Idle Hearts ✸ Dave Lizewski

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚠𝚘

      𝑱𝑼𝑳𝑰𝑨 𝑫𝑨𝑽𝑰𝑺 𝑯𝑨𝑫 𝑨 𝑺𝑬𝑪𝑹𝑬𝑻.

      Well, of course she had secrets, just like every teenager on the planet did. Just not secrets that were potentially life threatening if someone were to find out and that had to be hidden from the closest people she knew and would be totally weird if she just brought it up into conversation.

She had a hidden identity.

Stargirl was the name she used when roaming the streets. It meant individuality which is why Julia chose it — preferably liking to linger in the shadows than make herself publicly known. The karate classes that she was forced to take as a kid for extracurricular activities definitely came in handy. With that, Julia didn't want her saving people just to be an excuse for her to be in the spot light, but to actually help people in need of saving whenever they can't seek it. Yes, she had shown up on MySpace and Twitter a few times but not enough for people to wonder who she was. Julia wanted it to stay that way.

However, she felt herself questioning if she wanted to keep it that way any longer as she stared at an unconscious Dave in his hospital bed. When finding out that he had been mugged and put into an ambulance, Julia didn't hesitate to rush to the hospital to come by his side, immediately feeling her eyes well up in tears when she caught the bruises and cuts engraved into his skin.

"Why don't you head home, honey? Get some rest." Mr Lizewski entered the hospital room, seeing the dark bags underneath the girl's eyes from the lack of sleep and the blotchiness on her cheeks from nonstop crying.

      Julia was reluctant to leave the boys side, but stood up with a sniffle, giving Dave's hand a final squeeze. "Please tell me when he wakes up." Her voice quivering from crying so much.

      Considering how bad the accident was, Dave had gained consciousness pretty quickly — being put on sick leave instead of attending school. Julia kept him up to date with everything at school, the usual gossip that were chatted in the hallways, minus the gay rumors now freshly going around. She was never one to hide anything from her best friend, but this seemed like the only good time to hide a secret since he had now recovered from his accident.

      Walking side by side in the school hallways, the duo came to a short stop, putting away books inside their locker that were coincidently two spaces away from each other. "Do you still wanna hangout later?" Julia asked the boy, who opened his lips to respond.

"Hey." But Dave's words quickly died in his throat, his attention on her not lasting very long as Katie Deuxma, the most popular girl in school and his long time crush, was now speaking actual words to him and acknowledging him for the first time. Julia was felt a little hurt that Dave would easily act like she wasn't there now that he was talking to Katie. But with the gay rumors being whispered in the hallways, the Deuxma girl had a perfect excuse to talk to him. "Dave, hey." The girl didn't bother to acknowledge Julia, setting her gaze on the boy in front of her.

"Oh, hey." He awkwardly responded, flushing.

"How are you? You look better."

"I'm good..." Dave creased his brows, looking at Julia in confusion, who had her eyes on Katie with a look he didn't recognise. "Yeah, much better."

"Hey, you're into comic books, aren't you?" Julia questioned why she was even there, she might as well shouldn't have been as Katie acted like she didn't exist. "Well, me and Erica sometimes hang out after school at this really great store Atomic Comics. They make the best white chocolate mocha lattes." The Davis girl snorted, getting a dig in her rib by Dave's elbow.