12. The Volunteer
THE VOLUNTEER
My apartment was packed with a bunch of my friends.
Amber insisted that I was walking around like a zombie and needed to have some girl time.
I tried to disagree, but she was a menace when she got something into her head.
So I was sitting on my recliner with a glass of red-wine sangria that my friend Maddy brought.
Ashley, Alex, and Abby sat on the couch next to me while the rest of the girls were mixing drinks in the kitchen.
Once a year the three hospitals in the district did a huge get-together so the nurses, doctors, and everyone in-between could get to know each other better.
Amber managed to pick the one night everyone in our circle had the night off.
I was trying not to be grumpy because of all the effort she put in to making this happen, but I was drained.
Avalanche had been calling me every day since I went to visit Eva—sometimes multiple times.
I’d ignored every single one. I’d gone down this road with tons of guys.
They were nice, made me feel special, then walked away as soon as I showed interest. I fell for it every time.
But not this time. I wasn’t letting myself fall any farther for a guy who couldn’t possibly be interested.
I just had to keep telling myself that the feelings weren’t mutual, to keep repeating his words: you’re reading too much into it.
Maybe one day my heart and my brain would get on the same page.
But every fibre of my being screamed at me to answer the phone when his number popped up on my screen. I’d pin my hands under my legs and watch it ring through, not even risking touching the phone to decline. I didn’t trust myself.
Eva had been checking in a lot as well. I was still chatting with her. We’d exchange funny videos and posts on different social media platforms.
I had to set all of my socials to private because of the media attention I’d been getting since the video of me telling the ERT captain to shove it went viral. I didn’t mind some of the attention, but it was getting more and more weird as time went on.
I was getting a bit of a cult following of my own. Like fan accounts that do those edits to whatever song was trending. Amber and Maddy were killing themselves—sending them to me every time they found one.
Not going to lie, I did like those. Some of them made me look cute, some made me look kind of hot, but my favourites were the ones that made me look like a badass.
Someone had filmed me taking down muggers not once or twice, but on like six different occasions.
One account took the clip of me roasting the police chief, meshed it with one of the dozen thirst trap songs floating around, and put it over clips of me beating up muggers.
Whenever I was really sad, I’d watch that one and read the comments:
User679: I’d let her stomp on me any time
Avlover98: not me begging her to bully me too
Bookishgirl: how many times have I watched this? Yes
Devilaus94: I’d let her ruin my life any day
Maddy reposted every single one she found because she was my biggest fan. Honestly, she might have been running one of the accounts, or all of them. She was having way too much fun.
I took a sip of my sangria, surveying the chaos.
Amber, Maddy, and Tasha were hunched over Amber’s phone, giggling like mad women and sneaking glances at me.
Probably another edit that just came out.
Candice sat with Jenny and Jessica at the small dining table I had tucked into the corner by the front door.
Candice was nice despite the fact she was raised by Detective Asshole and so was Jenny, but I did not get along with Jessica.
She was an uptight bitch who had looked down her nose at me even before I started working with my villains. Now it was ten times worse.
Like tonight, she would glance over every once in a while and sneer at me—in my own goddamned home. Seriously, I didn’t know why Amber insisted on inviting her to everything when she sucked the fun out of anywhere she frequented.
“I wish I’d been there! Why do all the fun things happen at 49th?” Abby pouted after Ashley finished recounting the infamous police chief speech that got me arrested.
“I got walked out in handcuffs four hours later. I don’t know if I’d classify that as fun.”
“Oh please, we all know what kind of books you read. You’re a slut for a guy—or girl—with handcuffs!” Amber called from the kitchen.
True.
“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes. “Remind me why we’re friends.”
“Because I encourage your inner whore. Duh.”
I snorted, mostly because Jessica looked like she was on the verge of having an aneurism. Whatever. We weren’t at work; she could stand to live a little. Everyone else was laughing.
“I’d have to be getting laid to be a whore.”
“Girl, come on. All those smoking hot supervillains and you’re not getting any dick? It’s a crying shame,” Maddy cut in.
Queue hysterical laughing and Jessica choking on her drink. I just sighed.
“Tell me about it.”
“Who’s the hottest?”
Alex’s question had everyone’s attention. The girls in the kitchen moved around the counter to the stools tucked under it, instead. I was wondering how long it would take for them to grill me about my villains. Twenty minutes—longer than I expected.
“She’s going to say Avalanche. She’s had a crush on him for years.” Amber laughed.
I glared at her. “I’m not the only one. Tell me who you think is hotter.”
She strummed her fingers over her chin, deep in thought.
“The one with the laser beam eyes. What’s his name again?”
