Superheroes Suck

Chapter 31: That's a Shckr, I Know

Oops.

Penn's eyes glazed over as Mary alternated between pure joy and utter confusion as she gazed between Murphy and I. Murphy himself looked quite elated, sneaking glances at Penn every once in a while.

I wanted nothing more than to avoid this. I mean seriously, I hope I don't die again because I don't need another guy confessing his undying love to me just because I almost died again. It's like it makes me some sort of 'babe magnet' and I have enough guy problems to worry about as it is, I seriously don't want to add to that.

"Oh," was all Penn said before turning his gaze to Murphy.

"Oh," He repeated, turning his gaze back to me.

His eyes, those usually bright green eyes I knew so well, looked at me in utter betrayal. For a moment, the knowledge that I had betrayed my best friend stung. That is, until I got angry. Angry because watching him stare back at me, I knew exactly what that look in his said. He was angry and betrayed because he expected me to one day return his feelings. He looked like a child who didn't get a toy they thought they deserved for Christmas.

I said nothing in response, instead getting up to sit next to Murphy. I took Murphy's hand in mine, lacing out fingers together as I glanced over at Penn. I hate this, I just wanted my best friend to be happy for me. "Murphy and I are dating so be happy for us Penn."

Something in Penn switched, causing him to look away guiltily. "Sorry Noves, if you're really going to be happy with him then I'll deal with it."

"Thank you." Murphy squeezed my hand a little before we both turned our attention back to our friends.

The weekend remained relatively quiet for me. Murphy and I spent most of it confined to his home or back at the 'Hideout' trying to figure what their next step was. After what had happened a few chapters ago, the villains had gone dormant, like suspiciously dormant. Crime had gone down a whopping 25% and among those with powers, that number jumped to over 60% less crime. That could only mean they were planning something and it's going to be big and bad, worse than the attack a few days prior.

My mother was practically living at the 'Hideout' but gave her permission to stay with Murphy until she could arrange a more permanent solution. The Bureau wanted to declare our house and the land it stood on as an 'Active Super Crime Scene' which seemed completely unnecessary to me. They literally have to add the prefix 'super' to everything they did. That meant of course rebuilding our house was on hold for a while, especially because my father decided he wanted to contest ownership of the house.

The paperwork was all in my mother's name but...honestly I don't know. It was all legal mumbo-jumbo to me and I spaced out halfway through the lawyer's speech.

In the sphere of good news, I also started back at the Advocate, and was pleasantly surprised to find Harry was my new boss. He apparently ran the place in Trevor's absence and despite his young age, pretty much everyone respected him in the department.

He profusely apologized for Trevor's actions, which I appreciated. What I appreciated more was my new status, and the money was definitely going to come in handy. My mother took a short leave from the clinic, stressed about the house and the necessity of figuring out what was next from the villains. Money was a little tight at the moment, so a little extra cash is something we could use right now.

Most of my work was covering easy, fluff pieces like a book reading at one of the city libraries or some charity event. The most recent one was a charity walk a group of people organized for people who were injured or disabled as a result of someone with powers. A large part of their campaign was raising awareness for those injured because some Superhero was flying with them in their arms and they were dropped. That's one of the leading causes of Super-related deaths apparently.