Love, Football, And Superheroes - Your Average Highschool Story
Chapter Nine - Running Scared
Well you guys killed the reviews, so once again I will challenge you and ask for 80. Also, I go a few question in the reviews. Someone asked if Xavier was Red X, answer to that is you'll have to wait and see. The other question was if Beast Boy was the whale that was seen. It's subjective, you cantake it as it was just a whale or that it Gar. Anyway review and enjoy.
Moday, September 8th 7:25 AM - Richard and Kori's house
Kori's POV
"Kori, wake up," I hear Richard call, but he sounds as if he is at a distance.
I blink my eyes open to find Richard leaning against the frame of my door with his muscular arms crossed over his chest. The usual smile that is on his face when he wakes me is not there, in fact he appears most stoic. Regardless I greet him cheerfully. "Greetings Richard," I smile brightly at him.
He only gives me a half smile before turning to walk out of the room, which does worry me. I wonder if something is wrong with him?
As I take my morning shower my mind replays the events of the previous day. I smile and rub my fingers across my lips. The feeling his touch brings me is so... powerful. Xhal I love him so much, but I am still most confused. I do not know what are relationship status is. We cannot just be friends, can we? No, it has to be more, or at least I hope it is. I believe I shall talk with him about it when we return from school.
The ride to Huddle House is quite. Richard says nothing, but I see him glance at me a few times. Each time he does this, his stoic expression breaks just enough for me to see his emotions. He seems sad, but I am not sure. I begin to wonder if I did something wrong.
Richard does not hold my hand as we walk into Huddle House, he does not touch me at all, which does disapoint me. When we walk through the door I hear Vic call from are usual booth, "Well, look who were able to pull their lips apart long enough join us for breakfast."
I blush, and Richard does not even acknowledge the comment. When I sat down in the booth beside Bee, I expect Richard to sat on the opposite side of me as he always does, but he instead sits down on the other side of the booth, next to Raven. Everyone gives him odd looks, including me, but he just seems to not take notice of them. I see him and Raven look at each other, as if they are communicating with out talking. Suddenly her eyes widen and she glances at me, before looking back at Richard, who just adverts his eyes to the table. Raven then looks at everyone but me. They all seem to understand whatever she is trying to communicate because all their eyes go wide and glance at me as she did. I am most confused at this point, but I remain quite. Ocassionally during the breaking of fast, I glance at Richard, who is just picking at his eggs of the chicken with his fork. Everyone else is also acting most strangley. I am now sure there is something wrong, but I do not know what.
After breakfast Richard drove us to school. Once again the car ride was filled silence. I tried to start a coversation, but he would only respond to me with a yes, no, or a sound. It was most frustrating, considering are car rides together were usually filled with laughter and playful arguments on subjects such as what musturd does and does not taste good on, and which movies were for kids and which were not.
First period is much worse than the car ride. When I walk in I see Britney, the girl from the Huddle House, was in there. She instantly runs to Richard when he walks in, which makes me angry, but I do the biting my tounge and just listen.
"Hey Dick," she says excitedly. I roll my eyes, as does the rest of our friends.
I see Richard glance at me uneasy, but then he looks back and her, and puts on a smile, but I can see it is fake. Richard's real smiles, the ones I get to see in the early morning rides and the late night movies, is far more glorius. "Hey Britney," he greets.
"Where do you guys sit in here?," she asks.
"Umm, over there," he points to the last two rows in the room. "You can sit with us if you'd like," he offers. Everyone trades glances, before looking at him as if he has misplaced his marbles.
"I'd love to," she exclaims. Not carring to hear my love and some girl flirt, I go to my seat and sit down. My friends join me quickly, all giving me sympathetic looks. Richard and Brittney follow behind shortly after. He sets in his normal seat, while she sits down across from him in the third row. The class is spent mostly with Coach Garret watching the film on his laptop, leaving the class to do as they wish. I lay my head down on my desk and listen to Britney and Richard talk the entire period. I hear her laugh, and for some reason that makes me want to cry. I think of my home world. There I would have the right to challenge her for the right to keep my mate, but this is not Tameran and it does not appear that Richard is my mate. After class I hope Richard walks me to my class of art as he always does, but that is not the case today. I see him walk off with Britney. When he places a hand on her back, I feel tears begin to form in my eyes. My only comfort is that my friends walk me to class in place of Richard. I sat quitely to myself the whole period. I am an array of differnt emotions, but the most prominant being sadness.