“I think he got coined with Seam. That’s like the worst one.” Abby laughed.
“When he called, he asked me to try and get Asher going. Like sorry buddy, you’ve been Seam for years, no one’s changing that.”
Amber’s jaw dropped.
“He’s one of your villains and you didn’t bother to tell me? Some friend you are!”
“I’m sorry I can’t keep up with your Villain of the Week. What happened to Hemlock?”
“You traded your crush on Hemlock for Laser Eyes?” Candice shook her head. “Girl, you need severe therapy. And an appointment with an optometrist.”
Even Jessica laughed at that one. Interesting. Maybe she wasn’t as uptight as I thought.
“Seriously. If you’d let me answer for myself, I would have said Hem. He’s funny and a huge flirt.”
Everyone gaped at me, except Amber—who knew about the date-not-date a couple of months ago. Jessica was the one to break the silence.
“He flirted with you?”
I scoffed. “Try not to act so surprised. You’re hurting my self-esteem.”
“No. Sorry. I just mean… You actually know these people?”
“You think I’d have all these numbers if they didn’t trust me? Yes, I’ve met 90% of them face to face. Whisper’s hot too, if you can get past the freaky mind thing he does.”
“Do you know what all of them look like without their masks?”
This was the most words Jessica had ever spoken to me outside of chastising me for my “inappropriate break room conversations.” Whatever, I could roll with it.
“About half. Maybe more. There’s a lot of trust involved in showing me their faces. Most of the ones I’ve seen sans mask are part of Avalanche’s circle. They trust me because he does.”
“I think he’s the hottest.” Jenny giggled.
“Same,” Maddy, Alex, Tasha, and Ashley mumbled in agreement.
And there went all the joy this conversation was bringing me.
Of course they did, because he was. And if they knew how he was outside of the whole murdering villain thing, they’d probably fall in love with him, too.
It should have strengthened my resolve but all it did was make me sad.
He could have his pick of anyone, why the hell would he choose me?
You’re reading too much into it.
“Well, to each their own I guess.”
“Oh come on, you’ve had a crush on him for years and now you’re saying Hemlock? What, did the big bad ice monster break your heart or something?” Amber teased.
I flipped her off, sticking out my tongue. No, my delusions broke my heart.
“I spend a lot more time with Hemlock. The man has a wicked mouth, maybe that makes me biased, but I implore you to resist his charm.”
“You said he didn’t give stalker vibes, he’s not my type.” She sighed.
I shook my head, but I couldn’t help laughing.
“I might have lied because I wanted him all to myself.”
The look of betrayal on my best friend’s face had me wheezing for air.
“Judas,” she gasped. “I want his number. It’s the only way I’ll forgive you.” Then she mumbled something under her breath I couldn’t hear.
“I’m not giving you his number. But I might consider giving him yours. Is that good enough?”
Over-dramatic sigh. “Maybe.”
“How did you find Avalanche?”
My attention snapped to Candice, face scrunching in confusion.
“You’re not spying for your dad are you?”
“Oh god no. Fuck that.” She looked horrified. “He’s an asshole. Sorry. He managed to get into my head enough as a kid that I ask cop questions. Forget I asked. Please.”
“What’s he like? Avalanche, I mean.”
What the fuck, Jessica? Since when are you Chatty McGee?
“Nice, I guess. He made Scarlett’s day so that’s good. Like I said, I don’t really know him. He’s nice to look at, though, that’s for sure.”
There was a murmur of agreement before Maddy—bless her—managed to change the subject.
I mostly just listened while the girls talked shop.
I could kind of follow along, but there was a reason I became a volunteer and not a doctor or a nurse—I didn’t do blood, or bones snapping, or anything like that.
I did have fun, though. It had been a few months since we’d all been able to get together and hang out like this. As much as I hated to admit that Amber was right…
Amber was right. I needed this.
It was the first time in two months that I hadn’t spent every waking moment thinking about Avalanche. Maybe with some more time and space I would get over it and move into something professional.
I just needed to get—
My phone buzzed. My actual phone, not my villain burner. Every single person that would text or call me were in this room. What the fuck?
Unknown: We’re watching you.
I stared at the text with my eyebrows furrowed. What the flying fuck did that mean? I’d received some weird ass messages—that was why all my accounts were private. But this…
Unknown: You’ll be ours soon enough
Unknown: Not even he will be able to stop us
I blocked the contact but kept the text chain. I had no idea who the fuck these we people were or who he was, but I’d worry about that in the morning. I could call Weave and see if he could trace the texts. This didn’t feel like some nut job trying to scare me.
This felt like I managed to get myself into trouble.
Real trouble.