Opposites Attract

Confrontations

That evening, I had to stop off at home to drop my stuff off before work. I hadn't spoken to anyone since lunch, neither Will nor any of the others. And I continued not to speak to Will as we made our way home. Once we'd dropped Layla off, and I'd sent a silent smile her way, nodding to her 'call me' gesture, we continued down the street. Will rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He opened his mouth to say smething but I shot him a look and he shut it again.

It didn't take long to get to our house, but when we did, Will rushed ahead to open the door for me. But with his newfound superstrength, he accidentally pulled it off its hinges, and had to awkwardly place it inside. Where I would've usually laughed, I didn't even crack a smile... But I didn't look half as annoyed as Mum did, standing on the other side of the threshold. 

"So kids, anything interesting happen at school today?" she inquired eyebrow raised and arms crossed.

"Uh... Well, as you may have noticed, I got my powers today," Will said, lifting her off her feet to show his strength.

"I know- the Principal called," Mum replied shortly.

"Look it's not as bad as it sounds," Will stammered, "It's actually a really funny story," he tried to laugh.

"You nearly destroyed the cafeteria," Mum shot him down. 

"Yeah but Mum! I got my powers!" Will defended.

"And do you know how to use them wisely?" she shot back.

Then Dad appeared in the entranceway, his lips in a straight line.

He pointed at Will and said, "Sanctum. Now."

Deflating, Will did as he was told, and followed Dad into the Sanctum. I tried to get past Mum, but she wasn't having it.

"Don't you think you're off the hook young lady- there are hundreds of different ways you could have handled the situation that would have turned out better than it did. And- oh, honey," she cooed as she saw the beginnings of tears beginning to streak down my face.

If there's one thing I loved about my Mum, it was that she could read me like a book- she knew exactly how I reacted, and this was not what I usually did in response to being yelled at.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked, pulling me into a hug.

I couldn't hold the tears back anymore, and soon her blouse was soaked at the shoulder as I sobbed into it. 

"I'm so stupid," I choked out between sobs.

"Oh honey, you're not stupid- it was just a mistake- you were just trying to help your brother-"

"No, not that... Well that was stupid, but that's not why I'm so annoyed at myself," I replied.

She nodded, waiting patiently until I was ready to share the whole story. After a few more tears, I finally calmed down a bit.

"It's Warren. I thought we were on the same page- I thought we were on the edge of actually being friends- we'd made so much progress since Save the Citizen Training, and now it's all down the drain again, because he was just horrible today, Mum- he was really, really horrible," I sobbed, and she rubbed my back soothingly, waiting for me to continue.

So I told her everything- everything I'd been holding back. I told her about seeing him at the Paper Lantern the first time and forgiving him, I told her about that first Mad Science class when he said he didn't want me to become a target for anyone by being friends with him, I told her about standing up for him to Will and the others that lunch time, I even told her that he was my new co-worker at the Paper Lantern, and that we had the same shifts.