chapter 2

They'd lost touch in eighth grade. That was when Felicity's family moved to Michigan. But prior to that, they'd been next-door neighbors. Born three months apart, they'd been in diapers together. Their mothers used to golf together. Their fathers used to fish.

Then, Felicity was gone, and everything changed. He turned into a super freak. Oriana became Bombshell practically overnight. His parents had a falling out over the whole powers thing. His dad insisted Mom should be more accepting. Mom said Dad should have told her he had freakazoid blood. They were now in the middle of a messy divorce.

Along the line, he started at Bellvue, only to learn that the girl he used to play in the leaf piles with, whose cuts he bandaged and whose bullies he fought, was in his graduating class, having become the ideological successor to Power Lass.

"Are you sure the weight gain isn't due to stress? What with the ongoing divorce and all," said Felicity. "Might be worth looking into."

"Nah, the doctor made it pretty clear when I was diagnosed: my powers are basically ricocheting into me all the time."

"I can't even imagine. The ricochet effect sounds so rough."

"You get used to it. Anyway, where's your dorm? And lemme get one of those for you,” said Ben, taking one of Felicity's bags off her hands and slinging it over his own shoulder. He knew she was more than capable, but since he’d already dropped of his own stuff, he didn’t want to be a jerk and let her bear the whole load while he himself was unburdened. It wasn’t heavy to him; not now. She was radiating a warm energy that he couldn’t quite place a name to, but he was sure it would sustain him all day.

"Anyway, I'm sorry I was so distant last year. I guess I just got swept up in things...this year will be different. I promise."

“I’d...I’d like that,” he said.

"Come with me to dinner?"

"Sure."

He accompanied Felicity to the dining hall, settling for his usual grapefruit LaCroix while she took her pickings of the food.

Just as they sat down, a new voice sounded from behind him. “Hey Felicity!”

He turned around in his seat. Oh, God. It was Miranda, one of the popular girls. “Good to see you back! Hey listen, me and Lola Freeley were gonna try out for the cheer squad next week, and we were wondering if we’d see you there? Also, Jason McCafrey will not shut up about you. You know Jason, tall, blond, plays lacrosse, telekinetic...anyway, just a heads up, he’s probably going to ask you to the fall formal. Oh, who are you?” she asked, seeming to notice Ben for the first time.

“I’m Ben, we had intro to enhanced physics together last year?” he reminded her.

“Oh, that’s what your name is!” said Miranda. “Did you do something different with your hair?”

He hadn’t; it was in the same slightly-gelled style he kept it in to prevent it from sticking out crazily that he wore last year. “I lost twenty pounds.”

“Good for you,” said Miranda, even though last year she was one of the first to hop on the train when people made fun of him. “I took off about fifteen over the summer, myself.”

“Yeah, but you’re a shapeshifter, so…”

“Anyway, Felicity,” said Miranda, forgetting about Ben once more. “Have you heard anything about Jessica Sims? I haven’t seen her, but Jason says he heard it from Brock Kensington that she got pregnant!"

Her stream of gossipy malice coiled through him unpleasantly. He took a deep breath and tried to channel it out slowly, as an imperceptible static into the air…

Only, the electricity that came out of his fingertips was way too strong and made the soda can he was holding burn to the touch. He dropped it, wincing in pain and spilling the remainder of the soda in his crotch before the can rolled off his lap and hit the floor with an empty clatter.

Fuck! That was going to be a second degree burn.

"Ben!" exclaimed Felicity. "Let me take you to the infirmary!"

“Hang on, I don’t want to litter,” said Ben, reaching under the table for the soda can, but he didn’t need to touch it to feel the heat still radiating off of it. He grabbed a cloth napkin off the table to pick it up and chuck it in the trash on their way out into the hall while Felicity led the way to the nurse's.

“It’s not your fault; even if she wasn’t talking about it, she would’ve still been thinking it,” he said in regards to Melinda’s voracious thirst for the misfortune of others, in this case Jessie’s mysterious absence. Why did some of the most blessed people have the darkest hearts? If he had been gifted with natural charisma, an innate mastery of his powers, and stereotypical good looks, he would simply enjoy his life and mind his own business without trying to bring others down.

By the time they reached the infirmary, he had managed to dry most of the soda off of his pants with the napkin, but it still looked like he had pissed himself. “It’s grapefruit LaCroix,” he said before the nurse could ask.

