what is a hero? (BxB)

Chapter 23 Secrets

***Another week of still not having left the house and another chapter for your reading pleasure. I don't have much to say this week seeing as nothing can really go on with the current state of the world but I'll be seeing you all next week, so, enjoy :)***

The windows of the volvo were cranked open a bit, it was oddly warm today. The breeze was nice. My longer hair on the top blew randomly in the wind. I'm actually surprised I haven't been told to change my hair back to its natural color. I haven't exactly seen anyone else who's dyed there hair an unnatural colour, and the fire red I dyed mine isn't exactly subtle. I ran my figure though my hair out of habit. It immediately got blown around from the breeze again.

I had my neck bent down farther than was comfortable, holding my phone in my hand as I scrolled through google. I had been trying since I got in the car to figure out what kind of information was out there about Z, if there was any at all. However just typing in vigilante gave me some results, I guess she's more well known that I thought.

There were some blurry pictures that came up and some forums that seemed dedicated to her. I also stumbled on an old blog, it didn't seem to be active anymore but it was the earliest dated thing I could find that seemed to mention her, not by name of course. It seemed people had coined the name 'obsidian' for her. I saw it all over the forums too. I did notice that they were calling her 'he' though. I can't blame them, I did the same until I actually properly met her, and even then I wasn't sure until Kona referred to her with her pronouns.

"What are you looking at? You look like you're about to get sucked into the phone hunched over like that." Uncle Mike laughed a bit at his own... dose that even count as a joke? I sat up a bit straighter.

"I met someone... I think they're a vigilante." I chose to leave out the other options of what she might be. I expected to hear Mike have something to say about what I had just told him but it was quiet. I looked up when I felt it had been too long. He had a serious kind of expression on his face as he looked forward and my stomach tightened, though I didn't know why.

"What...?" He breathed out deeply though his nose.

"Is it Obsidian?" I was speechless for a minute, despite a long list of things fling past my mind of what I wanted to say.

"Wait... you knew? You knew there was someone out there that might be like me and you never said anything? How long have you known? What the hell?"

"They're not like you, and I wouldn't call them a vigilante ether. They just hurt people." He still looked so serious but I was barely containing my anger now.

"You can't just tell me stuff like that and not explain. Do you know them? Did they do something to you?" I was so confused, I know that I only really met her once, and sure she's rough around the edges but I'm not exactly a ray of sunshine ether. I watched how she acted around Ahe though, and she didn't want to let me leave until my wounds had been taken care of. The silence was suffocating and I could hear my own heart beating.

"We can talk about this more later, you have to get to school and I have work so I can't sit in the car talking to you about this." The car came to a stop and I knew we were stopped at the entrance of the school. The sound of the car still running didn't drown out my heartbeat. I just stayed sitting there in the stew of anger and confusion that had culminated in this car, burning holes into the side of my uncles face as he just stared ahead, waiting for me to get out. He really had to drop all this on me right now huh, fantastic.

I pushed the door open with more force than I should have, throwing my bag over my shoulder before slamming it shut. He drove off almost immediately and I just stood there for a while, giving myself some time to calm down. I closed my eyes and took in a deep slow breath, held it for five seconds, and then breathed it out just as slowly. I learnt that one online a long time ago. I repeated this a couple more times.

"Praying? I didn't take you for the religious type." I breathed out a bit quickly and opened my eyes after a moment of delay. Lex was really picking his time to poke at me.

"Is this what you do for fun?" I ask, still feeling the residual irritation from the car.

"What? Bother you? I haven't done it nearly enough to call it something I do. But I'll make sure to work on changing that, I'm sure in no time it will be something I do for fun." His sarcasm seemed to still be perfectly intact.

"You have a lot of free time don't you."

"Wouldn't that be nice if it were true, but I actually have a meeting to get too." He started walking past me and up the steps of the school. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at me, but somehow, it felt different than last time. "See you later."

"What do you..." I don't know why but I impulsively found myself wanting to talk to him a little longer. "What do you do exactly anyway? You have meetings here but, for what?" He stopped and turned around to face me again, a glint in his eye that I couldn't quite describe. He glanced down at my camera that was hanging around my neck before looking back at me.

"Thinking of writing an article on me are you?" That was actually a great excuse, somehow I had a feeling that if I said I was just curious he'd interpret it as something else.

"If I am? Would you let me interview you?" He smiled again.

"Sure, why not. I'll have someone get in contact with you to discuss the details. I do have to go now though." He started heading up the stairs again. "Goodbye for now, Mr. Journalist." Huh, that was easier than expected. Maybe working for the school paper would turn out to be a good thing in the end, it's a good excuse to look into stuff without seeming suspicious. I looked down and picked up my camera in my hand. My little hobby from ages ago was turning out to be more useful than I could have anticipated.

The school bell rang and I grabbed my phone out of my pocket to check the time. I didn't realize how long I had been standing there. I shoved my phone into my pocket and headed up the steps, ready to walk into whatever today had in store.