Becoming Supergirl : Book 2 (The Superhero Series)

Chapter 23

Erik came back with two cups of steaming coffee, a couple of brownies decorated with nuts and two grilled sandwiches. Everything looked so delicious but appetite had vanished somehow. Reluctantly I had picked up the coffee cup but it never reached my lips, I was too lost in warily glancing at him.

His hairs were messed up, not from the wind but from running his hands too many times through them. Lips set in a frown he gazed off outside from the window beside the shelves. The sky was painted in the hues of twilight but the sight wasn't something you kept looking at. He always met my wary stares with a smile of his own, but not today. The silence between us was suffocating for the first time. Had I treaded to a uncharted territory of his life?

I couldn't un-hear what I had been told. There was no going back from here. My thoughts dropped when I heard Erik sigh, he dragged his gaze away from the window and finally, looked up at me.

"I over reacted." He said, running his hand through his hairs again leaving it completely out of the way he wore it always. "I haven't faced this topic for years. I'm sorry for being rude, you deserved none of it"

I didn't knew what to say in reply. Should I say sorry for something I didn't do? I never pried anyone for knowing about Erik's family. I was completely unknown to the fact that it was a sore topic for him. Should I say sorry for things out of my control?

I decided against it. "It's okay" I said, finally taking a sip of the coffee and placing the cup back on the table.

"I was sent to boarding school when I was sensible enough to understand that I didn't have a mother. I had a step mother though. I think I've met her probably six or seven times. However she's divorced from my father now. I can count on my hand how many times I've been home after I left for boarding. My vacations were either at my grandparent's place or at Xerxes'."

Just like the psychologist he's, he applied the theory of ripping off that band aid at one so that it hurts less, but he was still hurting. Badly. I wanted to reach forward and hold his hands. Provide some kind of comfort to him like he did every time I needed it but I couldn't. I don't know exactly what I lacked at the moment, my bet was on courage.

He looked away from me, staring off at nothing important. "You see I did nothing wrong Trinity, but I lost what's basic to people. Family and home." He had said before I rose up from the chair and wrapped my arms around him.

Courage is such a fickle thing.

He rested his forehead on my shoulder but never brought his arms around me. I could hear his deep breaths, feel his attempts to keep the emotions bottled up but his sorrow was so obvious. He missed someone he never knew. He had a home but he didn't belong there. He had everything, yet nothing. He had few reasons to smile, but he did.

Courage might have been a fickle rush for me but for him, it was an everyday thing.

He raised his head and I pulled away from him. I dragged my chair from my place, which was opposite to him and placed it beside his. However I sat facing him.

"Don't frown" He said as soon as he saw my face. "I'm thinking about settling over here. I already got an apartment which is getting furnished, so that homeless tag isn't sticking for long"

His optimism baffled me sometimes. I smiled, and he followed. "That wasn't easy" He said thoughtfully. "Now I know what my patients feel like when I make them speak"

I rolled my eyes and picked up my forgotten coffee cup. "Weren't you hungry?" I asked.

"Coffee kills your appetite. Have that later" With this he took away my cup of coffee and handed me the plate of sandwich. Overbearing male.

We left the cafe after an hour, heading towards Erik's apartment. It was probably a five minute walk from my house. I had no idea why I calculated it while waiting for the elevator. It was a seven storey building and Erik's apartment was on the seventh floor itself.

The ding of the elevator followed with Erik swiping some kind of a card to make the doors open. We stepped in to the apartment directly.

"It's furnished mostly, except the kitchen.  Some decorations are left too along with some furnishings. It'll take another month, I guess"

Wooden hues dominated the place, the walls the floor. A large television hung on one of the walls, a playstation sat below it. It took us five more minutes to go through the whole apartment. It wasn't a typical bachelor pad but it wasn't like a family home either. Moreover he didn't decorate it, Vlad decorated the whole thing and when I saw the hallway between his room and the guest room touched up with none but his mother's pictures, I knew why he had let Vlad do it.

"That's my grandma and grandpa, from my father's side"

I turned briefly to him before walking to the picture that hung above his desk. Erik sat over his grandpa's lap, busy in the attempt of snatching his specs while both of his grandparents posed for the photo. I turned to him again, trying to find the similarities between him and the toddler in the photo.

"Okay you can compare my face later" He laughed, reaching out for my hand and taking it in his.

He was pulling me towards the living room before I could react but with each step I could feel everything blur around me. It was as if I was hyperaware of his fingers around my palm. It was probably candid to him, something that happened in the spur of the moment but my heart was going haywire.

We crossed the kitchen and walked back to the living room. I slipped my hand out of his grip once it loosened a little. He didn't seem to notice. "Do you want to watch a movie?" He asked, turning around.

I schooled my expression with a smile quickly and nodded. I don't know if it was fast enough for him to not notice, it was Erik after all. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"What would happen to me?" I shrugged nonchalantly before walking towards the dvd stack and crouching down. I immediately spotted Ryan Guzman on one and took it out. "What's this about?" I asked.

Erik stepped forward and took the dvd from my hands. "Obsession." He said. "The bad kind of" He added.

"Great! We're watching him, I mean the movie"

Erik rolled his eyes and held the dvd up, away from me. "No we're not" He said.

"Erik!" I snapped. "It's Ryan Guzman!" I caught hold of his jacket and tried to bring his hand and the dvd down. However he would not budge. So I tried harder.

"Okay stop stop" He chuckled. "It has a very vivid intimate scene and I don't want you to get uncomfortable."

I opened my mouth to say something, but no sound came out. I cleared my throat. "Why don't you choose the movie?" I managed to choke out finally.

Erik raised his eyebrows, his lips set in a grin. "Okay" He said before swaggering over to the dvds.

I rolled my eyes and settled down on the couch. A while later Erik dimmed the lights and the tv screen came to life with the title of, Pursuit of Happyness.