. But I understood now that it wasn’t about the luxuries of the piece of technology once my frowning father walked into the room.

“Where is it?” my father asked. “We’ve been trying to reach you.”

It had only been an hour and a half and I was sure that they hadn’t really been that eager to talk to me. This was purely a safety thing which I instantly knew. However, the real irony was how they didn’t actually have the intentions to talk to me or else I wouldn’t have been left in the dark about something they knew I would want to know.

“To tell me about Kylie and Kenneth’s flight? Hmm. Yeah right,” I snapped for some reason. Sebastian looked away from me.

“Where’s your phone?” my father asked again. I was now seeing the amount of concern equitable to when I had been in the hospital at age six for being bucked off a horse. He was genuinely concerned with my unreachable whereabouts.

“It broke,” I finally said, giving up any attempts at chastising them for withholding evidence about the place crash.

“Then we’ll take it to the shop tomorrow. I don’t want you walking around here alone,” Dad said.

“That makes two of us,” Sebastian commented. I narrowed my eyes, but decided to appreciate the comment of care.

“I don’t have it,” I squeaked. My father looked confused and Sebastian rolled his eyes.

“Then where—”

“Who broke it and/or where’d you lose it?” Sebastian automatically questioned. I don’t know why, but he was in an irritated mood outside of this and I didn’t appreciate that he took it out on me.

“Your friend Dastan broke it,” I smirked in a partial lie since one may say Mickie was the real culprit. “And I threw it away.”

Sebastian’s glare turned into a stare of inferiority. But why? Because of Dastan’s mention? What was with them?

“Whatever,” he muttered and then turned to jog up the stairs to his room. I had crossed my arms and then looked to my father, who was at awe what to do with us. Sebastian and I never disagreed with anything enough for us to fight. Even though our dad really didn’t like conflict, he never punished us for the inklings of confrontation—even now. However, Veronica chose the perfect time to walk in and erase all pain and suffering from my father’s eyes.

I went upstairs and, since I had to pass his room in route, I decided to enter.

“What the heck was that about?” I asked Sebastian as he rested on his bed.

“Nothing. Forget it,” he muttered. I produced a reluctant laugh.

“You’re telling me that you go from the most fun person in the world into a sulking guy that seems to be depressed about—”

“The fact that we just left our home and our friends were almost killed?!” he finished with a raise of his voice. I shut the door. I wasn’t scared of Sebastian, no matter how red his face got. That only urged me as to how fast I needed to get him to calm down.

“No. It’s something else…something you’re not telling me because you’ve been like this since we got here,” I said, looking up into his blue eyes that didn’t focus on me.

“Leave it alone,” he whispered with nothing but emotional exhaustion over something.

“How am I supposed to leave it alone when—”

“Fine,” he interrupted. He produced a smile. “There. I’m happy. Now can you please leave so I can sleep?”

“Fine,” I said reluctantly, not buying his “happy” smile.

***

The next morning I woke up in the mood to remove all stress and attempted grudges against Sebastian’s bad attitude.

“Why does she get a new phone and I can’t get a Play Station!?” was the first thing I heard Jem ask at the breakfast table.

“Jem, it’s a replacement to something she already had,” Sebastian reasoned.

“So can we get an old Play Station, break it, and then get a new PS3?” Jem asked. Sebastian laughed at the kid and ruffled his hair. He looked up to see me descending from the stairs and stood up with something in his hands.

“What’s this?” I asked him, looking down at the white iPhone.

“A cellular device, it appears,” he teased. I gave him a playful hug.

“You didn’t have to get me a phone,” I told him. Especially one that I didn’t know how to use…

“I didn’t,” he denied. I looked around for Dad, but he wasn’t at the table.

“Then who did?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure Dad doesn’t even know where to buy a phone at.”

So then Veronica, maybe?

“It was at the door this morning with your name on it,” Sebastian informed, handing me a purple sticky note.

For: Angela Warden. I programmed it for you and it has the same number and same contacts.

I set the phone onto the nearest surface, cautious as to who exactly gave me this courteous gift.

“I knew you were smart,” Sebastian smiled at the fact that I wouldn’t accept random gifts from unknown strangers. Considering the only people to know about the broken phone, I’m pretty sure nothing good could come from it.

***

“You’re kidding,” I prayed to Mrs. Hayes. She shook her head. I was partnered as photographer with Dastan Vega for a two week cycle for Journalism. Not only that, but the section was for social life. The hell if I knew about social life here!

“Just show up and I’ll do the rest,” Dastan grumbled at me.

“Um no. This is my article too, so if you don’t mind—”

“Yes, let’s get the country-bound, new girl to cover everything popular running in the town in which is fascinated in a superhero she doesn’t even believe in,” he stated sarcastically. What a jerk. The bell rang before I could even snap a retort. “What’s your number?”

“That’s funny,” I stated, collecting my things in my bag. He knew well enough that my phone was destroyed.

“No really. I need to contact you about games, school events, and all that s**t,” he added.

“Well I need to get a new phone,” I said. I had collected everything and then lifted my old bag long enough for the strap the snap and all my belongings to spill out. Great.

“I doubt that,” Dastan whispered, inches away from me as he crouched down. He didn’t even hesitate to not help me.

“Damn Warden, I guess you drop everything,” Mickie giggled as soon as Dastan stood up.

“Oh, I know I have something I’d like to drop…” I hissed.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re excused,” I smiled up to her. I had ordered my binders, folders, and papers but then Mickie decided to be a b***h and knock them all out of my hands. That’s when I stood up angrily. Sebastian wasn’t here to defend me and Cheyenne wasn’t here to pull me away from the battle. I was pissed and now Mickie would see that. Maybe all of those years of harmonious living that was nowhere near the clichés of media-portrayed high school was the cause to this bottling up right about now. “Stop being a b***h to me for no reason! I called him selfish, not you. I did nothing to you and it’s been two days and you’ve broken my phone and pissed me off. That’s not okay!”

Yelling at her released my feelings of rage towards her, Dastan, and even the dispute with Sebastian. I wasn’t normally a person that yelled or got violent, but right now it felt good. Probably because part of me was relishing in the fact that these two snobs probably never had anyone yell at them considering no one had talked back to them before.

That didn’t make sense to me though. We were in such a diverse city in a progressive age. It was hard to believe such blatant bullies got away with whatever they pleased without anyone batting a single eye at them. If it took a small girl from a small country town to put them in their place then so be it because at least it felt right on my end.

However, it didn’t feel good when Mrs. Hayes assigned me my first ever detention slip with the b***h that caused this.