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

Chapter Fourteen - Decisions

“You’re Dick’s best friend, aren’t you?” My head dropped in a sudden thought and I realised how stupid I had been not to notice it. “That’s why you’re always standing up for him...”

Nightwing wrapped a gentle arm around me before pulling me into his embrace, making tender noises for me to calm down. “It’s fine. Everything’s fine...”

“He must hate me... Oh God. I feel so stupid... I mean... At school, and now... I’m an idiot...” Tears fell from my eyes, but I made sure Nightwing couldn’t see them, though I was more than sure he could feel them. Suddenly, I felt myself being pushed away and instinctively made the decision to lower my head, so Nightwing couldn’t see my tear-streaked face.

“Lani, he doesn’t hate you. He knows that you understand what happened between him and ‘Female Cow’ was purely professional, and he regrets it.”

I looked down at his stomach, unsure where else to look as I thought about what had just been said. “You sound like some kind of advisor or something.” Gently, I punched his arm before running off and jumping onto my king-sized bed, hearing the ex-Boy Wonder make a comment about the déjà vu he was feeling then.

“Is it a good feeling, or a bad feeling?” I struck a seductive pose before giggling and rolling back onto my pillow, staring at the ceiling. I heard his footsteps come closer to me and tensed a little as he sat on my right. His right arm moved to my other side, so I was in the space between his limb and the rest of his body, feeling awkward.

“It’s an amazing feeling...” His eyes narrowed at me, not angrily but lovingly, as though he didn’t want this moment to end, but it was making me feel wrong. I shouldn’t have been doing what I was doing. Even though Dick had entirely lost my trust, I wasn’t going to do the same thing back to him, no matter how much I wanted to and especially with the blue Boy Wonder.

“Stop,” I said, “I can’t do this.” Nightwing immediately stopped, seeing as that was the kind of guy he was, but it was obvious he was a little disappointed nonetheless.

“I understand...” His arms retreated and he sat up straight, the blue of his eyes growing duller as he began to stand. I wanted to tell him that I was sorry, that Dick deserves what he gets, but something inside of me stopped me – the knowledge that I would have been doing the wrong thing. “I’ll see you tonight.”

I watched after him with sorrow and slight anger. Why couldn’t I have done things differently, so that all this mess wouldn’t have happened? Why did I have to meet Dick Grayson, and have my heart broken by him? The anger cascaded through me and I realised the next time I was at school, things would not go too well.

~~~.~~~

“Leilani... Leilani! Are you listening to me?” I blinked repeatedly, looking over toward Mr Claymont, my Math teacher. He was the husband of Mrs Claymont, and they both thought well of me, but sometimes, I just wouldn’t be able to think in class, so I’d stare out into space, not concentrating at all on what was happening. I guess one of those moments just happened.

“Oh, uh, I’m sorry, sir...” I mumbled, looking up at him as I stared at the blank piece of paper in front of me. The entire period had passed and I hadn’t written anything. But luckily, the bell rang to save my day.

As the class scattered out into the corridors, an unfortunately familiar face appeared next to me, following me to my locker.

“Hey,” Dick greeted me, a wide smile on his face. How could he be so happy about what he had done? I mean, really? He’d just knowingly cheated on his girlfriend of sorts and now, he was as happy as a kid at Disneyland!