Superhero

Chapter 96

Addison spotted Jordan quietly sneaking up the stairs, evidently having known that Giuseppe was at the dining hall. She went after him.
"Jordan!" Addison called in a low voice.
Jordan turned around and urgently shushed her. "Be quiet, dude! Galante is at the dining hall!"
"I know, Jake told me," Addison smirked. "And I also saw you trying to escape."
"Then what are you doing now?" Jordan countered. "You're running away too, right?"
"Yes..." Addison admitted with a sigh and pushed his back. "Go up."
Jordan nodded and pounded up the stairs, making a beeline for his room. Addison stopped him and rummaged in her bag to pull something out.
"I think you dropped this," Addison handed him the pressed rose that fell out of Superhero's journal. "I managed to save it."
Jordan took it and looked at it with a frown. "How did it fall? I pressed between a stack of books."
Addison shrugged. "Maybe you placed it in your journal at some point."
Jordan scratched his head and took it quietly before making his way to his room. Addison smirked and confirmed her suspicions as she made her way to hers. She quickly showered, grabbed her things, and made her way back downstairs.
Jake was helping Felicia bring the food over to the dining hall where Giuseppe sat reading what looked incredibly like a manga.
"Is it me, or is that a manga, Giuseppe?" Addison asked, remembering the fact that formality was only in campus and not at home.
"It is," Giuseppe nodded. "And it's actually pretty good."
Addison was about to ask him for the title when Jordan showed up and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to see him and realised that he was handing the dried rose back to her.
"This isn't mine," Jordan said, thrusting it against her hand. "The one that Fiolina gave me was still where I left it, between books."
"It's not yours?" Addison asked in surprise, staring at the rose before looking at him. "You sure?"
"I'm pretty sure," Jordan nodded, opening his journal to reveal another pressed rose carefully placed in a ziplock plastic and clipped to the top of the page with a red heart-shaped paper clip. "I clipped it to my journal only now. Who knows where you got that."
Addison stared at the rose in her hand, which he also placed in a ziplock bag to prevent damage, and frowned. Did this mean that Jordan wasn't the Superhero?
"I actually found this rose outside," Addison pointed at hand towards the direction of the front door. "So I thought it might've been yours."
"What made you sure that it was mine when there's more people in this house? It may have been Jake's or even Mr. Galante's. Heck, maybe the Superhero dropped it. You should go ask him."
Addison looked at him in surprise. How did he know that? Does this mean that he was the Superhero? His statements were only making her more and more muddled.
But before she could say more and demand an explanation, Jordan seated himself in front of Giuseppe and pocketed his journal as he cheerfully spoke to Jake. Addison had nothing else to do but seat herself beside him.

"So you tried to return that rose but he said it wasn't his?" Madison asked as soon as Addison finished explaining about Jordan and the pressed rose. "Then it isn't his."
"Yeah, but how could he know that the Superhero was the one who dropped it if it wasn't him?" Addison countered. "How did he correctly guess the fact? That's my question now."
Edgar swallowed his mouthful of cereal before speaking. "Maybe he is, maybe he recognised that rose and didn't want to admit that it's his to not accidentally reveal his identity."
"But he has another pressed rose in his journal," Addison countered again. "So where did that come from if not from Fiolina?"
"Maybe it was from an ex girlfriend?" Madison suggested. "He did have past girlfriends before your friend, right?"
Addison nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, he did... like that blonde girl he used to date before Fio."
"Maybe she gave it to him?" Madison added.
"Nah, she's a full-fledged gold digger that wanted nothing but lavish gifts from him," Addison shook her head. "A rose seems too expensive of a gift from her."
"Maybe his mom gave it to him?" Edgar chimed in. "What, only girlfriends are allowed to give boys flowers nowadays?"
"You may be on to something," Addison nodded. "Maybe that's why he cherished it and placed it in his journal?"
"And now it's with you," Madison sighed. "Go give it to him when he's still Superhero so that he doesn't expose himself."
"Well, for that, I need to get myself into trouble," Addison sighed. "And I don't like that..."
Edgar smiled knowingly. "Sure you don't? Then why do you still get yourself into trouble nearly every night? At this point, Superhero is your personal bodyguard."
"Not really... I'm sure there are lots of people in this town that he's saved, not just me," Addison defended. "I'm not the only one roaming the night here."
"Yeah, and the only other person roaming bat night in Spring Valley besides you is the Superhero," Edgar countered with a smirk.
"Ed seems right on that, Addie," Madison nodded. "You might as well put his number on speed dial at this point."
Addison sighed. "Fine..."

***

For once, Addison was hoping that Jake would actually bail on her and make her take the bus or walk home. But he just became more active in picking her up since his bad coworkers have finally been replaced with better employees.
"These guys are great, they always do their work on time so I don't have to be the only one picking up their slack," Jake sighed, the slightest of smiles on his face. "And I finally have some free time."
"That's good," Addison smiled too. "Looks like your boss finally realised that they aren't any good at getting work done."
"Tell me about it... at one point, I even considered asking him to pay me their salary as well since they weren't even doing their job like they were supposed to."
Addison snorted. "You should've. You certainly deserved a higher pay for having to put up with them."
She was still genuinely happy for him since he was always so tired after work, conking out as soon as he came home. It was only now did she see him being more cheerful and energetic after a day's work.
It's not like his work was at a construction site, he was just bookstore clerk at a shop in Spine Street. Addison considered to one day pull Jordan over to the shop to visit Jake during work to cheer him up. But unfortunately, she had her own work to do during that time and so did Jordan.
But now she just wished that he would be late just once so that she can return that pressed rose back to its rightful owner, a person she could only meet at night and probably in a sticky situation that might put her life at great risk.