In third period Gar attempts to cheer me up with his jokes that I still do not understand. Truthfully I didn't even hear him. My mind was much to busy, focusing on Richard. I cannaot believe that after yesterday he is ignoring me. I am a fool to think that he trully loved me, or even liked me. It is all just a game to him, and I cannot help but to play. The worst part of the whole situation is that no mattter what he does I will love him regardless. It is unconditional and unescapable.
Me and Gar exit the class when the bell rings. I am not suprised when Richard is not there to walk me to lunch. He is probably off somewhere with Britney. When me and Gar enter the lunch we head straight for our table. Just as suspected, Richard is not preasent. I am instantly greeted by Vic.
"Hey, little lady," he says with a sad smile.
"Greetings, I reply somberly, as I sit.
"You doing okay?," Bee asks.
I do not care to hide my feelings at the moment. "The man I love is off with another girl, so no, I am not," I answer sadly.
No one seems suprised by declaration of love for him. I guess it is rather obvious. Even though I have not voiced it, I have not hid my stong affection for him either.
Raven sighs, and I can she is debating something in her mind. "You Know," she begins sounding almost hesitant, "Dick cares about you alot more than you know."
"If he truly did care for me he would not be with Britney?," I respond with an angry tone.
"Well, that just it...," she continues debate with herself. "You remember when he told you the story of his parents death, and how for long time he felt as if it was his fault that they died?," she asks me.
I nod in response.
"Well, he's not quite as over that as he pretends to be. He still struggles with it everyday. His worst fear is losing more people he cares about, and he cares about you more than anyone or anything, and he's terrified. He's literally running scared," Raven tells me.
I feel my heart ache. I had no idea he felt that way. He has not mentioned his sadness over this to me, but then again he does not often talk about how he feels. But how does she know so much? "Raven, how do you know this?" I ask.
She shifts side to side, apearing to be most uncomfotable. "Just trust me, I know Dick better than he knows himself."
I sigh. I understand why he feels this way. He could lose me. If Tameran is victourious in the war, I will be called home, and forced to marry Prince Karras to ensure Tameran's strength for generations to come. The only way I would be allowed to stay with Richard is if he were able to defeate Prince Karras in combat, but no normal human outside of The Nightwing or The Batman would stand a chance against a Tameranian. Yes, I do understand why Richard would be reluctant to care for someone after the loss of his parents, but that does not change my want for him. I know it is selfish and wrong, but I cannot help it. My love for him burns so deeply inside of me that he is apart of me. No human could possibly understand how much I love him, because they do not love as deeply as we do. As I think, I see Raven looking at me oddly. She seems somewhat shocked, and her mouth is slightly agape. I do not understand what I did, but it must have been something truly shocking to earn a look like that from Raven, who is usually most stoic. I look around the table to see if I am getting the same look from the rest of my friends, but they all seem perfectly calm. I look back at Raven. Her eyes are now closed, and she is perfectly still. After about a minute, her eyes open and she look at me, this time with more of questioning look on her face. I am most confused as to what I did. She seems to do the forgetting of it, and turns away, regainig her stoic expression. It didn't take long for Vic to gain an odd look, but he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were starring down something behind me, and saw that his expression is becoming one of anger. Gar, Bee, and Raven seem to see what he is looking at as well, and adopt the same anger filled expression. I turn around to see what they are looking at and I instantly feel sick. There he is, my love, my everything, kissing Britney up against one of the walls in the lunch room. I feel my heart shatter, and tears beging to roll down my face almost instantly. "I cannot watch this," I say weakly, and quickly stand and run from the lunch room, not really sure where I'm going, but anywhere is better than here.
Monday, September 8th 12:00 PM - lunch room
Normal POV
Everyone watched, sadend as Kori left in tears. Bee then tured her attention to Richard, who was still making out with Britney. "I'm so gonna kick his ass," she spat.
"I'll help," Vic said with a glare.
"Me too," Gar agreed.
"You all need to calm down," Raven intejected.
"Calm down? Dick's over there making out with another girl, knowing Kori is in love with him," Gar protested, the anger evident in his voice.
