He came late that evening.
I had spent my day either sleeping it away or trying to recall the night before. My memory grew hazy after I entered the room for the dare. I could remember parts of what happened. But there was a wall at one point and I couldn’t remember anything past it no matter how hard I tried.
I could only hope that my hero would be able to recall more than I could.
I was lying in my bed, now wide awake from my day of nothing. The room was dark, the moonlight flooding in. Like my grandmother had predicted, there were little clouds blocking the sky this evening.
A soft tapping on my window caught my attention. I rolled over on the bed to face it, awaiting his entrance.
The tapping repeated, but no figure appeared in the window to open it. I frowned slightly, getting off the bed and walking to the window.
I pressed my face to the glass, glancing down.
He stood on the ground, motioning for me to come down. My eyes moved around to the neighboring homes searching for any suspicious activity.
He didn’t seem to be concerned about any others in the area.
Glancing back down at the boy on my lawn, I bit my lip before opening the window. I stuck my head out into the cold air feeling goose bumps rise on my skin.
“What are you doing down there?” I hissed as loudly as I dared to.
He motioned for me to come to him, “Come down here!”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
I hesitated a moment before pulling my head back into the warmth of my house. Closing the window once more, I changed into thicker sweats and a jacket. I left the house as silently as I could without waking my grandmother.
I crossed my arms as I stepped back into the chilly weather. The masked man directed me to where his motorcycle rested propped against my tree.
I grimaced uncomfortably.
“Really?”
He pulled it off, straddling the seat. “Get on.”
“Can’t we just stay here tonight?” I wasn’t the biggest fan of riding a motorcycle and especially spiteful of it in the cold November air.
“We always stay here.” He shook his head, patting the small open area behind him, “Get on, Avery.”
I did as instructed, wrapping my arms around his waist. I buried my head in his back to shield my body from as much of the wind as possible as he started the engine, rolling out onto the actual road. While it served as little protection from the cold, it was better than nothing.
It seemed to be longer than the first time to get to his secret hide out. While he did nothing to prevent me from watching the roads, I kept my eyes closed from the cold the entire time. The harsh, brittle air whipped past me uncomfortably. He didn’t seem to be affected by this as much as I was. It wasn’t fair.
I didn’t relax my stance until the bike came to a complete stop.
My thighs loosened from around him as I quickly hurried off onto the solid ground. Shivering, I waited as he unlocked the door leading in, holding it open for me. He surprised me by bringing the motorcycle inside with us.
I didn’t question it though.
“Why did we come here?” I asked, turning around. The heat must’ve been on for it was much warmer in here than in my own house.
I preferred it this way.
He shut the door behind us, walking over to the computers. I stood a few feet behind as he typed away commands.
“I thought we could talk here.”
“And we can’t at my house?”
“Your grandmother could walk in. There’s always that possibility.” He paused for a moment as he focused on the technology before him. “That and I feel more comfortable having you in my territory than vice versa.”
I didn’t respond.
A few moments passed, and neither of us spoke.
“Take a seat on the couch. I’m almost done.” He instructed.
I turned on my heel, following his orders. I sat patiently on the leather couch as I waited for him to finish up whatever it was he was doing. He hesitated a moment before walking toward me slowly. I moved over to give him room.
“Why are we here?” I asked again.
He made himself comfortable on the couch, hanging an arm around the back of it. I angled my body to face him.
“Do you remember what happened last night?”
My face lit up.
I had a nasty feeling this was what he wanted to talk about. Learning his name was the only positive thing that had happened last night.
He laughed at my reaction. “I guess you do.”
“Do we have to talk about this?” I groaned, “This is so embarrassing. I was drunk off my ass. Don’t blame me.”
He smirked, “I think I rather enjoyed drunken Avery.”
I scowled, “I didn’t.”
“Your strip tease aside, do you remember what happened?”
“I did not do a strip tease! You walked in at a bad time!” I crossed my arms, “And yes, I do remember.”
He waited for me to elaborate.
“Tyler.” I added on to emphasize my point.
He cussed under his breath. “I was hoping you may have been too drunk to remember any of that.”
I giggled, pulling my legs to my chest.
It felt different interacting with him now that I knew who he was. There was no more harmless flirting or bantering between us. His identity seemed to have changed our relationship to that of polite company.
He reached up, tugging off his mask and tossing it on the ground. “No use wearing that if you know who I am.”
I didn’t say anything, my eyes focused on the green fabric.
“Is this weird?” He asked.
I looked back up at him, “Is what weird?”
“Now that you know who I am. You’re not acting like you always do. You’re acting… like you would in the hallway.” He struggled to explain, “You’re not acting like the Avery I know.”
“I….”
He waited for me to gather my thoughts.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged casually. Even if it was, I couldn’t tell him this. He’d be offended, and it could further hurt our relationship.
“Just remember, I’m still the same guy.”
“Unfortunately.”
He grinned, “There she is.”
I rolled my eyes.
“But so… we need to talk about you and your boyfriend and me.” He said hesitantly. “I… We can’t do this thing while you’re with him.”
“What thing?”
“Our little… relationship.” He said, flustered. It was nice to see his full emotion inside of the bottom half for once.
“Our relationship?” I smirked. “Moving a little quickly, aren’t we?”
He snorted, rolling his eyes, “I wouldn’t talk, Miss Nelson. You were moving pretty quickly last night.”
My eyes widened, “Oh no. How quickly?”
He raised an eyebrow, “Oh, you don’t remember this?”
“Tyler….” I said his name slowly, letting it roll of my tongue. There was a strange ring to it, “Please tell me what I did last night.”
He smirked deviously, “You really don’t remember?”
I bit my lip, cringing at his reaction to this.
He leaned forward, moving an arm to rest on my thigh as a teasing grin spread across his face, “You’re one hell of a freaky girl, Princess.”
