34. How NOT to Spend Your Friday Afternoon
The day: Friday. The time: 3:48 p.m. Also known as "Friday Afternoon".
I don't have much money, not enough to go to the cinemas. So I instead end up taking Anna to a park downtown, called "The Lake". The not-very-creative city council called it that because, yes, it has a lake in the middle. As well as trees, picnic tables, ducks, possibly radioactive lake weed and emergency phone boxes - pretty much all you need in order to have a fun day at the park.
I can, however, afford to buy us ice creams from a nearby shop. My nervousness translates to hunger, as I chow mine down with record-breaking speed. Anna, on the other hand, takes her time, having this cute way of licking all of the ice cream from the cone before she eats the rest.
When we get to "The Lake", I quickly spy us a bench to sit on, one that is facing the water. I race over and jump onto it, claiming it before anybody else can. Anna laughs and chases after me, awkwardly sitting on my right. Speaking of awkward, I have no idea what I should be doing. Yes, we are on a date. Yes, we are at a park. But... now what?
The silence continues and just when I am starting to think that it couldn't possibly get worse, Anna breaks the ice.
"So... the lake looks nice and refreshing today."
"Sure," I reply, "it looks nice. But it's actually pumped full of chemical waste, so if you don't grow a third eye after swimming in it, I'll be very surprised."
Anna surprises me by laughing at my joke, easing a little of the tension between us.
"So, uh... I don't actually know much about you," I admit. "What do you like?"
She tells me about her ongoing obsession with dogs and her love of pineapple. Winter is her favourite season and she has always been fascinated by volcanoes, ever since vinegar-baking soda experiments in primary school. We exchange questions and answers for close to half an hour, laughing and nodding at each other's replies.
"So, what do your parents do?" she asks, playing with a lock of her hair.
"My mum owns and runs a small spiritualist shop, beneath our flat."
"What about your dad? Does he also..." she trails off, prompting me to finish the sentence. I frown, looking down at the ground, nudging the dirt with the edge of my shoe. The muscles in my neck tense as thoughts and questions rush back, ones that I spent so long trying to block out, to hold back, ignore and forget about.
"Tim?" she asks, probably wondering why I haven't answered her question. I turn to her and our eyes meet. Her brown eyes are full of concern as realisation dawns across her face.
"Something happened, didn't it? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay," I mumble, looking down at the soil again. It really isn't, but I don't know what else to say. "Don't apologise. I..." I stutter, my mouth stuck on the words. "I don't know what my father does. Or anything about him, really. All I can get out of my Mum is that he left when I was young, just after my sister was born."
"If you don't mind me asking..." I nod at Anna, prompting her to go ahead. "Why won't she tell you?"
"I don't know. It is pretty much a taboo subject in our house." A tear begins to pool in my eyes and I quickly wipe it away, not wanting to cry in front of her. "I remember when I was younger, I used to ask about him every day, not caring that my mum would always give me the same answer. But as I got older, I eventually gave up and the subject was never mentioned again."
"But you are older now," Anna says, giving me a small, apologetic smile. "So maybe you should try asking her again? She can't hide it from you forever."
"Yeah," I answer, looking up at her eyes again and weakly returning the smile. I could and should do that. Anna is right. My mum cannot keep on saying no forever.
"My dad left too," Anna confides, leaning her shoulder closer to mine. "Well, when I say 'left', I mean he died."
I don't object to her moving closer, instead leaning back on the seat so it isn't as uncomfortable. Her head bumps against my shoulder and if it wasn't for the fact that my skin is several layers of clothing away from hers, I would probably be giving her a nasty shock.
"I don't know what to say," I answer, truthfully. "How old were you?"
"Seven. He was fishing in winter and fell in the river. Someone saw it happen and saved him from drowning, but it didn't matter, as he later died of hypothermia."
"It hurts," I say and she sighs in agreement. Her hand brushes mine and I tense, the muscles stiffening. She yelps and quickly pulls her hand back, holding it in pain. Oh no. Why, Tim, why?
I wait for her to freak out, yell at me, get up and leave. Something bad. But she doesn't and surprises me by letting out a small, cute laugh.
"Wow," she giggles, blush forming on her face. "Those romance novels were telling the truth after all."
"Wait... what?" I give her a confused look.
