L-Gym

Chapter 3 - Gossip and Family Drama

"Hey, Lena, hey, hey."

Looking up from her lab computer, Lena smiled at her friend. "Hey, Winn, what's up?"

"Did you see this Supergirl pic?" Winn held out his phone.

Hand held in front of her protectively as she looked away reflexively, Lena said, "Whoa, there! What are you showing me?"

"Supergirl was in a fight with three aliens on Monday night. The Gazette got this awesome pic of her. See?"

Turning back hesitantly, Lena glanced carefully before seeing it was a newspaper picture and then looking head on. It was a fairly decent picture of her just having landed a roundhouse punch into the chin of one of the aliens. His...her? His, Lena nodded, his head was snapped back, eyes rolled back into his head and spittle flying out of his maw, as he was unconscious before he'd hit the pavement. These things were tough, but Supergirl was tougher.

With a lopsided grin, Lena nodded. "That is a good picture. I...uh, I like it. She looks pretty good."

"What!? She looks amazing! She always looks amazing. Look at those muscles, those eyes, that hair, that cape!"

"The cape?" Lena adjusted her glasses looking back down at her system as she spoke. "You like the cape?"

"Uh, yeah. The boots too. The boots are hot, but the cape makes a statement, don't you think?"

"I think it provides stability and helps her corner. It's more than an aesthetic."

Looking at the image in his hand, Winn scrunched up his face. "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense I guess. Good thinking. Did you catch any of the fight on the TV?"

"Definitely not. I'm not the fangirl that you are, though." She began to type again.

"Yeah, why not?" Winn leaned on Lena's desk, edging into her space. "You seemed to be pretty into Superman, but you're like the total opposite of interested in Supergirl. How come?"

"I'm just not, that's all." Lena shrugged.

"Yeah, but why? You and I always talked Superman stuff before, but now that we have our very own local Super, you're like disinterested. It's weird. I know it's not 'cause she's a girl, 'cause you like girls. I've seen you looking."

Fingers stilled over the keyboard, Lena looked up at her friend. "You've seen me looking? What is that supposed to mean?"

"At girls. I've seen you looking." When Lena didn't react, he smiled. "It's not a big deal, you know. We all have our thing. This is California. It's really liberal here. Who cares if you like girls? Your sister is gay, isn't she?"

As understanding dawned and her eyebrows rose, Lena asked, "You think I'm gay?"

"Not necessarily. I'm not trying to label you. It's pretty obvious you aren't straight." Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, Winn asked, "Are you all right?"

"I...yeah. It's obvious?"

"It's cool. You know that right? Like I said; we all have our thing."

"And what's your thing?"

Standing again, Winn looked down at his phone. "Superheroes. If I ever met one in real life, I'd be in love. I'd be completely in love. How could you not be for someone who gives up so much of their life for others? They have to be the most amazing anybodies in the world, right?" He smiled over at her again.

"I...I think they're just people. You're reading too much into it."

"I think they're amazing. You should give them more credit. Like Supergirl, if I ever met Supergirl I'd tell her that—"