"Not Exactly Normal to Being With"
Title: Not Exactly Normal to Begin With [1 of 3]
Author:: queenitsy
Pairing/Character: Will/Warren/Layla (Warren POV)
Rating: PG
Summary: Warren has a revelation about Will, and copes with it.
Spoilers/Warning: Um, the movie?
Note: Beta read by the fabulous harmonyangel, who rocks hardcore. My first Sky High fic; feedback welcomed and loved.
I tucked the fortune into my pocket, popped the cookie into my mouth, and ignored the looks my best friends were giving me. They'd both read their fortunes aloud; I didn't feel like sharing. I had done quite enough sharing over the last couple days, really.
Though the fortune did leave me feeling kind of happy, kind of relieved. It was surprisingly accurate, too.
"Are you going to spill or not, Warren?" Will asked.
"Nope," I answered. I glanced down at him and Layla, relishing being the tallest of the three of us. "But you're welcome to reach into my pocket if you want it that badly."
"Warren!" Layla squeaked, turning bright pink. I glanced at Will, who also looked a little flushed, and I laughed. Honestly, I never expected this. I never expected to be joking around with them about this, I never expected it to end the way it did. Which is why the fortune meant so much to me; sure, it was a coincidence, just a stupid fortune from a cookie at work, but still.
It was kind of nice to think that some mysterious power might want to reassure me that this was the right thing.
As we walked back towards Will's house, I found myself musing. The truth was, I'd had a crush on Layla pretty much since I met her, but the crush on Will was what threw me for a loop.
And I don't mean Layla's crush on Will: that was obvious. The way she looked at him, talked to him, and practically begged him for attention, spelled it out to anyone who wasn't blind and deaf. Unfortunately for her, Will was totally oblivious and hooked up with Gwen, who turned out to be a super villain anyway. The point is, Layla cooked up this scheme to make Will jealous, and it involved the two of us pretending to date each other.
I never told Layla that even though I acted like a jerk as soon as Will was out of earshot, I kind of liked her. She was smart, and cute, and stood up for herself and what she believed in. You'd think more superheroes would be like that, but it's a pretty rare thing. So I never told Layla, but I had this twinge of regret when she and Will, of course, got together.
The thing with Will, I didn't realize until after they'd broken up.
What basically happened was this: after saving the school, Will's parents started bringing him on missions. Will became the youngest successful superhero ever, and it did go to his head, just a bit. He was never a bad guy, really; just not that thoughtful. And so it became Layla's job to snap him back to reality and remind him that in school, he was just another freshman with midterms coming up fast.
Of course Will resented that. And of course Layla resented it, too. They began to fight, and then the fights got worse, and in the end it was kind of a relief when they finally broke up, the fall of their sophomore-my junior-year.
Well, it was a relief for them. It wasn't such a relief for me, because I was caught in the middle. After all, Will was my best friend, and Layla had become a close friend as well-and a close friend I had a crush on, for that matter. And a terrible part of me was glad they broke up just because it meant she was single and thus I might finally get to ask her out for real… Except I couldn't, because it's just not cool to ask out your best friend's ex-girlfriend. Especially not when he's clearly still half in love with her and not sure what went wrong.
So there I was. I had to listen to Will complain about how Layla had always been too bossy and too clingy; and then I'd hang out with Layla and listen to how Will was so full of himself and deluded. And I gave up trying to defend them to each other-they didn't want to hear it. So in the end, all I could do was not take a side. Even though they both wanted me to.
But spending time with them separately was also kind of nice. Even though I swore to myself I would never act on it, I liked being alone with Layla. And she dropped by the Paper Lantern a few nights a week to pick up take out, but (I found out when I asked a couple of the other waiters) she only did it on nights she knew I'd be at work. We'd spend a few minutes talking-well, okay, flirting-and it became the highlight of my day. I finally got to know her as something other than Will's girlfriend, and she turned out to be just as cool as I'd thought.
Even though I was afraid she was only flirting with me to make Will jealous. Because she still spent a lot of time at school watching him when she thought he wasn't looking, and she was still as obvious as ever. He'd hurt her, but she loved him. She just didn't want to admit it.
But if she'd admitted it, they would have been back together in a second. Because every time Will thought she wouldn't notice, he was staring at her, too. He adored her, to the point where he'd still knock around anyone who badmouthed a sidekick. He was just too stubborn to admit that he wanted her back, too.
