Superheroes Suck

Chapter 16: Too Serious For A Self-Referential Joke

I called Mary immediately afterward.

I had to talk to her. I needed her to help me make sense with the storm raging inside of me, all of the emotions and thoughts my talk with Murphy had stirred up.

Although I wanted to just talk over the phone, the urgency in my voice had her at the front steps of my door in ten minutes. She lives sixteen miles away.

I guess nothing can stop a teenage girl on a mission to aid her best friend, not even the speed limit.

"Nova, tell me that speeding over here was worth it." Mary grinned, sensing the enormity of the news that I had to share with them. "I almost got pulled over, I swear, but the cops know not to mess with me."

Mary's father was a cop so everyone was always lenient with her. She's usually a pretty dutiful driver so it's not often for her to be in trouble with the law, but it has happened.

"You didn't need to come over here." Mary didn't, and she knew that, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

She grasped my wrist and pulled me down to the couch, "Stop stalling and tell me what the hell had you so flustered."

If there was anything about Mary that you had no choice to admire, it was how she got straight to the point. With friends like Penn, who tends to soften the blows, and Murphy, who dances around the truth, I like that Mary is direct. Hell, I admire how Mary had the ability to be so straightforward.

"It was just Murphy." I paused, unable to describe the experience I had just had. "It was Murphy, not being Murphy and that in itself is weird."

"How so?"

"Murphy...he opened up to me. I never knew how much he cared about me." Murphy and I had been always butted heads but when I thought about it, that was just how Murphy and I worked. "He blew up at me after what happened to the other night but we talked, and I guess I didn't know how much Murphy cared about me."

"Seriously?" Mary started laughing. No matter how hard I tried, she wouldn't stop. Eventually, she came back, gasping for air as she clutched her side. She turned to me and stared straight into my eyes. "You didn't know how much Oliver cared about you? Are you blind?"

"I thought that Murphy and I put up with each other for Penn's benefit," I admitted honestly. "We fight constantly."

Mary seemed to enjoy how flustered I was. That little crinkle in her eyes told me so, it was something I had picked up as we became closer and closer.

"Nova, I think you mean Oliver puts up with Penn for your benefit." Mary laughed, grinning as she looked up at me. "It's funny that I haven't been friends with them as long as you have and I know things like this that you don't. Come on, you have to know you're the reason the two of them ever became friends."

"You're delusional if you think that, but we're not here to talk about how I became friends with the crazy daughter of my mother's favorite cop." My mother had saved her father's life after some villain left him bruised and battered in some alleyway. She's a doctor, "Talking with him today changed the way I look at Murphy, I realized a lot of things."

She squealed and pulled me tight. "So now you know?" Completely ignoring how confused her excitement left me, Mary fell back against the couch. "I am so happy that poor sucker let the cat out of the bag. I honestly thought you'd never figure it out, or did he admit it?"

What the hell is Mary talking about? I had never so confused by Mary, she doesn't really talk in riddles as I mentioned before. She had to realize I wasn't in on whatever she thought I was in on. "What are you talking about?"