Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Chapter Thirty-Two: What I Didn't Tell You.

I couldn't stop freaking out.

Charlie kept telling me to shut up as he flew us to his house. Thankfully, his powers included invisibility, so none of his neighbors would be shocked to see him flying into his room since we were both invisible now. Unfortunately, invisibility does not mean we're on mute, so if the neighbors listened real hard, they would have heard me still freaking out.

Why was I freaking out, you ask? Because I never knew that Charlie was a superhero. Look who's been keeping secrets from who.

He turned us back to being visible once we were in his room. He dropped me on his bed and took his mask off, a moment later he was gone. As in invisible gone, not out of the room gone.

"Why didn't you tell me, Charlie?" I asked, sitting up and crossing my arms. I looked around his very nerdy room, posters of several different heroes and villains were up on the soft blue walls, and I noted none of them were of me. Not that there would be a poster made up of me because that's just weird. I frowned, suddenly wondering if he was actually gone gone. "Charlie?"

"I'm here." He reappeared a second later, out of the super suit and in jeans and a t-shirt that was his usual style. He bunched up the FS suit and set it on his desk, not even caring to fold it or put it away properly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I repeated, now realizing that I forgot my glasses at Molly's. How fantastic.

Charlie shrugged and sat on his desk chair. "I don't know. I mean, it's not like you told me anything."

"But you already knew everything! And I told you at the dance who I am!"

"You didn't tell me all of it." He threw his hands up in frustration. "How could I tell you my biggest secret when you didn't even trust me with yours? Besides, every time we talked about 'superhero me' you made fun of and mocked me."

"Being a supervillain is a big secret."

"But not your biggest secret."

I wish I could tell you that his eyebrows furrowed in frustration, or that his mouth was drawn into a thin line, but details will be vague and severely guessed as my glasses decided to stay back, stupid things. This is going to be so frustrating. And squinting your eyes do not work. Trust me on this, it just doesn't do anything but give you a headache.

"And how was I to know that was you? You never told me," I shot back.

"And you never told me."

I met his stern gaze and held it. A long moment passed with neither one of us backing down. As much as this whole thing irritated me beyond measure, he was still my best friend, and I would hate for this to come between us. Apology time. Fun.

"Okay," I said, relaxing my shoulders and sitting back. "I should have told you. But I didn't want to involve any more people than necessary. If a villain wanted to find out who I was, then I didn't want them using you to get to me, alright?"

Charlie's rigid posture loosened. "Fine."

"Best friends?" I ventured with a toothy grin.

"'Course."

And then there was that awkward moment of silence. You know those kinds of silences where you just forgave your friend of something and act like you totally meant it but your other friend (A.K.A: Me) can tell you did not mean it at all? So that was happening right now.