Chapter Fifteen
Aftermath
"What the hell happened this time?" Was the first thing Brutus said to me upon seeing how screwed up my face was on Monday. I glanced over to James, who I'd walked to class with, and motioned for him to go ahead.
For a brief moment, I considered lying outright, but the more I thought, the more it seemed Brutus was just worried.
"I got into a fight." I said flatly. Brutus scoffed and grabbed my right hand, inspecting my hand.
"No, you didn't. Your knuckles aren't bruised." He said. "Who did it? Was it someone at home?"
"I was wearing gloves." I explained calmly. "We all wore our hero costumes for Halloween."
Brutus turned and saw that the wall with the briefcases was empty, indicating we all had them in our rooms still. He looked again at everyone at their desk and closed the door, leaving us in the empty, echoey hallway.
"Was it someone from home?" Brutus asked me. "It's getting out of hand, Emmet. Tell me who's doing it now."
I stayed silent for a second.
"I can't say it." Brutus stared daggers at me. "It's not my mom. And my dad's dead, so I don't think it's him."
"Emmet-"
"I can't tell you because it'll make it worse for someone else."
"If you don't tell me, you're out." Brutus said sternly. I blinked.
"Wh-what do you-"
"I mean you're out of this school. I will send you packing if you don't tell me."
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"It's Amy's boyfriend." I admitted. Brutus clenched his jaw and turned around to walk into class but I put my hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. "Please."
I pleaded with him, holding my breath while he paused.
"Why were you in a fight with him? Were you protecting her?" He asked reluctantly. I hesitated, thinking back to what Ri told me.
"I tried." I said. "I didn't actually do anything, I just… Listen, I'm not gonna get in any more fights."
Brutus crossed his arms and tapped his foot.
"Please don't-" I began, only to be cut off by Brutus.
"I'll figure something out. Go sit down." He told me, motioning toward the door.
"I'm… Not in trouble?" I asked, my eyes widening.
"Just go sit down." Brutus said as he opened the door for me. I awkwardly walked in, trying to avoid everyone's gaze as they stared. Brutus followed and shut the door, beginning class with his booming voice.
What was that? Ri mouthed to me as I went to my desk. I shrugged and gestured to my face as I quickly glanced at Amy, who had her face buried in her arms on her desk.
Classes passed slowly that day as if all of the calmness I'd built up throughout October had disappeared. When classes finally ended, I was the first one out of class as I made a beeline for my dorm, though Ri caught up to me as I was entering the building.
"Babe!" She called out to me as I opened the door, causing my breath to catch in my throat and my fingers to slip off the door handle.
"Wh-what'd you call me?" I asked, not fully knowing if I'd heard her correctly.
"Babe? Do you not want me to call you that?" She asked. I shook my head awkwardly.
"No, it's fine…" I trailed off as Amy quickly walked past us, ignoring me and walking straight into the dorms. "I just… Can you give me a second?"
"I guess? You okay?" Ri asked, looking past me and over to Amy inside the building.
"Yeah, I gotta…" I didn't finish my train of thought before I turned around and pushed through the doors. Amy rounded the corner at a brisk pace when she heard me enter, so I jogged over to her before she got to her room. "Hey-"
Amy's immediate response to me was to turn around and grab my wrist as I reached out. She looked at me with no emotion, like she wasn't even looking at anyone. I raised my other hand as if I was surrendering, causing her to let go of me.
"Right, sorry." I apologized.
"What do you want?" Amy asked, keeping up the theme of having no emotion in her voice.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what I did the other night…. And those other nights when I did the same thing. I won't do that again." I explained.
"Alright, good." Amy said as she turned around.
"But…. Don't you think you should-"
"Emmet, stop bothering me. You don't know me, you don't know what's going on. You shouldn't even be at this school. Go home and to mommy before you get your ass kicked even worse." Amy said coldly as she walked into her dorm and closed the door calmly, leaving me standing in the hallway alone.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.
"Uh…" Was the only noise I could make.
I couldn't exactly describe how I felt at the moment. Betrayed? Maybe. Hurt? Definitely. But at that exact moment, it didn't even feel real. I felt empty. I stood in that hallway for what could have been hours. Eventually, I walked back to the entrance to the dorms but saw Ri was talking to a couple of other girls, so I just sulked back to my room.