Of course, when Will and I hung out one-on-one, there wasn't that fear that it was only to make someone jealous. Because at that point, it hadn't yet occurred to me that Will might be attracted to a guy. And I certainly didn't think of Will that way.
Yet.
Will and I hung out a lot, though. Mostly on weekends. We'd get together to do our homework (well, mostly he did homework and I copied him, when his parents weren't around to notice). We played video games and talked about hot girls at school and punched each other's shoulders and did generally guy-like things. It was all perfectly normal, and pretty awesome. Will always was and always will be a good guy.
Then, at the beginning of October, it happened.
The Halloween Dance wouldn't be for three and a half weeks, but the overeager student events committee was going to crazy on it, and so all anyone at school talked about was who was going with whom.
Then Layla told us she was going with a senior sidekick, and we were both stunned. I mean… Of course I hadn't been planning to ask her or anything. I kind of half wanted to, but as always, my loyalty to Will wouldn't let me. But if she wasn't going with me and she wasn't going with Will, I guess I kind of expected her to not go with anyone at all.
Will did, too.
She walked off, new boyfriend on her arm, and Will and I sat on the front lawn and didn't say anything for awhile. We just sat side-by-side, and when the school's floating platform passed through a cloud, I pulled up a little fire to dry us off.
We were leaned together, huddled over it, when the chanting started. Of course we both recognized Lash's and Speed's voices; they were such loudmouths that everyone knew what they sounded like. But this I had never expected.
"Will and Warren, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love-"
I stood up quickly and turned around, lighting up my arms without thinking, as I yelled, "Shut up!"
Will was right there to back me up.
They shut up and went back inside, and I suddenly found that I didn't want to just sit there with Will, both of us so depressed over a girl that we looked totally gay to everyone else.
Which was when the thought of being gay with Will first struck me.
Layla didn't help any, either. She told me she thought it was funny, it wasn't insulting because there was nothing wrong with being gay, and Will and I did spend a lot of time together. Which I countered with the cold hard fact: I wasn't gay, and I didn't think of Will like that.
Except that I kind of did.
Not a lot. Not at first, anyway. I had always chalked up the fact that I liked watching him work out in gym class to how good of an athlete he was. Watching him was awesome, because he was so graceful but still so strong-a perfect cross between his parents, kind of. But then I realized that sometimes when I watched him, I started to feel a little bit warm on my skin, like I do before I burst into flame.
But it didn't occur to me to think too much about it. I was used to the feeling, and so I didn't realize that it wasn't just me invoking my powers. It was also me blushing. Because sometimes, watching Will made me blush.
Then in the locker room one day, I kind of turned around to talk to him when he was still changing. Not the superhero superchange, from street clothes to uniform, but changing like a regular kid, from his gym clothes back to his normal clothes. And so when I turned around, Will wasn't wearing a shirt.
I stuttered a little bit, taken aback. I mean, obviously Will was a pretty attractive guy, but I'd never thought of him like that before. But for some reason, the thought that people-even Layla-thought our friendship was a little gay made me react a little more when I saw his abs and his pecs and his shoulders…
He asked if I was okay. I said of course I was, and made myself go on like nothing had happened. But that was the first time I realized what quickly became a terrifying fact: I had a crush on Will Stronghold. My best friend.
*
I spent the night obsessing over what I'd realized, even though I tried not to think about it. But trying not to think of Will's smile and Will's body and the way he understood me and laughed at my jokes and wasn't afraid of me… well, that kind of stuff is really hard to just ignore. And once I started thinking about it, it was like I couldn't stop.
I was so freaked out I faked being sick so I didn't have to go to school-and believe me, faking sickness is pretty hard when your mother is a super-powered healer like mine. I can fake having a fever pretty well (being as I can create fire with my body, it's not too hard to turn the internal heat up enough to show up on a thermometer) but other than that I have to just moan and act pathetic, because she's going to realize there's nothing wrong. But if I can make her feel bad enough for me, sometimes she lets me get away with it.
I lucked out that morning, and Mom decided to let it go. Mostly because halfway through scolding me, she got called away to go cure an important diplomat of some kind of incurable poison, and track down the poisoners. She did say we'd talk about it later, but if I really felt so rotten I could stay home. Thank god.
