Raegan Paige had never been the life of a party. But when you're juggling four part-time jobs, scraping through college classes, and are a slipping art student, time off is out of the question. That's how life was for the longest time, and Raegan assumed that God just had forgotten to add free time to her agenda. When you're a nineteen year-old girl with just as much family support as Raegan did free time, your life revolves around double shot espressos and bulshitted assignments that are barely enough to get through a class period.
Being a busy wallflower isn't so bad, Raegan used to convince herself. Once you've graduated, you'll have plenty of time for dates and parties with the lights turned off and the music turned up to the max.
Although as much as she tried not to think about it, she couldn't help but let her mind wander to thoughts of the richer girls who went to clubs every Friday and didn't have a care in the world.
She couldn't blame herself for imagining herself surrounded by a group of friends with her hair shining and dress sparkling. Unfortunately, she still hated herself for dreaming.
Her hair was shining, but it wasn't under the glow of the lights on a dance floor. No, instead, the icy feeling of water droplets trickled down her neck and slid down past the collar of her shirt as thick raindrops rolled off her unruly crimson hair. The humidity of the city had caused her hair to spring up into a thousand fiery curls, each with a mind of their own. The grey hood of her sweatshirt did nothing against the furious clouds and gusting wind, and she could feel the cold seeping into her t-shirt below.
Clutching the worn denim strap of the heavy bag slung over her shoulder, she tried not to think about the biting wind and focused her gaze on the footsteps she made. One, two. One, two. One, two.
As her heel lifted off the concrete slick with rain, she turned back to see the briefly lasting imprint of her foot in the water on the sidewalk.
As she passed an empty bus stop, she reached into her pocket and opened her palm to reveal a tangled mess of earbuds so tightly knotted that Raegan briefly wondered if anyone had ever attempted to knit a sweater with a pair of particularly stubborn ones.
Her sight drifted toward the horizon, then at a patch of forlorn clouds that masked the sun, and although she tried to distract herself from the unpleasant drizzle, she couldn't help but bow her head to shield her face from the wind as well as protect herself from eye contact with passing cars. Not that they'd ever watch her for long. She was a small girl in a labyrinth that they called New York, and she had little optimism in a neon palace of big dreams.
The rugged roar of an approaching semi truck snapped Raegan out of her thoughts, and she turned over her left shoulder just in time to watch the giant vehicle go barreling past her on the other side of the curb, wheels hitting a large puddle on the side of the road with a speed that sent water and mud spraying up and off the road in a large wave. Before Raegan had any time to react, mud was splattered across her face, clothes and hair.
As the truck flew by and Raegan slowly peered down at her ruined clothes, something inside of her began to break. She froze there on the sidewalk, bit her lip, and blinked away the hot tears that stung behind her eyelids. She knew that there was no point in trying to try off or clean herself up; she was already soaked through and the cold wind cut right through her regardless of her jacket.
She held the end of her sweater sleeve between her pointer finger and her thumb, then quickly wiped a smear of dirt off her cheek.
Wrapping her arms tightly around her chest and trying not to shiver, Raegan turned and slowly continued the long and tortuous trudge back to her car parked in a lot that seemed infinitely far away.
As her fingertips brushed the side of her rain-soaked bag, she briefly wondered for a moment if the laptop inside would ever turn on again.
She reached up to adjust her earbuds, then sighed and pulled them out with one small tug, caught them in her palm, and pocketed them again. No music was playing, and she didn't have the energy to reach into her pocket and play anything from her phone.
As she turned the corner, her eyes fell on a rusted bench with peeling white paint, and she thought about how many people had sat there that day, just across the street.
Up ahead, Raegan could see the lot where her car was parked, and she breathed an audible sigh of relief, thinking of finally being able to sit down in a heated vehicle. Of course, the heating system broke down more often than it work, but there was always a small hope.
Holding her keys out between her fingers in case any unseen figure attempted to jump out at her, she hustled over to the scratched and dented silver Camry located in the far corner of the lot. The door creaked open with some effort, and as soon as she had closed the door behind her she melted into the front seat. Water droplets rolled off her hair and clothes, soaking a Raegan-sized puddle through the cloth of the seat, but at that point she couldn't have cared any less.
Tossing her bag into the back seat and turning the keys in the ignition, she waited for the engine to cough and wheeze its way to a start. To her great relief, the engine shuddered to life, and she hastily put the car in reverse, backed out of the lot, and sped out onto the main road, anxious to get back to the safety of her apartment.
