Falling for a Superhero

Hayden the Heartthrob

“Hayden Marshal?” Cheyenne asked for clarification after I recapped my previous day. I nodded, fairly sure of my fresh memory. “I’m gonna have to say, that’s pretty out of the ordinary.”

“What’s out of the ordinary?” Nik suddenly asked, appearing at the pep rally with us on Friday morning.

“Hayden walked me home yesterday,” I informed. Nik’s jaw tightened when he frowned.

“Why?” He asked that as if I was the most repulsive person in the world who deserved no escort home…but I realized it was his issue with Hayden not me.

“I don’t know? He wanted to give me a ride, but neither I nor Dastan wanted that, so it somehow compromised into a walk—”

“Wait, Vega was there?” he groaned.

“He waited up for Mickie after detention…”

“Why would he do that?” Nik frowned, more in confusion rather than repulsion now.

“Well aren’t they going out?” I asked.

“Well yeah—” Cheyenne confirmed before being gloriously interrupted by conflicting news.

“Mickie and Vega have never gone out,” Nik scoffed pathetically. That made absolutely no sense. They were all over each other. But now that I thought about it, she was always over him and not the other way around. I hadn’t ever seen them kiss or hug…she just played at his side and subjected herself to his orders. So then her bullying me, with him enhancing it, made no sense.

“Warden!” I heard my name being called. I looked down to see Dastan on the foot of the bleachers with a camera in hand. Speak of the devil and the devil shall arrive.

“I guess I’ll see you later guys,” I told Nik and Cheyenne.

“Have fun…” Cheyenne wished.

Yeah right.

“You wanted to do something for this article, right?” Dastan asked after I reluctantly succumbed myself to his presence.

“Yeah…”

“Then get off your goddamn ass and stop talking to Nik the d**k so we can get this s**t done and over with,” he snapped, handing me the camera. I stared at him, completely frozen all because no man had ever spoken to me that way. He stepped away from me and I let go of the breath I had held.

In Frankford, I had never been afraid of anything—not anyone, but since I had been here, Dastan was the only guy that I’ve ever managed to fear. It didn’t matter if he told me he wouldn’t hurt me.

After the initial shock and terror of him cussing demands at me, I started to take pictures of the pep rally—cheerleaders and dancers forgetting sequences, freshmen pep squad members screaming their heads off, band members clearly switching instruments, and then I looked through the lens and landed on a familiar face smiling at me: Hayden.

He sat in the front row of the varsity football players in his red and gold uniform top with some jeans and I had to do a double-take before realizing he was truly looking at me. When I realized it, I took a picture of him, but he still looked at me briefly before hitting me with a funny face. I slightly giggled and returned the face, only for him to stick out his tongue long enough for me to snap a picture of that and then he unexpectedly got up from his chair and sprinted over to me in order to throw me over his shoulder.

“Hayden!” I laughed, bouncing as he ran out of the gym and towards the stadium. He sat me down and my face was probably as red as tomatoes. When he set me down, I hadn’t noticed that the camera was no longer in my hand, but being held two feet above my head. Then I got serious. “That’s Dastan’s camera.”

“So what?”

“He’s going to kill me if anything happens to it,” I reasoned.

“Blame it on me and he won’t,” he shrugged, the smile remaining on his attractive face. I realized that my body was still pressed to his so I pulled away and looked around with crossed arms. Hayden retracted the camera and pulled me close to him with his free hand. “Aren’t you supposed to be writing an article on social life?”

“Which requires me to be in there taking pictures of the pep rally,” I nodded.

“Why?”

“Because Dastan told me to,” I answered. All I observed was that the pep rally was a breeding ground for social hierarchy.

“Well Dastan’s an ass that doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing,” Hayden responded, making me crack a smile. Hayden’s face started to simmer from his own grin. “Social life isn’t just about some get-together that no one wants to attend.”

“It’s in honor of your football team,” I reminded.

“Trust me and believe it or not, but most of us don’t want to sit through girls shaking their asses in revealing yet approved clothing and listen to the fight song and alma mater a million times,” he laughed.

“Then what exactly do you think the article should be about?” I asked him, realizing our faces were inches apart, unlike our bodies that were pressed together.

“Well what about a social experiment?” he asked.

“Like?”

He took a deep breath and I did the same. What was he up to?

“Like the reaction to when the cynical, popular jock goes out with the new southern Belle,” he smiled. Me. He was talking about me.

He glanced from my eyes to my lips like when he started walking home. I couldn’t deny that I was feeling attracted to Hayden, but there was always Kenneth. I couldn’t do that to him.

“Or not,” I whispered. He winced and then created space between us. He dropped his arm from my waist and placed the camera strap over my head. He leaned down to place his lips by my ear.

“I think that Kenneth is a lucky guy. It’s not common for girls to be so loyal when someone’s that far away…” he said. Then he stepped back with a cute smirk. “Don’t take any crap at this school, Angela.”

