Page 7 of The Not So Super Hero

B ailey’s weekend was a rough one that ended with him not attending class Monday morning.

He wished to call himself and Ryan lucky after discovering that a few pieces of spare change and games were stolen Friday night.

However, after his beating, he didn’t think lucky was an appropriate term.

Amery was kind enough to take notes and bring news of any assignments they may have gotten during his absence.

Ryan was kind enough to bring home takeout for dinner.

Bailey slept all of Monday and only got up to eat the free food before passing back out.

After all that rest, he was feeling much better Tuesday afternoon during his shift.

Although people stared at his bruised face, the injuries were far better than yesterday.

Amery visited, sitting in a corner with her laptop plugged in while sipping on some coffee.

It was when Bailey’s shift was nearing its end that he finally sat down with Amery to tell her all the details of what happened on Friday.

Although she knew the gist of it after discovering Bailey’s injuries on Saturday, he was too exhausted to explain.

“You mean to say the evil custodian saved you from some muggers on the street?” Amery asked, around a disbelieving and slightly amused smirk.

“Yep, that’s basically the gist of it.”

“So he’s not so evil after all. You know, the mysterious type is kind of sexy.” Amery grinned from ear to ear, waiting for Bailey to agree. He didn’t, and soon her smile fell into a pout. “Come on, agree with me here. You know you want to.”

“Not really.”

“Fine, be that way. You should ask him out to dinner or something.”

Bailey coughed; the chips he was munching on lodged in his throat. Amery laughed as Bailey slapped his chest to dislodge the chips. When he finally took a breath, Amery was on the verge of not breathing herself from laughter.

“Come again?” Bailey coughed.

“He helped you out of a tough spot. There’s no harm in asking to go out or something.” It seemed even Amery didn’t know what she meant because her face contorted into confusion.

“It’s not like it hasn’t crossed my mind,” Bailey mumbled while getting up to help a customer.

Once finished, he returned to Amery and their conversation continued as if they had never left off.

“Listen, I thanked him. Things could have been so much worse if he didn’t show up.

What if someone had pulled out a knife or a gun?

It could have been real trouble. But he doesn’t seem the type to want thanks.

To him, a good thank you probably ends with Thanks, and that’s it. ”

Amery pursed her lips in thought, seeming to agree with Bailey but not liking it.

Bailey didn’t like not properly thanking someone, so he suggested giving the guy some free coffee from the shop.

It was the most he could probably do. Considering that Zane got coffee fairly often, it was about as good as it was going to get.

Amery agreed that was likely the best option.

“What are you doing after work?” Amery asked, packing her things into her bag once their conversation ended.

“I plan to grab some groceries.”

“By groceries, you mean junk food, right?” Amery smiled before playfully patting Bailey’s stomach. He rested his hand there and shrugged innocently; he had no idea what she was talking about! Amery rolled her eyes, then gave Bailey a list and some money with the request to pick her up some junk.

“Oh, ok, so I get teased for it, but it’s ok if you want me to get you junk food?

” Bailey slipped the cash and paper into his pocket, anyway.

Amery thanked him, then left to meet some friends for a study group.

Bailey waved goodbye and spent the last 20 or so minutes watching the clock for his shift to end.

It was a nice autumn day, likely one of the last before winter hit. The sun shined, warming the cool autumn air. November had arrived, which meant snow would be on its way. Soon the campus and streets would be covered in white. Thankfully, living in the dorms meant that most things were nearby.

Bailey took his car because he was picking up food and didn’t want to carry it all.

With his luck, he had to park at the end of the street since the few spaces in front of the store were taken.

He hopped out of his car, grabbed a buggy, then scanned the aisles for the four necessary food groups; chicken nuggets, ramen, mac and cheese, and pizza.

It wasn’t too busy. He was about to push his buggy into the junk food aisle when he stopped in his tracks.

Of all the people to run into, he expected this the least. Standing in the center of the aisle with a box of popcorn in his hands was a familiar face.

Zane hadn’t bothered to look away from the box.

Unlike usual, Zane had his hair pulled back into a ponytail, allowing a few strands of hair to fall against his chiseled cheeks, but he was still wearing his famous pair of black headphones.