So I moped around the house all day and wondered if Will missed me, or if Layla missed me. I called in sick to work and played some videogames and watched a stupid movie, but I still couldn't figure out what the hell was I was going to do the next day. I mean, can you blame me? Here I am, thinking I'm a perfectly normal guy with a perfectly normal best friend (super powers aside), and all of a sudden nothing is normal anymore. How would I explain that? "Hey, Will, not to weird you out or anything, but I think you're really hot and I spent all last night fantasizing about you." Yeah, I was sure he'd be flattered.
Layla, however, had gone to the Paper Lantern for Chinese takeout that night, and when she realized I wasn't there either, she stopped by to check on me. (She'd seen my Mom on the news and realized I was home alone. Because Layla is really thoughtful. Honestly, I could have killed Will for letting her get away, if I hadn't been so obsessed with him.)
She took one look at me and asked what was wrong.
"I didn't feel good," I answered flatly, and she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, right. You haven't missed a day of school in the year I've known you," she answered.
"Then I was due."
"You're crabby," she said. "Did you have dinner?"
"Yes, Mother." But I let her inside anyway, and then realized I was home alone with the girl I had a crush on, who I could never date because she's the ex-girlfriend of my best friend, who I also have a crush on. Man, high school sucks.
Layla shrugged and sat down on a stool in the kitchen. "I brought you food," she said. "Chinese. Obviously."
"Not hungry," I snapped, not wanting to give her the wrong idea.
"Fine," she snapped back. "I was just trying to be nice. You and Will haven't really been too nice to me lately, you know."
"Well, you two broke up!"
"So? We wanted to still be friends. But I guess it's not that easy." She sighed a little, and tossed a thick red braid back over her shoulder. I swallowed, noticing (not for the first time) how her hair and eyes and complexion were just about perfect, and she was probably the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, in a really subtle, girl-next-door kind of way. "Can I sit down?" she asked.
I very nearly told her no, which might have been smarter. I mean, I've never been big on talking about feelings (I'm more of a punch things-or burn things-kind of guy) and I didn't want this to somehow turn into something that would screw things up with me and Will. Especially because I was so worried about things with Will right then anyway.
But Layla knew Will better than anyone else alive, so I kind of grumbled and nodded. She looked a little relieved and swept into the living room, looked around, saw my Mom's potted plant, and sighed. "Has anyone watered that poor thing in three weeks?"
"I dunno," I answered honestly.
"Poor thing," she murmured, and got up to work her plant voodoo, or whatever. Then she scolded me until I actually watered it, which I did mostly to shut her up. Then we were just kind of sitting there. Awkwardly.
I wondered what Will would have done. But thinking of Will made me uncomfortable, which didn't help any.
"So…" she finally said. "Look, Warren, I just wanted to let you know that if there's anything I can do to help you out… I mean, I am hero support. It's kind of my job." She smiled at me. "So if you've got a problem, you can tell me."
"What makes you think I've got a problem?" I demanded.
She shrugged. "Call it intuition."
"I'd rather call it annoying."
"So you do have a problem."
"No, I don't!" I yelled, lying angrily. Well, sort of lying. I mean, having a crush on Will wasn't exactly a problem. It was Will's reaction that was going to be a problem. And my mom's reaction. And Layla's. And everyone at school's. And…
That was when it set in that me having a crush on a boy was a huge problem.
"Warren?" Layla asked quietly, when I didn't say anything for what was probably a really long time.
"I don't want to talk about it," I said.
She shrugged. "I might be able to help, you know."
"Yeah, right."
"Well, I might be able to make you feel better, anyway."
"Doubt it."
"What is this, some guy thing?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Will's been doing this to me too, and it really pisses me off. Just because I'm a girl and a sidekick doesn't mean I'm useless, you know!"
"I know, just shut up," I snapped. And it was true, I knew Layla wasn't useless. She was a good friend. My closest friend, other than Will, actually. And she was very high-minded; the way she refused to use her powers unnecessarily (saving my mother's plants was probably a necessity) and tried to show people how powerful sidekicks could be and all that stuff.
If anyone was going to understand, it would be her.
Or, I thought, maybe when she heard I had a crush on her ex-boyfriend, she'd freak out and show me just how powerful she was. By feeding me to a giant Venus flytrap or something.
But she looked at me, eyes full of concern and worry, so I kind of spat it out.
"I think I have a crush on Will," I said.
She stared at me.
"So just shut up and if you dare tell anyone, I'll-"
"Of course I won't tell anyone," she interrupted. "But you should. Tell Will, I mean."
"Hm, let me think. No."
She shrugged. "It's not that weird, anyway," she said. "I mean, look who you're talking to. I had a crush on Will for almost ten years!"
