Falling for a Superhero

Chapter Seven-"Varsity Jerk"

I looked down to the left breast and saw my school's initial. Across the line of buttons, Dastan's name was spelled out in sewed cursive. I was wearing his letterman jacket.

"Thanks," I breathed, slipping my arms into the sleeves.

"No problem," he said, his lips twitching as if he was trying to hide some sort of true smile. He snapped himself out of it and placed the camera strap over my head. "Let's get to work."

Although Dastan pestered me about what angles to shoot and what to shoot, he still whispered funny comments during the interview portions of the last half of the game.

"Why do you come to the games?"

"To pick up some of the football players," one of the girls had answered.

"Too bad they don't actually look all the way up here," Dastan breathed from behind me. Then I had controlled my laugh as I took a picture of girls that could easily pass as well...easy.

And there were comments to nearly every student clique we could find all the way up to:

 "Why do you come to games?"

"Because our physics class requires the use of Newton's laws and our instructor prefers a topic of football because he's a huge sports man and gives extra credit for athletic references and we need the extra credit—" a nerd rambled on.

"Maybe he gives them extra points as a bribe to not exaggerate their point," Dastan commented. That time, I had heard his comment and snapped a picture of the nerd herd, only to turn and leave from the stands. I had realized something about his humor. "Where are you going?"

I took the camera strap off from around my neck and held it back to him.

"Home," I answered in a huff. His eyebrows combed together as if he was taken aback by my one-word response.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"N—" I wanted to say 'no' and just go home, but since Dastan was showing me his true self without any of the douche bag side, I found it within myself to be honest. "I know that you're trying to be funny, but do you ever imagine how mean you really are behind peoples' backs?"

Normally, I'd wonder why I was complaining. For once, his rudeness wasn't being directed at me, but I was being my real self tonight. My real self wouldn't allow someone to step on someone else. In this, I realized how wrong I was to judge Dastan, myself,  the first time we even met. Yet I still assumed that Dastan would deny what I said because he may switch personalities into the selfish guy I met at first. However, he sighed and paced in a two-foot radius. I waited for his explosive response and he only fled away from me, up to the stands. I started to walk away, just thinking that Dastan would reinstate his objective to ignore me.

Cheyenne: After party(: ?

I called her as I left the stadium.

"No," I told her.

"Why not? It's the seniors' last home game of the district season," she whined.

"We're juniors," I reminded. She let out a frustrated sigh and then I heard her pause. "Cheyenne?"

"Dastan Vega just flat out told the schools sluts to stop trying to pretend as if they know about football because none of the football players actually notice them," Cheyenne confessed. I immediately turned back around to the entrance and went to see the thirsty girls staring at Dastan in disbelief. Only he would actually confess about talking shit. Ugh.

"And even if they did look up here, they wouldn't want you because you're all—"

That's when I grabbed the back of his hoodie and pulled him back, all the way down the bleachers.

"Just because I said you can't bully people behind their back doesn't mean you extend it in front of their face," I told him, sort of angered.

"Why?" he asked, his eyes flicking to gold and then back to black. "They know that what they want isn't realistic here, so I might as well make that clear to them now."

Unbelievable. All I could do was hand him his camera and wonder if he pulled that stunt with all the other groups we had talked to tonight. I turned to walk away and then he hopped in front of me.

"Look, at least I'm being truthful," he hissed to me.

"To who? Not yourself!" I suddenly blurted. Shoot.

What I meant was that he was being fake. There's no way we could be friends like we were tonight—out of the public eye—and yet he was still being an asshole to those people. I walked away from him and I walked all the way home, ticked off at Dastan's sorry social status that somehow enables him to be a jerk. I was so annoyed when I stormed off that I forgot that I still had his coat.

"Hey, sweetie," Veronica greeted when I got home.

"Hi," I said, tiredly. "Where's Sebastian?"

"He left about an hour ago," she said. He left at ten at night? "Why do you need something?"

"No...I just wanted to talk to him," I replied.

"You can talk to me," she smiled.

"Nah. It was just about some stupid football thing," I lied and then trotted up the stairs. As soon as I got to my room, I threw down Dastan's jacket. I gazed over the red wool, white leather sleeves and golden writing. On his right sleeve, he had a red wildcat and his graduating year in numbers. I looked to the left breast to see the white school initial with four bars, meaning he had been varsity-something for all four years. He even had a little torch in the corner. That only made me question how he was in National Honor Society if his reputation didn't precede that IQ level. Curious as to why Dastan even had a varsity letterman, I looked to the left sleeve and it was covered from shoulder to wrist in patches.

#1 VARSITY FOOTBALL QB

VARSITY TRACK & FIELD STATE FINALIST

#1 VARSITY BASKETBALL

VARSITY CROSS COUNTRY REGIONAL FINALIST

VARSITY BASEBALL

Whoa. This kid actually played sports? He didn't normally strike me as a "team player" let alone on a varsity level. Dang.

Dastan: Are you going to the party?

I looked down at the text, wondering whether or not I should reply. Thirty minutes later without a response, he texted me again.

Dastan: Warden, I just got to the party and I hope you're not here.

Wow. What a jerk?

Dastan: I mean, I hope you're not here because there's a lot of trouble and you only seem to add to that.

That doesn't really make it better. He didn't think I could handle it. Damn it, where's Sebastian when I need him?

Suddenly, Dastan started to call me. I normally preferred calls over texts, but I didn't answer the phone. Not this time, or even the next time. Even at two in the morning.