"Did you feel that too? When our hands touched. It was like an electric shock," Anna explains. "You probably haven't read any romance..." she trails, off, looking embarrassed. "I can't believe I'm talking to you about this. In books, when a couple's hands meet for the first time, they feel sparks and current and stuff."
"Uh, okay?" She has definitely lost me. "Is that a good thing?"
"I think so," she says, blushing again. "Sorry, I've probably confused you."
"It's fine," I say, touching her hand again, making sure to stop the flow of electricity before I do so. She takes it one step further and wraps her fingers around mine, rubbing her thumb over my palm. She lifts her head from my shoulder and moves closer to me, our faces only inches apart.
My heart beats faster and faster, like a galloping horse. How I haven't managed to shock her again, I dunno. She leans closer and I almost freak out, not knowing what to do. She isn't going to try kiss me, is she? My face tingles with electricity and I try to pull the current away, knowing she probably won't assume the "Romance Novel" excuse a second time.
She is really close now. But just as our lips are about to meet, a flash of blonde hair streaks across the corner of my vision, hair that looks a lot like my favourite mix of ash and strawberry blonde. Hold on, is that... I double take, turn my head away and Anna's nose collides with my temple.
She yelps in surprise and I quickly turn back, feeling terrible as I see the pain in her eyes. But then I can't help but look back again, to check if the hair I saw was really... Julia. It is Julia. Running across the park, in my peripheral vision. But I can see from just a glance that this is not a normal, "this is fun, I love exercise" kinda run, as she stumbles a little before correcting herself and continuing onwards, more determined than before - it's suddenly very clear that this is actually more of an "oh crap, I have to get away" kinda run.
But before I can become further distracted, Anna makes an annoyed sound from beside me and I shift my attention back. She glares at me with a full hurricane force of fury, her lips, once close to mine now set in a tight frown. Her eyebrows are arched down in anger and her eyes are tinted with a violent shade of red. Okay, that last bit is probably just my imagination, but Anna is definitely pissed. Oh no.
"Oops, uh, sorry," I stumble, quickly silenced by her resulting scowl.
"What the hell!" Anna yells, pulling away from me. I should really be focusing on the girl in front of me, but the sunlight reflects of Julia's hair and my eyes are caught again. Why would Julia be running like that? What if she is in trouble? Anna follows my gaze, snorting as she finds who has caught my fixation. "Who the hell is that? It's bad enough that you just let someone else interrupt the moment that we were having, but the fact that you continue to..."
She grabs my shoulder and pulls me back. Mad would be an understatement for how she looks right now. Even words like 'furious' lack the depth to describe it. This escalated way too fast. One moment she was looking at me all sweetly, blushing and leaning in close, now the only red scattered across her cheeks is that of anger.
"Tim! What is so interesting about her! What is she, your date or something?"
Ouch. I don't know where to even begin with a response to that, other than to stammer out in denial.
"You could at least reply to me. Then I could at least pretend you cared about what I have to say." Hurt pricks into her voice at the end of that line, and I focus fully on her face, wishing I could do something to un-screw this whole situation. Julia is probably in trouble, damn it, but why does it need to be right now, when I am trying to enjoy a date? Why would she even be here, in trouble, anyway?
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into something horrible." Her face doesn't soften at the sound of my voice, instead it grows angrier, if that is even possible at this stage. "That girl just caught my eye, because she is running and it looks like she is in dang-"
Anna's arm flashes across my vision and then WHACK, a brilliant, searing pain ripping through the side of my face and the deafening sound of skin on skin, as her palm collides with the side of my face. Holy... tears pool in my eyes from the pain as she pulls her hand away, rearing again for a possible second attack. Did she just slap me?
"Screw you, Tim. I ain't being messed around with some guy who can't even keep his eyes in one place."
Her words drive daggers into my stomach, to match the pain in my face and I swear aloud, wondering how I managed to screw up this bad. "You don't understand..." I begin, trailing off as she glares at me, her eyes full of fire.
"Don't give me any bullshit. Get lost, Tim."
"Sorry," I squeak and she ignores me, turning around and briskly walking off. I call after her, but she doesn't respond, quickly leaving the scene. I wipe the beginnings of pain-tears from my eye and tenderly touch the side of my face, wincing in pain. Oh, come on. Only I would have a date that ended this bad. Not only did she run off half way through, but she also had to slap me before she left. Man, Josh is gonna give me so much sh-
Or not, as Josh has now run off to join the "I hate Tim" club. And I was doing really good at not thinking about him, too. I sigh, before looking up again, in the direction of where I saw Julia. She isn't gone from sight yet, actually, she has stopped running and is now staring at me, with a perplexed expression on her face. Oh no. Don't tell me she saw that...
