“You know what you said yesterday?” Riley asks.
“I said a lot of things yesterday. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“About us not being partners. You said if the reason I wanted to work with you was because you saved my life, then the answer was no. But that’s not the only reason.”
“Uh-huh. Mason turning out to be the complete and total douchebag I said he was doesn’t count, either. If that’s all you have to say, I’ve got important sandwiches to make, so—”
“This is why I wanted to be there in person. So you couldn’t hang up on me.”
“I’m not hanging up on you. But there’s nothing to talk about, okay? This whole semester, you’ve been telling me how great Mason is and why we can’t work together. And now that you finally know he sucks, you’ve conveniently realized that we should be partners again? I don’t think so.”
“I was wrong. I thought it would be easier to work with someone who followed the rules.”
“And it was. You won that award. Congratulations, by the way.” The awards ceremony was a bust, but they posted the winners online. Amelia looked them up to see if Gordon won Most Beloved Superhero again. He came in second, which isn’t too bad, considering all the scandals I’ve caused recently.
“Thanks.” Riley doesn’t sound very excited about it. “But I almost died. It wasn’t worth it.”
“See, it all comes back to me saving your life. You might be happy about that now, but who knows when some old BFF of yours is going to show up again, and then you won’t care anymore.”
“I won’t care about you saving my life? I think I’m always going to care about being alive.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the point. Not everyone who follows the rules and is ‘on the same page’ as you is going to be a douchebag.”
Riley scoffs. “I was wrong about that, too. Me and Mason were never on the same page.”
“You don’t want to be partners with a half villain who gets you in trouble all the time. Saving your life doesn’t change that. And if working with you means I’m always going to feel like you’re looking for my replacement, then I’d rather stick with Amelia.”
“Mason left me. I was hurt really bad, and he knew that, and he couldn’t get away fast enough. I wouldn’t have even gotten trapped under that rubble if he hadn’t pushed me. Some things matter more than following the rules. You didn’t leave me. And you were right—if you’d been at that museum, you would have gone chasing after the bad guy with me. I wouldn’t have gotten nominated or won that award, but that doesn’t really compare to having a partner I can count on.”
I get up from the couch and pace the living room. “Unless I zapped that guy. Then you would have lost your scholarship and gotten kicked out of school. We’ve been over this, and nothing’s any different, so let’s just drop it.”
“Curtis abandoned my dad. He chickened out and ran away when he needed him the most. Dad got killed because of him. Curtis said that you didn’t have my back, that you weren’t watching out for me, and that I couldn’t trust you. But he’s the one who couldn’t be trusted. You’ve always had my back, X. And, okay, maybe you don’t always follow the rules, but I trust you with my life, and that’s kind of more important. The two of us are the ones who are on the same page, because if we’d been there with that bus, there wouldn’t have been any question of whether or not we were going in. Neither of us would have had to worry about the other running off, no matter how bad the circumstances were. And I thought the stuff Mason did when he was overseas was really cool, but you were right. He wasn’t in any danger, and he just turned his power on. Anyone could do that. And maybe everyone here’s trying to be a hero, but like you said, we’re better at it than them.”
I smile at that, and I’m kind of glad he can’t see me, because he might think that means I’m giving in. “What about your scholarship? And the League?”
He’s quiet for a second, and then his voice wavers a little. “How can you even ask me that?”
“Uh, because you’re practically their poster boy? It’s your whole future.”
“The League tried to kill me. They’re the reason my leg had to be screwed back together. And they tried to kill my best friend.”
“Yeah, but you can’t really blame them. I wanted to kill Mason as soon as I met him, too.”
“I’m talking about you. They tried to kill you—they freaking shot you—and they tried to hurt Sarah. And Kat.”
“Because you guys were with me. I mean, okay, maybe they figured out Kat was a villain, and Sarah sort of pulled a gun on them. But your only crime was being seen with me. Working together’s not really going to fix that.”
“It doesn’t need to be fixed! You didn’t do anything to them. And even if last night never happened, they tried to kidnap you in the park. They were going to take you away to who knows where and do who knows what to you, just because you’re half villain. And... maybe six months ago I would have thought that was okay. I hate that I was that person, because it’s not. It’s so not okay. It makes me sick that they’re paying for me to go to Heroesworth, and maybe things will be different by the time we graduate, but I don’t know how I can join an organization who would do that to you.”
I stop pacing and just stand there, taking that in. I don’t know what to say.
“X? Are you still there?” He sounds kind of nervous, like he thinks I might have hung up on him.
“They must have you on an awful lot of painkillers.”
“I mean it.”
“You’ve been preparing to join your whole life. You can’t just—”
“Yeah, I can. I don’t know what I’ll do, and I’m not ready to lose my scholarship or drop out of school or anything, but I know I can’t be part of something like that. And I don’t care what Curtis says—I don’t think my dad would want me to be, either. So, what do you say, X? Can we go back to being partners again?”