"But you're a girl," I pointed out.
"So? There's something about Will. He's…" She trailed off. "He's really easy to like. I kind of hate him for it, since it makes it hard to get mad at him when…"
"Yeah, I get it," I said, not wanting to listen to her usual Woe is me, I lost my boyfriend! problems.
"Anyway," she said sharply, making me wonder if maybe my blowing her off had been a little too harsh, "my point is, there's something about Will. And this isn't the dark ages, Warren; people aren't going to care. I mean, don't you think it's about time a superhero came out of the closet?"
"I am not in the closet!"
She gave me a look which I could tell translated to Poor, denial-filled, confused Warren. Which was probably what made me annoyed enough to do it.
That and my desperate, desperate need to assert my heterosexuality. You know, prove it to her.
So a leaned in and kissed her. And it wasn't just a peck: I really did it, lips to lips, and put my arms around her, and kissed her like I meant it. Because I did. Like I said, I'd had a crush on Layla almost since I met her.
Layla actually kissed me back. Kind of hesitantly, experimentally. She'd done more kissing than I had, after all, and in the back of my mind I began to wonder if she was comparing me to Will. Was he a better kisser? Did we taste different? What was kissing Will like?
What was kissing Will like?
I pulled away, realizing that as much as I'd liked kissing Layla-and don't get me wrong, I really, really liked kissing Layla-it didn't change the fact that I had a real, serious, potentially extremely problematic, crush on Will. But it did kind of make Layla forget about that for a minute.
She stared at me for a long minute, and I felt myself begin to blush. Do you believe that? Me, Warren Peace, after spending my entire life building up a reputation so that no one would ever screw with me, blushing because of some girl.
"Warren…" she mumbled finally.
"Yeah," I said. "This is the part where you remind me that my best friend is your ex-boyfriend, so I shouldn't have done that."
"I… I… The food is getting cold, I'll go microwave-"
I picked up her folded carton of Chinese food, lit up my arm momentarily, and set it back down steaming, the box slightly scorched.
She stared at me. "Did you… mean that?"
"Mean what?"
"You just kissed me. I kind of have a boyfriend, and you-"
"Well, don't tell him about it, then," I snapped. "Or if you do, tell him it was me, and if he's got a problem with me kissing you, I'll kick his ass." Which I was pretty sure I could do. Sure, her boyfriend was a senior, but he was also a sidekick. But Layla was still looking quiet and stricken, and I wasn't used to seeing her like that, and found that I couldn't stop talking. "And anyway, it wasn't your idea, you didn't do anything. So whatever, he'll get over it. If he likes you. If he doesn't get over it, then-"
"But Warren, I liked it," she mumbled.
Oh.
What?
"You did?" I finally said, after staring at her for what was probably an awkwardly long time.
She shrugged. "I thought I was obvious. I mean, you guessed about Will right away, so, I figured you knew…"
I blinked. "I knew what? I mean… I don't know. What?"
She stared at me again, and I shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, but the next thing I knew, she'd reached out to take my hand. That was all she did, grabbed my hand. I swallowed.
"Oh," I said. "But… Will…"
Her face fell a little. "Yeah. Will."
"And you have a boyfriend."
She shrugged. "We're really just friends. I kind of only asked him to the dance to make you two… you know, jealous. It worked last year."
That hadn't occurred to me, and I doubt it had occurred to Will, either. Hey, no one ever said we were smart.
"Oh," I said finally. "But… you love Will. I mean, I know you do."
"I do," she agreed. "But just because I love Will doesn't mean I don't feel anything for anyone else."
At that point, my mind was reeling. It had never even crossed my mind that Layla might have feelings for me. I mean, I'm definitely not the most emotional guy in the world, and I hadn't had a whole lot of close friends, and certainly never a lot of crushes, or anyone who'd had a crush on me, before. So sure, I was clueless, and the thought that maybe she did like me was amazing. But my feelings for Will were also muddled up inside it, and so were hers, because even though we liked each other, we both cared about Will too much to hurt him.
Which led to another thought. "So you know he still loves you?"
"What?"
"Well, you're all worried about him."
"Yeah, but… I mean, he's my friend and…" She squeezed my hand, and it tingled and felt a little warm where she touched me, which was a really nice feeling, and one I'd barely ever had before. "I guess I know. But you know how stubborn he is."
I nodded.
"So… where does that leave us?" she asked.
"Hell if I know," I answered.
