12. Flying 101
We head back up to the roof and out of the public eye and naturally, Julia suggests that we spend the rest of the day trying to replicate what just happened. But not an actual replication. Because there is no way in hell that I am jumping off the building again. It was bad enough the first time and, more importantly, I might not survive a second time. I still feel really bad for accidently blasting Julia off the roof in the first place. I really hope she doesn't hate me now, or anything.
I ask her if she does and she laughs it off. "Tim, I can't hate you. You saved my life. Plus, we figured out if you can fly or not."
"Does that count as flying?" I ask. She laughs again, making me grin.
"Yes, it does." She frowns for a second, fully thinking this through. "Yeah, well there's no other explanation. It's a start to flying, at least." I grin even wider at the walls of the elevator as we ascend the building.
Josh literally hugs me when I climb back onto the roof. "You," he says.
"Me?" I answer.
"You saved my sister, man."
I grin at him and chuckle. "Well, yeah, I was responsible for her falling the first place, so it was my duty, ya know?"
"I'm being serious, you know." He hugs me tighter and I gasp for breath. "Thank you."
"You guys are starting to look quite homosexual over there," Julia comments, while carefully sitting herself down on one of the chairs.
"What wrong with that?" I joke, while Josh totally encloses me in his bear hug.
"Yeah, I looooovvve Tim," He comments, while squishing my guts together.
"Okay, that's enough," I say, trying to push him off. "Or I'll..."
"Or you'll what?" Josh raises an eyebrow and I chuckle.
"Or I'll..." I think for a second, "or I'll hug you back. I'm pretty strong, you know. I reckon I could break a rib of yours, pretty easily." Josh rolls his eyes and lets me go.
"So," he says to Julia. "Tim finally figured out how to fly, huh?"
"What do you mean, figured out?" I comment. "I couldn't redo that if I tried. It was a total fluke."
"Yes, you could," Julia argues, "in fact, that's what we're gonna spend the rest of the afternoon doing." I dramatically groan and she shoots me a look. "No, we're not going to push you off the building."
I laugh. "You know me too well."
"No. It's just you moan about it too much." Josh laughs along with her and I frown at them.
"So, anyway," Josh says, sitting back down. "How many powers does Tim have now?"
I answer 'four' at the same time that Julia answers 'three'. "That's counting the flying thing." I add.
"I counted that too," she comments. "Don't you only have three? Because you have that electric power – that's one – the flight thing that you saved us with before – that's a second – then there's the super strength, if that's what it is – three."
"You missed X-Ray vision," I add.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot about that," she says, before shooting me a stern look. "You better not be using it. Especially not on me. Because that is so nasty." I laugh and she gives me the evils.
"I haven't, I hardly think about it," I say, truthfully.
Josh gives me a weird look, like he's considering whether I am a human or not. Probably not. "How can you not use your X-Ray vision? You must be lying. Man, if I had X-Ray vision, I would use it all the time." We all crack up into laughter.
"You, are such a perv." Julia giggles as Josh gives her the thumbs up. "But what were we doing?" She thinks for a moment. "Oh, that's right. We were going to help Tim practice his flying ability."
I shrug, before sitting on the concrete rooftop and thoughtfully staring up at the sky. "How are we doing that?"
"Dunno." She thinks for a bit. "What were you thinking/feeling before when you flew?"
"Well, for starters, I was scared outta my mind." I continue to stare at the cloudless sky. "It was a life or death situation. Knowing me, I probably instinctively did it."
"Right." Julia nods to herself. "And was it the same the second time?"
"Second time?" I ask, before remembering me stopping our fall only a metre from the ground. That was a close one. "Oh, right. Yeah, it was the same, but... I kind of repeated 'stop falling' over and over in my head. Kind of like a mantra, I guess." Now that I've said this, I'm suddenly starting to realise that she will now probably make me spend the next couple of hours lying on the ground saying the word 'fly' on endless repeat. Not fun, man.
"Well, that helps to know that, but seeing as repeating something like 'fly' over and over will probably be a boring and totally useless exercise," thank god she shares my opinions, "you don't have to do that. Maybe you could just try imagine flying or something. Or maybe falling?"
"We could always scare you," Josh the ever so helpful suggests.
I laugh at him. "You couldn't scare me to save yourself."
"Wanna bet?" He challenges, daringly raising his eyebrows at me.
I shrug. "As long as it doesn't involve me falling off something, sure."
He grins, walks over to the corner of the rooftop furthermost away from Julia and motions for me to join him. I roll my eyes as I walk over.