Bailey bit his lip. He liked Zane with his hair pulled back.

And from this angle, Zane didn’t look so bad.

Hot, even. Bailey’s face warmed when Zane looked his ways.

Those gorgeous blue eyes locked with his.

For a moment, he swore Zane saw right through him.

Then Zane’s eyes fell into their naturally bored state.

“What are you staring at?” Zane asked, cutting through the tension.

Bailey sputtered. Zane cocked a brow, gave him a swift once over, then sighed and walked away.

“Wait!” Bailey called out with absolutely no idea what he was doing or why. He pushed his cart forward. He swore his body was on autopilot.

Zane didn’t wait. In fact, he sped up. Bailey sprinted past to catch up.

He grasped Zane’s wrist that tore itself from his hold in the blink of an eye.

Zane faced Bailey with a glare that had the boy biting his lip to stifle a frown.

Based on the animalistic scowl, Zane didn’t like to be touched.

He took another step away too, keeping a distance between them.

“What?” Zane asked, tossing the popcorn box into the basket he was holding.

That was a good question. What? Bailey did not know.

His brain scrambled to conjure a response.

That silence agitated Zane enough to curl his nose.

Then he pinched the bridge of his nose like an abrupt headache hit him.

He opened his mouth, likely to speak, but Bailey bit him to it by sputtering nonsense, “D-Do you or, w-would you like to get, uh…coffee or something with me? Or food? Or, like, see a movie.”

Zane didn’t hesitate. “Nope.”

Ouch, well that hurt even if Bailey saw it coming. He frowned at the expected answer, then considered explaining why he asked in the first place.

“Listen, I just want to thank you for Friday,” Bailey said, crossing his arms since he felt the temperature of the room drop.

He was feeling a bit nervous, and that probably had to do with being in front of Zane, who clearly didn’t want to be there.

“What you did, it was…it was great. You could have ignored me but you didn’t, and I don’t feel a thanks is enough to express my gratitude, so I want to buy you dinner or, like, take you out for coffee or something. I don’t know!”

Sighing, Zane’s shoulders dropped. What being in the sky hated him enough to make his life intertwine so frequently with Bailey’s?

All he wanted was to pick up popcorn, pop, and pizza.

With Zane being anti-social and Bailey being stubborn, they weren’t getting much of anywhere.

Even if Zane continued to say no, he concluded Bailey would discover another way to be bothersome.

He needed to get the kid out of his life, and fast, so he held out his hand.

“Uh, what?” Bailey asked.

“Give me five dollars,” Zane stated. “For the coffee you would have bought me. Give me the money and we’ll call it your thanks.”

“No…that…that’s not the point!” Bailey wondered if Zane had any friends, because who in the hell could put up with the guy? He was as antisocial as they came, while Bailey sure as hell wasn’t. He had every intention of explaining ‘the point’ to Zane, but he never got to it.

It happened suddenly and quickly. Zane pushed Bailey without warning.

He fell to the floor, perplexed by Zane resting on top of him prior to a concussive blast that rattled the store.

Bailey threw his hands over his ears that rang from the concussive noise.

For a moment, the world itself shook and trembled.

If Bailey wasn’t already on the ground, would have brought him to his knees.

Then, suddenly, there was no sound at all.

An intense wave of heat burst through the front windows and blew through the store.

The windows shattered, shards of glass scattered across the quaking floor.

Shelves flew off the walls, others tipped back and forth.

Everything in the store was thrown about like paper, falling to the floor or bursting in the air.

Sound returned, but only as an intense ringing that made Bailey dizzy.

Dust and debris rained from the ceiling, casting the world in a brown blur.

Bailey searched for his glasses before realizing he hadn’t lost them.

His vision was simply blurry from the pounding in his head, whatever hell rained down upon him, and the shock coursing through his veins.

Groaning, Bailey tried to get up. Then he remembered Zane had thrown himself on top of him. He stopped, glanced at Zane, who had his face practically cradled into Bailey’s neck. He was moving. At least that meant he was alive. Huffing, Zane pushed himself off Bailey. He wore a perplexing glare.

“W-What?” Bailey coughed, overwhelmed by the dust.