Which was where things stood when there was another knock on my door.
Author:: queenitsy
Pairing/Character: Will/Warren/Layla (Warren POV)
Rating: PG
Summary: Warren has a revelation about Will, and copes with it.
Spoilers/Warning: Um, the movie?
Note: Beta read by the fabulous harmonyangel, who rocks hardcore. My first Sky High fic; feedback welcomed and loved.
I tucked the fortune into my pocket, popped the cookie into my mouth, and ignored the looks my best friends were giving me. They'd both read their fortunes aloud; I didn't feel like sharing. I had done quite enough sharing over the last couple days, really.
Though the fortune did leave me feeling kind of happy, kind of relieved. It was surprisingly accurate, too.
"Are you going to spill or not, Warren?" Will asked.
"Nope," I answered. I glanced down at him and Layla, relishing being the tallest of the three of us. "But you're welcome to reach into my pocket if you want it that badly."
"Warren!" Layla squeaked, turning bright pink. I glanced at Will, who also looked a little flushed, and I laughed. Honestly, I never expected this. I never expected to be joking around with them about this, I never expected it to end the way it did. Which is why the fortune meant so much to me; sure, it was a coincidence, just a stupid fortune from a cookie at work, but still.
It was kind of nice to think that some mysterious power might want to reassure me that this was the right thing.
As we walked back towards Will's house, I found myself musing. The truth was, I'd had a crush on Layla pretty much since I met her, but the crush on Will was what threw me for a loop.
And I don't mean Layla's crush on Will: that was obvious. The way she looked at him, talked to him, and practically begged him for attention, spelled it out to anyone who wasn't blind and deaf. Unfortunately for her, Will was totally oblivious and hooked up with Gwen, who turned out to be a super villain anyway. The point is, Layla cooked up this scheme to make Will jealous, and it involved the two of us pretending to date each other.
I never told Layla that even though I acted like a jerk as soon as Will was out of earshot, I kind of liked her. She was smart, and cute, and stood up for herself and what she believed in. You'd think more superheroes would be like that, but it's a pretty rare thing. So I never told Layla, but I had this twinge of regret when she and Will, of course, got together.
The thing with Will, I didn't realize until after they'd broken up.
What basically happened was this: after saving the school, Will's parents started bringing him on missions. Will became the youngest successful superhero ever, and it did go to his head, just a bit. He was never a bad guy, really; just not that thoughtful. And so it became Layla's job to snap him back to reality and remind him that in school, he was just another freshman with midterms coming up fast.
Of course Will resented that. And of course Layla resented it, too. They began to fight, and then the fights got worse, and in the end it was kind of a relief when they finally broke up, the fall of their sophomore-my junior-year.
Well, it was a relief for them. It wasn't such a relief for me, because I was caught in the middle. After all, Will was my best friend, and Layla had become a close friend as well-and a close friend I had a crush on, for that matter. And a terrible part of me was glad they broke up just because it meant she was single and thus I might finally get to ask her out for real… Except I couldn't, because it's just not cool to ask out your best friend's ex-girlfriend. Especially not when he's clearly still half in love with her and not sure what went wrong.
So there I was. I had to listen to Will complain about how Layla had always been too bossy and too clingy; and then I'd hang out with Layla and listen to how Will was so full of himself and deluded. And I gave up trying to defend them to each other-they didn't want to hear it. So in the end, all I could do was not take a side. Even though they both wanted me to.
But spending time with them separately was also kind of nice. Even though I swore to myself I would never act on it, I liked being alone with Layla. And she dropped by the Paper Lantern a few nights a week to pick up take out, but (I found out when I asked a couple of the other waiters) she only did it on nights she knew I'd be at work. We'd spend a few minutes talking-well, okay, flirting-and it became the highlight of my day. I finally got to know her as something other than Will's girlfriend, and she turned out to be just as cool as I'd thought.
Even though I was afraid she was only flirting with me to make Will jealous. Because she still spent a lot of time at school watching him when she thought he wasn't looking, and she was still as obvious as ever. He'd hurt her, but she loved him. She just didn't want to admit it.
But if she'd admitted it, they would have been back together in a second. Because every time Will thought she wouldn't notice, he was staring at her, too. He adored her, to the point where he'd still knock around anyone who badmouthed a sidekick. He was just too stubborn to admit that he wanted her back, too.