"I'll tell Julia." He grins at me, while I start to pale.
"Tell her what?" I ask, fearing the worst.
"Tell her that-" He shoots her a quick glance to make sure she isn't eavesdropping. "-you like her. As in looooooooooooovvvvvvve her." I pale and feel my heart rate quicken, and it's not because of the overly painful way that he drew out the word 'love'.
I swear under my breath. "You wouldn't dare. And how do you even know that?"
He chuckles at my very evident fear. "I thought I couldn't scare you? And it's pretty obvious you like my sister dude. I mean, come on! You spend so much time looking at her with a star stuck expression on your face, I would be surprised if she doesn't already know that you like her." He laughs.
"It's not funny." I scowl at him.
"Yeah, I suppose it isn't. But I've proved my point. I can scare you."
"You," I hiss, as we walk back over to a confused and slightly annoyed Julia. "Are. A. Dick."
"What were you talking about?" she asks, giving us looks of suspicion.
"Oh," I roll my eyes. "Josh was admitting his love for me. Totally scared the life outta me."
"I was?" asked Josh, confusion. I raise my fist and he nods. "That's right. I did. Tim is so gullible." Julia gives him an 'are-you-serious?' look. "By the way, I don't actually love him."
"Obviously." Julia and I both say, while simultaneously rolling our eyes. I sit back down on the concrete and grin as Julia ditches her chair to join me. "So," she asks, "the question is, did Josh scare you enough to cause you to instinctively fly?"
"No," I answer truthfully. "But he did scare me enough to make me want to instinctively punch him or instinctively blast his face off."
"Right." She nods. "You know, I'm not even gonna bother asking what he said to you. No offense, Josh, but your method sounded pretty useless anyway." I chuckle. "So maybe you should just try imagining that you are flying or falling or something, and see what happens."
I lie on my back on the warm concrete rooftop and sigh as it warms my back. Right. Flying thoughts. Then I get a better idea and flip around so my back faces the sky. I stare at the concrete below my face and try and trigger my X-Ray vision, or whatever type of vision it is. Luckily, it's the only power of mine that comes half way easily. I watch as the ground beneath me turns transparent, freaking me out a little. It's weird looking down and seeing the floor several metres beneath you, it's like you're lying on the ceiling or something. The kitchen of Josh's apartment is right below me and I see his mother walk over to the pantry and pull out some ingredients for dinner. This bird's eye view thing is freaky, alright.
"What on earth are you doing?" Julia asks.
"Using my X-Ray vision," I shyly admit, watching the rooftop blur back into place as I lose focus on it.
"What on? The ground?"
"Yep. I can see into your apartment. The kitchen is directly below us and," I squint at the concrete until it turns transparent again and point at a spot. "Your mother is right there."
"So, what's the purpose of using your X-Ray vision, right now? Or were you just bored?" she asks.
"Well, if I can't see the ground directly below me, it's easier to imagine I'm floating in the air. And if I can imagine it, there's a good chance, well hopefully there is, that I can start actually doing it."
"Sound good." She nods. "I better stop distracting you, then."
I look up and smile at her, before looking back down at the ground. "It's alright. You're fine." I concentrate on the ground and imagine it moving away from me. Or I moving away from it. Unfortunately, nothing happens and I push at the ground with my hands, willing myself to try harder. Float. Float. Float. Float. I get a weird, jelly-like feeling in my stomach and experimentally use my hands to push off from the ground. Surprisingly, I don't fall back down and I look up at Julia and Josh, grinning.
"See," I say, "that wasn't that hard." But I fall back down during my lapse of concentration and hit my nose on the concrete. It starts to bleed. "Spoke too soon," I mumble, sitting up and wiping the blood from my face.
After another hour of me trying to fly, Julia giving useful encouragement and Josh giving not as useful laughter, I think I have managed to get this flight thing down. Maybe. If I lose concentration for even a second I fall and it takes me at least 10 seconds to get up in the air in the first place. But it's better than nothing, that's for sure.
Josh and Julia's mother calls us down for dinner and I say goodbye and head back home, trudging through the fading light. The streetlights start to flicker on at about the same time I arrive back, lighting up the darkness just as I twist the key round and open the door. Mum hears me straight away with her super-mother-hearing and announces to me that I'm just in time for dinner.
"Did you have a nice time today, Tim?" she asks me, as I reach the top of the staircase. I grin and nod in response, thinking over the answer in my head. Yeah, I had a great day.
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