Superheroes, Super Problems

*4* Identity

"It's physically impossible to kill the Cavalier," I heard a nerdy boy say at a table near mine at a very late lunch. I was nervous all day for Cavalier's sake more than my own. But the hope within this nerd was making me feel a little better. "That's how he got his name, like a play on KEVLAR vests because the kid is bulletproof."

"Who says he's a kid?"

"The Cavalier I've seen is definitely a man," the girl genius commented at their table. I felt a hint of wonder of how many windows the Cavalier could have snuck in the past year, but knew mine had been the only one.

"Whatever," the first guy grumbled.

"Hey," Leighton greeted as she sat down at my table. I returned the greeting, but continued picking at my food. The stress of wondering if the Cavalier was alive or if someone told his secret—whoever even knew his secret! "Okay, I haven't known you long but what's up?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"They took us off lockdown. There's no need to be on edge, dude," she tried to comfort.

"Yes there is," I snapped and she frowned. I sighed and felt my stress festering. I was about to explode, so I figured I could trust Leighton. "Can I tell you something?"

"What? Like you know the Cavalier's secret identity or something?" she laughed. I gulped and then looked down. "Amery, you don't—"

"No I don't know his secret identity," I whispered. "But I think I might know who it is and—"

"You have to tell someone!" she yelled and then I shushed her immediately.

"I can't," I hissed. She looked at me with wide, inquiring eyes. "I don't know if my suspicions are true or not and I'm not going to risk his life."

"If you aren't going to risk his life then why do you look like you're strung out?"

"I've kind of been...seeing Cavalier."

"What? Where?" she asked, looking around.

"No, not around school. I mean like...seeing," I elaborated. Her eyes widened.

"Oh my God. What—so you know who he is, then!"

"No, I don't," I whispered. "I mean not for sure, but last night he said something that—"

"Last night?" she raised an eyebrow. I shot her a dismissed look. "Okay, what did he say?"

"He said he couldn't be with me anymore because he wasn't good enough for me," I answered. She looked for an answer. "That's the exact same thing Sutter told me when we broke up."

"Okay, Sutter said that because he cheated on you, not because he was a superhero who didn't want to put you in danger every waking moment," Leighton laughed and then I realized just which speculated story she had heard about mine and Sutter's breakup. "That doesn't mean it's him. And even if it was, wouldn't you maybe want him turned in after what he did to you?"

"Sutter hurt me, yeah, but I don't want him killed because of it," I responded. "And now, I don't even know if it's really him because yeah I'm comfortable around Cavalier more than I was with Sutter, but I don't know, I don't feel the same with him than what I felt with Sutter. It's different but still familiar..."

"Well if it's different then maybe it's not Sutter," Leighton shrugged. "Any other guesses?"

As I thought, I began looking around and then my eyes fell upon the duo of students who were speaking together in the lunch courtyard. I found it odd because even though we were all eating a late lunch due to the lockdown, on a normal day, it would've been almost last period. So why would Declan come back to school? I watched him and Sutter converse in close proximity as if something was urgent, but from here, I couldn't see Declan's facial expressions. And then, he abruptly walked away from Sutter.

That's when I stood and looked down at Leighton. "I think I know who he is if it isn't Sutter."

***

It made sense. The summer of the Explosion was the same summer Sutter and Declan began hanging out more and more. I was sure more than anything Sutter had talked to Declan after we broke up and that's how he knew Sutter's exact words. And that's why Cavalier claimed that we couldn't be together. He wasn't breaking things off because he had some predetermined guess that Dagger would come after him, but he was true about his lying. He lied to his girlfriend Emma about a secret relationship. He lied to Sutter about being in relation to me (considering Sutter wouldn't even let Declan apologize to me in school). And more importantly, he had lied about who he even was to a whole city.

So when Declan departed from Sutter, I took another route to meet him at the locker hallway, considering his was two sections down from mine. I got there when he began opening his locker to put something into it, but when I approached him, he paused. He watched me and I saw his hazel eyes that were perfectly identical to Cavalier's. I was right to doubt they were contacts. I was right to feel familiarity when he looked at me and Leighton yesterday.

"We need to talk," I muttered to him. He looked into his locker briefly down at a duffel bag, but then he hesitated to close it while he looked down at the ground. His eyes flashed back to mine.

"I know," was all he said. His eyes wavered for a second and I think he caught on that I figured it out. "Look—"

"Hey, I've been worried about you all day," Emma suddenly appeared and touched his arm.

"Uh..." he stammered and glanced between us after immediately shutting his locker. Emma glared at me for a second before returning to Declan's presence. He suddenly shook his head and sighed. "We need to talk."

I choked up because I was the one telling him that and he was so quick to greet his girlfriend with it. I felt even worse seeing her grab his hand before he towed her off someplace. But just like yesterday when he got to the end of the corner, he gave me a reassuring look that seemed to linger longer than any public conversation we've ever had.

But lately short conversations spoke louder than anything else. It wouldn't matter if they didn't, even if it was a few words. Because that same night, Emma Prokop tweeted seven words that changed everything:

"I can't believe my boyfriend is a superhero."