Elizabeth got through the weekdays one at a time. Saturday was going to be harder. She hadn't realized how much time she'd been spending on the weekends at the boarding house or just out with Todd. That morning she went to talk to the Professor about something to do with her time. She started looking into volunteer opportunities at the hospital and the pet shelter. She thought she might try to spend four hours on Saturday at the pet shelter and four hours on Sunday in the hospital's physical therapy department, if she could.
Todd was so busy sulking and feeling sorry for himself he forgot to check what day he was supposed to work at the diner during the week. He missed one shift, was late for for another shift, and his boss had threatened to fire him. Frustrated and out of sorts, Toad almost called and told his boss that he was quitting. His sleep suffered and on Friday he didn't even bother going to his classes. His suffering translated well onto paper through his art. His anger and sadness were working out for him, artistically, and he drew more that week than he had in the past month. He spent his free time playing video games and hanging out with Jason, Pietro, Fred, Lance, and the others.
On Saturday he was laying on his bed, an arm over his eyes. He knew his clock said it was one in the afternoon. Normally, he'd be rushing out the door to meet Elizabeth in the woods at their usual spot near the lake. He hadn't cried when he'd heard her leave but he felt his eyes start to burn now.
If I don't go see her then it will really be over, he told himself. She wouldn't even look at me this whole week, he thought.
He couldn't decide if he should apologize. He figured that was probably what she wanted but he didn't know what he'd done that needed an apology. He still felt like she'd tricked him into believing that she was a mutant. He wasn't sure what it meant to him that she wasn't a mutant. Pietro kept telling him that the Brotherhood didn't believe in serious relationships with sapiens.
"Where was it going to go with her, Toad?" Jason had asked him that day, "She hid what she was from you, that's called lying by omission. She's just not like us. She's an evolutionary dead end. You need to get over her."
The more Todd thought about it the more he wondered if she had hidden her lack of a mutation from him. They'd never talked about it. If he'd thought about it at all he would have assumed that she didn't want to be an X-man or that her abilities weren't useful for fighting or that she could do something that was embarrassing. He'd never wondered about her abilities. If he'd never asked her, did that count as an omission?
He wondered if she was put off by his mutation.
There was a sketch on his desk where he'd drawn her flying on fairy wings, with a large toad in the background. It was meant to be part of her birthday present this year. He remembered her climbing on his back a few times so he could jump with her. She'd clung so tight to him the first time. When he'd asked her if she was okay and she'd been breathless when she'd told him to do it again. He had, grinning like a loon, and she'd laughed. Eventually, she'd gotten brave enough to put her arms out, taking him by surprise. She'd told him it was like flying.
He thought about the times he'd made out and fooled around with her over the summer. She hadn't seemed upset about his mutation. He had to wonder, though, if he'd have gotten all the way to third base if he'd been just another non-mutant guy. He couldn't ask the guys about that because he didn't want them to know that he hadn't gotten to third base.
He rolled over, wiping at his eyes, and had to adjust the wallet chain. He was thinking he should probably take it off since lying on it was uncomfortable. Then he remembered that Elizabeth had given him the wallet chain last year for Christmas. Todd swore, fluently and fervently. He rolled out of bed and rose to his feet. He wasn't going to get answers from her by laying around, he decided, in a rare moment of action. He was up and out the door in no time. Todd ignored it when someone shouted, calling after him.
He got to their place in the woods and felt his heart break all over again when she wasn't there. He stood there for a minute, debating. He could go the Institute or he could wait until he saw her on Monday.
If she doesn't change schools, he thought with bitterness, she still won't ever look at me again.
He was angry, hurt, and upset. He had a moment of despair when he couldn't decide what to do and he considered just going back to the boarding house.