Chapter Seven
Shawn kept his promise and brought her a sketchbook and a set of really nice pencils that afternoon. Apparition drew him a t-rex wearing a bowtie on his cup. He laughed when he saw it.
That night she brought home a container of the coffee shop’s tomato soup special for her dinner and spent the whole evening sketching random animals on the thick creamy paper.
In the quiet of her lonely room, the sound of the graphite scraping across the surface of the sketchpad seemed loud but also soothing.
After filling up a few sheets with animals, she flipped the page and started to draw another image, that of a slender but well built young man with straight dark hair and sparkling eyes.
For whatever reason, she chose to draw him in his uniform as Surge.
However, she didn’t put on his mask, preferring to leave his face exposed, clearly Shawn, the smiling young man who cheered her up whenever he ordered coffee.
A tear dripped onto the paper. Frustrated, she ripped the sheet off the pad, crumpled it up, and threw it across the room.
Her phone buzzed, and she jumped. She’d forgotten to text her father like his note had said.
Already anticipating what she’d see, she unlocked her phone and read the text.
Why didn’t you text me?
She drew a deep breath before replying.
Sorry. Got home late. Had to get food then took a shower. Was just about to text.
No response. No “good night” or “stay safe” or anything. Her insides ached. Why did she feel so much more loved and accepted with her pretend life, the one she knew wasn’t real, than she did with her father?
A voice that sounded a lot like Mythcreant echoed in her brain. Because all that stuff is fairy tales. No one is good to anyone unless it benefits them. People are selfish, and if they are pretending not to be, if they are pretending to care about you, then they’re lying and they want something.
But Shawn wasn’t lying ... and what could he want from her? No, she had nothing to offer anyone, least of all someone as brilliant as Shawn.
“Maybe it’s pity,” she whispered to the silence.
After all, she’d been close to tears the first time he’d seen her.
Maybe everything he’d done for her since then could be explained away by him wanting to be kind to a sad, lonely girl who didn’t have anything in her life worth smiling about.
What had he said that first day? A person being kind to another person could be the one thing keeping the other person going.
Maybe he’d actually been talking about them.
Maybe that was what he was offering her.
Yeah, he doesn’t like me. Jasmine’s wrong. He just feels sorry for me. Man, though, he doesn’t deserve to be hurt.
She picked up the phone again and texted. When are you coming home?
The phone sat quiet though the text showed as read. After a few minutes, she put the leftover soup in the fridge and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she returned she still didn’t have a reply. She set her alarm and tucked herself into bed.
Two more days passed with multiple visits per day from Shawn. Sometimes he’d come to the shop to study, sitting before his laptop, working on classwork. Other times he’d wear headphones and hum quietly to music.
When she worked the late shift on Thursday, he came by fifteen minutes before closing, walking an adorable basset hound. Apparition squealed when she saw him.
“He’s adorable!”
“Yeah, he is.” Shawn smiled proudly. “His name is Ears, which I think I’ve told you before. I’m sorry I didn’t bring him earlier like I promised. A few things happened around that time that pushed it out of my head.” He touched his face as if still feeling her toe against his eye socket.
Apparition swallowed. The black eye had faded away, probably due to Shawn’s sable healing factor, though she admittedly wasn’t sure how long a black eye took to heal on a normie.
“I guess I’m kind of late for an Americano,” he said.
She straightened. “Not at all. When I saw you outside, I started your drink.” She ran back in and fetched the cup, this one with a squirrel riding a tiny car on it. “I’m sorry I didn’t draw you a basset hound this time.”
He reached into his pocket and fished for cash, but she held up her hand. “It’s okay. I get to make myself one free drink per shift, and I didn’t feel like coffee today, so I saved it for you. I still owe you for the drawing supplies.”
“No, you don’t. Those were gifts,” he said.
“The coffee’s a gift too.” She pushed the cup towards him.
He put his wallet back in his pants pocket. As he did, his waistline dipped ever so slightly, revealing not bare skin but the dark blue of his uniform beneath. She clamped her jaw shut. Why was he wearing that under his clothes? Did he expect trouble?
“What are you up to tonight?” he asked.
“Closing shift, so I’ll be mopping up and all that. Then home for dinner and a quiet night drawing.”
