"You like Batman..."
"No. I love Batman. Actually I am Batman..."
"In another life."
His lips went into a straight line. "No. I live off Batman, okay? If he gets killed off..."
"Part of you will get killed, too," I said I think finishing his sentence. If I did finish it, I might have said the right thing because Axel's brown eyes that were looking at mine flickered with overwhelming devastation. It made me want to step back more. Those kind of eyes made me sick to my stomach. It made me feel even worse that I had said something to make him look like that.
"Sorry," I muttered sympathetically, my voice barely making audio. Axel almost didn't hear it. You would have to be... He cleared his throat and smiled, his full pink lips spreading widely but not separating.
"About what?" He shrugged. "Batman will not be dying anytime soon. It'll be a joke for some director, writer or producer to do something hella dumb like that." He clicked his tongue. "No, I would write them myself." He paused and blinked reluctantly. "And probably take it to court."
I had to blink in surprise. I never knew someone could be so serious about Batman, but hey. Look at me. I was serious about Superman. I don't know about taking someone for court for him though. Or maybe probably would too.
"I also saw," He continued breaking me out of my thoughts. I processed to look at him as he did me. I pulled my arms delicately around myself. I wasn't getting cold or something. I just felt a little chill. I never really had a conversation like this with someone before. Not in my own likings or themselves. "that Superman poster on your bed." When that word slipped off his tongue, I widened my eyes and felt my breath hitch in my throat so painfully that I had to hold a choke back. It hurted so bad it itched to where I started to gently scratch my nails at my throat. "You like him?"
Crap. I thought I could keep that secret, my love for Superman. Especially now knowing Axel liked DC, Marvel and at that, Batman. Did you know how challenging that was for me to watch Batman vs Superman? I was shaking and breathing heavily the whole movie that Gloria had to rub my back to keep me from having an attack or something.
"Y-you s-saw that?" My voice clearing itself between each word making me stutter and stammer at the same time if that was possible. But that was the thing about me. Everything was possible. Yeah, everything else was possible, but something about me was different. You would think I was crazy with a capital C.R.A.Z. and Y.
"Bats see well in the dark," he said simply, shrugging. It took me back on how he said that. He made it sound like he said it all the time. And maybe he did. I heard myself doing a small chuckle.
Wait....whoa...
I swallowed down anything that was thinking on coming out even more. That small chuckle even made my throat ache. It's been so long since I ever made any kinda small laughter like that. My throat was more use to scoffs, sobs and gulps.
"Do they now?" I disobeyed myself and challenged back. I even tightened my arms around myself in a determine arm cross under my chest. My head on it's own tilted.
How on Earth...?
I made something click in Axel because his expression faded from his smile to challengingly unreadable. The moles on his face powdered up and twitched along with his jaw. Opps... For some surprising reason instead of me stepping down, I kept arisen returning the stare contest. I don't know how long we've stared, but neither of us were turning down. Him and I were being stubborn about it. It sent chilling power down my spine. I have never felt like this before.
Deewa saw something else in both our eyes though while she peered between Axel and I's. Instead of seeing a stare down contest, she saw us trading a silent love glare.
No, not the new girl, she thought. And especially not her...She scowled at me; I didn't notice neither did Axel; and gripped her brother's arm.
"Come on, senpai," she squeaked resentfully, jealously streaming off of her. "We gotta go." She dragged him away towards the car making Axel break eye contact. Soon as he did its like a whip went off, breaking me out of the trance. I gasped softly and exhaled sharply. I checked myself over to see if this wasn't a dream or if it really happened, but the way I was feeling meant it...happened. Did I really just stand up to Axel? For myself?
"What the hell were you both talking about?" Kash asked Axel as he closed the door and placed on his seatbelt. He looked at him and then back into the back seat clocking at Deewa. She looked enviously uncomfortable. She had a semi pout on her face. He leered back to a-waiting-for-an-answer Kash.
"Politics."
Kash dead panly stared at his bestie bro's reply. "Fine," he said just as dead pan. He placed the car into reversing gear, bidded me a goodbye with the horn and made his way off the property.