James hadn't got back from classes yet, so I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt down over my eyes and laid back, falling asleep almost instantly.
Tuesday passed. Then Wednesday. Then Thursday. Then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and so on. There wasn't a single minute that went by where I didn't think about what Amy had said to me, but she avoided me like the plague, so there's not much I could have done about it.
Whenever Ri was around, I pretended like nothing was bothering me. She was around a lot. Almost every waking hour outside of class, we spent hanging out in the common room or outside on the picnic tables. We weren't allowed to be in a dorm alone together for what turned out to be pretty obvious reasons. Ri was very touchy and affectionate. Much more than I was used to. It led to a lot of awkward moments of being caught by Brutus with her on my lap. We never did anything other than kiss, but it was still hell to explain if we were caught alone.
I still felt like I had made the wrong choice saying yes to her wanting a relationship. Something in the pit of my stomach told me this was a bad idea. Something under my bed, sitting in a glass vial told me this would be a bad idea. The faint voice in the back of my head that said I was being watched said it was a bad idea. And I knew it was a bad idea.
Despite what Amy had said to me, I still felt attached to her. I kept her flower in my room and watered it every day. I looked at her every day and felt butterflies even though I knew she would never feel the same way. I didn't feel that way with Ri. None of these feelings had ever been a problem before, so I did what I did best and just didn't say anything.
I found ways to blow off steam, those being sneaking out of the dorms and repeating training exercises with my bo staff. The repetitive nature of it numbed me to the point that I just lost myself in it, so I'd do it until I felt like I'd fall over, at which point I'd sneak back inside and pass out in my bed. I lost track of the days, but about two weeks later, I was doing my exercises outside at about midnight when I saw a pair of headlights turn into the school's parking lot.
Not wanting it to be a teacher who might get me in trouble, I quickly bolted around the corner and hid just out of sight until the car stopped and the occupants got out.
"I just don't understand why you're so God damn obsessed with him." I heard a familiar voice say, one that made me grip my staff.
"I'm not obsessed with him." A second voice shot back, one I also instantly recognized. Amy and Jason were here.
"Then why are you talking about him?" Jason asked as he closed the driver's side door.
"Because he's got a girlfriend now and I wanna hang out with him now that you know he for sure won't do anything with me." Amy said. I realized then that they were talking about me.
"No. I don't want him around you." Jason snapped. "I'm not explaining myself again."
I heard quick footsteps approach the door to the dorms, followed by another louder pair bounding after the first.
"Don't walk away when I'm talking to you!" Jason said in a deep, low voice to avoid being heard. I gripped my staff even tighter as my eyes widened. My feet suddenly felt too heavy to move, and my legs were turning to jelly. I wanted so badly to move, to come out from behind the corner. I wanted nothing more than to kick his ass and keep her safe. But Ri's words echoed in my head, and I knew I shouldn't. I'd only make things worse.
"I can do whatever I want-" Amy fired back, only to be cut off by a deep thudding noise coupled with the metal doors to the dorm wobbling as something had slammed into them. I realized quickly that it was Amy, she'd slammed into them. I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped my bo staff even harder, clenching my teeth as well. As my heart rate picked up, I found I could no longer hear what was going on due to the blood rushing through my ears. I almost didn't hear it when Jason's car peeled out of the lot.
My eyes snapped open as I dropped my staff and sprinted from around the corner towards the doors as they swung shut. I quietly kept the doors open as I slipped into the building, catching a glimpse of Amy as she walked quickly to her room.
"Amy…." I breathed as she turned her head to me before walking into her room without closing the door. I walked quickly down the hall to her room as she closed her door, leaning my forehead on it when I got there.
"Go away." Amy said through sobs from the other side of the door, like she was also leaning on it.
"I jus-I just wanted to say that I'm here if you wanted to maybe talk…" I said softly. Amy didn't respond. "I'm not trying to save or fix you or anything. I just want you to know that I care about… I don't like seeing people get hurt. And you were nice to me before, so I really don't want to see you get hurt."
"Don't you remember what I said to you?" Amy asked as she sniffled. I paused.
"Yeah." I replied after a few seconds and was met with silence.
I lightly tapped my forehead against the door, resulting in a low thudding noise.