She signals me to come over and as I - thanks to my smooth dating skills - really don't have anything better to do with the rest of my afternoon, I pick up my bag and head over, meeting her half way.
"Tim," she exhales, her face sullen and serious. "I..." A smirk forms on her lips and the serious look fades as she takes a good look at me. "Why is there a red hand-mark on your face?"
I would honestly be very surprised if I found out that it was possible to be in a worse situation than my current one. "What? Oh, just a graze." She gives me an 'oh really' look. "You know me," I continue, probably just making matters worse for myself. "Clumsy as always. Anyway, what were you saying? It sounded impor-"
"Did someone just slap you?"
"What?" I say in fake confusion, rubbing the sore side of my face. "Of course not. Why woul-"
"Was it that girl that was sitting with you?" I feel my cheeks redden and Julia tilts her head at me. "What were you doing sitting with a girl, anyway?"
"Uh," I say, trying to think of a response that didn't result in the faster digging of my metaphorical grave. Death by embarrassment. I may as well pre-order my tombstone. "I'm a guy," I quickly answer. "Is there a rule that states I'm not allowed to sit with girls?"
She rolls her eyes. "Whatever, we don't have time for this. You are right, I was saying something important."
"Yes," I answer, very eager to steer us away from the previous conversation topic and throw all thoughts of Anna to the furthest corners of my mind. "Who or what were you running away from?"
"Trouble," she answers, motioning for us to move towards a small grove of bushes and trees, probably planted here to give the park a 'natural' feel. "Why didn't you answer my calls and texts?"
I give her a confused look. "What calls and texts?"
She groans. When we reach the relative shelter of the foliage, she reaches around behind me and quickly plucks my phone from the back-pocket of my jeans, much to my protest. She turns it on (I had it off, so it wouldn't interrupt me and Anna's date) and opens up my messages, showing me several missed calls and texts, all from 'Julia'.
"Whoops," I say, much to her annoyance. Inside, I'm secretly pleased that she needs me, for whatever reason. It's nice when your long time love interest has more than a passing interest in you, even if it is because she needs your help or a favour done. "Well, I'm here now. What is the trouble?"
I have a feeling she is purposely dodging the question, as she grabs my bag from my shoulder and zips it open a little, just enough to peek in and quickly shuffle through the contents. "Julia?"
"You have your suit in here," she answers. Why of course, I have a mother who refuses to let me go anywhere without it. "Good. There is a God after all. Put it on."
"What?" I ask, not liking the feeling of being left in the dark. "Why?"
"Trust me," she answers. "You want to put your suit on."
"It's kinda hard to trust you," I reply, "when you still won't tell me what exactly is going on." I sigh, as she pulls out the red and orange spandex and tosses it into my arms. "At least give me a one sentence summary or something."
"I - and now you - am about to be attacked by a duo of over-excited bad-guys. Supervillains."
I groan, at the mention of supervillains. Seriously? Being a bad guy and doing bad things must be getting old and untrendy by now, surely? But how did Julia get involved in all this? Somehow, I get the feeling that there is something that she isn't telling me. As if sensing my thoughts, she sighs and speaks.
"Look, I promise to explain everything - everything - once this is over." Yep, definitely not telling me something.
"Fine," I say. "Now get outta here, so I can get this damn thing on."
"What, no!" Julia exclaims. "I found this place! Get your own spot!"
I roll my eyes. "Do you want to see me get changed, or not?" I blush at the thought of her watching and she quickly shakes her head.
"No. Okay, see you soon!" With that she quickly exits the grove, leaving me to the privacy of the trees and bushes.
I brood to myself as I quickly pull my suit on. Never did I suspect that would this afternoon would end in me having to protect Julia from some crazy supervillains. I did fear that my date with Anna would end badly, but that was more due to my low self-confidence and knowledge of my inability to have non-awkward conversations with girls. But I didn't see it ending like this. To be honest though, I am a 'superhero', so it probably isn't a good idea to be mucking around and wasting time with normal girls.
'Though,' I think, as I pull my mask on. 'Julia is also a normal girl'. Oh well, I can deal with that, after I've 'saved the day'.