Of course, when Will and I hung out one-on-one, there wasn't that fear that it was only to make someone jealous. Because at that point, it hadn't yet occurred to me that Will might be attracted to a guy. And I certainly didn't think of Will that way.
Yet.
Will and I hung out a lot, though. Mostly on weekends. We'd get together to do our homework (well, mostly he did homework and I copied him, when his parents weren't around to notice). We played video games and talked about hot girls at school and punched each other's shoulders and did generally guy-like things. It was all perfectly normal, and pretty awesome. Will always was and always will be a good guy.
Then, at the beginning of October, it happened.
The Halloween Dance wouldn't be for three and a half weeks, but the overeager student events committee was going to crazy on it, and so all anyone at school talked about was who was going with whom.
Then Layla told us she was going with a senior sidekick, and we were both stunned. I mean… Of course I hadn't been planning to ask her or anything. I kind of half wanted to, but as always, my loyalty to Will wouldn't let me. But if she wasn't going with me and she wasn't going with Will, I guess I kind of expected her to not go with anyone at all.
Will did, too.
She walked off, new boyfriend on her arm, and Will and I sat on the front lawn and didn't say anything for awhile. We just sat side-by-side, and when the school's floating platform passed through a cloud, I pulled up a little fire to dry us off.
We were leaned together, huddled over it, when the chanting started. Of course we both recognized Lash's and Speed's voices; they were such loudmouths that everyone knew what they sounded like. But this I had never expected.
"Will and Warren, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love-"
I stood up quickly and turned around, lighting up my arms without thinking, as I yelled, "Shut up!"
Will was right there to back me up.
They shut up and went back inside, and I suddenly found that I didn't want to just sit there with Will, both of us so depressed over a girl that we looked totally gay to everyone else.
Which was when the thought of being gay with Will first struck me.
Layla didn't help any, either. She told me she thought it was funny, it wasn't insulting because there was nothing wrong with being gay, and Will and I did spend a lot of time together. Which I countered with the cold hard fact: I wasn't gay, and I didn't think of Will like that.
Except that I kind of did.
Not a lot. Not at first, anyway. I had always chalked up the fact that I liked watching him work out in gym class to how good of an athlete he was. Watching him was awesome, because he was so graceful but still so strong-a perfect cross between his parents, kind of. But then I realized that sometimes when I watched him, I started to feel a little bit warm on my skin, like I do before I burst into flame.
But it didn't occur to me to think too much about it. I was used to the feeling, and so I didn't realize that it wasn't just me invoking my powers. It was also me blushing. Because sometimes, watching Will made me blush.
Then in the locker room one day, I kind of turned around to talk to him when he was still changing. Not the superhero superchange, from street clothes to uniform, but changing like a regular kid, from his gym clothes back to his normal clothes. And so when I turned around, Will wasn't wearing a shirt.
I stuttered a little bit, taken aback. I mean, obviously Will was a pretty attractive guy, but I'd never thought of him like that before. But for some reason, the thought that people-even Layla-thought our friendship was a little gay made me react a little more when I saw his abs and his pecs and his shoulders…
He asked if I was okay. I said of course I was, and made myself go on like nothing had happened. But that was the first time I realized what quickly became a terrifying fact: I had a crush on Will Stronghold. My best friend.
*
I spent the night obsessing over what I'd realized, even though I tried not to think about it. But trying not to think of Will's smile and Will's body and the way he understood me and laughed at my jokes and wasn't afraid of me… well, that kind of stuff is really hard to just ignore. And once I started thinking about it, it was like I couldn't stop.
I was so freaked out I faked being sick so I didn't have to go to school-and believe me, faking sickness is pretty hard when your mother is a super-powered healer like mine. I can fake having a fever pretty well (being as I can create fire with my body, it's not too hard to turn the internal heat up enough to show up on a thermometer) but other than that I have to just moan and act pathetic, because she's going to realize there's nothing wrong. But if I can make her feel bad enough for me, sometimes she lets me get away with it.
I lucked out that morning, and Mom decided to let it go. Mostly because halfway through scolding me, she got called away to go cure an important diplomat of some kind of incurable poison, and track down the poisoners. She did say we'd talk about it later, but if I really felt so rotten I could stay home. Thank god.
So I moped around the house all day and wondered if Will missed me, or if Layla missed me. I called in sick to work and played some videogames and watched a stupid movie, but I still couldn't figure out what the hell was I was going to do the next day. I mean, can you blame me? Here I am, thinking I'm a perfectly normal guy with a perfectly normal best friend (super powers aside), and all of a sudden nothing is normal anymore. How would I explain that? "Hey, Will, not to weird you out or anything, but I think you're really hot and I spent all last night fantasizing about you." Yeah, I was sure he'd be flattered.
