Beginner's Guide to Being a Superhero

20-I Hurt You

Chapter Twenty
I Hurt You

I woke to hushed voices speaking a few feet away from me. I tried opening my eyes only to be blinded by light. I blinked and rubbed my sockets, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the brightness.

I soon became aware of my surroundings and realized I was currently laying down on a worn out couch. From the dirty and rotting walls and open space I could tell that I had somehow found myself in Static's lair.

I turned my head in the direction of voices to see three figures standing around a table in deep conversation. Graeme, Sam, and Static.

I paused for moment, wondering if I should get up and join them or wait for them to notice me. I quickly made the decision to get up as slowly as possible, standing awkwardly beside the couch, unsure of what to do.

Thankfully Graeme was quick to notice me as he rushed to me side to help me up.

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked me. "Does your head hurt?"

I shook my head slightly and rubbed my eyes. "No, I'm okay. My muscles just feel a bit stiff."

I looked past Graeme to see Static's back as he made his way out of the room. I felt a twinge of hurt and disappointment,  but I pushed my feelings aside and brought my attention back to my two friends.

"Hey," Sam greeted, carrying an uneasy smile on his face and he approached me.

"What happened?" I asked the two of them. "Is everyone okay?"

"You were falling from the sky!" Graeme exclaimed in both excitement and worry. "The sight was quite terrifying, but Static flew down super quick to catch you." He assured me.

"If you're wondering why you passed out," Sam went on, "We guessed that it was out of shock."

I nodded. "So what happened to the school? Are students still being injected? Are Luna and Inferno safe?"

Sam pursed his lips and nodded slowly. "Inferno and Luna are okay, but after our little scene they continued as if nothing happened. I suppose no teacher questioned their actions considering they're Supers, so they let the rest of the students be injected."

I nodded in disappointment and confusion. There were so many things going on and so many problems I wanted to solve, but I didn't have a single answer. My head felt heavy and my thoughts made me dizzy and exhausted. This was too much to comprehend, and at the moment all I wanted was for my brother ad best friend to be safe, but at this point there was only so much I could do and it made me feel helpless.

"The only good thing that came out of this, though," Graeme said, "Was that I managed to snag this from one of the Supers."

He held up some sort of device that looked very similar to a gun, and that's when I realized it was what the Supers were using to inject the teachers and students.

"The chip is still in tact, so I'm going to figure what this is, then I'll get back to you two." Graeme settled at the worktable ad started removing pieces from the device, and inserting the small chip.

I looked back at Sam, who nodded in the direction on the kitchen. "Why don't you go see if you can get us some hot chocolate or something, It's getting cold down here." He rubbed his hands together. "I'm going to be helping Graeme if you need to anything."

I watched as Sam joined Graeme at the table. I slowly stretched my muscles y extending my arms with a yawn. I moved away from the couch and slowly made my way into the kitchen.

As soon as I entered I froze at the sight of Static, as he leaned against the counter, a cup of coffee in his hands. I watched carefully as he started at the tiled floor. It was sort of a strange sight, considering he was dressed in sweat pants and a baggy sweater, yet he still wore his mask.

I walked over to the cabinet, making no eye contact with him whatsoever, and started my search for hot chocolate powder.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Static retreating back to the other room. For some stupid reason, before he left, I quickly turned to face him.

"Wait," I called out to him. Static stopped walking, and slowly turned to face me, cupping his coffee in his hands.

"If you're asking for an explanation for everything, I don't have one." He said emotionlessly. He stood there for a few more seconds before turning back around.

Before he could leave, I quickly called out to him once more. "Don't you think I deserve an explanation at least?" I asked.

He stopped again and turned around. "Did you not just hear me? I don't have a explanation."

"Well, I just want to know," I bit my lip, feeling uncomfortable asking the question. "Why did you kiss me?"

I watched him purse his lips as he started at the celling. "It was in the heat of the moment." Was his answer. I tried not to show my disappointment at his rejection.

"And for the record," He added, "You kissed me - not the other way around."

If I wasn't upset as I was, I probably would have been able to see the humor in his statement. "I think I remember very clearly you being the one to cut me off."

I didn't let him speak as I continued. "And you can't do that," I tried to keep the anger in my voice leveled. "You can't just leave me after kissing me and tell me you regret it."

"I never said I regretted it," He was quick to defend in a low voice, taking a step closer to me. "All I said was that I shouldn't have kissed you, nothing about regret."

"Then why shouldn't you have kissed me?" I exclaimed. "We both seemed to be enjoying ourselves and then you had to ruin everything by pushing me away!" I eyed the door to the kitchen, expecting either Graeme of Sam to enter. "We may both be Supers but we're allowed to have feelings, and in that moment I was hurt." I whispered the last part, but made sure to let him know how his actions affected me. Static stayed quite, keeping my graze.

"You don't owe anyone anything, you know." I told him in a gentler tone. "There is no title or name you have to live up to."

"I hurt you," Was his quiet reply. "I didn't try but I still hurt you and that's all I ever do."

I shook my head. "But you can also be easily forgiven. You are not a villain, Static. You don't have to be one."

He shook his head at me and looked away. "I hurt people, intentional or not."

"Why won't you just let it go?" I asked him. "Can't you get it through your head? You make mistakes - we all make mistakes, even as Supers. Our flaws are what separate us from being Super, our flaws make us human. You're not a villain."

His eyes suddenly flared. "But that's the thing - you don't know me. You only know Static - the supernatural side of me that wears a mask to cover up. You don't know my family, you don't know if I even have a family." He took another step closer to me, pointing an accusing finger in my direction. "You want to know why I shouldn't have kissed you? Because you're not kissing me, you're kissing the person you think I am."

He didn't give me a chance to answer. Instead, he stormed out of the room, leaving me startled and hurt once again.

"Ahem." The sound of someone clearing their throat caught my attention as I looked up to see Sam standing awkwardly in the doorway, watching me as I stood in the kitchen all alone.

"We could sort of hear your conversation," He told me.

I bit my lip in embarrassment. "Sorry."

Sam shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Now let's go see Graeme."

***

Sorry that it's sort of been a month since i've updated! This chapter was short like I said it would be :( but at least it's progress.

I'll do my best to update as frequently as I can (even If frequent means once a month lmao) but I also want to write other books, but in order for me to write other books I MUST finish this one, so don't think i've given up just yet ;)

with love
via<3