Page 16 of The Not So Super Hero

Zane nodded and quickly made his way to his car.

Before he reached his vehicle, the feeling from yesterday returned in full force.

A tremble wracked his body that had every hair on his arm stand up and his breathing became ragged.

Unlike yesterday, he did not stop nor look back.

He continued on his path, reaching his car, pretending like he didn’t feel someone’s gaze burning into the back of his skull.

Perhaps it was his lack of sleep. Zane told himself it had to do with his nightmare, or rather, the nightmares he had been having recently. They were making him paranoid.

Like yesterday, the feeling came and went. By the time Zane reached work, he no longer felt the icy chill running down his spine. He got out of his car, kept his head on a swivel, and examined the parking lot for anything suspicious but saw nothing.

“Stupid, it’s nothing,” he told himself.

Walking into work, he wondered if he could pull off getting everything done later in the afternoon. He needed rest in order to function. Hell, with rest, it was hard to function. With heavy eyes, he dropped onto the couch, staring at the ceiling that blurred in his vision.

Shit, if he stayed like that, he would fall asleep. Huffing, he pushed himself to sit up, swaying a bit as he did. For once, Zane told himself to get to work immediately. As much as he hated working, he didn’t want to lose his job, because then he would have to look for another.

While Zane worked on removing all the dirt from the entryway—courtesy of rudely returning students—a pair of familiar green eyes popped into his vision.

He stopped in his mopping to stare with half-lidded eyes at Bailey.

He couldn’t help but notice the boys’ glasses were crooked.

What trouble did Bad Luck Bailey get into in order to cause the slight curve of said glasses?

“Good morning,” Bailey said.

“Mornings are never good,” Zane replied.

“I suppose for you that’s true.”

Zane had his hands wrapped around the top of the mop, leaning forward to rest his chin against it while he waited for Bailey to either leave or continue speaking. He may have mentally slapped himself for actually thinking the latter option wasn’t so bad.

“Are you ok? You look tired,” said Bailey.

“I’m always tired.”

“You look more tired than usual. Didn’t have any coffee this morning?”

“Yep.” Now that was a lie; Zane had a few cups of it, but Bailey didn’t need to know that. “Shouldn’t you be getting to class?”

“It doesn’t start until eight, so I think I’m good,” Bailey responded.

Zane’s eyes jumped to the clock hanging on the wall that stated it was 8:05 am. He pulled out his phone next, seeing that it, too, said it was five after.

Smirking, he held up his phone to reveal the time to Bailey, whose jaw dropped before he screamed, “What? No! I left my room at 7:45!”

Bailey grabbed his phone, looking at the time to see that his clock somehow was ten minutes behind.

“How does one even mess up the time on their phone?” Zane snickered.

Bailey paid him no mind. Grumbling, he shoved his phone into his pocket and went to run to class, except he forgot Zane was mopping.

Not even a step in did his foot slip on the wet floor, sending him back to fall on his ass.

However, rather than hitting the ground, Zane caught him.

Gripping Bailey’s shoulders, Zane pushed him onto slightly steady feet.

Damn, Zane felt that heart palpitation again. He was probably dying. It had nothing to do with his hands being on Bailey’s shoulders or the fact that Bailey’s face had turned the brightest shade of red he ever seen. Nope. None of that. He obviously had a severe heart problem.

“Uh…” Bailey hummed, stepping away. Zane’s hands dropped so that he could lean down and pick the mop up. Bailey turned to walk away. He waved at Zane, who gave him a confused expression when he said, “I…I g-gotta go, but thanks!”

Zane didn’t wave back, though he did laugh when Bailey ran into the door.

Bailey jumped, smiled shyly, then ripped open the door to run off before he did something even more embarrassing.

He nearly ran into another student, stepping around them in the knick of time.

Glancing towards the glass doors, he realized Zane had witnessed that as well. He was still smirking.

Bailey bolted to class while mentally berating himself for being such a klutz.

Why was he born with such horrid luck? It put him in the most embarrassing situations, like blushing furiously because Zane caught him.

The whole situation could have been avoided if he had any ounce of luck and not tried to run on a wet floor.