Layla, however, had gone to the Paper Lantern for Chinese takeout that night, and when she realized I wasn't there either, she stopped by to check on me. (She'd seen my Mom on the news and realized I was home alone. Because Layla is really thoughtful. Honestly, I could have killed Will for letting her get away, if I hadn't been so obsessed with him.)
She took one look at me and asked what was wrong.
"I didn't feel good," I answered flatly, and she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, right. You haven't missed a day of school in the year I've known you," she answered.
"Then I was due."
"You're crabby," she said. "Did you have dinner?"
"Yes, Mother." But I let her inside anyway, and then realized I was home alone with the girl I had a crush on, who I could never date because she's the ex-girlfriend of my best friend, who I also have a crush on. Man, high school sucks.
Layla shrugged and sat down on a stool in the kitchen. "I brought you food," she said. "Chinese. Obviously."
"Not hungry," I snapped, not wanting to give her the wrong idea.
"Fine," she snapped back. "I was just trying to be nice. You and Will haven't really been too nice to me lately, you know."
"Well, you two broke up!"
"So? We wanted to still be friends. But I guess it's not that easy." She sighed a little, and tossed a thick red braid back over her shoulder. I swallowed, noticing (not for the first time) how her hair and eyes and complexion were just about perfect, and she was probably the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, in a really subtle, girl-next-door kind of way. "Can I sit down?" she asked.
I very nearly told her no, which might have been smarter. I mean, I've never been big on talking about feelings (I'm more of a punch things-or burn things-kind of guy) and I didn't want this to somehow turn into something that would screw things up with me and Will. Especially because I was so worried about things with Will right then anyway.
But Layla knew Will better than anyone else alive, so I kind of grumbled and nodded. She looked a little relieved and swept into the living room, looked around, saw my Mom's potted plant, and sighed. "Has anyone watered that poor thing in three weeks?"
"I dunno," I answered honestly.
"Poor thing," she murmured, and got up to work her plant voodoo, or whatever. Then she scolded me until I actually watered it, which I did mostly to shut her up. Then we were just kind of sitting there. Awkwardly.
I wondered what Will would have done. But thinking of Will made me uncomfortable, which didn't help any.
"So…" she finally said. "Look, Warren, I just wanted to let you know that if there's anything I can do to help you out… I mean, I am hero support. It's kind of my job." She smiled at me. "So if you've got a problem, you can tell me."
"What makes you think I've got a problem?" I demanded.
She shrugged. "Call it intuition."
"I'd rather call it annoying."
"So you do have a problem."
"No, I don't!" I yelled, lying angrily. Well, sort of lying. I mean, having a crush on Will wasn't exactly a problem. It was Will's reaction that was going to be a problem. And my mom's reaction. And Layla's. And everyone at school's. And…
That was when it set in that me having a crush on a boy was a huge problem.
"Warren?" Layla asked quietly, when I didn't say anything for what was probably a really long time.
"I don't want to talk about it," I said.
She shrugged. "I might be able to help, you know."
"Yeah, right."
"Well, I might be able to make you feel better, anyway."
"Doubt it."
"What is this, some guy thing?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Will's been doing this to me too, and it really pisses me off. Just because I'm a girl and a sidekick doesn't mean I'm useless, you know!"
"I know, just shut up," I snapped. And it was true, I knew Layla wasn't useless. She was a good friend. My closest friend, other than Will, actually. And she was very high-minded; the way she refused to use her powers unnecessarily (saving my mother's plants was probably a necessity) and tried to show people how powerful sidekicks could be and all that stuff.
If anyone was going to understand, it would be her.
Or, I thought, maybe when she heard I had a crush on her ex-boyfriend, she'd freak out and show me just how powerful she was. By feeding me to a giant Venus flytrap or something.
But she looked at me, eyes full of concern and worry, so I kind of spat it out.
"I think I have a crush on Will," I said.
She stared at me.
"So just shut up and if you dare tell anyone, I'll-"
"Of course I won't tell anyone," she interrupted. "But you should. Tell Will, I mean."
"Hm, let me think. No."
She shrugged. "It's not that weird, anyway," she said. "I mean, look who you're talking to. I had a crush on Will for almost ten years!"
