Chapter Nine #4
His heart warmed to her, but he immediately hardened himself. Come on, Shawn. Don’t be an idiot. Don’t fall for this again—
“Do you want to listen to some music?” She picked up her phone and pulled up a music app. A moment later, a catchy pop song rose from the speakers. “It’s Blackpink!” she said brightly.
“Oh, so because I’m Korean American, I must like K-pop.” Shawn forced himself to bristle, flailing desperately for any reason not to be attracted to Apparition.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You were whistling Blackpink songs the whole time you were in the coffee shop yesterday.”
He flushed. “My cousin introduced me to them. They’re catchy.”
“We don’t have to have music.” She turned it off, allowing a heavy silence to settle over them.
They sat for a few minutes. Shawn glanced over at the Surge Signal.
The stupid thing was still on, but Apparition had tilted it so it shone towards the ground instead of the sky. Hopefully that meant no one noticed it.
“This is stupid.” Apparition jumped to her feet.
Shawn’s powers instinctively rose in his veins. He managed to hold in a blast of energy that his fight or flight instinct wanted to send barreling at her for the sudden movement.
She paced away, her head down, her shoulders shaking.
Shawn’s heart broke open. “Hey! Don’t cry!
” He hurried to stand behind her. Hesitantly, he put out his hand and hovered it over her upper back.
A sob wracked her body, and he gave into the urge, placing his hand between her shoulder blades and guiding her to face him again.
“Please. I promise, it’s not hopeless. The SVR will be a great fit for you.
I know you’ll be an amazing hero someday. ”
“I feel so dumb,” she wept. “I don’t know why I thought tricking a guy into thinking I was a nice normal girl would work, that you wouldn’t run the moment you found out who I really was.
I’m sorry, Shawn. I know you were really starting to like Nikki.
I ... I heard you talking to your dad about her. ”
He started. “You ... you did?”
Her cheeks reddened, momentarily masking her freckles. “Yeah, sorry, another reason I’m awful.”
He cringed but then pushed his discomfort aside. “In fairness, you already told me you had my apartment bugged, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Yeah, well, my point is, you were talking about her being amazing.” She hung her head. “You thought you’d found someone special, and it was all a lie. You just found—me.”
He stared at her, at the face he’d seen multiple times in his dreams over the last few weeks, her beloved and familiar eyes, and the mouth that hid a smile he’d desperately tried to coax out so many times.
Something within him shattered, but not in a bad way.
His last barrier, his last hesitancy, cracked into a million pieces and melted away like one of her illusions.
His hand brushed her cheek, and she quivered beneath his touch.
“I did find you, but you’re wrong. The reasons I fell for Nikki weren’t lies.
I fell for her because I saw a sad, hurt girl who I could make smile again.
Because I recognized the humor and the spark when I saw her drawing quirky little characters on my coffee cups.
Because of the adorable, squeaky way she laughed. Was any of that a lie?”
A slight smile flickered about the corners of her mouth, weaker than a candle’s flame.
“No ... that silly laugh wasn’t a lie, and neither was the story about kids at school calling me ‘mouse girl’ because of it.
” Her eyes twinkled. “What I left out was that after they backed me into a corner chanting ‘mouse girl, mouse girl’ over and over, I used my powers to make them think they were being chased around the playground by a giant spider.”
He smiled. “Maybe it makes me a bad hero, but I think they deserved that. I bet they never did it again, anyway.”
“Didn’t get the chance.” She avoided his eyes. “When my dad found out I’d used my powers at school, we moved again almost immediately. He didn’t want DOSA hearing about me and sending a team.”
“That sucks,” he whispered. “Look, maybe this makes me an idiot, but I have a good feeling about you. An amazing feeling, and I’m willing to stick my neck out about this.
Come with me to DOSA. Let them protect you from your father.
” He leaned closer, bringing his forehead against hers.
“My dad once told me that the smart thing to do and the right thing to do aren’t always the same thing.
Right now, my brain is screaming at me that this is dumb, but my heart—it’s telling me the right thing is to trust you one more time.
” He brought his other hand to cup her face.
“It’s also telling me that it would feel really nice to kiss you right now,” he murmured.
“Please,” she squeaked.
A laugh escaped him, and he eased closer to her, bringing her body against his chest. Her hands grasped his uniform as her eyes fell shut. Her breath warmed his lips, and he paused a hair’s breadth from her to savor the moment.
A blast of pain hit him in the spine, knocking him off his feet. He rolled a few feet before crashing into the base of the Surge Signal. His air left him in a painful gasp.
“Good work, girl.”
Shawn tried to regain his feet, but a dark figure wielding a sparking stun-baton swooped in and hit him in the side. He cried out in pain as his body convulsed.
Mythcreant grinned down at him. “I didn’t know you had it in you, but you did it. You brought him to me all on your own.”
Vision hazy, Shawn sought Apparition. She stood, shivering, behind her father. Shawn’s heart cracked in half. How had he been so stupid?