3 Superheroes #2
My turn came afterward, and I advised her to go. The worst thing that could happen was she’d get bored. “Or they’ll humiliate you,” Ross interjected. But I reminded her she could always leave if she had a bad time. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
She resigned herself to going, but tried one more time to convince Will to go with her. He said he had a lot of work to do and would be too tired to go to a party afterward. “I’ll make it up to you, though,” he added.
“You sure will, Will.”
Then they started making out again, and Sue and Ross rolled their eyes in unison.
The next day, I opened my closet to get out my pajamas and saw Ross’s sweatshirt hanging there. I needed to give it back before the temptation to keep it forever became too strong.
Naya walked up behind me and looked at herself in the mirror. I could tell she was nervous.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” I asked.
“No, it’s best if I go alone. Plus, I can tell you’re not into it.”
I tried to tell her otherwise. She had been so nice to me since I’d gotten there that I couldn’t leave her hanging if she needed me. But she said it was fine, and she already needed to be downstairs anyway. Her Uber was waiting.
“If you get bored, call me,” I said, just before she walked out the door.
Slightly depressed, I looked into my closet again, and after considering the moral implications of doing so, I decided to put Ross’s sweatshirt on again. It was just for one night. That didn’t mean anything, right? It was really just because it was so soft. And no one would know.
I can’t say I looked beautiful in my cotton shorts and thick rainbow socks, with the sweatshirt hanging off of me.
Even Monty had never seen me in such a state.
I grabbed my laptop and went through some of my notes while I listened to music.
Then I settled down on the bed and decided to watch that Thor movie Ross had talked about.
I liked it. Not just because the hero was handsome.
Though, of course, that did count for something.
Then I put on Captain America , and with the end credits rolling, I was already looking for another.
I don’t know how many superhero movies I watched that night, but when I checked, it was two in the morning.
I didn’t have anything else to do that day, but I couldn’t just keep going until dawn.
So I took out my contact lenses and lay back to sleep, but just then, I saw the bag from the comic shop and pulled out the book Ross had bought me.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t bad, and I burned through it before turning off the lights. I fell asleep thinking of masked musclemen and women in outfits too tight and too skimpy to kick ass in.
I opened my eyes again at four. I heard something—what was it? Trying to focus, I reached for my glasses and saw my phone buzzing on the nightstand next to my head. Unknown number. I cleared my throat and responded.
“Hello?”
“Hey. Can you come get me?”
It was Naya. She seemed to be crying.
“What happened?” I asked, throwing on my boots. I knew I couldn’t say no.
“Just…just come, please. I don’t want to go into the whole story now.
I’m right by the bridge, next to an ugly yellow building.
” That was a half hour away by car. It was going to be expensive.
I wasn’t sure I had the money in my account to get me there and bring us back. But I couldn’t leave her hanging.
“What about Will?”
“Don’t say anything to Will, please.” She groaned. “I don’t want him to worry. And the same goes for Ross. I’m begging you, Jenna.”
“I won’t,” I said, hoping I had gotten better at lying.
As she thanked me, I told her not to move, that I’d get an Uber, and I asked her to call me if anything else happened.
Then I scrolled through my contacts, looking for Ross.
It took me a second to find him; I’d forgotten I’d saved him as Errand Boy .
I hoped he would answer. I’d never called him before, and I wasn’t sure if he had my number.
But if he didn’t pick up, Will was the only other person I had to turn to.
“Who is this?” he grumbled in a groggy voice.
“I need your help,” I said.
He took so long to respond that I thought the line had gone dead. Then he said my name. “Jenna?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I need a favor. Naya called me and she’s crying and she needs me to come get her, and she wouldn’t really explain what was going on, but I was wondering if you’d come with me.”
“Why didn’t you call Will?”
“She made me swear I wouldn’t tell him anything.”
“Do you know what he’ll do to me if he finds out I’m keeping a secret from him?”
“The same thing Naya will do to me if Will finds out something,” I said.
He sighed and argued with me a little longer about Will’s right to know, but I cut him off with the words, “Ross, please,” and he agreed, telling me he’d be at the dorm in five minutes.
I exhaled all the air I’d been holding in my lungs, and said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the best.”
“We already knew that, though,” he replied.
