Claws

Chapter Eleven

      "Alexis!" I get attacked by a ginger ponytail in a blue shirt.

"Hi, Jean. What's up?" I ask. She releases me and looks at my hat.

"You're hat's all smushed. So is your mask." She says, slowly scanning my attire. "Your gloves are all wrinkled too. What happened? You haven't looked like this since you were sleeping with this stuff on. That must have been what, a month ago?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I think less than that."

"You aren't sleeping with all this on again, are you? Because Adrian knows, and he doesn't care." Jean crosses her arms and concern fills her eyes.

"He helped out a friend last night. He's moving into our apartment building but the moving truck hadn't arrived yet so he needed a place to sleep for a night. Trust me, it was very confusing waking up with the mask on again. I thought the lights had been dimmed." I say. Jean relaxes and un-crosses her arms.

"Well, in that case, come on! I want to show you something." Jean replies eagerly. I tilt my head in confusion.

"Uh, okay, but- Jean!" I'm cut off by Jean grabbing my arm and pulling me along to her makeshift cubicle. As Buttercup greets me, Jean pulls a big box out from under the desk.

"Down, Buttercup. Now, Alexis, I was looking at some comics last night, and I realized every superhero has one thing in common."

"Superpowers?"

"No, even better. A cool costume! I realized I had some neat boots that don't fit anymore, but I thought they might fit you. Ta-da!" She finishes, pulling the lid off the box. I examine the contents warily.

"Boots?" For indeed, inside rest a pair of tall, jet black, high-heeled boots.

"Of course! Every girl hero has boots. I figured you should, too!" Jean squeals.

"Thanks, I guess. I just didn't expect to, you know, be serious about the superhero thing."

"Oh, phooey. That's even more reason! You can't cosplay without a costume!"

"Cosplay? What's that?" I ask. Jean laughs.

"Don't worry about it. Just use them next time, pretty-please-please-please?" Jean begs. I roll my eyes.

"That's fine, you goof. But come on, we need to get to work." I point out. "Just, as we're walking, try not to stir up to much dust."

We share a giggle and split.

It's Sunday, so I know that there will be more stuff to deal with, purely because it's most people's weekend. A lot doesn't happen until after eleven though, so calls are scarce. I devote my thoughts to James.

What do I think of James? He's friends with Adrian, so he can't be that bad, but I'm still scared of showing people under my mask. I hope Adrian doesn't invite him over for dinner or something, because that would be super awkward.

Honestly, the dark-skinned man makes me wary. He already dared Adrian to do something weird, and I'm not sure his curiosity won't get the best of him. I'm scared he'll wonder what's under my mask and not be content with my excuses.

I chide myself. I feel this way about everyone, so really, what harm can James do? I'll talk with Jean about it on our lunch break. Speaking of which, where's the break room around here?

I trudge back into our apartment still feeling a little uneasy. Jean said to give the guy a chance, or just ignore him, because it's not like we're living with him. I sigh. She's right, of course. I'm just getting hyped up over nothing.