kent

spiderman

“Explain to me why you need to use cellphones when you can communicate telepathically?” Clark asks Carly. They are sitting on the floor of his living room, a pizza in between them, and The Amazing Spiderman plays on the TV. It’s a Sunday night. The two are scheduled to have a day off tomorrow, so they take advantage of the three-day weekend. They decide to chill indoors and watch a movie, as best friends should.

Carly’s pizza hovers in the air while she texts a response to Genesis. She chews on the hunk of cheese and bread in her mouth, and tries to talk around it, wanting to appear like she has some form of etiquette. “More efficient. Telepathic communication doesn’t work well long distances. Plus, you can’t telepathically use emojis. It just doesn’t work that way.”

He rolls his eyes, “Of course. Who are you texting again?”

“Genesis. Isaac. He just asked to hang out. The kid’s too spontaneous for his own good. He only asks me on a whim.” Still, the weather is nice out, and Carly forces herself to turn down the invite to stroll through Central Park

“This so-called kid is twenty, in case you’ve forgotten,” Clark reminds her, chomping through a second slice of pizza. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him that I was busy hanging out with another doofus, of course.” She puts her phone down and takes up her pizza. She looks at him across the slice, wishing that this was more than just hanging out. However, Clark is too busy paying attention to the screen to notice her gaze.

Carly pulls her knees to her chest. “You need to buy the second one. I think the second is better.”

“Hold on. Why do I have to buy it?” Clark asks. “Why don’t you buy it?” he asks, jabbing his index finger in the middle of Carly’s forehead.

“Apparently saving New York doesn’t pay as well as you would think.”

“And you think bagging groceries pays well?” Clark asks, reaching for a third slice. He eats fast, but his metabolism acts faster, so despite the inhaling of food, his general appearance is still rather skinny. But maybe Carly’s point of view is still reminiscent of their first encounterance. Now, sinewy muscles trace his arms, not enough to appear intimidating, but enough to give him that generally pleasing, athletic glow.

“Maybe you should slow down on the pizza,” Carly suggests, wanting more slices for herself. It is tiring work to defend a city of over eight million, so she feels like she deserves at least an equal share.

“No way. Season starts up next week. This is my last chance to eat like a pig without coach yelling at me. Plus, all that running and all this greasy food? I don’t really want my puke to be all over the basketball court. I will cherish this fast food while it lasts.”

Between seventh grade and senior year, it seems that Clark has not stopped growing. At first, his height combined with his scrawniness had made him easy pickings for the middle school vultures. Girls would look at him, and then look at each other, and laugh. Carly supposes that girls still do that, but now it is more in the not-so-secret style where they bite their lips and squeal a little internally. Some do not even attempt to hide their reactions, their hands fan their faces in attempts to stop the flood of feelings. Carly can’t seem to put a finger on when this behavior first started cropping up, but now this reaction to Clark is the norm. She cringes, as she compares herself to his little fans, swooning and fawning over all things Clark Kent, because she sadly hasn’t fared any better.

Carly finds it weird to think about. Five years ago, they had sat in front of his television set, and Clark had been worse off than a nobody. Nobodies can hide in the shadows, away from eyes probing for flaws. Nobodies only suffer by being forgotten. But the thing with Clark, is that he could never be a nobody. At least not in the eyes of Carly. Somewhere beneath the messy hair and dorky glasses. Under his namesake t-shirts and fingers calloused from writing cramped notes on lined paper, Carly had somehow felt that Superman would show himself. No, he has always been too remarkable for common comprehension. Even now, with all his popular glory, Carly wonders how many people actually get him in the way that he deserves.