Falling for a Superhero

In the Way

“Angela! Angela!” Hayden’s voice called ten minutes after the football game ended. I had been standing around, talking to my friends before the party, but considering our stadium was on school campus, it made it easy for certain football players to find you after they changed. I looked to Cheyenne, who gave me a cautious look. Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me—

“I’ll just wait in the car,” Cheyenne said and then departed with our friends.

Goddamn it.

“Angela,” Hayden said, reaching me. I had to turn to him, but my gaze was away from him. “So where did you want to go to eat?”

That’s when I looked up at him and forced a laugh.

“You honestly think I’m still going to go out with you?” I asked him. He stared at me as if something I said was a mistake. I scoffed and turned away from him.

“Angela—” he addressed, grabbing my arm.

“You got in a fight with my brother,” I reminded.

“And?” he had the decency to ask. I turned to face him, despite the number of people surely watching. Sure, I glanced at them a few times and thought of my response. Hayden gave me a sympathetic look that was nothing less than attractive, but then something flickered in his eyes before I was seized by the waist and pulled back into someone. When I realized who it was, I pulled away from him too.

“If you honestly believe your games can continue after you beat up her brother than you’re psycho,” Nik’s voice protectively said. Great. Another fight.

“What games?” I asked.

“The game he plays with everyone—”

“I’m not playing a game,” Hayden said, stepping towards us. I looked between them, deciding who I should choose. Hayden looked into my eyes. “I’m an asshole, I know that. Sebastian hates me, but that has nothing to do with us, Angela.”

His words were true, but I couldn’t imagine the trouble stirred if I had still been in relation with someone who my brother despised, let alone physically fought.

“He’s just trying to win you over so that he can—”

“Shut up,” Hayden finally growled at him. The two boys glared at each other as if they could kill with their pair of irises, but if they ever made a move, I wouldn’t know because I walked off.

You really shouldn’t walk around alone, a British voice rang out into my brain. At the thought of it, I gasped to a stop at the end of the sidewalk and then met at Cheyenne’s car.

“Let’s go party,” I said, pushing all the drama out of my mind.

***

Cheyenne was drunk. Our friends were drunk. And Hayden? Well he was busy screwing up any and every thought I had for reconciliation.

“I didn’t take you for the kind to drink,” a voice said now that I was on the upstairs balcony in the only unoccupied room at this party. From here, I could see everything happening at the pool. I turned to see my visitor, surprised that he was talking to me and not some half naked girl like the last person that had barged into this room.

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” I replied to him. Surprisingly it didn’t take me to be drunk in order to be ready to talk to him… it was just some weird effect that he had on me.

“Because you’re innocent,” Dastan said, walking over to put his elbows on the railing and drink from his red cup.

“Mhmm,” I hummed. I never knew how to act around him. I thought he hated me—no. I knew he hated me, but he was drinking now. Maybe that meant he was drunk enough to be nice to me. However nice he could be, it was better to feel that aura in silence than test it out.

“You really shouldn’t be here,” he suddenly said.

“I’m sorry I’m intruding on your rightful domain,” I apologized. For all I knew, this could be his house. I started to set down my beer bottle and leave, but in a quick instance, Dastan grabbed my waist and spun me into a sandwich involving him and the rails. My breath wasn’t caught for once. His eyes were lightened.

“Just because someone says something shouldn’t be doesn’t mean they don’t want it to be,” he suddenly whispered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked like an i***t. I knew what it meant.

“You shouldn’t be here, but I want you to be.”

Great. Now I had to force myself into pushing his chest away from mine.

“Why—”

“You boys around here really need to make up your minds,” I commented, ready to walk out of the room and out of the party. However, when I made it to the hallway, I ran into a couple making out. When I knocked them apart, the boy looked between us and then reached for me.

“You’re Hayden’s girl…” he addressed, his alcohol-filled breath hitting my face.

“Actually, I’m not his girl. I’m actually—”

“Mine,” he countered while leaning in to kiss me, but I leaned back to dodge it and felt myself being pulled completely backwards by my jacket. Before I collapsed onto the ground, I was caught and placed there.