×××
"I'm going into the city, Bella." Momma Asian somehow found me. I wasn't hiding or nothing but it must've took her a great while. We haven't seen eachother the whole morning ever since the kids and I departed to outside. We were in our own business I guess and I also guessed she was giving me my own space. I had no idea where Aunt Lillian was. I noticed her car when I was walking back up to the porch eariler.
Momma Asian came to me and tilted her head down at my creative work. "Ravishing." Her comment made me flush with embarrassment I almost covered what I was doing up. I would've in the first place but she caught me off guard. I didn't even hear her coming.
I had mirrored a self portrait of myself made out of colored beads I glued onto cardboard with tweezers. It was incomplete so I didn't understand her compliment 100 percently. Was she just saying it to be nice?
I nodded and fiddled with the tweezers between my fingers. "Mm."
"Well, I'm going into town to run a few what they call errands. Do you need anything?" What I needed she couldn't buy me so I declined and told her a silent no. What I needed was not to be welcomed here. And it seemed I was to quickly. If they thought being nice to me and giving me hospitality made me happyㅡthey were wrong. I'd rather they already go ahead and come out with the negativity instead of waiting for me to come out being positive.
A specific ring chime went off. Momma Asian went ramming into her purse and pulled out her ringing iPhone. Her eyes lit up. "Ah! I'll be back, Bella. Probably in a couple hours. Don't look at me like that. You'll do well here. Just don't go pass the riverbed." She place her fingers under my chin. "You live here now," she said, her voice motherly soft. "You can go anywhere you want too. If you can driveㅡdon't worry about an I.D if you don't have one, we'll take care of thatㅡyou can drive around the, the property. There's plenty of room...if you need practice. Huh. That's weird. I thought of that just now."
"Huh," I hummed to myself quietly.
"If you get hungry, there's plenty of take out menus. Some advice, don't wait til you're hungry. That's suicide." She laughed. "If not, there's food in the fridge, cabin..." She trailed off at the look I was not meaning to give her. It was the sad look of I've heard this before, thanks. She sighed regretfully and pursed her lips. "Well...here you go." She fished out something in the size of a 16:9 solid rectangle. "Gloria said you didn't have one of these so..." What she gave me made my chest tight. She had no right giving me this. I didn't belong to her. She didn't have to do this. I swallowed to keep my tears from falling out my eyes. A swallow seemed to help...when it wanted.
It was a brand new iPhone 6s taken out the box.
"Amiya..." Before I could say anything, she waved me off.
"No, no, no, no, no, don't think of this as charity. Everyone needs one of these. I know my kids can't liveㅡ I'm getting off topic here. Anyways, this isn't charity. It's a gift. And bearing a gift isn't charity. Have fun." She explained everything she was going to say to me at the moment, gladly patted my shoulder and dismissed herself. "I'll text you numbers if you need anything! Ciao, child!"
The screen door clicked softly behind her.
I exhaled forcefully and looked at the "gift" she gave me. It was already open so I couldn't take it back even if I had the resources. Slick little bi...opps. I had no right calling her that. She wasn't a bad person. She didn't deserve that name. All I could do was respectfully thank her. I never had one of these to myself before so I was partly glad for that. But who was I going to call? What friends did I have to follow and stalk?
Then I thought about Tim...how I forgotten literally all about him. Wow. What kind of person was I? He wasn't a bad person either. I bet he was sick to his stomach and now probably hated me for breaking the promise I made to him. Well, I didn't make it to him. He begged me to make it to him which I weakly gave in just so and never kept up to it. Which means I couldn't be...trusted.
I left my work and went up to the place I was sleeping and crawled onto the bed. I laid there and cried until I blacked out into sleep. Negative thoughts only fulfilling my mind at the moment.
🌌🌺🌌
I've been going on and on about this every since I saw the entering tag. Would it be crazy to enter this book in the 2018 Wattys?! Seriously like tell me. LIKE GIVE ME PERMISSION...
I would ask my Mommie but she's so private and very old century that she won't even let me. -.-
Please pardom even errors for I had not the time to go through it and edit like I normally too. My Mommie gets kinda anxious when I'm on my tablet...actually "tablet" makes it weak 😒 So...that's why...
Please do enjoy this 22nd update.
Thank you so much and love you all! :)
x Your Writer, B,K