Why the world doesn't need Super Heroes

Chapter Two - Keeping Up Appearances

"So anyway, how was your break?" I had been scarcely paying attention but Mike was one of those guys who could talk under water and thought the world hung on his every word so any lack of attention on my part went unnoticed.
"Yeah alright." I hedged, vague as usual whenever asked about home, "the folks are alright, my sister had a lot of homework," I nodded adding "High School," by way of explanation.
"What kind of high school gives out homework over summer?" Katelyn's fingers crossed the back of my shoulders as she moved down into the seat behind me, her arm resting about my waist. She kissed me on the cheek and I murmured a greeting my attention snapping to. "No love for your girlfriend?" She pressed so I turned smiling at her and pecked her cheek quickly.
"You'll have to forgive my boy Alex," Dylan reached across his own plate, which was empty, to mine and stole a fistful of chips, "he's not really here today, are you mate?"
I apologised and pushed my plate towards him, I didn't really like cold chips anyway. "You know how it is when the holidays end," I joked pulling a smile across my face in what I hoped didn't appear fake, "sometimes you need a holiday from your holiday,"
"I hear that," Mike took that as an invitation to continue his play by play of how many girls he'd hooked up with over summer and my mind wandered back to the day Jen and Liam had dropped me back on campus.
*
I'd waited on the side of the road for a full minute staring at the little piece of paper with the seemingly random note Jan had gone to so much trouble to give me without being seen.
"What does that even mean," I caught myself muttering before I felt a hand on my shoulder and I spun to see Dylan standing there with his gym bag over his left shoulder, his face flushed.
"Sexting?" He snorted and I dropped my phone with the scrap of paper into my jacket pocket where it clicked against something that shouldn't be there.
"Sexting? Who would I be sexting? When you get yourself a new girlfriend, maybe I'll have someone to sext," I recovered artfully, he laughed and punched me in the arm.
"What about Katelyn?"
"We don't sext," I laughed and we started towards he dorms, "we live in this world where we aren't teenagers,"
"Suit yourself, but you're missing out," he grinned,
"What are you doing at the gym?" I waved my security card at the security gate and we started up the metal steps that shook and echoed with every step, not great for the suitcase wheels either, "Summer is over, no one cares what you look like anymore," reaching the landing I managed to slip my hand into my jacket pocket. Fumbling around I find a small hard object under my phone.
"That's rich coming from Mr. Man," he poked me keenly in the ribs and I skilfully danced out of his reach, "I never even see you at the gym, but you've got to be spending more time there than I do,"
I laughed half heartedly at his joke but it was all I could do not to admit to him that after my last gym class as a student of the Olympus Project I hadn't set foot in another gym, I hadn't noticed a decrease in my physical fitness though and while my parents constantly worked out, they'd never once made a suggestion that I might be slacking off.
"Fine keep your secrets," Dylan misunderstood but I was happy for it, "you know as well as I do that it's a lifestyle, not a summer hobby," with that he peeled off as his corridor came up on the left. I continued down the hallway to the right. Dorm room seven hundred and twenty-one. First door on the right hand corridor on the second level of dorm building seven.
Waving my keycard at the security panel the door issued an audible click and the door swing wide. I hefted my suitcase through the opening and pulled the door shut solidly behind me.
Drawing the little object out of my pocket once I felt I had a degree of privacy I turned it over in my hand. It was small, quite small, but heavy and unmarked. I thumbed a line that wrapped around one end and a small cap fell off.
It was a compact USB. Did people even use these anymore? The lights in my dorm turned on as I moved through the room and blinds and shutters turned up letting in the afternoon sunlight.
As a security precaution I knew that the glass was one way only and from the outside my window looked greyed out the same as any other room when the lights were out and the shutters closed. Beyond that a myriad of other security features in my room meant that I couldn't really be sure that at any given time I wasn't being watched. I was used to that having grown up at the Olympus Compound though and nonchalantly dropped the USB into the pocket of my jeans before removing my jacket and tossing it on the bed.
*
"Hey Lex, here's that adapter you wanted," Mike remembered suddenly, throwing a small black cable at me, my hand automatically snatched it out of the air.
Dylan whistled, "ten out of ten for perfect reflexes," he watched me hastily pocket it, "what even was that?"
"The grammar exam you failed in third grade," Katelyn shot back and him and Mike laughed. Dylan smirked.
"Thanks," I said to Mike and he shrugged with a smile.
"You guys going to that rally tonight?" Katelyn asked and every last modicum of interest seemed to leave Dylan's face.
"Pass," Mike responded quickly and I shrugged without a word.
"Who cares, really?" Dylan added stretching as if the idea of taking pat in the rally made him uncomfortable.
"You might be when your parents finally cut you off and you're earning your own money," she shot back at him and he held both of his hands up waving them about dramatically.
"Lex, I thought you told your girl here that I don't do scary stories?" He joked and this time I did laugh.
"This is serious you lout," Katelyn added though she too was laughing and it didn't seem to be as serious as she might have hoped to communicate, "Income taxes have never been this high and we all know where it's going-"
"I'll come with you," Mike spoke over her. Dylan looked at him, his own face incredulous, "but I can't stay for the whole thing," he added and this seemed to placate her.
"Fine," she nodded though I could tell she was hoping this once I might join her. We kissed and she almost skipped away.
Mike elbowed me on his way part hissing, "you owe me," the two were across the common area and out of sight quickly.
"Screw that, who cares about politics," Dylan stoke the last of my cold chips and swallowed them almost without chewing, "I'm going to the gym, this is too much nerd from me,"
"I've got some things to-"
"No way, I knew you wouldn't join me," he huffed clicking his tongue and looking genuinely put out, "one day I'm going to find out what superhero routine you're on,"
I stopped breathing at his words. He couldn't know. I had never told anyone, I wasn't allowed to in any event.
"Maybe not quite superhero," he muttered and I released my breath realising it was just his choice of wording, "COSMOS, now that guy was a beast, but you keep doing what you're doing and you'll get as far as any of us normal guys"
He smirked and sauntered off and I could feel my pulse slowing. No one could find out I'd come from the Olympus Project. Katelyn was the only one in my immediate group of friends who actively protested the project but I knew if she ever found out it was only a couple of hours from campus, she'd be along the first to come banging down the doors.
Without getting up I reached into the pocket of my jeans to pull out the adapter, it looked pretty new and unused but apart from that just a simple cable. I drew the USB out of my jacket pocket and sized it up against the adapter, a perfect fit. I still couldn't plug it into any of my devices though. That would just be stupid, and I knew better.