Five minutes into the trip, the skies opened up, and the rain began to come down in sheets. Refusing to stop and add to the length of the trip, Raegan turned on the windshield wipers and blindly drove on.
Rain pounding her car, she sang to herself under her breath and craned her neck to see in front of her, but the roads were slippery and visibility was slim. Only a small sliver of sunlight poked out from the thick cover of clouds.
Raegan rounded the corner and pulled onto a fairly empty road squished between two rows of shops, and seeing as how there were no other cars around, Raegan finally managed to relax a bit.
Suddenly to her right, a figure darted out in front of her car and into the middle of the street. Raegan's foot impulsively went to the brakes, and time seemed to slow down as she gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. He ran too close, and with the water on the road, the outdated car tires skidded helplessly across the slick surface. The screech of the rubber in the road filled her ears, and all she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and wait for the impact.
The sickening sound of a thump followed, then a muffled grunt.
Raegan held her breath, heart pounding, and waited silently for any movement in front of the car, praying, Maybe he'll get back up. Maybe this isn't as bad as it looks.
Seconds ticked by. Nothing happened. Her heart lurched as she threw open the door and hurried over to the front of the car, and that's when she saw him.
Lying face-up in a puddle was a boy around her age, limbs sprawled wide out at different angles. His grey eyes stared straight up at the sky, not moving a muscle as the rain fell around him.
Raegan bent down slowly, reached out a hand to shake him, then quickly drew back. Her lower lip quivered and her eyes widened as a horrible realization hit her.
She took a shaky breath, completely in shock and mind whirling, and quietly whispered, "Oh my god. Oh god. Are you... Are you dead?"
His eyes never changed, not so much as twitched. But with a blank face, his lips curved to form a single word, and he mumbled, "No."
In shock and horror, Raegan stumbled away the talking corpse, lost her footing in a puddle behind her, and fell backwards onto the curb with a piercing shriek. Waving a pale finger at him, she spluttered, "You- you're not dead!"
"It appears to be that way," he agreed nonchalantly with a small one-shouldered shrug.
"Are you hurt?" She asked, inching her way back toward the mysterious boy.
He quickly sat up, causing Raegan to jump. "Nah, I'm good. Sorry 'bout your car, though."
She briefly glanced at the car, then back at the boy. "My car?" She repeated with disbelief. "What about you?"
"I just told you, I'm okay," came his reply with only the slightest hint of annoyance and amusement. The corners of his lips twitched to form what could barely be considered a smile.
"O-oh. Should I call the police, maybe report the accident?"
He rolled his eyes, then slapped his palm down on the hood of her car and pulled himself to his feet, barely appearing to notice that the entire back half of him was covered in water and dark sand. "Lady, I've already told you a hundred times, I'm not hurt."
"My name isn't Lady," Raegan argued, gaining a new sense of indignance as the oddness of the boy became more and more apparent.
"Well, then what is your name?" He questioned with a tilt of his head.
"Raegan."
His eyes narrowed, and he stared at her as if trying to read some foreign language written on her face. "Ray-gun?"
"No, Raegan, like Ronald- oh, never mind. My name's Rae."
He dusted off his black jeans and began to walk away, calling over his shoulder, "Okay. Sorry I ran into your car, Rae."
Jogging after him with an arm outstretched, she cried, "Wait!"
He sighed and pivoted on his left foot to face her, rolling his eyes and popping his hip annoyedly as if it were a great inconvenience to talk to the person who owned the car he darted out in front of. "What."
"I... I hit you with my car. Really hard."
"And?"
"And you should be hurt. Seriously hurt, and yet you don't even have a scratch. I don't understand how that's possible," stammered Rae.
"I'm Batman, okay?" Was his reply.
She glanced down at the puddle in front of the car in utter astonishment. There was no blood where he had fallen onto the relatively bumpy asphalt. Not a single drop. "I mean, I guess if you're positive you're fine..."
"I am."
"Do you have a way you can contact me if you find out you're hurt later?"
"My name is Daniel, you can ask around for me later if you have any concerns. But really, I'm not hurt. It was just a love tap. Well, see ya 'round, Ray Gun."
Rae's jaw hung open as he held up his hand in a wave and turned to walk across the street and disappear around the side of a building. Blinking, she collected her thoughts, then slowly made her way back to the car.