The phone was ringing. It had been ringing the entire morning. Dana Tan it read. No matter how many times I kept rejecting her calls, she wouldn't stop.

Not that I cared.

I picked up the receiver and put it down.

Mom stayed until eleven trying to get me out of the bathroom. She told Matt to got to bed.

"Terry, please come out," she said. When I shouted I would never leave, she stopped banging on the door. I could hear her sobbing and I immediately felt guilty. After all she did for me, I chose not to tell her I was Batman. This was the woman who raised me, loved me, bathed me, fed me, and I chose not to tell her I was Batman. Even when I went to juvie, she still loved me.

And I chose not to tell her.

Then there was the brother I had. I saved his life once, and he told Mom the story of how Batman did it. But he didn't know either. He didn't know his own brother saved his life.

Around one a.m., I opened the bathroom door. The lights were still on. Popcorn was all over the floor, couch, and kitchen counter. The table was on its side, and the TV was facedown, lying like a sleeping person.

This was me. Before Ian Peek, the room looked like a civilized place. The table was standing straight, and the TV wasn't lying facedown. Popcorn wasn't all over the room. But there was something about it a lot of people didn't know. This was the room Dad told Mom he was filing for divorce.

That was me.

But the state of the living room now represented the new me. Someone who was no longer normal, someone with a secret that shouldn't have come out.

A train wreck.

"Terry?"

Matt sat on my bed. He looked down at me.

I turned over. "Leave me alone, twip."

"If you're hungry, you can come to the kitchen. Mom's made the best scrambled eggs in the world!"

How could Matt still be happy about scrambled eggs after what happened last night?

"She also wants to talk to you."

I already knew that.

It was boring having to stay in bed forever, so at twelve, I finally got out. At that point, I was so tired that I couldn't feel my legs anymore. I scratched the back of my head and stood up.

Ian Peek never revealed my identity to the city. It was all just a bad dream that felt like it was actually real. Ian changed his mind about revealing my secret and called it off. Maybe even the meeting with Ian Peek was a dream. It was still a bunch a bullshit I considered entertainment, though it wasn't anymore.

Right?

I rubbed the grit out of my eyes and got out. I slept in too much. Right now, I had to brush my teeth, shower, change, eat breakfast, and get my ass over to Mr. Wayne's.

The living room was still the mess it was the night before.

Mom and Matt were sitting at the table. Mom's food was in front of her, uneaten. Matt's plate was empty, and normally, he would be talking a lot. But today he wasn't.

It wasn't a dream.

It was real.