Disclaimer: I dis-claim any ownership of Marvel stuff.

Beautiful Liar
Lunn Lady of Angst

Chapter 10

The sun was setting. The light from the windows was dimming to a warm orange, the students were sparser in the halls, and the clock read a solid 9 o'clock. John could tell – the sun was setting.

He flicked his customized Zippo lighter open and closed, open and closed, open and closed – a restless habit of his. Silence had just finished shouting at him, but that was normal. What had him all anxious was the absence of Mina. She had left, telling only Silence where she was going, and she hadn't come back yet. It was getting dark. John was worried, so he was wandering.

He had just reached the front door when it was flung open by a giggling girl who entered, followed by a giggling man. John stopped in his tracks. Mina… The flicking of his lighter ceased.

Mina, too, stopped dead at the sight of him. Her giggling stopped, followed by the end of the man's giggles as well. She snatched up the hand of the man and arranged her face into a snarl.

"What're you staring at, John?" she spat at him.

It took him a while to formulate a response, seeing as his mind had erupted into what he later registered as extreme jealousy. He was incensed to see her, the girl that so confounded his emotions, with another man. A human at that…

"The question is," he finally drawled, "what are you doing bringing someone like him in here? You know it's not allowed."

"He's just seeing me in. You know, being nice. Oh, wait, I forgot, you don't know what being nice is," Mina shot back. Turning, she addressed her boyfriend. At least, John assumed the man was her boyfriend. "See you later, Ron. I'll call when I get a chance." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the check, gave him a quick hug, then waved him out.

After Ron was out and the door was shut, John rounded on Mina. "So, does he know you're a mutant?" he asked simply.

"Does it matter? If he likes me, he should like me whether or not I'm a mutant." Mina crossed her arms across her chest defensively.

"Does he know? I'm asking a simple question. You can just give me a simple answer."

"Why do you care if he knows or not? He's not your boyfriend." Mina tried walking past him, but John grabbed her arm and held her firmly in place.

John knew why he cared. He didn't want her to get hurt. But he couldn't tell her that. She hated him; he'd just be hurting himself to tell her that. So he made something up.

He pulled her closer. "I care," he breathed, "because if he finds out and happens to be terrified of us, you've just shown him where we all live. He could fuck us over Mina. He could fuck you over. I'm worried about the rest of us."

Mina gave him a curious look. She seemed taken aback. A clouded look came over her eyes and she wrenched her arm out of his grasp and pushed past him.

"I can take care of myself, thanks," she called back at him. "And even if he did find out I was a mutant," she stopped and turned to face him, "he wouldn't know the rest of you were mutants too. So you can stop pretending to care about them and get over it." She continued on down the hall.

John watched her leave, pondering her response. Did she really see through that excuse so easily? Am I that transparent? No… she probably just thinks I don't like her to enjoy herself or something… yeah…

Confident that he had avoided detection – because he'd be thoroughly embarrassed if she found out what he actually felt about her – he headed off to his dorm to think up ways to make her break up with Ron. He didn't want to have to think about him with her. Being with her. Staring into her blue eyes. Running his fingers through her hair.

Mina made her way up to her room and was happy to discover that Silence wasn't in it. She needed some time alone to think. She had just had one of the best nights of her life. Ron had asked her out. Not just out to a coffee shop though. No, he wanted to be her boyfriend. She had agreed. That made her incredibly happy. Elated even. But then she gets home and John said… John said that.He actually cared about what happened to her. It had caught her totally by surprise. She couldn't think of any occasion previously where he had shown the slightest inclination to care. Except for when she had first met him. But… it shouldn't matter that he cares, because I don't care about him. I care about Ron.

So then why did it seem like she regretted being in a relationship with someone else? John was always rude, always disrespectful to her. Except for that one time… When had he started being that way? She thought for a while. After I started ignoring him. He had seemed rather confused. I never told him why either. He was probably hurt.

Mina was disconcerted. She felt bad that she had initiated these bad feelings, but she had done it for a reason. He had scared her. But, now, he didn't seem to pose any more threat to her than her bedside lamp. Still, there wasn't anything she could do about it now. Sure, she could apologise, but she seriously doubted that it would be enough. She had spent a good three years being mean to him; she didn't think a simple 'I'm sorry' would suffice.

Even if she did apologise, what would happen? He would think that she was interested in him. Which she wasn't. She was pretty sure. She was interested in Ron, not John. The end.

Satisfied with her conclusion, she threw on her pyjamas and flopped into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

A/N: So, yeah, short chapter. I just wanted to establish some tension in the relationships before I did anything else. It's hard to do. Awkward to write (kind of like the word awkward. Doesn't it just look strange?). Mina feels guilty. Also hard to write. She feels guilty, but she also feels like she made the right decision, her being paranoid of being hurt and all by the people close to her. In case it was unclear (which I'm pretty sure it is), she now remembers what happened, generally, the night she came to the mansion. She doesn't know exact details, but she knows that she killed them. She doesn't know how, she just knows she did. I'm fairly positive that I hadn't explained that before, and it doesn't really fit into the story at this point anymore, so in case it popped up again, there it is. The explaination. Huzzah.