Falling for a Superhero

Fair Game and Free Phone

“You can go,” Mrs. Hayes permitted. I immediately exited with Mickie and the others, but I noticed that she was the only one that had someone waiting for her against the room’s doorway. Of course it was Dastan.

“What a waste of time,” Mickie complained.

“I could say the same, but…” Dastan trailed off probably in reference to waiting up for her. Still somewhat maddened that I had received detention, I quickly walked past them, hugging my binder to my chest. “Warden! There’s a pep rally tomorrow morning. You better be there.”

Yeah freaking right.

I continued walking down the hallway and someone caught my arm slightly before I found the dark-haired friend of Dastan’s jumping in front of me. Only, today his eyes were clear and his hair wasn’t spiked up.

“Hey,” he greeted. “I didn’t take you for the girl to have detention, especially on your second day.”

“That’s because I’m not,” I grumbled, walking past him. I wasn’t in the mood to talk, seeing as my perfect disciplinary record was ruined by some jerk and his tramp.

“Hayden!” someone yelled. I’m guessing that was the guy that stopped me because I recognized the voice to be Mickie’s and she definitely wasn’t addressing me. Well at least she was a distraction to get Hayden off my back…so I thought.

“Wait!” Hayden called to me, jumping back in front of me. This time, I had to stop walking. I looked up to him. “Can I give you a ride home?”

“What makes you think my brother doesn’t have that covered?” I asked. And what makes you think I trust you so easily? I literally just learned your name. He searched my eyes.

“Because we both know that you didn’t tell him about your detention,” he spoke.

“I could call him now,” I lied.

“We both also know you don’t have a phone,” he whispered. Hayden was being…odd. In school, he was just like Dastan—only his composure was mean and worse. And where Dastan was only a jerk to those who weren’t his friends, girls and teachers, Hayden was a jerk to…well, everyone. Except for me apparently? But with a smile like his beaming up at me, it was hard to believe that he could actually hate so many people. “Come on. It’s just a ride home.”

“I should be fine walking. It’s only a mile or so,” I assured humbly.

“I don’t think so,” a new voice said. Dastan.

“Calm down,” Hayden told him. “I’m giving her a ride home.”

“No you’re not,” Dastan ordered with Mickie a few feet behind.

“He can if he wants—”

“Don’t you have a boyfriend to drive you places or something?” Dastan snapped at me. I scoffed at them both.

“Speaking of which…” Mickie muttered, pulling on Dastan’s hand. He silenced her while still looking at me and Hayden.

“Look. It’s a twenty minute walk and I don’t mind walking so…”

“I’ll walk with you then,” Hayden offered. Was he serious? Had he not seen the anger in Dastan’s eyes when he offered to drive me home?

Hayden reached out to touch the small of my back, but I surprisingly didn’t flinch back from him. No matter how scary he was to the student body and everyone else, I didn’t really cower away from him. I had no reason to.

Before he actually touched me, Dastan caught his hand and they stared back at each other. Dastan’s eyes drew to be even darker, but then again, so did Hayden’s. They were fighting a battle that no one but them had control over.

“Stop it,” Mickie ordered and then Dastan released his grip. Although these two seemed to hate each other in public from one day to the next, they were best friends behind closed doors. I wanted to know why they seemed to act like they despised each other in front of others. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah…” Hayden said, shaking out of the glare. He looked over to me with pleading eyes. “Let’s go.”

Afraid of what Dastan could actually do to me alone or somehow get offended that I “rejected his best friend,” I obliged to Hayden’s request and he escorted me out of the school, shaking off the run-in with Dastan.

“So a boyfriend?” Hayden asked, nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah?”

“Boyfriend doesn’t seem to be around to pick you up…” he clarified.

“That’s because he’s not around,” I admitted.

“Oh?” Hayden figured. “So you’re fair game?”

“Definitely not,” I breathed, blushing. He nudged hips with mine as we walked and I didn’t have to look up at him to know that he was laughing at me.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said. “It’s cute that you care about him.”