“Ah.” He knelt and rubbed the folds of Ears’s neck. “Sounds fun ... I really need to study, but my brain is kind of fried.”
“Everyone needs breaks.” She glanced back at the counter. Ethan was already starting to take apart and clean the espresso machine for the night.
“Yeah, hey, did you hear about that convenience store robbery a few nights ago?” Shawn asked.
Apparition went rigid. “I guess. Some people were talking about it. I don’t really follow the news.”
“Yeah, I guess it was supervillains. Kind of scary, huh? We’ve never really had that kind of problem in College City before.” He continued to focus on Ears.
“I guess it’s a little scary, but supervillains won’t bother robbing a coffee shop, so I’m not too worried about it.” She shrugged, hoping her unconcern was convincing.
“I guess, but when you told me you were working the closing shift, I got to thinking—” He cleared his throat then said in a rush.
“Would it be okay if I walked you home? Ethan told me you usually leave work by yourself, and Jasmine mentioned that you don’t own a car.
It really worries me thinking that you’ll be going home after dark with supervillains prowling the area. ”
She stared at him. Was he serious?
“Supervillains aren’t going to bother with me. I’m nobody,” she said.
“You’re somebody to me, and I really don’t like the idea of you being out alone when there’s a team of supervillains pulling petty crime in the area.”
She had to stop herself from smiling wryly. If he knew how dangerous she was, he wouldn’t worry. Of course, he was also offering to essentially protect her from herself.
“Do you have a lot of experience fighting supervillains?” she teased, wondering if he’d let her in on the Surge thing if pressed.
He coughed. “I guess that sounds arrogant, but it makes sense that they’d be less likely to bother people walking together than a person walking alone.
You know, the buddy system and all?” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“We could even stop for something to eat on the way home. I mean, this is nice—” he held up his coffee cup, “—but a man can’t live on caffeine alone. ”
Her stomach growled. While she’d looked forward to the freedom to pick her own food while Mythcreant was gone, she’d found the options overwhelming, walking past multiple dining establishments every night but afraid to go in, worried that they might be too expensive or she might not like their food after all.
The one convenience store on the way home happened to be the one she and her father had robbed.
Going in there would just be awkward, even if no one could recognize her.
Because of this, she’d instead picked up random coffee shop items to bring home for the last couple of nights.
She didn’t mind that food, but it was a limited menu.
“I actually don’t know what I want to eat, so if you have a place you’d like, I’d love the recommendation,” she said.
“There’s a few places I like in the area, but we can pick one on your route home. Where do you live?”
Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Oh, crap. I can’t show him where we’re staying. Dad would be furious.
Heart pounding, she pointed in the opposite direction of her walk home and blurted out, “That way.”
He arched an eyebrow. “I was thinking an address, but that works. Is it far?”
She shook her head. “Maybe fifteen minutes.”
“Well, there’s a decent pizza place and a sandwich shop in that general direction. I mean, I never say no to pizza, but if you prefer sandwiches—”
“Pizza is fine.” Her hand strayed to her pocket. “How much is it, though? I only have my tip money on me.”
“I’ve got it. You bought the coffee, after all. It’s my turn.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. As much as she wanted to say no, she hadn’t had pizza in ages.
Her father only ordered it with sausage and peppers, neither of which she liked very much, but when she picked off those two toppings, she’d always enjoyed what was underneath. “I still have to finish up my shift.”
“I’ll wait.” He settled into one of the chairs in the outdoor seating area and pulled out his phone.
Apparition hurried back inside. “Do you want me to wrap up the pastries for the night?” she asked Ethan.
“No, I’ve got it.” He glanced outside. “You got a date?”
“No, we’re just getting something to eat together,” she said.
He chuckled. “Sounds like a date.”
Her cheeks warmed. It kind of did. Even she knew that.
“If you want to head out early, I don’t think we’re going to get any more customers in the next five minutes, and I’m already halfway through the closing checklist. You can take off now if you want.”
She hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Yep.” He dumped out the tip jar on the counter and divided it up. “I hope you have a fun not-date. I like that guy. Good tipper.”
“Yeah, he’s nice,” she whispered. She took her half of the tips before going into the back to change out of her apron and grab her coat.
When she exited the front, Shawn jumped up from his chair. “Ready to go already?”