Gotham Girls #2: Nights For Nightwing (Batman) [Watty Awards 2014]

Chapter Thirteen - Friends

My mind was reeling as I thought back to what I had just experienced – why the hell would Dick do something like that? He had told me that he wasn’t interested in her, and, if anything, he implied that he was somewhat scared of her as well! And now, there he was, making out with her in the middle of the cafeteria.

I stormed back to the main classroom, tears raging a war in my mind as I struggled to refrain from crying. However, it must have been obvious that I was upset because as soon as Trent saw me, he ran up and threw his arms around my stomach in an attempt to cheer me up.

“Lani, what happened?” he whispered to me, rubbing my back reassuringly before pulling away, his lush eyes shining in the faux light. I pulled him closer and pressed my face against his collarbone, knowing that I was going to cry no matter what I did. It seemed he had the same feeling so he grabbed my hand and pulled my outside, where no one was sitting. Everyone had been too interested, and disappointed, in finding out who would be Romeo and Juliet, as well as the secondary characters, that they were still all huddled in the one classroom. Well, everyone apart from Trent, Dick, Phoebe and I.

When we reached a quiet area, a small, open space surrounded by tall trees that blockaded the view into where we were, Trent guided me gently toward a sole, wooden bench and asked me to sit down. Immediately I listened and the tears fell from my eyes in rapids, without shame, seeing that Trent was the only one with me.

“Lani, please. What happened?”

Trent smiled at me, his pale skin wrinkling at the corners of his mouth. I had never really noticed just how cute he was when he was being caring, which was almost all of the time. It was a thought that cheered me up at the same time that it made me feel worse.

“Dick... He... Phoebe and him...” I began stuttering, feeling stupid for even thinking about it – Dick wasn’t even my boyfriend but already, I was jealous like an insecure, little schoolgirl. “I’m sorry... It shouldn’t matter...”

Suddenly, a slight shiver set in as the air above us grew darker. It was getting late, and school had finished quite a while ago. We only stayed to find out the cast of the play, and now that we were out of luck with that, the idea of leaving sounded good.

“Lani,” Trent said to me, pulling my head to face him, “you are beautiful... No matter what they say. Words can’t bring you down.” His voice changed into a sing-song tone and I felt myself giggling at his attempt to cheer me up. This was why he was a good friend of mine. I didn’t know what to say, apart from I had to go, unfortunately. But before I left, I kissed his cheek, guiding him back to the school campus before we split up and went our separate ways.

~~~.~~~

When I arrived back at the manor, I was immediately greeted by a parental and somewhat intrigued Mr Wayne, who stood in front of me, attempting to hide a smirk.

“You’re late.”

I nodded and tried walking past him, but he simply grabbed my arm, forcing me to face him. With no idea what was going on, I started feeling really nervous. We’d never talked properly and I wasn’t entirely sure if I was in trouble or not. It seemed that he read my mind, because he worked up a smile and nodded reassuringly, telling me not to worry.

His masculine grip led me toward the main lounge room and I sat down in one of the loveseats that he had lying about in the room, which was absolutely massive. My heart was racing at first, but it soon slowed down a little, realising that I wasn’t going to die from a lecture.

“Look, I know you’ve been here a while now, and I know I haven’t been the most parental guardian, but I thought maybe we could try and change that. Tell me what’s on your mind.”