Heroes wear Capes

Chapter 8 - Outrunning your problems like

Xander shrugged. "Technically you could say those to bikers were family friendly. What if they have their own kids? We don't know what their personal lives are like."

Xander's mom smiled at her son, "I know I've raised you right, boy." And then she messed up his hair with her hand affectionately.

"Mom!"

She laughed. "I can't help it, you're just growing up too fast."

Xander's mom was younger than most parents, only in her mid-thirties. At times it seemed like the two were more roommates than family, especially considering his mom looked much younger than her years. They didn't talk about dad though.

Katy Mendez pouted at her son and turned up the news.

". . . and we have yet to get word on Mr. Rossi's condition at this time. We are told that he has been out of surgery for a couple of hours now and it is undetermined if or when he will wake up. We are told that the police are investigating the exact circumstances in which the head of a multimillion dollar company was attacked, but early reports suggest this was more than just a mugging."

Katy frowned, but it seemed hard, forced. "Aren't you friends with his son?"

Xander paled. He had heard a shot last night. It was a terrifying thing to know that the shot he heard had harmed Paul Rossi, almost killed him. He was secretly glad it hadn't hit Trevor though. Trevor did not deserve to hurt last night. I wasn't his fault that his father was involved in dangerous activities.

"Yeah," Xander found his voice, "I wonder how he's doing."

"You should go visit him." Katy urged. "You should see if Trevor's doing alright."

Xander was flabbergasted. Usually his mom hated when he went out places on a weekend day. "Are you sure?"

Katy scoffed. "What kind of mom would I be if I kept you from a grieving friend?"

Xander couldn't believe his luck. Not only had his friend been spared from a bullet, but he now knew exactly where to find Paul Rossi, who could tell him what it was he was really buying from the former associated of the dreaded villain, X.

"Thanks, mom."

"No problem, honey." Katy replied, reaching for her coffee.

It happened as if in slow motion. He saw her hand push the coffee cup off the table, and he saw the coffee spilling out of it in droplets, tiny details that he shouldn't be able to spot in what should've taken only less than a second, but what felt like it stretched out for a minute with him. And, then, as soon as it had happened, the sensation left. Time sped up again and the cup crashed to the floor.

"Oh!"

Xander was in too much shock at the strange event to even have an exclamation.

"That was my favorite coffee cup! Not to mention a fine brew of coffee." She sighed, "I guess not every day can be a good one."

Xander knelt down to help his mother clean up the pieces of her cup. As he was wiping up the brown liquid on the floor, he cut his hand on a sharp piece of the cup. He cursed out in pain, of course he cut himself, though it probably wasn't worse than a papercut.

"Honey! Look at that!" Katy exclaimed, holding her son's hand. "Let's get that cut under the water before it gets infected."

But when she put it under the water and dabbed his hand with a cloth, there was no wound, only what looked like a faint scar.

"That's weird," His mom pointed out, feeling his hand. "I could've sworn you got cut."

Xander shrugged. "Maybe it was just a prick and I thought it was worse than it was."