"Look, the way he is handling this is questionable, but his reasons are understandable and not unfounded. There's alot about Kori that you all don't know, and it makes the situation alot more complicated than it appears," Raven explained. When Kori had been in thought a moment ago, Raven had picked up on her thoughts by accident. She knew everything now, and understood the whole situation far more than anyone else involved.
"Well, please fill us in on what we don't know," Bee replied.
Raven shook her head. "It's not my place. There are things about all you that I know, that you probablly wouldn't want others to find out about, but I don't go around telling everyone."
No one could argue with that. "Well, we at least need to go check on her," Bee said.
Raven nodded before closing her eyes. "She's on the roof," she informed, reopening her eyes.
Everyone stood from the table, but Bee placed and hand on Vic's shoulder urging him to sit back down. "When I said we, I meant me and Raven. She needs girl talk."
Gar was about to protest, but his mouth shut when Vic nodded. "Take care of her,' he said seriously.
"We will," Bee assured with a soft smile.
The girls headed out of the lunchroom toward the roof. When they opend the door they found Kori leaning against the gate, tears still falling from her eyes. Kori looked up when she heard the aproaching footsteps. Apart of her hoped it was Richard coming to get her, but she found Bee and Ravn walking toward her, causing her to be disapointed, and at the same time relieved she didn't have to face him yet. "Hey Kor," Bee greeted as she and Raven setteld on each side of her.
"Greetings friends," Kori replied through her soft sobs.
Bee glanced meaningfully at Raven. Raven sighed and nodded, before placing her hand on Kori's shoulder. Suddenly Kori felt the pain in her heart dim, and an odd calm come over her. The tears stopped and her breath evend out, as if by magic.
"You doing okay?," Raven asked.
"I do not know. I am sad, but I believe it comforts me to have both of you here," Kori responded as she wiped the leftover tears from her eyes.
Bee smiled. "That's what friends are for."
Kori returnd her smile before turning to look at Raven. "Raven do you truly believe Richard cares for me?," Kori asked, looking for reassurance.
"Yeah, he told me he does," Raven replied.
Kori felt more of the pain in her heart fade.
"He just needs a couple days to realize he's and idiot, then he'll be crawling back to you, begging for you to forgive him," Bee assured, sounding very confident.
A small smile crossed Kori's face. "Truly?," she asked hopefully.
"Yeah, no doubt, but till then I think it's a good idea that you stay with me and Vic," she suggested. Suddenly her face brightens dramatically. "Oh no, I got a better idea. We'll send Vic to Gar's and me you and Raven we'll have a sleep over," she exclaimed.
Raven rolled her eyes, and Kori looked confused. "What is this sleep over?," Kori asked.
"It's where a a few girls get together and do each others hair, paint each others nails, watch movies all night, and talk about cute boys," Bee explained.
Kori's eyes widend in delight. "Oh yes, that sounds most joyus," she exclaims.
"Great... plus Dick's gonna be really upset that you're not staying with him," she informed with a grin.
Kori frowned. "I do not wish to upset him. Will that not only make things worse?"
"No it'll make him miss you. I mean you guys are together every minute of the day. You got to show him what he's missing," she said, still grinning.
"Is this not being the sneaky, and manipulating his emotions?," Kori asked, unsure of the plan.
"All is fair in love and war," Raven responded.
Kori noded, beleiving that to be a very smart saying. "Then yes, let us do the sleeping over."
"This is gonna be great," Bee exclaims.
"Yeah, great," Raven replied sarastically.
Just then the bell rings and the girls exit the roof, and head to class. When Raven walks into english she finds Richard sitting in his normal seat, looking very somber. Raven sits down beside him, and makes no attempt to hide her death glare. "Hey Raven," he greets in a tone that matches his expression.
"What the hell was that back there?" she spat in a hushed tone. "Kori stormed out of the lunchroom in tears because you and what's her name couldn't keep your lips off each other, and what makes this worse is that you're in love with her."
Richard sighed. "I'm doing what's best for her," he defended himself, but had no anger in his voice, only dispair. "Things are just to dangerous for her to be with me. If she got hurt, I'd never be able to live with myself. I won't do that to her. Maybe if I focus on Britney my feelings for her will just fade."
"So you won't date her, but you have no problem shattering her heart into a million peices?," Raven questioned, still angry.
