The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Forty Three: I Love You Guys

I knew Mona was vicious, but I had never seen this side of her before. She ran at me without the glow of a Gift. Just her bare hands that wrapped around my waist and her full weight that shoved me to the ground. Before I caught my breath she threw one, two punches at my unprotected face. My skin felt hot and swollen already. Then she was up off the ground and I was scrambling back through the snow. Not fast enough. A well-aimed kick that broke ribs. My breaths were wheezes.

I threw up a thin shield of ice midair to block her next hit. It shattered against her knuckles and drew blood. The wounds sealed over before a drop of blood could fall on the snow.

The ice in my legs that had once held me up was nowhere to be found. I struggled to kneel with my hands supporting me in the snow then one leg bracing me up, every muscle shaking from a cold that reached deeper than the freezing temperatures of the night. She sent a perfectly executed kick to my side and I was back on the ground a foot back from where I started. Diana was next to me, lying on her side. Her hands were pressed over her ears but she had her eyes open. This was not what she signed up for. This was not what I had promised.

Beyond her was Elliot. He had come to once again and was attempting to get his feet under him with more success than me. Before his movement could catch Mona's attention, I used my screaming core muscles to pull me up so I could look at her.

Her eyes were wild. They always were, but something about the amber told me that this was not the Mona that I had shared a room with. Just like it hadn't been my ex-boyfriend who attacked me in the bunkhouse, and it hadn't been Lucia's cousin who threw me out of the sky.

I desperately missed my best friend.

"Mona?" She did respond.

Well, she did, with another kick at me. What can I say, I was an easy target. Her foot caught me on the side of my knee. I heard a pop rather than felt it. When my whole body and soul was in agony, a dislocated knee was hardly the worst thing that could happen.

I tried again, "Mona." There was no immediate attack and her eyes found mine. I took that as a good sign. I heard Elliot get to his feet and saw him jogging to Miguel on shaking legs. This was going to kill all of us. But Mona didn't go after him. Maybe I was her target. Maybe she wanted to hear what I had to say, so I continued. "I forgive you."

I didn't want to get into the detail of what I was forgiving her for. Breaking the cardinal rule of superhero friends and attacking me multiple times, trying to burn me alive, destroying my RV. Listing her mistakes wasn't going to fix anything.

There was no response. So I spoke up louder, "Did you hear me, Mona? I forgive-"

She ripped me up from the ground by the collar of my jumpsuit. She had always had a few inches on me, and she used that to her advantage now. My toes were the only thing brushing the ground. I struggled to take a deep breath. Her eyes were narrowed in front of mine. She wore a snarl that could have belonged on Miguel's wolf.

"What are you talking about?" Her voice was low, and her words were quick. Surely, bossman Eleanor wouldn't like her conversing with the enemy like this.

I followed her lead and kept our conversation hushed. "I mean that I'm turning over a new leaf. I don't care what you've done or who you've become. I just miss my best friend." There I said it. With all the sincerity I had in me, I said it. I wanted my friend back. I would take back my old life of ignorance and Giftlessness and abuse from my classmates if it meant that I could be friends with Mona again. And because I don't know how to do what's best for me and shut my mouth, I kept talking, "Miguel has been guilt-tripping me into being a better person, and Lucia decided that I had to help lead a bunch of teenage superheroes with surprisingly functional moral compasses and I needed to learn to be a better person and I forgive you."