"I'm sorry." Amy said quietly. I half-smiled to myself.
"I can show you why I'm here." I blurted out, causing me to hit myself in the leg.
Amy didn't respond for a good ten seconds. I held my breath until I heard a click, followed by the door slowly swinging open. She turned around as the door swung open and walked towards her bed, though she sat on the floor in front of it, leaning her back on it, instead of laying on it.
"Well, I got all the time in the world." Amy shrugged as she sniffled and wiped more tears from her face. I paused for a second and considered telling her everything. On the one hand, it could give Voss more leverage on me than he already had. On the other, it would give her some insight into why I'm here and maybe bring us closer together.
"... I'll be right back." I said as I quickly turned and rushed to my room. As quietly as I could, I slipped into the dorm and pulled my suitcase from under my bed where the quirk vial was. Once I retrieved it, I slipped back into the hallway and quickly walked back to Amy's room. She was staring at the ceiling when I returned, only barely acknowledging me when I walked in and shut the door. "You gotta promise me you won't tell anyone about this."
"Yeah, sure." Amy agreed lazily, not even looking at me. I shook my head and kneeled in front of her.
"I'm serious." I looked into her eyes as I said it, desperate to get her to understand. "You can't tell anyone."
Amy finally looked at me and furrowed her eyebrows, like she'd only just realized I was being serious.
"Okay, I promise I won't say anything." She said, wiping her face again. I nodded and scooted over so I was sitting next to her with my back against her bed.
"This is why I'm here." I began as I pulled the vial from my pocket and showed it to her. "This is a little bottle of blood. But it's also a lot more than that. It's a quirk. The guy who gave it to me could steal and transfer quirks."
"What…. How did he…?" Amy asked quietly.
I told her everything. The day I ran into Voss, his quirk, about every interaction I had with him. Everything Voss had said to me. Everything I knew.
"I'm here because I have to stop him. I'm doing this training so I can become something more. This is bigger than me." I said, finally wrapping up the rest of my 'story'.
"Emmet…. Don't you think you should lay low? Or something? This guy sounds really dangerous." Amy argued.
"I know. But if I wanna be a hero…. Whatever he was gonna do to my neighbor that day, he's done to probably so many other people. So I gotta stop him. I gotta go after him." I said, trying to make as much sense as possible.
"It's not your job. There are heroes who can handle it."
"I'll be that hero. I'll have to be, right? No one's coming to help. I gotta step up." I went on. "Voss said he'd kill me and everyone I loved if I interfered with him or his business. So I'm not gonna mess with him until I'm the hero I need to be. And then I'll do what I need to do. That's why I'm here. I'm gonna become the world's greatest quirkless hero."
Amy stayed silent.
"Now you know." I said.
"What…. quirk is in there, even? Why don't you use it on yourself?" She asked, pointing at the vial.
"He just said the guy who had it before was strong. And I'm not gonna use it because he said if I did, he'd know. I don't know what's in here, so I'm not gonna test it." I explained.
"And what if he comes after me, now that you've told someone else?" She asked after a long silence.
"I'm gonna kill him." I said with no hesitation. "He won't hurt any of my friends."
"I'm still your friend?" Amy asked, sounding like she was about to cry again.
"You didn't mean what you said, did you?" I asked.
"I…. I didn't. Jason wanted you to stay away." Amy told me. "So I said what I thought would hurt you most. I'm sorry."
"... Thank you." I said after a long silence. I slipped the vial back into my pocket and looked up at the ceiling alongside Amy.
"Do you wanna talk about what happened with Jason tonight?" I asked after some time.
Amy paused but eventually shook her head.
"Not tonight. I don't wanna…. Bother you." She told me.
"It wouldn't bother me." I said.
"Just…. Maybe some other time."
"Okay. I won't make you. I'll stay here, though. In case you want to."
"Thank you." Amy said, letting out a small sigh.
We sat in silence for the rest of the night, just listening to the sounds of each other's breathing.
For the first time in a while, I started to feel calm. For real this time.
Bing bang boom, new chapter. Got some more good shit coming up for this story, so stay tuned and leave a review and favorite/follow if you want. Also, thanks so much for 1000 views, I think that's the most I've had on a story so far. If you want, you can follow my Tumblr scoobisoft where I have links to my ao3.
