Rewind Hero

Chapter 8

Violet didn't walk to school with us. I had hoped she'd want to accompany her friend to his first day of school after being a victim of a crime, but she's still angry with me and Marcus.

"Can't wait for you to meet all the guys on the team, bud! I've been telling you since middle school to join up!"

"Yeah, I know, I guess I didn't really have a reason to join until now."

"Oh, right, well, wrestling is one of the most important ways of fighting. One of the most effective too. It's been around as a formalized sport since at least Ancient Greece, so there's got to be something to it, you know?"

"Cool."

I wasn't short with him to be a jerk. I just really didn't want to talk, Violet obviously didn't want to talk either, she walked beside us but still refused to speak, accompanying us to only give disapproving sighs. I wanted to think about that night, how humiliating it was, how angry I felt to see Sharda crying, how angry I felt with myself for not doing anything. What am I? A sissy? Why didn't I form the cube to rewind time? I do it now as easy as breathing, it's not even a difficult power. It doesn't matter if I'm not good at fighting! It doesn't matter that I've never been in a fight before! I should have done something, what a coward I am. Not to worry, I'll fix it. I'll join the stupid wrestling team, dad knows an old hero who runs a boxing gym. That should be enough to get me into shape. Then I'll throw a mask on and go looking for that loser and do what I should have done in the first place!

"-hey? You hear me?"

"What?"

"I've been talking this whole time, were you listening?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Spaced out for a bit."

"You sure you alright, Danny?"

Jesus Christ.

"I'm fine! I'm totally fine! There's nothing wrong with me! Can everyone just get off my back?!"

"Say it, don't spray it, buddy."

I walked ahead. Marcus is a good guy, but he needs to shut up more often than not.

When I got to school, I caught a few looks that made me want to fight even more. People whispered too, and that didn't help either. If they have something to say, why not just say it? Why is everyone looking at me like I have a giant hole in my head? I just got mugged, it's not like we live in a great city or anything, it's to be expected. All these slack jawed idiots need to get a life. And then I saw Sharda. And I nearly fell down and cried right there. She looked happy to see me, she always did, I knew why because she did the same thing to me. I turned and walked as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I can't talk to her now, not after what I did, or rather, what I didn't do. The boy's restroom was coming up on my left and ducked in as quickly as I could. I went into one of the stalls, removed my jacket, and screamed into it to muffle the noise of my yelling and tears. What an idiot I am, an absolute fool. Why did I run from her? Why can't I face her? She likes me, she thinks I'm interesting for some reason, I don't have the decency to check on her? I just remembered, I haven't said a single thing to her since then, not even a text. I'm doing it again, I'm being a feckless coward. I got up and headed out of the bathroom back in her direction. She was still by her locker, thank god.

"Danny, are you ok? Have you been crying? What's—"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"What?"

"I just stood there and did nothing, I let it happen and I didn't protect you. That's all on me."

"Danny, he had a gun. You couldn't have done anything."