White Knight Syndrome

2 • Superdouche

Some might call me a pushover for being so nice to others, but really, I was the most stubborn guy in the world, and Jay knew that too, so he dropped the whole "don't be a superhero" thing and instead slapped me on the back and threatened that I'd better go to him for any help or else he was telling the world my secret.

I knew he wouldn't carry through with his threat because he knew that would endanger me, and while Jay was more irresponsible than I was stubborn, he was adamantly loyal.

We walked down the stairs after waiting thirty minutes after the party had officially started, so the party was thriving by the time we reached it. Jay and I did the usual socializing routine - he chatted up the girls and made them feel more than welcome, while I talked loudly with the guys and slapped their backs, steering them away from the scene of Jay flirting with their girlfriends.

After the football captain left to go find his girlfriend, I turned in my spot to try to find Ellie in the crowd. My heart jumped out of my chest when I looked to the left and came face-to-face with Jay. He looked like he was already drunk, which was impressive since we'd only been here for ten minutes and hadn't even gone to get drinks yet.

"Carterrrr!" he whooped, causing the people around him to howl and whoop along with him. I gave them tight smiles and angled Jay so I could talk to him with shouting over the loud bass booming like a heartbeat throughout the entire house.

"Hey, Jay," I said, but stopped when Jay giggled.

"That rhymes,"

I ignored him and kept going. "I'm going to go look for Ellie, okay?" I glanced around the room again as Jay asked who Ellie was.

"The girl I was talking to in the hall today, before Home Ec."

He blinked at me with a blank expression on his face.

I groaned. "Ellie-phant."

Jay let out an obnoxious bark of laughter. "Yo, Ellie-phant Jacobs? She's your new charity-case?"

The words hit closer to home than he'd meant for them to. He probably didn't even know the words would hurt me, seeing as I didn't go into details about Chloe and my break-up. She had also accused me of making her my charity-case, even though I really had liked her. I probably even had loved her.

Jay didn't seem to notice my silence as he went on saying, "Sure, man, to each his own, right? Hey, can you get me a drink while you're looking?"

I punched him in the arm, but with a bit more force than was necessary, and forced out a laugh. "You're perfectly capable of taking some girl's drink on your own."

Jay laughed and shrugged, "That's true."

Before I turned to walk away, he pulled on my elbow, whirling me around. This time, he looked a bit more sober, though that wasn't saying much. But I humored him anyway, because this was just Jay when he got shitfaced.

"Carter, be careful, okay? Don't do something I wouldn't do. Or would. Whatever-" at this point, his words were starting to slur again. "-just- just don't do something reckless."

I waved off his concerns. "Me? Reckless? There's no room for my recklessness with you here."

Normally, Jay would've laughed and ran off to find some poor, unsuspecting girl to charm, but tonight, despite his obvious drunkenness, he was making it a point to be serious. It was probably because of the brief conversation we'd just had about my powers earlier.

His dark green eyes had an iron look in them as he said lowly yet clearly, "I'm serious, Carter. Whatever idea I accidentally planted in your head, forget it." Without another word, and before I could reassure him that I was going to be just fine, Jay turned and disappeared into a throng of loving female arms.