Fully suited and barely managing to not feel like a total dork, I stumble out of the greenery, almost tripping over a stray rock. Julia snorts at me as she too emerges from her nearby cover. I slip my phone into my backpack and toss it to her.
"Right," I say, as she slips it over her shoulders. "Now what?"
"This way," she says, leading me in a fast walk towards the park exit and the street beyond.
"You know," I say, as we move, "while we are waiting for trouble, you could always give me a little more backstory on why..." I trail off, watching as a black clad guy drops from the air, crouching as he lands and effectively blocks the way out of the park. A similarly dressed girl runs in from the side to join him, obviously his partner. "Never mind," I say, stepping in front of Julia.
"Lightning Strike," I try not to cringe as he says my superhero name, choosing to nod instead, which I'm sure is a much more badass, superhero-like reaction. "Nice to see you could join the party."
He steps forward, his black cape flowing out behind him in the soft breeze. Black must be this guy's favourite colour, with his black suit, black combat boots, black cape, black mask. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that his underwear was also black. The thing is, it looks kind of weird and contrasts horribly with his albino white hair and skin. The girl is dressed in a similar 'I love black' manner, minus the cape. But the attire looks much better on her, with her darker hair and skin. Back to the guy, his whole outfit looks so bad, I think I can safely now be happy with my current choice of spandex.
"You can leave," suggests the girl, "if you don't feel like getting your ass kicked. We only really want your girlfriend."
I grind my teeth in frustration, feeling a surge of electricity flow down my arms. I quickly throw them up and try to catch them both with two bolts of lightning. Black Dork, who is on the left, leaps over and flies towards me with his arms out stretched, while the girl darts to the side and runs behind me. She is a blur as she moves, so fast my eyes can hardly follow. Super speed. She is obviously heading for Julia, but first I have to deal with the guy in front, about to tackle me. I blast more electricity and he dodges again, flying up and blasting some energy of his own - a laser beam of some sort - from his hand and in my direction.
I jump out of the way and somehow, due to sheer dumb luck, manage to crash right into his fast moving accomplice as she runs towards Julia. I grab her and we roll around on the ground, while overhead I see the guy swoop down, now heading for Julia instead. Come on. The supervillain-chick, who is definitely hot, by the way, taunts me, easily dodging all of my swings and attacks. I stop and instead blast her full of electricity, which seems to temporarily stun her.
I jump and go to intersect Black Dork, but she grabs my foot, pulling me back to the ground. She attempts to pin me, but I shock her again, loosening her grip. Trying to resist the pain, she grabs tighter, using all her weight to push me to the ground. I use more power, but she grits her teeth and keeps gripping my wrists. Great. What do I do now?
"Maybe you should ask your girlfriend for help," she suggests, shooting a casual glance at Julia. I look too, just in time to see Julia quickly leap away from the guy, trying desperately to stay out of his reach. "Darling, just use your powers already. This whole 'I'm a normal girl, why are you attacking me' act is kinda getting old."
I frown up at her, confused by her words. "But Julia doesn't have powers..."
She rolls her eyes from above. "Oh, not you too. Come on. You think me and Black would bother to chase after her if she didn't have superpowers?"
I'm not sure what to react to first, the fact that Julia has apparently been hiding powers from me, or that really, that dork's name is even 'Black'? Wow. Just wow. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah - shit, since when did Julia have superpowers?
"Julia?" I ask, wanting to hear her confirm it. But just because she has superpowers, if this is true, isn't reason enough to attract the attention of two supervillains. Normally, supervillains only go for others of their kind, who have annoyed them by stealing or committing crimes in their territory or something (I should probably do more research on how their whole system works) or, they go for annoying superheroes. Julia probably isn't a supervillain (though, anything is possible at this stage), so that would mean she would have to be... "Ghostanna?"
"Sorry," Julia/holy-crap-is-she-really-Ghostanna apologises, between dodging attacks from Black. "I was planning on telling you. I just needed to find a good..." She paused, to move again. "Time."
"Wait, hold on..." The girl still holding me down grins evilly. "Now this is interesting. So you didn't know that this Julia was really Ghost-lame-suffix?" She turns back to Julia. "Why did you keep your boyfriend in the dark?"
Julia ignores her, leaping and reaching out for my arm. I feel a familiar weightless, tingling feeling as the supervillain girl's hands pass right through my wrists. Remembering not to try to breathe, I roll through her - which feels really weird, by the way - and out of her reach. Julia lets go and I leap up to my feet, my eyes briefly meeting hers. Well, there goes any doubts. She is Ghostanna.
