West Coast Issue 1

Jon Dante

"That Girl"

The punk was between me and the bathroom door.

"Dude, I don't want any trouble." I held my hands up in peace. From under the black hood stood the mysterious guy. He was not taking my reply.

The crook held a silver switchblade. "Give me your wallet! Hurry the fuck up!"

I ran my hand through my short black hair. "If you want it that bad…"

I can only imagine what it looked like to the poor guy. My pupils turning red, my body temperature heating up. My fingertips turned red like I had held them on a pot of boiling water too long. Myself, I felt warm, like a day outside that should be spent indoors under the air conditioner. I felt heat rushing from my chest to my palms. Then, it all erupted.

"What the hell, Yo!" The thug stepped back, still holding the knife up.

"Take one step back." All the heat rushed out of me and a ball of fire exploded in the crook's hand. He dropped the knife and I started another fire behind his butt.

"Son of a bitch!" His cursing was entertainment. Blazing, he ran forward, into the stall behind me. I kicked him on the way and slammed the door shut. One more blast of heat and I melted the stall to door up to down.

"And that, as they say, is that." I clapped my hands and felt chilly. A cold rush crept up my spine, giving me goose bumps.

I left the fast food bathroom and went to he counter. Dollar menus always made me quite happy. At the Wendy's, I needed some cheap double-stacks. Once I ordered, I stood near the counter, anxious who would find the dude in the bathroom. Why hadn't he called for help yet? Whatever.

"Thanks." I grabbed my bag from the chick at the counter, winking.

As I left the lobby and into the night air, I heard the punk scream for help. I checked around to see one of the customers and an employee run in the restroom. I sauntered around the corner and glanced around.

"Minimal traffic, not too bad." I checked around, then jumped. I back-flipped twenty feet up and landed on the roof. "So cool."

I had to get back to campus before security wrote me up for being outside after curfew. What a chore for someone with my…competencies.

I crouched. My abnormal muscles launched me thirty-forty-fifty feet up and off the roof, across the street. I landed on a lamppost, then jumped again. I continued, some of my jumps gaining eighty feet. Oh, I loved my jumping. I first found it in a dream.

In the seventh grade, at school, I was outside after recess when I should have been back in class. I had fallen asleep and missed the teacher's call. I dreamed I was jumping high in the air like a human rabbit or grasshopper. Then, when I got up and went to rush back to class, I hopped over a planter but sent myself about thirty feet in the air.

Anyway, I was a block away from the college when I decided to finish in one leap. I wrapped up my food and put it in my backpack. I tightened the belt around my blue jeans, then with a crouch and hop, I was airborne.

"Whoa… whoa!" I was scared to do super jumps because you had to balance yourself in the air or you might land on your freakin head.

"No… oh crap! No!" Arching over the fence, onto campus, I had a big problem. I was going to land in the pond on the west side of school. "No! My food!"

My desperate cries didn't amount to anything, but right before I was going to destroy my electronics and junk food, I tossed it to the water's edge and succeeded in my bags rescue. I, however, was another story.

SPLASH!

I tasted gross water. Anything that was sickening floated up my nose and in my mouth. The water was cold and shocked my body. I hated being wet.

"Should've just walked."

I crawled out and grabbed my backpack. In my sloshing Nikes, I slogged my way down the sidewalk, toward my dorm. Water footprints littered my wake.

I was hoping to not encounter anyone, but if only I was so lucky. On the path, walking past me was a herd of girls. Yes, I said herd. They giggled, and gawked in their short jogging shorts. I liked to think I was respective to girls. In the real world, I would check out female students on campus just like every other drooling slob. But there was this one…

"Hey, Jon…" Her rosy lips moved, oddly glossed while she jogged.

I shook my head and looked up with a goofy smile. "Yeah, I know. don't say a word, Britnie."

"Why are you so wet…" She looked past me to find an answer. My footprints screamed the reply as they ran into the pond.

"I lost my favorite pen in the pond." I joked, trying to squeeze a smile out of her.

I won. "You're so goofy, Jon Dante!" Her brown eyes glowed in the lamppost's yellow shine. "I'm going to keep running… don't drown or I might have to perform CPR." She winked and jogged off.

I sloshed around and watched her leave. I needed one more smirk. "Is that a request for caution or practice!"

Britnie grinned over her shoulder, her friends waiting up the path. I was so good at making those people giggle. Girls, I mean, not joggers. I freakin hate joggers. I was a jumper remember? So…

I squished my way behind a gazebo off the path and made sure no one else was coming. Turning the direction of my room, I jumped and went high into the night air. Achieving a good landing… finally, I slouched my shoulder to let off a pack-strap and walked to my porch. Checking the line of sight, I hopped onto my roof and sat, soaked. Removing my food, I hoofed down two double cheeseburgers and a small fry. Ready for bed with a full stomach, a voice over the other side of the roof caught my attention.

I jumped over, being as quiet as possible. Over the ledge, one of my roommates, Aaron, was on his cell. "Yeah… yeah, me too."

I started to take my wet coat off, sliding my arm out as I listened.

"Hey, Britnie… we should go to the beach tomorrow." Aaron nodded his head in agreement with himself. Good thing he wasn't talking to the Britnie I knew. The one I just spoke to was jogging.

"Britnie… finish your laps and then we'll finish these plans tomorrow at breakfast. Is that an idea?"

Crap! I hate it when another guy cruises your prime suspect. Say no, Britnie! Say no!

"Okay… maybe some other time, then. Oh, okay. Goodnight then." Aaron slapped his phone shut then paced behind the dorm.

Yes! I was two for two. Now, all I had to do was shower and sleep with excitement about a hot girl's interests in me burning until tomorrow. Whatever, right?