Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Setting the Stage.

So apparently I drew out the wrong tiger. I hate when that happens.

Molly grabbed my arm before I got far from her. "What do you mean 'stay here'? What stupid thing are you going to do now?"

"It means what it means, now I need to go," I said, trying to get her hand off me.

"The bathrooms are over there, mister," she hissed, yanking me closer to her. "Whatever it is that's going on, I'm in."

"You're in way over your head." I finally peeled her hand off my arm and took a step back. "This isn't your field of expertise."

"Oh and what, it's yours and Ben's field?" She asked, gesturing at Ben.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ben ditching his date too but in a more civilized manner than I did. I sighed and shook my head. "Let's just say I'm allowing him to be there. I don't want to lose you, Molly, so stay back." Did I just say that out loud?

"You what?" She asked, looking confused and shocked by what I just said. I guess that makes both of us.

Maybe I should just play it off, pretend like I never said that. "If something goes wrong, keep everyone safe." With that, I turned from her and left, resisting the urge to kiss her forehead one last time. I guess when you're entering a life or death situation it makes you do or say things you only dreamed about. Not that I would think about kissing her. On the cheek. Okay, so this got tremendously awkward.

Moving along.

I was just about to push my way out the door and make my way to my element, the roof when someone grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. Again? Seriously, Molly?

"Coal? What are you doing here?"

My eyes widened as Charlie and Elora were suddenly before me, maskless and dressed the complete opposite of what City Sweeper and Catastrophe were dressed as. I quickly looked behind Charlie and found them still dancing, eying me suspiciously every few seconds.

I looked back at Charlie and Ellie, confused. "Um. I'm here." I shook my head. Nothing was computing or making sense, I was so confident that Elora was City Sweeper, but now she's standing right in front of me with CS in my line of sight. My mind was racing and spinning making it incredibly difficult to form a witty response.

Well at the very least, Ben can now say that Charlie isn't City Sweeper.

"Hey Charlie," Ben said, pushing back his mask and grinning at them. "And Elora, right?"

She immediately smiled and shook his hand eagerly, a blush just tinging her cheeks. "Yes, you can call me Ellie though, everyone calls me Ellie."

I looked back to Charlie, who I noticed was straight-faced and solemn looking. I know I can be dramatic and seriously over exaggerate things the majority of the time, but I did not want to leave this world on bad terms with my only friend I've ever had. I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me to a dark corner.

"Lay off, man!" Charlie said, shrugging my grip off his arm and giving me a weird look. "What do you want?"

"I need to tell you something."

Charlie cocked an eyebrow. "You mean you're going to open up to me? I thought you only trusted yourself?"

I clenched my jaw. "I've learned not to trust anyone, okay? I know you may think I come from a great family and all, but everyone I've ever known has let me down in some way, so I just stopped trusting people. I'm learning, okay?"