"But you're a girl," I pointed out.
"So? There's something about Will. He's…" She trailed off. "He's really easy to like. I kind of hate him for it, since it makes it hard to get mad at him when…"
"Yeah, I get it," I said, not wanting to listen to her usual Woe is me, I lost my boyfriend! problems.
"Anyway," she said sharply, making me wonder if maybe my blowing her off had been a little too harsh, "my point is, there's something about Will. And this isn't the dark ages, Warren; people aren't going to care. I mean, don't you think it's about time a superhero came out of the closet?"
"I am not in the closet!"
She gave me a look which I could tell translated to Poor, denial-filled, confused Warren. Which was probably what made me annoyed enough to do it.
That and my desperate, desperate need to assert my heterosexuality. You know, prove it to her.
So a leaned in and kissed her. And it wasn't just a peck: I really did it, lips to lips, and put my arms around her, and kissed her like I meant it. Because I did. Like I said, I'd had a crush on Layla almost since I met her.
Layla actually kissed me back. Kind of hesitantly, experimentally. She'd done more kissing than I had, after all, and in the back of my mind I began to wonder if she was comparing me to Will. Was he a better kisser? Did we taste different? What was kissing Will like?
What was kissing Will like?
I pulled away, realizing that as much as I'd liked kissing Layla-and don't get me wrong, I really, really liked kissing Layla-it didn't change the fact that I had a real, serious, potentially extremely problematic, crush on Will. But it did kind of make Layla forget about that for a minute.
She stared at me for a long minute, and I felt myself begin to blush. Do you believe that? Me, Warren Peace, after spending my entire life building up a reputation so that no one would ever screw with me, blushing because of some girl.
"Warren…" she mumbled finally.
"Yeah," I said. "This is the part where you remind me that my best friend is your ex-boyfriend, so I shouldn't have done that."
"I… I… The food is getting cold, I'll go microwave-"
I picked up her folded carton of Chinese food, lit up my arm momentarily, and set it back down steaming, the box slightly scorched.
She stared at me. "Did you… mean that?"
"Mean what?"
"You just kissed me. I kind of have a boyfriend, and you-"
"Well, don't tell him about it, then," I snapped. "Or if you do, tell him it was me, and if he's got a problem with me kissing you, I'll kick his ass." Which I was pretty sure I could do. Sure, her boyfriend was a senior, but he was also a sidekick. But Layla was still looking quiet and stricken, and I wasn't used to seeing her like that, and found that I couldn't stop talking. "And anyway, it wasn't your idea, you didn't do anything. So whatever, he'll get over it. If he likes you. If he doesn't get over it, then-"
"But Warren, I liked it," she mumbled.
Oh.
What?
"You did?" I finally said, after staring at her for what was probably an awkwardly long time.
She shrugged. "I thought I was obvious. I mean, you guessed about Will right away, so, I figured you knew…"
I blinked. "I knew what? I mean… I don't know. What?"
She stared at me again, and I shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, but the next thing I knew, she'd reached out to take my hand. That was all she did, grabbed my hand. I swallowed.
"Oh," I said. "But… Will…"
Her face fell a little. "Yeah. Will."
"And you have a boyfriend."
She shrugged. "We're really just friends. I kind of only asked him to the dance to make you two… you know, jealous. It worked last year."
That hadn't occurred to me, and I doubt it had occurred to Will, either. Hey, no one ever said we were smart.
"Oh," I said finally. "But… you love Will. I mean, I know you do."
"I do," she agreed. "But just because I love Will doesn't mean I don't feel anything for anyone else."
At that point, my mind was reeling. It had never even crossed my mind that Layla might have feelings for me. I mean, I'm definitely not the most emotional guy in the world, and I hadn't had a whole lot of close friends, and certainly never a lot of crushes, or anyone who'd had a crush on me, before. So sure, I was clueless, and the thought that maybe she did like me was amazing. But my feelings for Will were also muddled up inside it, and so were hers, because even though we liked each other, we both cared about Will too much to hurt him.
Which led to another thought. "So you know he still loves you?"
"What?"
"Well, you're all worried about him."
"Yeah, but… I mean, he's my friend and…" She squeezed my hand, and it tingled and felt a little warm where she touched me, which was a really nice feeling, and one I'd barely ever had before. "I guess I know. But you know how stubborn he is."
I nodded.
"So… where does that leave us?" she asked.
"Hell if I know," I answered.
Which was where things stood when there was another knock on my door.