Rewind Hero

Chapter 7

I woke up trembling. Even talking with Rachel, though it made me happy while I was doing it, couldn't snap me out of it. So, I stayed home from school, mom and dad came to talk to me a bit before they left for work, but I didn't really hear any of it, I was just replaying that minute over and over again in my head. The gruff voice, the gun flashing as it came down on my head, Sharda crying, me bleeding. Like a broken record. Rachel is asleep and it didn't look like that was going to end anytime soon, after our tete-a-tete in the garage, she went right back to drinking. Marcus texted me around the time school got out and asked if he and Violet could come over, I said no. It's not that I didn't want to talk with my friends, it's that I don't want to see myself in this state. In times of great need, friends are indispensable, but I don't need anything. I know exactly what I need to do and how to do it. The doorbell rang and I went to answer it, I opened up the door and there stood Violet and Marcus. I closed the door. The doorbell rang again.

"I'm not home!"

I called loud enough so they could hear me through the door.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I even double-checked."

The doorbell rang again. I opened it and tried to slam it, Violet caught it with her telepathy.

"Why are you guys even here?"

"Because we don't respect your boundaries."

"It's what good friends do, eh."

"Please go away."

Violet got all serious and started using the voice that would make her a good mom in the future

"Daniel, we're worried about you. It's a scary thing that happened to you, and I'm sure you're still shaken up."

"Shaken up? Who's shaken up? I don't know a single person who's shaken up!"

Gesturing around the area with my shaking hands was a bad way to prove my point.

"It's ok to be scared."

"Who. Is. Scared?! I'm mad! I'm mad at that loser for ruining my first date and I'm mad at myself for not doing anything about it!"

"Danny, he had a gun."

"And I have powers! He used his, I didn't use mine."

"No you don't?"

"You tested as powerless your whole life."

"Yeah, well, I cheated on all my math tests too, so is it any surprise I cheated on those too?"

"You got powers, buddy?"

"Follow me!"

I grabbed an orange on my way to the garage. My friends were nice enough to not call me out on being a jerk and instead followed me.

"Close the door please."

Marcus shut the door behind him and he and Violet stood in front of me in the garage.

"Let's see what you got, eh."

I found the switches in the back of my head, summoning the six iridescent black walls.

"Holy crap! I thought you just lost it, bud. You really do have powers! What's all this do then?"

"Watch."

I held the orange out in front of me.

"You better not throw it."

"Violet, please."