“I don’t know who you are or why the hell you’re at this party, but get out,” Dastan yelled at me as I was on the ground. Do you see my problem? He makes no sense. DASTAN VEGA MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. I got up, noticing that Dastan glared at the boy who talked to me. That’s as long as I stayed before I ran down the stairs and into a drunken Hayden.

“Why…why are you running downstairs when all everyone wants is for us to be alone upstairs?” he slurred. I scoffed at him wanted to smack him, seeing his eyes widen in realization to my distraught. I walked around him noticing the prick of tears in my eyes.

***

I paced around my room thinking of everything that had happened.

Nik was a defensive jerk. Hayden was a hormonal jerk. And Dastan was an indecisive jerk, but still an asshole nonetheless. But why should I even care? After all, I had—

“Kenneth,” I breathed into the phone as he called me.

“Hey sweetheart, what’s up?” he asked. I opened my mouth to tell him everything from the frat boys and Proliator and everyone here, but…I knew I couldn’t. “Angela?”

“Yeah…I’m alright,” I lied. “I just miss you a lot.”

“Trust me, we miss you too,” he assured. “Has anything interesting happened there?”

Yeah. I tried to intervene on a hazing and in return, I nearly got assaulted—but wait, wait, wait Proliator saved me. And on top of that, he came back to find me so he knew we were on “good terms.” But then he ended up saying he knows you and Sebastian before he jumped out of the window.

“No, but I have a message for you,” I said. This couldn’t hurt to tell him what Proliator said right?

“Oh? From who?” he asked. “I just talked to Sebastian, so I don’t know who could have left a message for me…”

“Proliator,” I answered. There was a silence. No. I couldn’t tell Kenneth everything. “He wanted to make sure you and Kylie were alright from the plane.”

“Why—wait. When have you talked to the Proliator?” he stammered.

“Well, you see, the thing is that I got into some trouble earlier this week and—”

“What happened?”

“It’s not a big deal. It was only eleven stitches,” I shrugged.

“Only eleven stitches?!” he yelled.

“Calm down, Ken, it was my fault—”

“It’s too dangerous there,” he said like millions of times before. As he said that, I felt the wind come from my window that I swear was closed. I walked over to it, the blinds moving noisily, and then I saw the Proliator, sitting on the fire escape. Once he saw me, he sent me a light smile. “I swear Angela, when you come back here next weekend, I might just have to keep you here just so I know you can be in my safe arms and not in dangerous Manhattan.”

As sweet as that was, I couldn’t pry my eyes away from the Proliator that sat on my fire escape. The superhero captivated me with his stupid grin that I hadn’t even noticed what Kenneth said.

“Wait. I’m going back next weekend?” I asked.

“Yeah. Hello? The wedding is coming up—”

“Right, right, right,” I rushed. Veronica needed to make sure everyone’s dresses and tuxes were right as well as the venue. “Uh, I gotta go.”

“Sweet dreams,” he allowed, being the final factor to let me know he was angry. Only, he always kept his anger and frustration away from me.

“Good night,” I wished and then hung up.

“He’s sounds…nice,” Proliator commented. “So who’s getting married? I know you and Kenneth are obviously the seemingly perfect teenage relationship, but it’s a little too early for you two, so I’m guessing it’s your father’s…”

I stared at him wide-eyed as he was so casual.

“What the heck are you even talking about? Someone can see you! Get off my fire escape!” I ordered. He shrugged and then stepped through my window. Then his words sank in. “And me and Kenneth’s ‘seemingly perfect teenage relationship’ isn’t a concern of yours.”

“Actually, it is,” he countered. I pressed my lips together. “Because I have a plan and he’s in the way.”

“Excuse me?” I asked. Was that a threat?

“Calm down, I’m not going to kill him or anything,” he smiled. “It’s just…I think I can do a better job than him.”

“At what?” I asked, stepping back. He stepped near me, but didn’t touch me like I expected.

“Protecting you…and holding you safely in my arms…and…” he whispered, taking steps towards me. I mirrored them, stepping back, and then I eventually hit the wall.

If he had restrained me, I would’ve broken it at this point, but he wasn’t. I was left against the wall, not knowing what to say.

“You’re different,” he said. “I know that this may sound—”

“Angela!” I heard someone call me. I immediately panicked and then pushed Proliator off of me for half a second before he was turned into a blur that entered my closet. I opened the door to my room and saw Sebastian.