Ch. 14
Lidia.
For lunch I decide on a small soup and a tea, while Hank orders a burger with bacon added to it, fries; or I mean Chips, and a beer. We don't say a word as we eat but I just keep thinking of the small moment we shared not too long before, how I wish I could tell him I'm starting to feel things for him...things I never felt for anyone before.
"why do women do that?" Hank asks, catching me off guard.
"do what?" I ask back
"order soup or salad when going out...aren't you starving?"
"why do men get offended when we do?" this I say with a smirk.
"not offended...worried"
This is when I reach out to his plate and grab a fry; chip! note to self tattoo the word chip with a fry on arm so I won't keep forgetting.
"this one fry I'm holding, it is so yummy and salty it has the potential to make me gain ten pounds in one bite...it also never goes out alone as you can see, and that is a risk we are not willing to take" that's when I drop the fry in my split pea soup and proceed to eat.
"and so you choose torture over taste?" Hank says and smiles.
"this soup is pretty good...wanna try it?" I offer him a spoon full, but he wrinkles his nose and holds up his hands.
"not thank you...I can smell every tiny pea in that and not a good smell I can tell you that"
"I'm sorry, I forgot your super nose" I put down my spoon.
"not super...just stronger"
But then his eyes went wide, like he was seeing something he never wanted to see. If he didn't have fur on his face I could guess he was also going pale.
"Hank?" I asked but he didn't blink, I decided to turn around and find just what is freezing him like this and what I see is a girl, blond and short with green eyes that seem to be my age.
A girl I have seen before, in a picture.
Hank.
Why is she here? why today? why ever?
Raven.
Never in my life would I ever be prepared to see her again and today of all days was not going to be an exception. She looked just like she did before Cuba, before I changed into this animalistic body.
But she did look older somehow, never thought she would actually age...must be the stress of helping the new movement. As soon as she saw me she walked right up to our table.
"Hank" Raven said my name like she never left. "Hank" She repeated.
But I couldn't move, it was like having an out of body experience.
"Hank" this time it was Lidia saying my name. That woke me.
"Raven...what are you doing here?" I ask, and this is when Raven smiles.
"I'm glad you still remember me" Raven smirks and looks at Lidia.
"OH, sorry, this is Lidia...Lidia, Raven" I introduce the two but don't look Lidia in the eye.
I hear them exchange pleasantries and immediately ask the only important question. "What are you doing here?"
"I thought you'd be happy to see me" Raven answers
"You know, I have to go powder my nose, why don't you sit here and talk while I'm gone" Lidia stands and lets Raven sit where she was, now I look up at Lidia and try to plead for her not to go but she smiles and walks away to the ladies room.
"she's pretty" Raven starts, takes some fries off my plate and begins to eat them.
"why are you here? why are you back?" is all I can manage to say and finally Raven is serious.
"you know why, I gave you and Charles a very important tip on a child that needed your help and today I find out he is still under that damn bridge" Raven is now very very serious, but even though I can see the anger in her eyes she manages not to draw attention to us.
" we talked to him, he wasn't interested" My voice was not as calm as hers and we were starting to get glances.
"then get him interested, he is very dangerous on his own and needs to be out of that bridge." Ravens eyes were now changing from green to yellow, same yellow as mine were, the same yellow I see every day in the mirror that reminds me of that night I tried to change myself.
"Charles says we need to wait him out, he will come to us"
"and what if he doesn't? what if he chooses to stay where he is? Hank...Magneto had plans for him, that is how strong this boy is" Raven stopped eating.
"tell Magneto he can go to hell" Magneto was not my enemy, he was once my friend, now he had ideas of ruling humanity and that anyone without the X-gene was inferior to us mutants.
"he might as well already be there. All he ever talks about now is recruiting and getting ready for a war that hasn't started"
After Cuba we all ended we small scars, most of us tried to either hide or fit in with non mutants, others like Magneto just kept thinking of a war that was close in their eyes.
"then tell him to get some sort of mental help" I am done with this conversation and just want to leave, the only reason I haven't is Lidia.
"you think I haven't suggested that? I'm trying my best here to help him and care for him" Ravens' right side of her face started to change to blue, her skin changing back to the blue scales they usually are when she is not masking her appearance.
"your face is going back to normal" I tell her and all she does is make her whole self go blue, her hair fire red and her eyes yellow. Today however she was wearing clothes, I have heard rumors she likes walking around blue and naked.
"got a problem with that?" Raven challenges.
"no, if you haven't notice this is a mutant haven"
Raven looks around and just now notices the many mutants not looking at her, the pre-teens and their parents enjoying the weekend together...and of course Mr. Frank changing empty glasses with glasses filled with water at one table, smiling and playing with a baby with a tail and horns.
"quit wasting time here, and go find the boy" Raven now gets up and storms out of Frank's Pub. I don't move, I don't follow her.
Just then Lidia comes back, as if on cue and sits where she once sat.
"We should take our food to go" Lidia signals for Mr. Frank but I am still angered and confused. I have to talk to Charles about this.