40 - My Phone Hadn't Buzzed All Day

This is the 2nd of 3 chapters today to keep 20 ahead of Royal Road. Enjoy!

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Peter. Was. Late.

I stared at my laptop’s screen, at the black box where he was supposed to be. My throat was tight, and my stomach rolled. The little clock read 8:49, which meant he was twenty minutes late. I’d texted him to make sure he’d be here. I’d done my makeup, curled my hair, and even put on the nightie he’d bought me. I’d spent an hour getting ready.

And he wasn’t here. Not to enjoy it, and not for me to enjoy…us.

So I lay there on my giant bed, mind wandering. Tokyexico City’s gates had shut just after I got out of Rocko’s place. Man vs. Nature VII had started with a buffalo herd the size of Yorkston Island heading right for us. I’d seen some videos of Yellowstone pre-Launch Day; buffalo were scary enough before you tripled their size and made their fur as tough as steel wool.

They were coming from the plains. The mountains to our west would break them up; the big herds never made it to Riverside. I wondered if the heroes and villains who’d signed up for the job fair were fighting already.

“What if I were dating someone here?” I muttered at my ceiling. At Tails. At the Lil Pal, whose repulsor still wouldn’t fire, sitting on my end table. None of them responded. But I knew the answer. Someone closer—someone here—wouldn’t leave me waiting in front of my computer. Punch, Grapple, or Avan wouldn’t leave me waiting in front of my computer.

Bianca wouldn’t leave me waiting in front of my computer.

Actually, let’s pursue that, I thought. Why did Bianca keep popping up in my daydreams? And why could I taste lemon on her lips in those fantasies? I’d never seen her put on lipstick, chapstick, lipgloss, or anything. And we’d only hugged a couple of times. I didn’t know what it’d be like to go on a date with her. But I had a guess it’d be awesome.

I hadn’t crushed on someone like this in…huh. Had I crushed on someone like this?

Before I could follow that line of thought, Peter popped up on my screen. He pulled goggles off his dirt-covered face. I’d rarely seen the inside of his lair, but I recognized a workbench with a mostly-assembled LABRAT lying on it behind him. The welds in its armor looked fresh. He looked tired…and a touch annoyed, maybe. “Sorry I’m late. I lost track of time.”

He sure had. It’d been—I checked the clock—thirty minutes since we’d scheduled this. And he hadn’t texted me all day. Not even to respond when I’d messaged him to confirm the time. I felt my lips press together thinly and sighed. Could I tell him it was fine again? Could I keep doing this? Relaxing my lips and sighing again, I decided to try.

“What are you working on, Peter?”

“Labrat upgrades!” His exhausted face shone with excitement all of a sudden. “This is the 1.4 model over here. Its battery is good for five to six hours of active use and twelve to fifteen of idling. I need more. So 1.5 and 1.6 ditch their nonessential armor for additional battery cells and light solar arrays. The 1.5 is the combat model, and the 1.6 is a walking Panic Pal recharger. It only gets a light [Hypercompression Cannon], but it can run support for six Pals.”

“Peter, don’t come. It’s too dangerous. They shut down the wall today. There’s a three-million-strong herd of ultra-buffalo on the way. You won’t be able to fight through them, and the herd’s too much to fly over.”

“Oh, I’m coming, Annie. At this point, it’s a challenge, and Professor Panic doesn’t back down from a challenge. Besides, the LABRATS and Panic Pals need upgrades anyways. Collidus is really stepping up, and I won’t take over the town without upgrades. How are classes?”

Before I could even open my mouth, the LABRAT popped at one of its weld seams, sending sparks across the room. Peter threw himself down on the floor with a scream. The LABRAT’s chest burst into flame, and he scrambled for a fire extinguisher. He shouted toward the screen, his words rapid-fire. “It might be a while sorry gotta put this out!”

“That’s…fine,” I said, standing up as he started fighting the fire. I should have been worried about him. I should have watched and cheered him on. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

I fled the bedroom. The sound of the fire extinguisher faded as I shut the bathroom door and sat on the toilet seat. The tears started, and I couldn’t stop them.

It was over.

It’d been over for a while now.

But I hadn’t wanted to see it.

“God dammit!” I screamed—quietly—at my towel. My throat hurt, and my palms wouldn’t stop sweating. But I wasn’t Peter’s priority, and try as I might, he wasn’t mine anymore. I waited, letting my tears stop slowly, then looked at myself in the mirror.

I snorted at the smeared, runny mascara that’d plowed through my makeup. I didn’t look like Anika DuPont. I looked like Tearjerker in her costume. And speaking of the villainous goth…Peter wasn’t going to be happy. And, little leaguer or not, he was a supervillain. I’d have to be careful and let him down easy.

I cleaned up some of my make-up mess and returned to the video chat. Peter couldn’t get the fire out. Every time he stopped spraying, it flickered back to life. Eventually, he unplugged the LABRAT. “Shit. That’s twelve hours of work down the drain. Do you know how expensive ilneat ionic capacitors are? I’m going to have to actually rob the bank this time.”

