Superhero

Chapter 91

Addison gathered her dirty laundry into a large tote bag and started making her way out. Her diary sat on her desk, with yesterday's entry being one of the thickest. Addison sighed, seeing how so much had happened the day before, being taken to work in Giuseppe's car, giving Jeff the puppy, him naming it Superhero, then making a comeback later that day at the bank, said bank being the scene of an attempted robbery, witnessing the poor Indian guy take that bullet for Jeff, then having his turban catch on fire, only to be put out by Jeff, then the police arrived and caught the robbers, then Jeff took Addison home on his bike, then Galante coming home drunk, dancing around on the coffee table, cracking it, almost threw a vase at Felicia, and finally getting thrown out.
But now Addison wondered. What on earth had become of her Italian lecturer? Surely, his behaviour last night was not one for the Dean of the Business and Communications Department, and certainly not that of a good tenant. She decided to go downstairs and see for herself.

"Mrs. Kennedy, I'm sorry for what I've caused," Addison went downstairs to see Giuseppe pleading with Felicia, looking just as fabulous though he was wearing the same shirt he was wearing the night before with his hair looking like an organised mess. "This will never happen again, I assure you."
Felicia frowned, still armed with her trusty frying pan. "Not a chance, Mr. Galante. "You have done this twice already. The first one wasn't so bad, but what happened last night was outrageous! You could've damaged my face!"
"She's right, you almost threw that vase at her, Giuseppe," Addison added, coming to him with her laundry bag under one arm. "If it wasn't for Jordan and I throwing you out, Felicia would've been seriously hurt!"
Giuseppe's gaze fell to the ground as he realised that there was no way to fix this.
"And look at what you've done to my coffee table," Felicia pointed her frying pan at the coffee table. As if on cue, the cracked glass finally gave way and crumbled into a million pieces, leaving only the stylised legs. "See?"
"How...?" Galante asked in surprise.
"You were dancing on it," Addison reminded. "And you were singing some superhero theme and shouting 'I'm a hero!' in English and Italian."
"Mio Dio..." Giuseppe shook his head in disbelief. "I did that?" He groaned and hid his reddened face behind his hands. "I've made a huge fool of myself last night, didn't I?"
"Which is why you need to leave," Felicia said, pointing the pan towards the door.
Galante muttered something in Italian, shaking his head before lowering his hands. "Please, just give me one more chance. I'll get you a new table, do you want it to be of glass like the old one?"
Felicia frowned and turned to the table. "Not necessarily. But don't get me a cheap one." She smirked, almost sinisterly. "I'll accept the table, but that doesn't change my decision in evicting you. You're still gonna leave tomorrow morning."
"But... but I have work!" Giuseppe blurted out in shock. "That's too short a notice, Mrs. Kennedy. I don't think I can move that quickly."
"You should've thought this before doing what you did last night," Felicia spat. "I don't tolerate drunkards."
Giuseppe sighed, desperately trying to think of something. "I'll pay you extra rent, I'll teach Jake for free. Please?" He turned to Addison, his eyes pleading for her support but she merely shrugged. There wasn't anything she could do either.
"No." Felicia firmly said.
In the end, Giuseppe nodded, running his hands up his hair. "Okay. But let me first clean up the glass and make myself more presentable."
Addison wished she could help him some way, but she was left to just stare as he started clearing away the glass. She turned to Felicia and muttered that she had to leave before giving Giuseppe a nod as she saw herself out. Giuseppe merely turned away from her as he went on clearing away the glass.

Addison chucked her dirty clothes into the washing machine and sat down at one of the tables, working on an essay that Galante had given her and Jordan for homework. She wasn't even sure if the Italian man would be in the state to attend college tomorrow but decided to finish it nonetheless out of respect.
She sighed, leaning back on the bench she was sitting on, almost falling back upon realising that it had no backrest. Addison leaned back onto the table, her heart racing. She eventually calmed down and picked up her pen to continue writing. She was almost done too and would've finished the conclusion if she didn't suddenly spot a headful of red hair walking in.
"Jordan!" Addison called, waving. "Yo!"
Jordan turned to her in surprise but lit up upon seeing her. "Addie!"
Addison chuckled and watched as he stuffed his clothes into the washing machine beside hers. By the time he joined her at the table, she had already finished the last paragraph of her essay.
"Do you know that Felicia is evicting Galante for real?" Addison said as she closed her book and pushed it aside.
"Yeah, brutal," Jordan agreed. "It really is sad, but Galante did go overboard last night. Even I don't do stuff like that, no matter how drunk I am."
"True," Addison couldn't help but agree. "I don't blame Felicia for throwing him out too but poor Galante."
"Well, if alcohol makes him lose himself, then he should stop," Jordan pointed out with a shrug. "One should not drink if they can't tolerate the liquor well."
Addison chuckled. "I once spotted the Superhero reeking of alcohol. He didn't in the least seem drunk, but the thought of Superhero drinking liquor is pretty funny."
"How you spot these things, I still don't know," Jordan shook his head. "Anyway, wanna grab a snack? There's a good restaurant right next door."
"Sure, why not? I could use a snack too."

Jordan offered to drop Addison off at the convenience store, even planing to hang around a bit for a snack.
"But we just ate," Addison pointed out as she got out of the car.
"Yeah, but I could still use a snack," Jordan shrugged as he got out too. "Aight, let's go."
As soon as the two of them entered the shop, they were greeted by Jeff holding a newspaper in front of his face.
"It's in the papers, Addie!" Jeff exclaimed, showing her the front page.
"What?" Addison asked in surprise.
It was then revealed that last night's attempted robbery had hit the front page headlines of Spring Valley Daily, complete with pictures taken by the policemen. Even the Indian man that took the bullet for Jeff had been interviewed.
"'Man Stops Bullet with Turban'," Addison read the title in surprise. "'Ranbir Singh, 34, bravely jumped in front of a young man who tried to defend the crowd from armed bandits last night at Valley Bank, Spine Street.' Hey, that young man's you!"
"What?" It was Jordan's turn to be surprised.
Jeff chuckled and lowered the newspaper. "They got pictures of us too." He pointed at a picture of himself holding the red fire extinguisher, Addison right beside him. "But they didn't catch our names, apparently."
Addison nodded. "Good." She took the newspaper from Jeff's hands to read more of the article. "'Sadly, Ranbir had to sacrifice some of his hair to gunfire. However, Ranbir is completely unscathed aside from losing a length of his hair.' Good, so he's fine. I was afraid that he might've been badly hurt."
To her surprise, Jordan snatched the newspaper from her, his eyes scanning the article like a laser printer. His puzzled look morphed into surprised, then shock, by the time he reached the end of the page.
"You guys were in a bank robbery?" Jordan asked in surprise. "What?! And you defended an entire crowd?"
Jeff shrugged. "Well, the Superhero wasn't available so I decided to jump in."
"What?!" Jordan exclaimed again.
"Oh yeah, the Superhero puppy was under my coat at the time, though," Jeff smirked, enjoying Jordan's reaction. "But yeah. The real hero in this situation is this Ranbir dude. And he just might be the real Superhero too!"
"Nah, he's too tall," Addison snorted, shaking her head. "The Superhero is only around Jordan's height."
Jeff frowned and stepped out from behind the counter, going over to Jordan. He stood before him and compared his height with the redhead's. "He's my height too." He smirked and turned to Addison.
Jordan just stood there, confused. In the end, he just grabbed himself a bottle of soda, some peanut chocolate, and left the shop, saying he had to go to work. As soon as he drove away, Addison and Jeff burst into laughter.