Gotham Girls #1: Romance With Robin (Batman)

Chapter Two - What Flavour, Miss?

"Emerald! Are you alright?" Quentin asked me as I sat on the ground in tears. I couldn't take it anymore! My heart was breaking, my palms were clammy and my stomach was tying itself in knots. Everything in the world was so cruel, and things were becoming too hard to handle.

"Emmy! Are you okay?" my brother repeated himself, putting a comforting arm on my shoulder. Shaking my head, I pulled my knees closely to my chest, wrapping my arms around them and putting my head onto my kneecaps.

"What's wrong? Don't worry, Mum and Dad'll be home soon..." Quentin was a nice brother when he knew something was wrong. With me being the younger sibling, it seemed like he felt he should set a good example, but when his friends came over, I knew simply to stay out of the road completely... And off of the road completely.

"He... He couldn't have! It couldn't have happened! He left me! How could he do that! I loved him!" I cried through gobs of sobs. Quentin leaned forward a little and as soon as he saw the word 'Robin', he pulled back, taking his hand off of my shoulder.

"Oh my freaking God, woman! Get over him! What the hell do you see in him?! He's fictional! He's in your mind and that's all he'll ever be! You should be out enjoying life with friends, not sitting at home and contemplating possibilities for Batman and Robin to save a citizen!" Quentin's words were sharp and hurtful. Everything he said, I already knew, but hearing it from someone I cared about... and said like that... it was difficult to bear.

The tears that were starting to ease up tumbled down in another bout, this time the reaction for my brother's anger. I couldn't help it. I had just read about the Joker killing Robin, and in great detail. It felt like my entire world was falling apart. And then my brother goes and tells me that... I didn't know what to do.

**

I waited in my room, staring at my Batman and Robin posters on my wall. They were mainly from the Batman movies by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher; I could never find any other posters. I stared at Robin. Damn, boy! It's got to be ILLEGAL to be that hot!

A rap at the door interrupted my train of thought.

"Emmy? You okay? I'm sorry about before..." It was my brother's voice. I knew he was sorry, but didn't want to hear from him. It was too painful, and too soon.

Squeaking the door open, Quentin walked in and plonked himself onto the end of my bed, right next to me.

"Everything alright? I hope I didn't hurt your feelings too much, did I?" his words were somewhat sincere, but I had a feeling that there was something more behind his apology.

"What do you want, Quentin? You already shattered my dreams..." I sighed, looking up at my Robin poster once again. Even when I was in a bad mood, still sexy.

"Well, I feel bad about making you cry... Do you want ice-cream or something? Mum and Dad should be home soon enough. We'll be back before then, surely."

Ice-cream. Hmm... Deal made.

"Alright. Can I get whatever one I want? Including the..." I stopped talking and smiled at my brother evilly. He knew what I meant and sighed as soon as he realised that.

"Ye-e-es... You can get the Batman-block..." he agreed, rubbing my shoulder and standing up. It was official. I loved my brother.

"Thank you, Quency!" I exclaimed, jumping off of my bed and flinging my arms around Quentin.

"Don't call me that..."

Fair deal.

**

After our ten minute walk to the ice-cream parlour, I was feeling quite excited. A few people walking past the streets looked quite enthusiastic toward my own enthusiasm (though my brother told me to calm down since I looked like someone who had just gotten out of a mental institution).

"Hey! Quentin! How's it going?" Johno shouted to my brother. Johno was one of Quentin's best friends and we usually saw a lot of him, and I mean a lot. When he'd sleep over our place, he'd casually walk out in only his under-underwear. Sadly enough, I don't mean boxers.

Not pretty.

He was a cute enough guy, but personally, I only had my sights set on one guy whose name sounded more like Tim than Johno.

"Hey, Johno! What's up?" Quentin replied, giving him a 'man-hug' over the counter. With Johno working at the ice-cream parlour, it made our purchase of ice-creams a hell of a lot easier. We barely ever had to pay for it. The only thing that I found creepy was the fact that he was always smiling at me and winking.

His brown eyes made him look like a loyal puppy, and his shaggy, brunette mop didn't help the vision. His teeth were straight and white and his skin was slightly tanned. Like I said, he was a cute enough guy, but everything up top made you feel awkward when you were forced to see everything down below too.

"Hey, Emmy, how are you?" he asked, baring the corner of his mouth and winking. I doubted my brother even noticed it; he was too busy drooling over the various ice-cream flavours.

"I'm alright..." I mumbled in reply. Did I really have to talk to him? I would have much rather been at home than having a conversation with someone who's bits were always on display whenever my parents weren't home.

Johno looked at me as if he knew there was something on my mind; there was, but I didn't want to tell him that. Sadly enough, he was also a relatively good judge of character. Wiggling a slender finger from me to himself, he motioned for me to walk to him. I agreed, seeing as my brother was now too busy looking at the milkshake menu and praising the Lord.

"Em, are you really okay? I mean really," he asked, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. Just like my brother's.

"I'm fine..." I replied, looking down to the ground. My chin was being slowly lifted by a small amount of his strength, so that our eyes were looking right into each other's. He stared, making me feel uncomfortable about the situation, as well as the fact that I was, in fact, lying to him.

"Em..."

I hesitated for a moment before sighing loudly and falling into his arms, my eyes filling up rapidly with tears. Johno wrapped his arms around me, looked around the shop and then told my brother to get whatever he wanted. That was the moment I saw my older brother look like a little kid again.

**

"Em, what happened?" he asked, stroking my back once we arrived at the back room of the shop. It was right next to where all the ice-cream was kept, so Johno pulled out a tub of bubblegum ice-cream; he knew it was my favourite.

"I'm an idiot..." I mumbled as I tucked into the tub. I avoided contact altogether with Johno so that I wouldn't have to worry about going into detail as to why I was an idiot. But the bugger put his hand over my tub, stopping me from scooping up anymore ice-cream. The thought of attacking his hand with the spoon skimmed my mind once or twice during those awkward few seconds, but to no prevail.

"Fine... I'm an absolute, freaking idiot! I have been all my life! I'm so stupid! I mean, come on! I feel for a freaking fictional character! You know how many idiot have done that?! And what's going to come of it? Nothing! Like my brother says, I'll be eighty-seven and still unmarried, unloved and living with twenty six cats! Who wants to have even a second glance at someone like me... Robin is fictional. He's fictional, Jonathon! So, I guess that makes me mentally screwed-up!"

By now, the words, and tears, were falling on their own accord. I couldn't control anything that I was feeling or saying; I just felt and said it. I looked up finally at Johno, to see what he thought. He was just staring into my eyes, diligently thinking about what I said, before he finally set aside the tub of ice-cream and wrapped his arms around me. He was always there for us whenever we needed someone to talk to.

Little did I know that there would be a time when he wouldn't be able to...