Superheroes Suck

Chapter 25: It Was Raining Fire

I totally didn't know what to say to the girl whose heart my best friend had broken, the same girl who I had almost forgotten existed because of the craziness that is my life.

"So can you and I talk?" Ray asked hesitantly.

"I imagine you heard that Penn broke up with me." Ray glanced over my shoulder and then sheepishly looked down.

"Is that why you wanted to talk to me?" She had to know I could do nothing to get the two of them back together.

Penn was my best friend, and he listened to me to an extent. Now that I've had time to step back and really think about it, I think Penn was right. He didn't like Ray, at least not the way she grew to. They worked well together, but there is more to a relationship than how compatible two individuals are.

"Yeah, that is exactly why I came to talk to you." She stumbled over the words a little bit, until she found the way she wanted to phrase it. "Why..Do you?...Nova, did Penn tell you why he broke up with me?"

"Not in so many words, I think I have an idea." I said, "Why do you want to know? Do you not know?"

"I know why he broke up with me. Penn gave me a couple of reasons, but only one was the real reason."

I waited a moment to allow her to finish, but she continued to stay quiet. I wasn't sure what she was expecting from me. Maybe an "aha!" sort of moment, some sort of sudden realization to amp up the drama.

That didn't happen of course.

"What was the real reason?" I asked in a rather bored tone. Can you blame me though?

"Oh." her eyes widened in confusion. "Right, the reason Penn broke up with me was because he has been in love with you since Freshman year and he he was tired of denying it to everyone and himself."

Oh, well that was rather obvious. I felt a bit stupid for not putting that together, but that's probably because it's just so obvious. I mean I already had the whole angsty, "My best friend is in love with me" thing.

Murphy.

No, that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic on hand. Focus.

"I know, he told me." Actually Mary told me, I think Penn just asked me to the Mayor's ball. "How about we get to why we're having this talk."

"Are you and Penn in a relationship?"

"You mean are we dating? No."

"You're not dating?"

"No, I didn't really want that kind of relationship with him. He's my best friend, he's always been that to me. What do you actually want to know? I'd really like to get to class, it started a couple of minutes ago."

"You're dating Murphy then?"

"What?" Did everyone know? "No, no, Murphy and I are just...friends. Nothing more, we're not dating. Nope."

"Oh, I'm really sorry." She sighed and composed herself. "The truth is I want get back together with Penn. I wanted to give him room to breathe, and figure out what he was doing with you before I tried anything. Will you help me?"

"No." I shrugged and turned around to leave.   

Ray stood behind me completely shocked, just standing there for a few seconds before chasing after me. She looked genuinely pissed as she raced in front of me, and stopped me before I could continue further.

"Where are you going?" She looked outraged.

"To class." I tried to push past her but again she kept me from moving past her.