I looked up at him, not taking him for the kind of guy that would ever say that. I think he realized that and immediately stopped walking to press me against the wall. I knew it; he was gonna kill me for insulting him visually.

“But I hope you know that with him not here, you’re considered fair game,” he whispered, making me feel more attracted to his voice than repulsed for some reason. He looked from my eyes to my lips and then smirked, stepping back. “Well, for me anyways.”

“That’s gonna be a problem,” I said.

“And why’s that? Kenneth doesn’t like competition?” he asked, sending me an attempted eyebrow raise. I hope he didn’t think I missed his mentioning of Kenneth’s name. That only meant he definitely talked to Dastan and they were talking about me of all things.

“Well I mean, doesn’t fair game require you to get me to like you?” I asked, only being humorous. His face fell for a second before he started to smile.

“I like you,” he pointed out. Well that’s better than hating me… However, I felt awkward having some popular, cynical guy telling me all of this and I’m sure he could tell. I was even more uncomfortable because my feelings were with Kenneth and some new guy blurting out his impulsive and probably lust-driven crush on me wasn’t enough for ruin what I had with him. “I’m serious, you know.”

“About…?”

“Winning you over,” he said.

“Why’s that?” I asked. His best friend hated me—as well as his entire clique, and I’m sure that Nik wouldn’t approve (even though he wasn’t at school today), not to mention my heart was set on Kenneth—even though he told me to live my life here.

“You’re different,” he said. Now I really rolled my eyes, wondering how a guy so charming settled on such a played-out line.

“I’m taken,” I reminded slowly.

“Not for long,” he said, smiling away from me. His words scared me. I didn’t know if it was because of Hayden’s demeanor in school or because Kenneth was recently in an accident and the “not for long” sounded like a pretty sketchy threat…or promise…that I definitely wouldn’t sign up for.

We continued walking—him trying to charm me and me trying not to get charmed in return—and I stopped when we reached my building sooner than I thought because Hayden walked super fast.

“Now is about the time I’d ask you for your number,” he smirked. I opened my mouth, but he cut me off. “But I know that you don’t have a phone anymore. Sorry again for that.”

“Forget about it,” I tried to erase. My head turned to the alley beside my house when a loud noise thudded to the ground. “I guess that’s my cue.”

“Goodbye Angela,” Hayden said, turning back to the direction of the school. I quickly walked down the alley and saw a garage with a dusty, classical car with the hood up.

“You actually hauled this thing up here?” I asked Sebastian whose torso was under the car. He rolled out and threw his tools down to wipe his hands on the oil-covered rag instead of his jeans like usual. Not to mention the oil stains on his bare chest and ruined shirts in the past.

“You actually found a replacement for Kenneth in two days?” he retorted. I paused and then the back door opened to reveal Nik with a beanie and lounge clothes, tainted with just as much oil as Sebastian’s rag. I didn’t greet him because I was offended with what Sebastian said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked Sebastian.

“Where were you just now?” Sebastian asked, looking up at me with tossed hair in his face. Great. Now I had to tell him because I definitely wasn’t going to answer with “spending time with Hayden.”

“I had detention,” I confessed.

“Really?” Nik asked, surprised. I glanced over to him since he was newly intrigued, but then focused on what Sebastian would say.

“I already know you had detention, but how did you get home so fast? Who gave you a ride? Because Cheyenne’s been at home and Dad’s still at work,” Sebastian said. How did he know I had detention? Only Dastan and Mickie were there and them talking about me? Pssh, yeah right.

“No one gave me a ride,” I denied. Only because I opposed. “I walked home.”

I didn’t tell Sebastian with who, but suddenly he reached over to the table and grabbed something only to throw it and hope that I caught it. Thankfully, I did because it was the new iPhone that some stranger delivered.

“You need to have a phone with you,” he said, protectively.

“No I don’t,” I said, realizing that I may be the only teenager in a one hundred mile radius that would ever say that.

“Just take it,” was all Sebastian needed to say before I slid the phone into my pocket. I looked over to Sebastian to see if something was wrong, but like every other time since we’ve been here, he shut me out-only this time he put a car between us.