Big City Hero UNOFFICIAL BOOK TWO

Chapter Thirty-Five: Goodbye.

Charlie's P.O.V one month later:

If Coal Black were still alive, he would have punched my arm for not going to his funeral. He would have gone on a long rant about not going there to comfort Molly, or his parents and sister, and he would have called me a terrible lame excuse for a best friend, and I would have to get him food to cheer him back up.

Except, dead people don't eat, they don't rant to their best friend, and they certainly don't punch people.

It's been a month since the funeral, since the unbelievable news that shattered my world. I never realized how much I counted on that doofus being around with his constant complaining about needing food or that person I could always joke around with. It was like a Coal shaped hole was missing in my life, and there was no way to fill it.

It kills me every single day, every single time I walk past his apartment or walk into his office in HQ. Or every time I'm with Marie.

I have a feeling that if Coal were still alive, he would have punched me even harder for taking his sister out on a first official date last night.

She may be Coal's twin and share some similar personality traits, but Marie Black is definitely crazier. Even with his death, she still finds a way to lighten up every heavy moment. And even though we've only been on one date, I can't help but wonder where this can go.

There was a knock at the office door, breaking me out of my thoughts and making me come back mentally to HQ. "Yeah, come in!"

Ben opened the door, and walked in, closing it behind him. "Hey, Charlie."

"Hey, what's up?"

He walked up to the desk and set a permanent power disabler down. "I took that from Red months ago."

I frowned. "Why did you take it? You know you have access to whatever you want."

"I took it because I was going to use it on myself when I was going to officially resign from superhero work."

"What?" I asked, standing up and staring at Ben. "Dude, you can't do that! I forbid you from taking your powers away or from resigning!"

Ben shook his head and crossed his arms. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Ben, we talked about this already, we're friends, and friends tell each other what to do. Don't you know anything about friends?"

"Besides Betty, I've never had a friend so excuse me if I don't like you telling me what to do." He huffed loudly and let his arms drop back to his side. "And I've already decided what I'm going to do."

"And what is that, idiot?"

He flinched. "I'm not an idiot."

I smacked my forehead and closed my eyes. "Coal should have warned me about how shallow you are. Idiot doesn't mean idiot. It just means you're acting like an idiot."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Shut up. What are you going to do, then?"

Ben sighed. "I'm staying as Second-In-Command."

"It doesn't sound like that's what you really want."