Bailey ended up being over ten minutes late, smiling sheepishly when he tried to sneak in.

It didn’t work since the door made a horrible screeching sound the moment he opened it.

Flinching, he scurried off to his seat, taking out his materials to focus on.

If only he could do that, though. Instead, his mind remembered how warm Zane’s hands felt on his shoulders.

If his brain could shut up about it, that would be great but, no, it had to be the most thought about thing his whole day.

Amery didn’t help either whenever she showed up at Bailey’s work. Obviously she didn’t mean to do it, but the question she asked made Bailey think about Zane even more. “How was your break?”

“Fine,” Bailey replied, focusing on making Amery’s drink because if he looked her way, she’d probably sense his embarrassment.

“Tell me you did something other than lie around in your room all day.”

Shrugging, he handed the girl her coffee. “Not really.”

Amery rested her elbow on the counter and leaned forward. Bailey took a step back.

“I get the distinct feeling that you are lying to me.” She wagged her finger at Bailey, clicking her tongue as she did.

Since it was Amery, a girl who was more stubborn than anyone Bailey ever met, she refused to back down.

She constantly asked Bailey what happened.

His blush further proved her suspicions and he hated himself for it.

“Oh, come on, what happened? I mean, it was obviously something good, right? You’re blushing,” she said.

Bailey shrugged again. However, the universe laughed at him and his poor attempts to save himself from further humiliation.

The one who caused Bailey the most embarrassment came waltzing into the café for their promised free coffee.

Amery’s grin was damn near demonic when she caught Bailey’s eyes straying to Zane.

Zane approached the counter while reaching for his wallet.

Amery winked at Bailey, her way of saying they’ll talk later.

Bailey had enough time to flip her off before Zane reached the register, requesting his usual.

“I’m surprised you didn’t come for this earlier,” Bailey said. He handed Zane his coffee and blueberry muffin, which he immediately munched on. “You somehow look worse than this morning.”

“How late were you for class?”

“I wasn’t that late.”

Zane hummed, moving out of the way when the bell went off, signaling another customer had walked in.

Bailey watched him go to the usual booth and finish his muffin and coffee.

The café was unusually busy, but for whatever reason, Zane didn’t leave.

He leaned into the booth with his headphones on as he looked out the window.

Though his eyes were tired, Bailey couldn’t help but notice that they were unusually active.

His gaze bounced back and forth between what was outside.

It was a bit unsettling, especially when Zane’s naturally bored expression grew strained.

When Bailey finally got a break, he stepped out from behind the counter. With a deep breath, he approached Zane. Zane was so out of it, he didn’t notice Bailey until he sat across from him in the booth.

“If you’re waiting for another free coffee, I’m not giving you one,” Bailey said, smiling at the eye roll he received.

“Even after I was so nice to catch you today?”

The blush returned full force, causing Bailey to have to lean back to put a distance between them as he cleared his throat. “Thanks for that.”

“I had a sign up, but apparently, you can’t read.”

Bailey kicked Zane beneath the booth and was a bit surprised when he kicked back.

“I can read. I was in a rush! And you should help someone if you see them in trouble, anyway.”

Zane grimaced, which wasn’t all that surprising. He was the least heroic person Bailey probably ever met. Being around him probably made people lazy; he just had that vibe.

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Zane responded, resting his elbow against the table as he sat his chin in the palm of his hand.

Silver strands of hair cascaded over his cheeks, brushing against his chin while being almost blinding thanks to the sun coming in through the window.

Bailey cursed himself for finding Zane attractive.

Before he could break himself out of the trance, or respond, Zane sat up, turning his head to look outside.

The relaxed posture he was in a moment ago disappeared; replaced with tension that had his knuckles growing white.

Curious, Bailey peered out the window too.

He saw nothing out of the ordinary, college students walking past, certainly nothing to make Zane’s face grow pale.

“Is everything ok?” he inquired.

“Fine,” Zane replied, getting up afterwards without warning. He didn’t bother Bailey with a response, simply left as quickly as he could.

His actions only worried Bailey more.