"You kinda have some explaining to do," I say to her, as I prepare to shoot more lighting at the girl.
"I do," Julia responds, before turning to Black. She vanishes into thin air and somehow I get the feeling that I won't be seeing any more than the occasional flash of her, until the fight is over. She doesn't exactly have her suit, which explains why she was previously hesitant to use her powers in the first place, rather preferring to try and rely on me to come and save her. Well, it is nice to know that she had faith in me, but to be honest, that plan didn't work out very well, as now she is having to use her powers anyway.
At least with her help, the fight is now even. She hammers some invisible punches into "Black", while I focus on trying to find ways around the girl's super speed, which appears to be her main and favourite weapon. She does have a major weakness or disadvantage though, which is a lack of flight, so all I have to do to avoid her attacks is just fly up into the air. However, as I expressed before, she can move pretty damn fast, which means it is impossible to aim and hit her with any electrical attack, as she just jumps out of the way.
Instead, I land back on the ground, taunting her back towards me. But as soon as she speeds towards me and goes in for the attack, I grab onto her arm and pull us both up into the air. She wiggles and spins around, trying to flick herself out of my grip. I hold fast, trying to find the line between holding her tight, so she doesn't escape, and accidentally crushing her wrist with my super-strength.
Okay, now I've got her in the air - and also very mad, judging by some of the explicit language coming out of her mouth. Now what. Where was my genius plan going again? Oh yeah, that's right. I know trying to shock her in the air won't work (something about having to be connected to the ground), but what would happen if I charged her in the air and then dropped her? Will she then feel the pain, as all of the electricity flows through her and into the ground? Does electricity even work like that? Maybe... Oh well. Worth a try. I let go of her arm and she falls the small metre to the ground, bending her knees to absorb the impact.
To my relief and to her great shock (no pun intended) she cries out in pain as she lands, almost comically tripping over and landing on her side. All I have to do is nudge her with my foot and give her a little more electricity and she passes out, her body unable to keep up with the pain. I turn to Julia/Black, to find that she has pretty much finished up with him as well.
"Nice job," I remark to the still invisible Julia/Ghostanna about a half minute later, as we lean over the two unconscious supervillains. As usual, our use of superpowers has drawn the attention of a crowd of people and their cameras, so the unsuited Julia cannot even risk appearing, lest her face get snapped and end up all over the 6 o-clock news.
"So..." I say, feeling like a weirdo for talking to the empty air, even though I know for sure that there is actually someone else here. "What do we do now?"
"Let's get out of here," Julia suggests.
I nod, thinking that sounds like a pretty good idea. "Okay. Sweet. Now... You can fly, right?"
The answer is a yes, of course. Julia reappears as soon as we get away from the park and I take off my mask mid-flight, enjoying the feel of fresh air on my face. I can still hardly believe that Julia is actually Ghostanna, but seeing her flying beside me definitely helps to chase away any doubts. She has a minor but still nasty-looking burn on her leg from that dork's laser, so we head back to my place, landing in my backyard.
The house is empty, so I dig my key out from my bag and unlock the door, letting us in. I head up the stairs and straight for the cupboard where the first aid kit is kept. Julia doesn't speak as I help treat her leg, put on some burn cream and wrap a bandage around it.
"I'm sorry," Julia finally says, as I put the kit back. I resist the urge to roll my eyes, not seeing how those two words could mean anything in a situation like this. To be honest, I'm almost mad at her, for not telling me sooner.
"Well, it is your 'secret identity' and you can reveal or not reveal as you please, but..." I sigh.
"I did plan on eventually telling you," Julia says, guiltily avoiding my eyes. "But I wasn't quite sure how to phrase it."
"How about, 'hey Tim, about that hot superhero chick - that's me'. Something like that."
Julia raises her eyes to meet mine and we both simultaneously realise what I have just said.
"Er," I cough, trying to hide my blush and not start any electrical fires. "H..." Shit, what else starts with H? "Heavenly. No, wait. Helpful. That's what I meant. Helpful." Julia raises an eyebrow and I honestly consider getting up and running while I can. "Helpful superhero chick." Prepare for extreme embarrassment in...
Julia breaks me out of my internal monologue by grabbing the side of my face and before I can react, she brings her lips to mine. Her lips are soft and sweet and I almost freak out and pull away, not knowing what to do. All the times I have imagined, dreamed this moment - and I still don't know what to do.
