Real-ish

Parental Supervison

Damian~

Cora flips her phone around to show the Caller ID. It's her Mother.

Cora startles and jumps off of me to stand and pace around the room. I watch from my perch on her bed as she accepts the call and a false smile is stretched across her face.

"Heya!" She says, feigning happiness. The action irks me. She was truly happy just a few minutes ago. I sit up to observe her.

"Oh, wow I didn't realize. I just got done with some new practice questions. I'll go to bed soon." She says. Not lying, but I doubt it's the truth.

Her face falls drastically. All color is gone from her cheeks. She tries to stammer out a couple of words and I can't help but get worried.

"Oh. Okay. Well, it is your house, you can stay as long as you want. I have a friend over to study though, is it okay if he stays for a little while longer?" She asks timidly. Am I the friend?

"Yes, he. He's just- Mom! I don't think either of us wants to talk about romance right now." She exclaims. I want to be her friend, but she said, friend. I want to be more. I am more.

"Okay, thank you, Momma. Do you wanna pick up ice cream on your way home? We can watch cheesy Rom-Coms and cry at the sad parts." She offers. That whole speech was an odd combination of childish and parental.

"Perfect, text me when you're ten minutes away. Okay. I will. I love you too. Bye momma." I hear her say.

She hangs up and promptly falls face-first onto her bed. I look over her form, assessing and finding only the obvious. I then watch her sigh, get up, and shake herself off.

"Okay, it's kinda an emergency. My parents fought and my mom is on her way to my house. I need you to come with me because I'm kinda freaking out and I need someone who knows how to work that tube thing. Please come with me." She pleads frantically.

"I'll alert Father. Drake already put the coordinates into the cave Zeta Tube. Pack quickly and I'll be back in 10 minutes or less." I assure her.

"Oh thank god." She sighs. She starts scrambling around as I leave.

I walk quickly down the hallway to Father's study, trying to refrain from running. I open the door quickly to find him sitting at his desk with a stack of papers.

"Father, I need to go on a quick mission with Cora to her universe," I state. He raises an eyebrow.

"What mission and why?" He asks simply. He has grown accustomed to my orders.

"Her mother is coming home early and she needs someone to work the Zeta Tube. Please, father." I ask, my words an obvious plea. He looks as surprised as I am that I did so.

"This is obviously important to you. But you must remember the rules. Mask is off, try to keep a low profile and for the love of everything don't make me a grandpa." He states exasperated.

I recoil. I want to shout that we just started dating, I don't think either of us is ready for anything like that. Not to mention we're 13! But instead of yelling at him, he did approve of the mission, I respond simply.

"Done."

"Lovely, have fun on your trip son." He says with a smile. I can only shake my head as I walk out.

I walk back to Cora's room normally. I hear some clattering and a thump come from inside. I hurry to open the door and scan around quickly.

I see the ends of Cora's brown hair peeking out of the doorway to her bathroom. Upon further inspection, it appears she slipped on the freshly polished tile, as she's wearing cotton-candy pink socks.