My eyes widened as my heartbeat quickened. The worst thoughts entered my mind. “We didn’t… have intercourse… right?”
He snorted, “Intercourse? Baby, what you did was way better than just intercourse.”
I put my hand over his on my leg, moving it off quickly. Fear began to fill my chest at the realization of what I had done. “Oh no. Please tell me you’re joking.”
I had cheated on Jake.
I was no better than my ex-boyfriend. There was no longer a distinct difference between us. I was as bad as he was. I cheated on one of the best boyfriends I would ever get. And with a boy whose identity I had just found out.
I stood up quickly, freezing, “I—I—oh my gosh I can’t believe I did that.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Are you ashamed?”
“I cheated on my boyfriend!” The words came out harsher than I had intended, “Of course I’m ashamed!”
“I meant to have slept with me.”
“Yes! I’m a cheater! I’m ashamed of that!” I covered my eyes with my hands, starting to shake. I couldn’t believe this. I was the pathetic human being, the disgusting excuse for a person that I had called Josh the night I found out he had cheated on me again. I had promised myself I would never be that person.
The masked man stood up, putting his hands on my shoulders.
I jerked away from his touch, “No I can’t—”
“Look at me.”
“Tyler I—”
“Avery. Look at me.” He grabbed my face with his hands, angling my eyes his way. His expression was completely serious now. “I was kidding.”
“What? No you…”
“We didn’t do anything. We made out a little bit, but nothing more than we normally do. As much as I would’ve enjoyed it, we didn’t go any farther. You were too drunk for that.” He smirked, “Probably would’ve sucked.”
He… I didn’t sleep with him?
I shook my head, giving him an angry look, “Why would you do that? I already feel bad about kissing you, but making me think I slept with you? Are you crazy?”
“I thought it would be funny!”
I groaned, curling my hands into fists. I bit my bottom lip, holding in the anger and embarrassment that flooded me.
He took a step forward, wrapping his arms around me. I didn’t embrace him in his hug, but didn’t reject it.
“I’m sorry, Princess.”
I didn’t look up. My face was bright red and uncomfortably hot. The situation wasn’t a preferable one for me.
“I still cheated on him.” I mumbled into my hero’s shoulder.
“How?”
“I kissed you.”
He snorted, “You were pretty drunk.”
“I know.”
“I’ll tell you one thing though,” He pulled back, angling so that he could see my face. I tried to calm myself down enough to lighten up the cheeks.
“What’s that?”
“You look pretty good in nothing but your undies.” He winked.
I groaned, pushing him away.
~*~
We spent a good portion of that evening on his couch talking. While the topic was kept from the previous night’s actions, the tension was still thick in the air. It was strange to be having a conversation with Tyler. It didn’t feel the same as it had only a few days before.
I knew that the more I saw him without his mask, the more comfortable I would be to the thought of him being my superhero.
Yet, calling him by his actual name still sounded strange to my ears. I was making an effort to do that.
It had to have been close to one in the morning, and he seemed as energetic as ever. I, on the other hand, was about ready to collapse. My head rested against the couch, and my eyes drooped every now and then.
“Sleepy?” He asked, brushing the hair off of my forehead to he could see my eyes more clearly. I nodded my head weakly.
“Just a little.”
“Think you can stay awake long enough for a ride home?” He asked, “Or would you rather caught a few hours of sleep here.”
“I think I can manage a ride home.” I yawned halfway through my words.
He smirked, shaking his head, “I think you should just stay here for the evening. Don’t know if you could hold on tight enough.”
“You just want me here so you can have your way with me while I sleep.”
“If I really wanted to, I could have already had my way with you. Multiple times.” He teased, patting my leg affectionately.
“Thanks for you know… keeping me under control.”
“No problem.” He shrugged, “I figured if you remembered any of that I’d get so much crap from you.”
I smiled weakly.
“You want a blanket or something?” He asked, standing up.
I raised an eyebrow, surprised, “You have a blanket here?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, that’d be awesome.”
He retrieved a blanket from underneath one of the computer desks, opening it up and covering me with it. I giggled, curling my body up underneath it to retain warmth.
“Thanks, Superman.”
He grinned, pecking my lips, “Anything for you, Princess.”
He took a seat at the far end of the couch, leaving me with plenty of room to spread out of I wanted to. I kept to my own personal bubble though. My eyes fell shut as I rested my head on the arm of the couch curled underneath the warm, thick blanket.
Tyler rested his hand on my leg, rubbing gently.
“If you keep doing that, I’ll never get to sleep.”
He chuckled, but didn’t remove his hand, “What if I don’t want you to go to sleep?”
“I think you do.”
“Maybe.”
I giggled tiredly, “Don’t let me sleep too long. I don’t want my grandmother to worry about my absence.”
“I’ll try not to.” He rolled his eyes.
I smiled into the arm of the couch, settling into a calm state of mind to fall into my slumber for a few hours.
“Avery?”
I groaned, shaking my head slightly, “Yes?”
“I…” He shook his head, “Never mind. Sleep tight.”
I thought about pressing the subject, but shook my head. I didn’t have the energy for it right now.
I mumbled a goodnight in return before falling into a deep slumber.
*********
Sorry guys, yesterday I had started to work on the chapter and my stomach felt weird. I ignored it and kept going, but like ten minutes later it all came back up and out of me. I felt like crap the rest of the night. I feel like a jerk for leaving you hanging.
So, I'm predicting three or four chappies left!
Also, PLEASE do check out our winners! I'll be posting the results in an entirely separate "story" thing titled "Superman Winners" once this is updated! Thank you to all those that entered and all those that read the entries! (:
Also, sorry about the last chapter. The message was in the middle of it for whatever reason. Weeeeeeeird.