“Including from the boys?” I teased. He laughed once as he continued to back up.

“Especially from us boys,” he winked before turning to leave.

***

“OH MY GOD, YOU’RE ALIVE!” Cheyenne cheered, embracing me in second period.

“Well yeah…” I trailed.

“I saw Hayden carry you off—well everyone did—and he only came back with a suspicious grin on his face and I THOUGHT HE KILLED YOU OR SOMETHING!” Cheyenne yelled, gaining the attention of others in the class.

“No. He was just trying to have some fun,” I giggled. She stared blankly at me.

“Hayden Marshal does not have fun.”

“What are you talking about? Everyone has—”

I was interrupted when Dastan walked between us and basically yanked the camera from my neck.

“Don’t you even think about every pulling that again, Warden,” he scolded. “Go to the pep rally. Take pictures. It’s not that hard. I even gave you my camera—”

“It wasn’t her fault. I mean, Hayden was the one…”

Cheyenne stopped talking when Dastan’s onyx eyes snapped over to her.

“Dastan can I ask you a question real quick?” I inquired.

“No.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What the heck has your boxers in a knot?” it was a genuine question because I wondered why his mood and attitude changed so drastically with me around, but then I realized how it actually sounded. The comedic timing paired with my ridiculous country accent made it seem like I was trying to ridicule him.

He growled and still stared straight at me. He started walking away from me and I followed him to the computer. He opened up the internet and then typed in some URL as I laughed at his fury. What would make this situation better?

Making him even madder.

“Look. I know I was supposed to take pictures at the pep rally—”

“No s**t,” he commented.

“—but I think Hayden has an even better plan for the social status of high school…okay why are you looking at me like that?” I said. He looked at me with dark, dull eyes and then waited for my silence.

“I didn’t think you’d be so stupid,” he insulted. I scoffed. No one had ever told me that before. “All Hayden wants is to get in your pants.”

Once again, I scoffed.

“That’s a load of—”

“Bullshit?” he finished. I narrowed my eyes at him even though he wasn’t looking my direction, instead at the computer screen at what was a social network of some sort. “You wanna know what the trending topic on our school’s social site is?”

“Not particularly, but I have a feeling you’re gonna tell me anyways—”

“Heartthrob Steals Away Southern Belle New Student,” he read. Shoot. I tried to form words to say, but I failed. Dastan turned to face me with a pissed off expression…or maybe even just his normal expression considering that’s how he typically looked at me. “What? No ‘aw, that’s so sweet’ or ‘wow, people really pay attention to me here’?”

I couldn’t care less about either of those two reactions.

“I have a boyfriend,” I reminded while biting my lip. “This is not okay. Nothing is going on between me and Hayden, and I really doubt he’s such a heartthrob here considering how he walks around.”

“Why’s that?” he asked, but I didn’t know what he meant. I automatically assumed he was talking about Hayden being a “heartthrob” because if it was any of the other reasons, he surely would’ve interrupted me.

“Because he’s such a jerk to everyone and not a person that girls want to associate themselves with, let alone leave themselves to any kind of heartbreak—unexpected or not,” I reasoned. “He can’t be some heart ache ready to happen when the rest of us know he basically hates everything and everyone.”

“So that’s why you’re so attracted to him,” he pinned. I actually paused and could only blink at that accusation. Was he serious?

“I am not attracted to Hayden,” I said but my gut turned for me to realize that was a lie. Even though I had (or tried to have) Kenneth, I shouldn’t deny how beautiful Hayden was or how intrigued I was with him. Suddenly, Dastan stood up and neared me immediately, making my breath stop. I hated he could do that so effortlessly.

“Then what the hell is the difference between me and him?” he hissed.

“I…I don’t know,” I stammered. I was confused with his question because he made it seem as though I treated the same people differently. While Dastan was dangerously charming, he never extended that to me. White Hayden failed to present any hints of charm to anyone, he made the effort to try and sweep me off my feet—literally and figuratively. If Dastan felt like he deserved equal treatment, he was wrong. And if he was asking why I wasn’t attracted to him despite how he treated me…he was absolutely misplaced.

“You do know!” he hissed. I realized that people were now watching us and so did he. That’s why he looked around for one second and then glared back at me, not at all nervous of the bystanders. Well, at least this gives me hope that he won’t hurt me. “You stupid little girl—”

“Mr. Vega!” Mrs. Hayes warned. He immediately looked over to her with sweet eyes feigning innocence.

“I’m sorry for disturbing your class,” he muttered with absolutely no hatred that he so clearly proved to the student body. “I’ll take it as my responsibility to leave now.”

With that, he did what he said by grabbing his bag and leaving. I turned to face everyone in the class and they all snapped their heads away from me, besides two people: Cheyenne and Mickie. Cheyenne sent me apologetic eyes while Mickie wanted to rip my throat out from across the room. Maybe I should’ve been the one to leave too.