Richard swallowed hard, and suddenly found the wooden top of his desk very interesting. "I don't know what else to do. I'm damned if I do I'm damned if I don't. Like I said yesterday, I gotta do what I thinks right."
"If you think making the girl who loves you more than anything cry is right, then your a damn fool," Raven said coldly.
Richard eyes widend slightly. "She loves me?"
"Of course she does, idiot," Raven replied.
Richard fliped his sun glasses down over his eyes. "I need to be alone," he says before standing and walking out of the room, ignoring the teacher asking where he was going.
Raven watched him leave. She knew more aspects of the situation than anyone else, even Richard and Kori. She didn't blame him for being he confused, but he couldn't treat her like he had. With any luck he'd realize that.
Monday, September 8th 12:25 PM - weight room
Normal POV
Richard quickly walked down the school's hallway, until he reached the school's weight room. He didn't want to think about what Raven said, even though he knew she was right, she always was. He had to keep his body busy, so his mind wouldn't think. It was something he had learned to do shortly after his parent's death. If he worked himself to exhaustion he'd be to tired to analyze the situation, so that's what he did. He layed down on the bench and preformed rep after, set after set, before moving to the next exercise, then the next, and the next, and so on. He didn't respond to the bells telling him it was time for class, he just kept working, focusing only on his breathing and the sweat dripping from his body. Hours passed, but he didn't stop, no matter how much his body begged him to. His muscles screamed at him, until the gave out all together, leaving him unable to go anymore. His hand shake with fatigue as he checked his phone. It was well passed four, and he had eight missed text messages, two from Vic, two from Gar two from Britney, one from Raven, and one from from Bee.. He read over each of them, starting with Gar's.
(Dude, where you at?)
(Seriously dude, get to practice before Coach blows a fuse.)
He then moved to Vic's.
(Dick, c'mon man you need to be at practice.)
(Foreal, get your ass here.)
Then Britney.
(Hey Dick, I was wondering if I could come over to your house today?)
(We could have some fun.)
Richard rolled his eyes before moving on to Bee's.
("Hey Dick, you doing okay? Raven said you stormed out of english)
And finally Raven.
(When you get done trying to work yourself to death you can leave. Kori's staying at Bee and vic's tonight.)
That one hurt. 'I guess she doesn't wanna be around me, but I don't blame her.'
'Well, isn't that what you wanted,' the other side of his mind replied.
'No... yes, but not like this. The whole reason I couldn't be with her to beging was because I was afraid she might get hurt, but she hurting anyway, and it's my fault.'
'Maybe you should fix that then.'
'How? She's probably hates me at this point. I told her she was differnt, I told her that I didn't like britney, and the first thing I do when real feelings get involved is makeout with the same girl I told her I didn't like, right in front of her. How could she ever trust a word I say again? I'm such an idiot.'
'No arguments here.'
Richard frowned at his own admitence, before letting out a deep sigh. He needed to think about all of this, but not now. Now he needed shower and a long nap. He carried himself out of the weight room, and headed straight for the parking lot, to his car.
The ride home was lonely. He missed Kori's random questions and constant babbleing about things that he didn't care about, but she somehow she made it the most interesting thing in the world. He pulled his car into the garage and headed straight inside. He waisted no time getting into the shower. The water relaxed him, and calmed his aching muscles. When he exited the shower, he threw on nothing but a pair of jogging pants. It wasn't like there was anyone here to impress. Sighing at that thought, he headed down stairs and setteld on the couch. Looking around the quite house, he noticed how empty it felt without Kori in it. He missed those eyes that were so bright it made everything around them dull, and that giggle that could nake hi heart soar high above the clouds. He missed the puppy dog look she'd give him when she wanted to watch he they were much to old for, and her making him try weird combinations of food that any other person would find revloting. He missed everything. Gazing arouned the dim, empty room, he wonderd how he stayed here by himself before he had met her. He just wished she was here. Sighing once more, he shook the thought off, and laid back on the couch. He needed to rest before the night's patrol. Richard closed his eyes, but right as he did the doorbell rang. He didn't even bother to get up. If it was one of his friends, they wouldn't have botherd with the doorbell, so it really didn't matter. He reshut his eyes, but the door bell sounded again. He was never gonna get any sleep with that going off. Groaning, he got up and headed for the door. When he opend it, he wasn't overly suprised to find brittney standing there, wearing rather revealing clothing. "Oh, hey Britney," he greeted, his voice lacking any kind of emotion.