I smiled and hung up.
In exactly five minutes, a black car pulled up next to me at the dorm’s front door with Ross inside. He still looked half-asleep.
“Taxi service,” he said, and I thanked him again.
“It’s not like I had anything else to do. I mean sleep, but…”
“Come on, you’re a superhero fan,” I reminded him. “This is your chance to go rescue someone.”
Any improvements I’d noticed in his driving the last time we were together had gone out the window.
But if Naya was in danger, I wouldn’t complain.
He asked me what had happened, but I had no idea, and I had no idea why she wanted to hide it from Will, either.
When we hit a red light, I saw him glance over at me and grin sarcastically.
“Interesting outfit you’ve got on,” he said.
I realized then I was still in my pajamas…and that I still had on his sweatshirt. Well, this is a good start , I thought.
“Sorry…” I said. “I was in a rush. I’ll wash it and give it back to you.”
“Just keep it. It’s too small for me. It looks good on you. Take good care of it, though. It was one of my favorites.”
Since he didn’t want to argue about it, I didn’t try to convince him to take it back.
He yawned a few times. I was wide awake, though, staring out the window and wondering what Naya had gotten into.
My nerves were frayed as I saw the bridge.
Ross parked and we got out as I looked around for the yellow building.
He followed me, his hands in his pockets.
“Jenna, now would be a good time to tell me exactly what we’re looking for,” he said, staring at a group of young people drinking on the other side of the road.
All over were similar groups, and badly parked cars, and the muted thumping of music.
The guys were in polo shirts, the girls in dresses—rich kids, I figured.
I told Ross there was supposed to be an ugly yellow building nearby and waved for him to follow me.
Some guy said to me, “Nice socks,” and I tried to ignore him, but Ross said, “Nice face. If you want to keep it intact, you’ll shut your mouth,” and the guy fell silent and stared at the ground.
“Don’t tell me you’re a bad boy,” I said to him.
“Bad? The worst. A danger to public order.”
“You actually sounded scary. Even to me.”
“Great,” he responded. “Now you know my dark side.”
I doubted he had a dark side, though. We kept walking a few seconds more and finally saw what had to be the place.
Ross rested a hand on my shoulder and pointed at Naya with the other one.
She was sitting alone on the sidewalk, hugging her knees, soaking wet, which was weird because it hadn’t been raining.
Her makeup, so carefully applied, was all smeared and running down her cheeks. She stood as we approached.
“Ross,” she said, and I could see the word traitor in her eyes as she looked over at me. “You’d better not have…”
“She made me swear I wouldn’t say anything to Will,” he assured her.
Naya froze for a moment, then ran to me and hugged me tight. She clearly needed that hug, so I held her as firmly as I could.
“What happ—”
“I shouldn’t have come,” she said. “Everyone made fun of me. The chick I was telling you about asked to see my necklace, and I let her because I didn’t know what to do, and she kept it, and then when I tried to get it back, a bunch of people threw me in the pool.
I had my bag on me and now my phone’s not working right.
I could access my contacts but I couldn’t make any calls.
Thank God this girl let me use her phone to call Jenna… ”
She was about to cry, and I said, “Oh, Naya,” which was the only thing that occurred to me.
And to think I’d been the one to tell her to go!
She must have been freezing, soaking wet like that.
I was already cold and I’d only been out there five minutes.
I offered her my jacket, and Ross said, “Don’t bother with that now.
Let’s just go. I’ve got a spare jacket in my car. ”
She agreed with him. “I don’t want to be here a second longer.”
Ross passed his arm over her shoulder and she smiled with gratitude. They started to go, but I remained nailed to the spot and asked her, “Why did they do that to you?”
“This girl… She’s one of those people who like to laugh at others. I guess it makes her feel better about herself.”
I shook my head and looked back at the building. The music was still booming. “It’s not fair,” I said. “What about your necklace? Was it special?”
She lowered her head and nodded. “It’s the first present Will ever gave me. For my birthday.”
“Did she break it?”
“No, she’s wearing it.”
“And you didn’t say anything to her?” I asked.
“Jenna, it’s not that easy. Everything came back to me, how small and insignificant she used to make me feel in those days, and I just kind of froze up, you know?”