The nurse examined his injury, then glanced at Felicity. “You’re a good friend for bringing him in so quickly. Fortunately, the damage is minimal. He could have hurt himself worse with a hot stove. You kids wait here, and I’ll be right back.”

While the nurse was away, Ben decided to make smalltalk. “So what classes are you taking? I’ve already gotten approved for Superhumans in Literature and Field First Aid on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then on Thursday I have a four hour seminar on Combat Thermodynamics.” A few of the guys in Q and A who had heat and flame related powers had convinced him to sign up, since his power manifested as electricity, but he was nervous about embarrassing himself, especially if he would have to spar with anyone. “Then I got Wartime History of Human and Super-Human Experimentation on Tuesday/Thursday and I’m on the waitlist for Gifted Home Economics.” Not too beefy a schedule, except for that combat class that he was worried about.

"Oh, I can get you into that home-ec course. I teacher aided for Blonsky over the summer, she likes me."

Soon, the nurse returned to sanitize his burns (he struggled to disguise an expression of pain), apply some burn cream, and wrap his hand up in gauze. “I can accelerate your healing process, but you have to give me something to work with. A happy memory, perhaps?”

“Of course.” He’d had this nurse before; her powers were emphatically based, too, but instead of being able to use others’ emotions as a weapon or a fuel source, she could use it to heal others’ injuries. He defaulted to a memory of riding bikes with Felicity all around the neighborhood, an eternity ago when things were much less complicated, while the nurse squeezed his hand between both of hers.

“There. You should be better in two days tops, and if you can’t hold a pen right now, go to administration and they’ll provide you with a tablet to take notes for classes.”

Once he was dismissed, he accompanied Felicity back into the hall and asked, “Want to go find your dorm? I can help you unpack your stuff if you want. Unless you’d rather bond with your new roommate alone.” He was hogging her time and he knew it. He just missed her after all summer without her.

"Sure. I just have to swing by the office to see where it is."

So they swung by. As Felicity was handed her key, Ben couldn’t help but overhear she had been put on financial aid. He wanted to ask her about it, but it looked like she wanted to keep moving, and it wasn’t until they reached her room that she finally opened up.

"Look, you should know...my parents didn't take well to the powers thing. They think I'm an affront before God. They threw me out last year. I've been living in shelters."

Ben’s heart dropped.

All he could say at first was, “Yike.”

Even as she spoke, he could tell she was tempering her mood. “That’s got to be rough, Lissy. Hey listen though, if you need help with money, for whatever the school won’t cover like clothes and bus fare and things, I got you.” He didn’t want to brag, but his brother made at least ten stacks a month at his restaurant job, which was way more than they needed for their mortgage, and Ben usually put whatever D’von sent him into savings. “Consider it payment: I bet you finna be having to help me a lot in that combat class. I also know the fall formal coming up, and even if you don’t go with Jason McCafrey, you deserve to treat yourself to a nice outfit.”

And how secretly happy had he been to feel her disinterest when the subject of Jason had come up over lunch! That guy was so juvenile. Honestly. Using his telekinesis to take her stuff and rile her up...it was like he was in third grade, pulling on a girl’s pigtails because he lacked the wherewithal to just say he liked her. Ask Ben, Felicity deserved someone who was emotionally mature, intelligent, and good to her. He wished he could be that person, but he would never want to bring her down with his own faults.

“And hey. If you want to stay with me and my brother over the breaks, we have a couple extra rooms. It would be no trouble at all. You would have your own bathroom and everything. Also he’s a really good cook. We could watch Netflix, and he keeps the liquor cabinet stocked...only if you want to, though. And hopefully your parents change their mind…”

That much he knew was wishful thinking. Supers were largely misunderstood by most of society. But he couldn’t help but wish the best case scenario on Felicity.

"You'd really do that for me?"

"I would do anything for you."

When they got to her dorm, it was dark, and her roommate had still yet to arrive. "Hey Ben? Would you mind...staying with me tonight? Maybe watch a movie? I have a sleeping bag, you can take the bed."

"I'll just take your roommate's bed, it's fine."

"Oh, yeah. Two beds. I'm stupid."

"You're not stupid," said Ben. "You've just been through a lot recently." He settled into Felicity's absentee roommate's bed and turned on the TV.

They fell asleep watching Diced.