“Peter.”

“And that’s to say nothing of the wiring that just burned or the pop-out solar paneling that needs, at the very least, cleaning. I wonder if 1.4 can do some of that. Hey! 1.4! Get over here. Strip down the 1.6 here. Any part with more than 90% structural integrity, clean. Anything with more than 60%, pile here. Anything less, scrap. Don’t mess it up this time, or I’ll have you scrap yourselftoo.”

“At once, Professor!” The robot monotoned and got to work.

“Peter!” I said more insistently.

“Alright, at least the blueprint is digital. I wonder why it didn’t show up in the simulations. It’s so obvious.” Peter was full-on Genius-mode. I could see his eyes flicking across his computer screen. The asshole didn’t even have me focused. He was probably staring at LABRAT’s schematics right now!

“PETER! This. Isn’t. Working. I’m done.”

Fuck. Fuck! I froze, watching Peter’s face as his eyes un-dilated and he came up from Genius mode. I wanted to face-palm myself. I wanted to hide. This wasn’t letting someone down easy.

“What?” His voice was emotionless. Monotone. Like one of his LABRAT bots, but without the humanity.

“Thank you for finally listening.” I couldn’t stop myself. The words just kept coming. “I’ve been trying for weeks, Peter. I’ve scheduled phone calls and video chats. I’ve tried to come up with stuff for us to do together. And it feels like the gap between us keeps getting wider and wider. I’m out of ideas, and you’ve been busy building robots or whatever.”

“I’m doing this for you,” Peter said. His voice was still monotone, but I could see his face reddening. His following sentence was almost a whisper. “I’m doing this all for you.”

“I don’t want it, Peter. I appreciate it, but I don’t want it anymore.” I chewed the inside of my lip. It did not taste like lemons. “I just want to be done.”

“Fine,” Peter said. His fists balled, and he shifted to the fast, manic voice of Professor Panic. “Fine, then. We’re done. Magical Girl Understudy. I’m an honorable villain, so there’s no need to hide. I swear I won’t seek revenge on your family in Riverside.”

Before I could say anything else, his screen went black.

I sniffed the air. I reeked of stress and sweat; the kind of sweat that stank when you were scared. The foul stink filled my room, and I felt soaked and disgusting. Pulling off Peter’s—no, my—nightie, I started the shower and let the warm water run down my back. My body shivered and shook, and I couldn’t stop crying as I tried to scrub off my blush and foundation.

I’d done the right thing. I knew I had. But a voice still asked me, ‘What did you do?’

I didn’t bother washing my hair or scrubbing myself clean. Even toweling myself dry felt like too much effort. So I crawled into my soft, warm bed, dripping wet. I’d deal with the consequences tomorrow. I needed to be alone.

No.

I needed to talk to someone.

I flipped through my contacts on my phone and pressed ‘Call.’ The phone rang. Then it rang again.

“Hey, Dot. What’s going on?” Dad asked.

I burst into sobs again. Dad waited patiently at first. But when I didn’t stop, he took a guess. “Professor Panic broke things off, right?”

“N-no. I did it just now. He’d b-been so busy, and he’d been ignor—“ I stopped and froze under the blankets. Shit. Dad knew. “How long—“

“Anika, we’ve known since you were thirteen. You’re not that sneaky, Miss Magical Girl,” he said. Shit, shit, shit. “About the third time your transformation went off in your room, we bought earplugs. We weren’t about to stop you from being a superhero, but you were screwing with our sleep, and we both had to work.”

Oh.

“So what happened, Dot?” Dad asked.

I told him everything. Our problems leading up to Professor Panic’s Payoff Plan—how he’d gotten obnoxious as college grew closer for me. How we’d tried to hold it together and even made a plan, but both been busy with our own lives. Our little break. And then after it, when it felt like I was doing all the work, and our break-up. I was mostly coherent. I hoped.

“Alright. I think you made a good choice, Annie.” I breathed out a shuddery breath as he continued. The tears wouldn’t stop. “Mom and I love you. She’s at work. You know how the diner is. But give her a call tomorrow. She’s got the day off.”

“It hurts, Dad. We were together for so long.”

“Yeah, you were. Look, Dot, I’m not gonna pretend it doesn’t hurt. But you’re a tough cookie. Tomorrow’s Saturday, so you’re gonna have a couple of days to mope as needed. But on Monday, you need to get your butt back in those lecture halls and keep learning. That’s what the scholarship is for, right?”

“Right, Dad,” I said. I tried to pull myself together. Fresh tears kept running, but the sobs and shakes stopped. “Thanks. Love you.”

I paused. Should I tell them about Peter's—No, Professor Panic's—promise not to attack them? My brow scrunched. Then I shook my head. No. He'd keep his word on that, at least.

“Love you too.”

He hung up, and I stared at the black screen on my computer for a bit. As I went to shut it down, it dinged at me. I had a new email. I unlocked the screen, closed the video call window, and opened my email.

Subject: First Annual Superpowered Job Fair Tomorrow: You’re Super-Suited for this Job!

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