Chapter 36
“THAT’S THE DAMIEN LOCKE?” I wrinkle my nose in disgust as the waitress at the superhero-themed diner sets a steaming plate of meatloaf in front of Kat. The diner was so grateful that I saved them from that armed robbery that they decided to name something after me. Unfortunately, they went with what the waitress was serving at the time, or at least what she was trying to serve, before that robber pointed a gun at her. The sliced-up meatloaf is grayish brown and has chunks of rice and some kind of red thing all over it. It smells horrible, and even the side of mashed potatoes and gravy looks kind of congealed and unappetizing, though that might just be because of its proximity to the meatloaf.
“It’s not the Damien Locke,” Kat corrects me. “It’s the Son of Flash.”
“Not in my menu.” Not after I found a pen and changed it, anyway.
The waitress glares at me as she finishes setting everybody else’s food in front of them.
“They should have called it the Renegade X,” Sarah says. “Maybe we should talk to the manager about it.”
“This doesn’t have sauce on it, right?” Amelia inspects her sandwich, which really obviously has sauce on it. “I wanted a Crimson Flash, but without the sauce. I’m his daughter.”
I roll my eyes at her. “You mean you wanted a turkey sandwich. You should have just ordered that.”
“I got a chicken sandwich,” Zach says. “We could trade. I don’t mind.”
Amelia bites her lip. “It’s not the same.”
The waitress sighs. “Anyone else have a problem?” She makes eye contact with everyone, from me all the way around the booth to Riley.
“I have a problem with Kat’s food.” I jerk my thumb at her plate of meatloaf. “Does that count?”
Kat punches me in the shoulder. “It’s not every day they name something after you. I’m going to try it at least once.”
“Yeah, but on my birthday?”
“It doesn’t look that bad,” Riley says, though he doesn’t sound very convincing.
The waitress takes
Amelia’s plate and heads back to the kitchen.
“Nobody eat anything yet.” Kat gets out her phone. She uses her shapeshifting power to stretch her arm out far enough to get everybody in the picture.
“But my food’s not here,” Amelia whines. “Nobody will know I had the Crimson Flash.”
“They wouldn’t know that anyway,” I tell her, “because you didn’t.”
Kat finishes taking the picture, then elbows me and indicates I should get out of the booth. She sets up First Mate Suckers in front of her plate and positions a couple of his arms so it looks like he’s about to pick up the silverware.
“Come on, Kat. Don’t drag First Mate Suckers into this. He has a reputation to uphold.”
“First Mate Suckers has a wide and eclectic palate. His tastes know no bounds.” She snaps a couple pictures of him before sitting down again.
Sarah takes a bite of her chicken-fried steak. “Wow, this is really good. But not as good as the one your grandma—” She stops herself and looks down at her plate, though she was obviously talking to Kat.
I guess it took getting shot at together for her to finally realize Kat hates her guts. Or, um, something like that.
“As the one my grandma makes?” Kat asks. She doesn’t sound super happy about it, but she doesn’t sound too pissed, either.
Sarah nods. “It was Feed Your Grandkids night at the retirement home, and they invited me and Riley for dinner.”
Kat suddenly glares at them.
Riley’s mouth drops open a little, like he wasn’t expecting Sarah to implicate him in this. He closes his mouth and swallows the bite of hamburger he was eating. “Hers was really good,” he mutters.
“You were probably busy,” I tell Kat. “With, like, finals or something.”
Sarah shakes her head as she takes a drink of her lemonade. “You were home that weekend, but your grandma said you were out ‘fornicating with that boy’ and couldn’t be bothered.”
“She what?” Kat’s face turns red, and she slumps down in her seat.
I point at Sarah with one of my Justice Fries. “‘That boy’ has a name.”
“Yeah,” Zach says, “he’s called Son of Flash.”
“And fornicating sounds so cheap. Like we weren’t having a good time. I happen to know I provide a quality service.”
Amelia makes a face. “Gross.”
“Don’t worry,” Sarah says. “I told her things are changing for young women these days and that she doesn’t need to make you feel ashamed of your sexuality.”
“Oh, my God.” Kat presses her palms to her forehead and sticks her fingers through her hair. “You didn’t.”
“We had a long talk about it. I think she’s coming around. And it was very informative. Your grandmother knows a lot about—”
“No. No, she doesn’t. And you’re not allowed to talk to her about my...” She swallows. “You know. My sex life. And not his, either.” She gestures to me, like she thought Sarah might try and talk about my sex life instead as some kind of loophole. “Got it?”
“Okay. If that’s how you feel about it.”
“It is. It’s how everyone feels about it.”
“But it’s obvious you get really self-conscious about the fact that you enjoy sex, even though it’s perfectly—”
“Sarah.” I try to kick her under the table and accidentally get Riley instead, though luckily it’s his good leg, not the broken one. He still cries out and glares at me, though. “You’re killing me, here.”
“Well, it is.”
“It’s also my birthday, if you know what I mean. So shut up.”
Sarah frowns and opens her mouth to say something else, but Riley hurries and changes the subject before she has the chance.
“So,” he says, “I’m coming back to school on Monday.”
“It’s about time,” I tell him. “You’re only going to have that elevator pass until your leg gets better. And as your new partner, I will of course take time out of my busy schedule to escort you to all your classes.”