Her eyes went wide when she saw he wasn't wearing a shirt, but she regained her composure "Hey, you didn't answerd my texts, but I figured you were busy, so I decided to stop by your house."
"Oh umm, alright," he responded dryly.
"May I come in?," she asked.
Richard sighed. "Listen Britney, I'm sure you're a very nice girl, and you are probably gonna think I'm the biggest douche on the planet, and you might be right about that, but this," he pointed between them, isn't gonna workout."
She looked dejected. "Did I do something?," she asked.
"No, no it wasn't you," he assured. He decided to be blunt. "It's just, I kinda used you to try to get over the girl I'm in love with because she scares me to death. I'm really sorry, and if it makes you feel better, I'll give you one free shot to the face," he offerd.
The girl looked stunned for a moment, before she did something that suprised him. She leaned in and tried to kiss him. He turned his face quickly, so that all she got was cheek. "You're not hearing me, are you?," he asked, sounding a little irritated.
"I hear you fine, but I don't believe you. I know your reputation. I think you have feelings for me and you're are just trying to run from them," she explained.
Richard shook his head. "Trust me, you're way off base here. Like you're not even in the ball park."
The girl giggled. "If you say so." she winked at him. "I'll see you at school tomorrow," she smiled flirtasiously, before heading back to her car.
Richard rolled his eyes before shutting the door, and heading back to the couch. He closed his eyes, and drifted off, into a dreamless sleep.
Monday, September 8th 11:30 PM - Vic and Bee's apartment.
Normal POV
All three girls sat wide awake on the couch. They had spent the evening painting each other's nails and doing each other's hair. They were now engaged in conversation about who was hotter Jacob or Edward from Twilight. The coveration quickly changed to the boys in their own lives.
"So Kor," Bee began, Who do you think is the hottest guy in school... that's not Dick," she added knowing what Kori would say, if given the chance.
Kori's brow furrowed as she thought. "I do not know really. Richard is the only boy I am attracted to."
"Oh c'mon girl, there has to be someone else who you think is cute," Bee said, in disbelieving tone of voice.
"There is not," Kori replied honestly. The moment she fell in love with him, every other male in the universe lost their glow.
Bee still didn't believe her, but she moved on to Raven. "What about you Raven? Who's the cutest guy in school?"
"Dick obviously," Raven answerd simply. Kori didn't care if Raven thought he was cute because it was just a fact, like the sun's hot or dogs bark.
Bee just grinned. "You sure you don't mean Gar?"
"I'm sure," she replied blankly.
Bee let out a sigh. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to tell Gar you're not interested. It's gonna kill the little guy, espically after all that stuff he said about you."
Raven raised an eybrow, and was clearly curious. "What stuff?," she asked.
Bee fought to not grin. "Oh nothing, just that he really likes you."
"He did?," Raven asked, suprised.
"Yep, yesterday at the beach in fact," Bee replied.
"Did he mean like or like?," she asked emphasizing the second like.
'Not interested my ass,' Bee thought to herself, grinning enternally, but maintainig a straight face on the outside. "Like."
Raven's eyes widend slightly, but they quickly returned to their normal dull state. "I still don't care," she said.
Both Bee and Kori smiled at each other before looking back at Raven. "If you say so," Bee teased.
"I do say so," Raven responded, a little irritated. She got up off the couch and headed to the bathroom, shuting the door behind her. Once she was at of sight Bee and Kori looked back each other.
"She so cares," Bee smiled widely.
"Yes, that is most obvious," Kori agreed. "Did Gar really say these things?"
"No, but somethings gotta get the ball rolling," Bee responded with a smirk.
Kori had absolutely no idea what she meant, but she wasn't gonna question it, so Kori did what she always did when she didn't understand something and didn't want to ask, she smiled and nodded.
Hours passed and eventually the other two girls fell asleep, but not not Kori. With the girls out, no one was awkae to distract her, so her mind fixated on Richard once again. As she thought of him, tears began to roll down her face as they had earlier. 'Why must this be so hard? All I wish for is for him to be with me, is that so much to ask?' She continued to cry and think of her love until the early hours of the morning, until finally the comfort of sleep overcame her, but with school it jst a few hours she'd be faced with seeing him, and it was sure to be eventful.