Julia goes to pull out and I act quickly, cradling her face and pulling her lips back towards mine. There is a ninety-nine percent chance that I'm probably doing something wrong, but Julia isn't complaining, so neither am I. I definitely am not complaining. I kiss her softly, gently moving my lips against hers, before moving faster, letting my emotions take over.
Just as we are starting to get into it, I feel a shift in the air around me and then hear a surprised gasp, which shatters the moment. I break away from Julia and look in the direction of the noise to find no-one else but my mother, standing there with a shocked/horrified/amused expression on her face.
"Tim..."
Where did she come from? I didn't hear her on the stairs or opening the door, so she must have teleported in. And what a moment to teleport in on, too. Julia quickly moves away from me and I not-so-inconspicuously wipe my mouth on the sleeve of my suit, which I haven't even gotten around to taking off. She shakes her head at us and I mentally cringe, knowing this is the end. I am so dead.
"Not gonna ask," my mum says, stepping into the kitchen. "Definitely wasn't expecting this of all things, but still, not gonna ask."
I turn back to Julia, who blushes redder than my suit.
"Just helpful?" she teases. "I'm not hot?"
"Actually," I say, leaning close to her again. "I've changed my mind-"
Okay, that's enough! Mum telepathically yells at us and we jump apart, Julia holding her head in surprise.
"Mum!" I yell, turning my head to glare daggers at her.
"What the hell was that?!" Julia asks, rubbing the side of her head.
"Telepathy," I answer. "My worst nightmare," I add.
"Wait, hold on, your mum has powers too?"
"Yes, she does!" Mum answers. "Look, I'm sorry I interrupted your moment." I make an 'hmmph' sound, refusing to look at her. "But I'm suddenly home for a reason. Tim, go take your suit off, before Amy comes home from her friend's house. Julia, honey, it's good to see you. Can you turn the TV on?"
I roll my eyes, quickly going and doing as she asks. As soon as I close the door to my bedroom I pump my fist in the air. "Yeah!" I tell myself. "Epic kiss with Julia! Who is the man?!" I am, of course. If it wasn't for the fact that we were untimely interrupted by my mum, I would probably be the happiest guy in the world right now. I throw some clean-ish looking jeans on, fresh from the floor of my room and head back out, trying not to grin too hard.
It's a good thing I'm not too happy, as the six-o'clock news instantly sobers up my mood. Flashes of my most recent fight scene, across the screen. Luckily, no one has managed to snap a picture of Julia, it's just me, in all my red and orange suited glory. But that isn't the bad bit. It's the message that is spoken with them. "Supervillains chasing after the suspected identity of Ghostanna."
"How the hell did they manage to find out who you are?" I ask Julia, who shrugs. She is annoyed at the news, but not as much as I am - this is clearly 'old news' for her.
"I have no idea, but that's why I was running, in the park. And was trying to text and call you." That does make sense. "I was pretty lucky to bump into you when I did."
"Yeah," I answer, flicking my attention back towards the TV. The news presenter starts to go on about a bounty or something, so I quickly change the channel, before it can annoy me further. "So what are you gonna do?" I ask Julia.
"Go into hiding? I don't know, the supervillains are probably just gonna keep on finding me, and I probably won't be lucky enough to bump into you next time."
"Maybe..." Mum speaks up over the noise of her cooking and we turn our heads towards her. "Telepath. Or Psychic. Maybe even both. The bad guys might have one of them working for them. Bet you they do." Mum pauses to think, while we take this new info in. "Julia, do you want to stay here? Probably safer hiding out with us, than on your own."
"Awww yeah," I say, grinning in agreement. "Great idea, Mum." I turn to Julia. "Stay here."
"Okay," she says, smiling. "I'll probably have to sneak back to my place to grab some stuff, but sure. Thank you for the offer."
Mum starts to embarrass me by laying down ground rules, silly stuff like "no sleeping in the same room", etc., so I turn back to the TV, trying to do my best to ignore her. I flick through the news channels, seeing if there is any more interesting headlines. I'm about to turn it off, when something else catches my eye.
"Explosion at the hospital?" I ask, fear filling my stomach, as I switch over to that channel. Julia and I share a look of dread, already knowing where this news story is going. We watch it anyway, but the words and images confirm what we already know.
Oh no. Josh.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
