Superman

Chapter 14

"Are you sure you wanna come?" Marshall asks, packing his bag with boxing gloves and other gear.

"Yes I want to come." I answer for about the fifth time. "Why do you keep asking?"

"Well like 3 months ago you said I scared you when I fight." He zips up the duffle bag and slings it over his shoulder. "I don't want to freak you out again."

"Stop making excuses lets go."

He takes my hand and the two of us descend his stairs to the parking lot. He chucks the duffle in the back seat and I get in. He speeds out of the parking lot doing his usual over the speed limit driving. I take his phone that's sitting in his lap. He looks at me confused but then hands me the auxiliary cord after realizing what I want. I plug it in and search through his music library. I scroll through a range of music all the way from Green Day to 2pac. I notice an album filled with his own recordings in it.

"Is this you?" I ask. "Do you record what you rap?"

"Okkkaaayyyy." He slurs and takes the phone out of my hands. "That's enough of that."

I raise an eyebrow at him. He glances at me before training his eyes back on the road. I take his phone back, looking through the recordings.

"Don't play those." He warns.

"I want to hear one." I protest, still scrolling.

"Jesus you are so stubborn." He laughs and shakes his head. "Fine. One. But then you're done."

"I'll play the most recent." I say and tap on a file labeled "Track R13". The song starts and I hear Marshall's voice come out the speakers of the car.

We touch, I feel a rush, we clutch, it isn't much but it's enough to make me wonder what's in store for us, it's lust, it's tortuous...

The song continues and I stare at Marshall, who's staring blankly at the open road. This song is beautiful. Did he write this? As I listen, I look at the date on the recording. December 2nd. He recorded this a couple days ago.

I'm a space bound rocketship and your heart's the moon, and I'm aiming right at you, two hundred fifty thousand miles on a clear night in June, and I'm so lost without you...

The last cord of the song plays leaving the car in dead silence. I unplug his phone and hold it in my lap.

"Marsh..." I'm stunned. "Did you write that?"

"You like it?" He asks quietly with a hint of disbelief in his voice. He turns the car into the lot of Infinite.

"Very much."

"Good." He says. "I wrote it about you."

"You wrote a song about me?" I'm in shock and my heart is overcome with a feeling of warmth. He wrote a song about me. Holy crap!

"Actually", he corrects, pulling his duffle bag into his lap, "I wrote multiple songs about you."

"There's more?" I ask, unlocking his phone again. He takes it away and locks it, shoving it in his duffle.

"Enough for today babe." He says. "Maybe later. Come on."

We both hop out of his car and walk into Infinite. We go through the same drill of walking down the big staircase, and through the door. The gym looks half its size without the crowd in it. Along one side of the wall closest to us is three benches swamped with gym bags. Marshall throws his on the heap and we make our way towards the ring. There's two men inside the ring and standing on the outside judging are about 5 more. They have gloves on, prepping to go in next. Past them, three more guys are jump roping and punching speed bags. All this going on while the Red Hot Chili Peppers plays on the speakers.