He rolls his eyes at me. “You know not all our classes are on the same floor, right?”
“You guys aren’t really partners,” Amelia says. “You’re both doing the alternative assignment. Individually.”
“Not the point.” I take a drink of my birthday-cake flavored milkshake. “And there’s always next year.”
“You mean summer school, when you flunk Advanced Heroism.” She cranes her neck, trying to look toward the kitchen. “What’s taking so long?”
Zach offers her the second half of his sandwich. “Are you sure you don’t want any? It’s pretty good.”
“Maybe just a little.” She chomps into it, like she’s trying to set the world’s record for the most sandwich eaten in one bite. Then, while chewing, she asks Riley, “Isn’t it going to be weird seeing Mason again?”
I’m starting to forget why I even invited her.
Riley sighs and sets down his hamburger. “He tried to call a couple times, but I didn’t talk to him.”
“He won’t be bothering you,” Sarah says. “I took care of it.”
Everyone stops eating and stares at her.
“What does that mean?” Riley asks.
“He came by your house the other day. You were asleep, but I was there, so I told him I know where he lives. And that I’m officially back from my hiatus. He didn’t know what that meant, so I explained that I make dangerous weaponry that tends to explode. I said that if he ever even tries to talk to you again, a broken leg would be the least of his worries.”
“Props to that,” Kat says.
“And I mentioned that he should probably stay away from Damien, because getting electrocuted really hurts, and he doesn’t look like he has a very high pain tolerance. And he said you wouldn’t do that because you’d get kicked out of school, and I said that getting punched in the face hurts a lot, too, even off of school property. I might have implied you were kind of unstable.” She shrugs.
Amelia finishes stuffing the rest of Zach’s sandwich into her face. “Mrs. Deeds tried to make me work with him, since both of you are out, but I refused.”
I gasp in fake awe. “Wow, Amelia. How do you handle being so brave?”
“Shut up.” Bits of Zach’s sandwich fly out of her mouth and land all over. “I know it’s not as cool as what Sarah did.”
“Badass is the word you’re looking for.”
“But I told the teacher what he did to Riley, really loud, so the whole class could hear, and I said I couldn’t work with someone like that. So she put me in a different group, and he just had to stand there, looking stupid.”
“He better not have ended up with the alternative assignment.” I haven’t seen him in the library, where I’ve been banished to work on my stupid binder full of really biased essay questions, and I’d like to keep it that way.
Amelia shakes her head. “He got assigned to another group, too. But they didn’t look very happy about it.”
The waitress finally comes back with the turkey sandwich. Amelia hands half of it to Zach, who asks the waitress if he can get some sauce for it.
“The girls in my new group are really nice,” Amelia goes on. “They call themselves Team Glitter, and they made up fun names. Melissa goes by Sapphire Sparkle, and Hilary—we call her Hil—she goes by Ruby Red. I’m going to be Diamond Dancer.”
“Sorry to be the one to break this to you,” I tell her, “but you don’t dance.”
She makes an outraged squeak. “Yes, I do. Just not in front of you, because you’re my brother, and I know you’d make fun of me. But I practice all the time. Tell him, Zach.”
“What?” Zach pauses in mid bite and has that deer-in-the-headlights look. “I, um... Do you?”
“Yes. I told you about it, remember? Anyway, Melissa and Hil asked me to help them design costumes for us, since I have an important role in costume club.”
“You’re treasurer,” I tell her.
“It’s still im
portant. And we’re going to come up with a synchronized dance routine.”
“Wow. That will really come in handy the next time someone points a raygun at you.” I finish the last bite of my hamburger, along with my last fry, and slurp up the last bit of my milkshake. “You must have a really busy schedule. How do you find time to work on catching those pirates?”
Amelia flicks her hand, waving that away. “First of all, they’re not pirates. And second, we have one notebook for our research, and one for the important stuff, like ideas for costume accessories. Mrs. Deeds says our notes for our assignment are the most organized in the whole class. We color-coded them and everything. But Melissa and Hil don’t really care about being the ones who get to capture the bad guys, and neither do I. It’s a lot more fun this way.”
“So, you’re not upset that I switched partners?”
“Um, no. And you didn’t ‘switch’ because you’d have to actually have a partner to do that, and Mrs. Deeds gave you the alternative assignment, which you’re supposed to do alone. But Melissa and Hil care about the same things I do, and they have really good fashion sense.”
“Right. The most important quality in a superhero partner.” I look over at Riley, taking in the Christmas sweater he’s wearing. In February. “On second thought, Perkins, we might have to rethink this renewed partnership thing.”
He glances down at the reindeer and snowflakes on his sweater. “What?”
“Christmas was two months ago.”
“It’s wintry. It’s still winter. And it was cold out, and this is what Mom grabbed for me when I asked her to get me something, so I wouldn’t have to hobble on my crutches all the way back to my room, since we were about to leave.”
“Uh-huh. Letting your mom pick out clothes for you? We’re going to have to work on that.”
The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) Page 36
