Happy Birthday to Me! Enjoy this chapter since the next one will be longer and may take longer since my classes have begun, but boy will it be a nice bite instead of all the crumbs I have been laying. Thank YOU for reading! Also thank you Azaraths you inspired me today to get out another chapter quicker.
I was looking for any sign that I wasn't making a big mistake. Starfire had packed my suit and belt which I decided was her blessing. She might have just packed everything that fit, but I hoped it wasn't the end of us since I needed to go big. I had gone back and emptied my place of anything else essential and paid rent for three months so no one would snoop. I was trying to find something that was out of Jump and wouldn't actually hurt people. I had pawned the jewelry I had stolen previously at I place I knew would strip them instead of report me when I did one last sweep of my apartment. It was easier taking them out of Jump since they wouldn't be recognized. It had been a decent pay off, but the percentage I got was like 25% of market value so not enough to cover medical bills. Damn why did they charge so much for cotton swaps.
They had kept my mother a total of 5 nights in cardiology and two more in general observation. She didn't look much better and by the time we had gotten her home actually she was 15 pounds lighter than when I had last seen her. She would definitely not be able to go back to waitressing and it was terrifying to see her so weak. She had decided to camp out on the couch instead of her bed so she could watch T.V. She of course had been fired which I was half sure was illegal, but I knew she was not in any state to work anyway. She looked like the first few days after my dad left and it was not clear whether she was ever going to leave her room. I had tried to make breakfast on the third day since I was so hungry, and the fire alarm had shocked her out of it. It took her a while to process the loss, but she never let me try and scramble eggs ever again.
I had gone shopping; it was tricky with her not having a car. I had to make short trips and only get the essentials. My uncle had offered to drop some off on Saturday, but with me not being a great cook and a completely new diet she had to follow things were bleak. Though honestly I think she was okay as long as the T.V. had some of her shows going. She didn't take vacations or sick days when she didn't have to, so I assumed that she was making the most of her circumstances. She took lots of naps and it was in those moments I saw how tired she was. This was years of long nights and stress built up on her face and hair. She had skunked hair since it had grown past the dye. I felt like absolute shit for not easing her stress earlier since I knew my lifestyle added to this. I thought being out of sight would keep me out of mind, but that didn't apply to moms I guess. We didn't talk all the time, but whenever she would wake up from a nap she would be panicked until she saw me and then relax. I had thought being out of the PD's jurisdiction would lessen her stress, but not having an idea where I was sleeping or doing must not have been better.
Knowing what I was actually doing on my laptop would not help either. I was looking for a potential job on the dark web. There were some murders and vandalism cases, but nothing that had enough cash behind it to cover all I needed. Few things were worthy of that seven figures I was after, especially of I was trying to keep cold blood murder out of the equation. I was doing that for my own sake, Starfire and my mother. I doubted I could look either them in the eye if I took out some dude for cash. It wasn't completely off the table, but it was the undercooked chicken that only would be worth choking down for a lifetime of security.
The only true break from this headspace was the few video calls I received from Starfire. She usually called late at night when both the other titans were asleep, and my mom was as well. Those were my favorite since her definition of sleepwear greatly varied. The unicorn onesies to a sheet toga variety made it fun to see what sight I would be greeted with. The other time she would call was when she was on the beach sunbathing. It was nice to have her steady stream of sunrises so I could know she was same as always in jump. She always asked about my mother and expressed that she missed me, but often we would argue shows and music tastes. She had actually turned me on to a good German techno metal band that somehow was my sound. The biggest change in our relationship was how we said bye. It included the three words I had not wanted to get wrapped up in, but goodness was it worth saying when her eyes lit up. They said go for this and goodness did I want to keep her. It sounded like her and the Titans made up which was not much of a surprise to me. She was awesome and really hard to stay made at.
Part of me wanted to keep the Red X suit on under my clothes so that I could be ready if any of my old…associates heard I was back in town. I doubted it but a part of me wanted to be ready to neutralize them. Out here calling the cops was never an option so you had to be ready to protect yourself. She had a little revolver in her nightstand that I doubt had been shot in my lifetime, but she had it before my dad left.
Starfire was set to give me a video call in about 30 minutes, so I was trying to skim the dark web for any new jobs. I had gone back to the villain thread in jump since I knew that some bigger cash was offered to metas or suits to handle security or tricky jobs. I had initially wanted to stay out of jump, but I felt like I needed to get the ball rolling quicker before the bills rolled in with that dreaded red "past due" stamp. I had gotten her caught up to an extent, but the medical bills would be the huge expense since she would need extra care and checkups. I was also worried about her immune system since being around all the sick people in the hospital could have gotten her truly sick. I did find a job that fit two thirds of my goals. No murder needed and it was well in that seven figures I was after. The only downside was that it was a theft in the Jump City Wayne Corp Tech Lab. It needed to be handled cleanly and like a ghost. That was well in my range of abilities with teleporting, so I sent a reply that I could handle it as requested for a half down payment. My phone started to beep after I sent that, so I shut my laptop and tried to wipe any sign of guilt off my face.
"Hey Cutie." I greeted as her face popped up on the screen or at least half of it. We had done some conversations on camera placement. She had argued that I should always be shirtless, and that it wasn't cool to point the screen up on the ceiling. I argued she needed to keep the camera steady and not too all over the place. It gave me a headache and I liked her face.
"Hey babe! How's your day going?" she said and reangled the camera, so I got her full face. She was laying on the beach and in that lovely white bikini that I think was designed especially for her.
"Same old same old. Mom's napping and I am no better at making an omelet. I think we are both so relieved to be out of the hospital that we just spend all our time napping and watching bad day time television. I have gotten emotionally invested in General Hospital and I don't think I like it."
"You're so funny." She said laughing. "Though I have something I need to confess to you?" My stomach sunk at her tone. It was hard to distinguish her serious and sarcasm by video.
"What?" I asked hoping that it wasn't something like she had kissed Robin or that she was breaking up with me since I couldn't make an omelet to save my life. When she paused in a response I swear my heartbeat got audible over the call. "Starfire?" I asked again.
"I might have finished the season of Orange is the New Black… I apologize I was impatient." She finally got out and I felt ridiculously that I had doubted her. We had defined our exclusivity and I knew she would not go against it.
"Damn that's cold." I said and fake scowled at her until she started laughing at me. Suddenly a notification popped up from my bank account that $2,500,000 had been wired. Holy Fuck they had me.
"Hey Jay everything okay? Your face out spaced? I will rewatch the episodes with you if I have truly been offended." She said trying to solve why my face must look like I got struck.
"Sorry Star, just got a text and I couldn't get the reason why a volcano emoji was needed." I said and resisted the urge to scratch the back of my neck. She had explained that was one of my tells when I was lying.
"Oh okay! I just was worried for a moment."
"Everything is fine, but you better be sure you will have to watch those with me." I said and tried to launch back into our normal banter. "Though I might have to punish you with an Adam Sandler movie for going behind my back."
"Please no! I may get some of his humor, but I do not enjoy it!"
"Suffer." I said and we both giggled for a bit. Fuck I really hope I could pull this off without a hitch. I couldn't have her leave me I needed her eyes to light up.