Thirty days until my birthday.
We're still in Queens. Tom isn't feeling good, so he stayed in his hotel room. He told me that he didn't want to spoil our fun and to go out anyways, but I just really feel bad about leaving him there. Jami wants to know why we still haven't left, but I can't actually tell her why. Then she would know that I was lying to her about my family situation for years. And that is not a talk I really want to go through.
"Why can't we just go home?" Jami whines, tugging on my jacket's sleeve.
"Because," I answer.
"Because whyyyy?" she groans.
"Because I said so," I reply.
"God, you sound like my mom," she says.
"I love your mom," I chuckle. "She's like one of those mom's that got pregnant but didn't get the mom look. She acts sort of like a mom, but you could easily mistake her for someone in their twenties. She's pretty hot for a mom."
"Gross, man. Ew!" she sticks her tongue out and makes a strange face.
"Anyway, how are you doing? With what happened in the movie?" she suddenly asks. I still haven't told her about what Stan said, so now is as good a time as ever.
"Oh you know, fine I guess," I say. "On that subject, can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot," she nods suspiciously.
"What is reality?" I ask.
"This is, I guess..." she answers. "Like, this. Where we are, this is reality. There's no magic or superpowers, or any of that shit."
"How do you know?" I counter. "How do you know that there isn't magic? That people don't have superpowers? Or any of the other shit?"
"What are you saying?" she asks.
"When I came down from the rooftops the night of the premiere," I say. "Didn't you think I was in a pretty good mood for someone who just watched their boyfriend die?"
"Well--"
"And don't you think I would still be crying now?"
"That's--"
"Aren't you curious as to why I'm not grieving his death?"
"I--"
"Or how I haven't shed a tear since that night?"
"..."
"That night was the first time I met him. Stan Lee. Great guy, he smells nice too."
"What are you getting at?"
"He likes to write comics. About Superheroes. Like Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Iron-Man. Not a lot of women though. Black Widow is there but she's on a team surrounded by men. She keeps her ground, however, which is probably the reason she's still on the team."
"..."
"Magic. That's how we got there, Jami. Magic."
"Where's the point in all of this?"
"If reality doesn't have magic, how did we travel to that universe? How did my wish come true?"
"I don't understand."
"Comics... I've always loved comics. But just because a comic isn't published doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If a certain comic didn't exist, we wouldn't either."
"I'm sorry... What?"
"We, me and you, are comic book characters. Fictional beings. But the comic was never published, so no one knew about us. Everyone thought we were just like them. Normal."
"That's... impossible."
"Then why did we get a movie? A Marvel movie at that? Marvel movies feature comic book characters. So unless Stan Lee somehow convinced the Russo Brothers to make a random movie about us, then we're just fictional characters in the real world."
"You're telling me, that we're comic book characters? From a comic that was never published? And that the public didn't even know about?"
"Emotion. That's the name of our comics. And our movie."
"Why is it Emotion?"
"That's what he didn't tell me. He said that I'll be able to figure out that part when we go back."
"WE CAN GO BACK?!"
"Yep."
"AND YOU KEPT THAT FROM ME SINCE THE PREMIERE?!"
"Sorry."
"When? How?"
"My birthday. I'll make the wish."
"Does that mean we'll have superpowers?" she whispers with wide eyes.
"I'm not sure," I reply. "But Stan did tell me that I can do whatever I put my mind to and that it's OK for you to have your head in the clouds and your feet off the ground."
"What is the hell that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know," I shrug. "Also, while I'm sharing large secrets, I wasn't born in Cincinnati."
"Wait, what?" Jami asks.
"Yeah, I'm sort of an orphan," I say nonchalantly.
"What the fu