Keeping Superman’s Secret

TWO

My whole body froze, staring at him in his black suit, eying over the silver and blue splashes of colour across his chest and arms. The hoodie that once covered him was now gone, revealing his messy hair once more. Coming back up to his face, I met those glowing blue eyes, watching me curiously. It was closing in on midnight, and I was standing alone in my bedroom, a superhero not even two steps in front of me.

“What are you doing here?” I suddenly shouted, jumping out of my frozen stature. I lashed towards him, reaching for the headphones that he had pulled from my ears. He smirked at me, backing just out of my reach too quickly.

“The X Ambassadors, huh?” His voice was deep and smooth, the kind of voice that made me want to listen. He looked me over, making me wrap my hands around myself, suddenly feeling nervous. My face burned wondering how long he had been here, how long had he been listening to me sing to myself?

“It’s a good song,” I mumbled, trying to fake some confidence. I stepped towards him again, reaching out once more. Thankfully, this time he didn’t back away and allowed me to take the headphones back.

“It’s an old song,” he corrected me.

“So?” I mumbled, feeling annoyed. I reached for my phone, pausing the playlist before he could hear any of the other songs that were playing. He didn’t need to know that I’d made a whole playlist of their music and have more reason to judge me. Although I was surprised he knew the song at all.

“Weird,” he mumbled, spinning on his heel to turn away from me. I couldn’t help but notice how smoothly he moved, as if he were gliding around the room. He took a seat in the desk chair, swivelling it back and forth as he moved his feet. Annoyance built up in me as I suddenly began to feel defensive over my taste in music. It hardly mattered what he thought of it, but on every interaction I seemed to have with him he was so rude and that is what bothered me most.

“Did you just come here to insult me? Because if so you can leave,” I spat at him, hoping he would take the offer up so I could return to putting away my laundry, get to bed, and pretend this whole night never even happened. His eyes snapped back to mine instantly, the blue glowing a little stronger now.

“Weird as in unexpected, geez why are you being so defensive?” I felt a tinge of guilt in my chest as he spoke, but then he laughed. Maybe I was being the rude one, but he sure was a poor conversationalist. Although I guess superheroes can’t be good at everything, it would be unfair to all of us normal people out here.

“You’re not answering my question,” I leaned over to one side, tapping my foot to indicate that he needed to hurry up and get to the point. He looked me over one more time curiously, taking his time before answering. The glow of his eyes softened once more to an almost normal colour that reminded me of the ocean. They drew me in, making me want to take a step closer and look at them more closely.

“Which was?” He said lazily, spinning in the chair again. The corner of his lip turned up into that same smirk and I glared at him. He was totally doing this on purpose because he knew I was getting irritated.

“Why are you here?” I asked again, more slowly this time. Surely the city’s most famous superhero had better things to do than creep into girls' bedrooms at night. Although that did seem like exactly the type of thing he could do if he wanted to take advantage of his status among his fan club. While I’m sure any of those girls would be happy to have some sort of slutty make-out session if he snuck into their rooms at night, I was most definitely not the type. “Look if you think this is gonna be some sort of late night hook up type thing, because you think I’m one of your crazy super fans then you can just-“

“Woah, you’re feisty,” he laughed, cutting me off. “Totally off base though, your theory is actually kind of insulting to me now. Care to keep guessing?” He asked and I glared at him. I was sick of whatever type of game he thinks we’re playing. He sighed and tilted his head back in the chair to look up at the ceiling. “I came because I don’t know if you took our conversation from earlier seriously or not,” he finally explained.

I took a step back from him. Was he talking about when he asked me not to tell anyone about seeing him? I was hardly going to admit that. Who would I tell? Even if I did tell someone, there was no way they would believe me. Tons of people came forwards all the time claiming to have had interactions with the city's superheroes, but the claims always turned out to be false or definitely seemed made up. I most definitely would not allow myself to be grouped into that bunch of crazies, so my lips really were sealed.

He stood from the chair, walking closer to me once more. “Besides, I sort of have to keep an eye on you now and make sure you don’t tell anyone, considering you know one of my biggest secrets,” I looked over at him curiously. What was he talking about? I hardly knew anything about him. Unlike the girls in his fan club, I hardly paid attention to him until seeing him tonight at the hospital. I could hardly know one of his biggest secrets after one short interaction with him, he was crazy. “Or I could just make you disappear and problem solved,” he suddenly added, and my eyes went wide.

“I’ll scream and fight and there’s no way you’ll be able to take me quietly. I took self-defence classes last year and you’d be surprised how much I learned there. Plus, someone is bound to notice if I go missing and I’ll find someway to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the cops to follow. You’ll never get away with it,” I rambled on, preparing to defend myself as I widened my stance slightly, only to be surprised when he let out a deep laugh. Clutching his stomach, trying to control himself as he laughed, I noticed how his eyes lit up that bright blue once more.

“I’m kidding, I’m a superhero, remember? I save people, not ruin their lives.” He said as his laughing calmed down. I blushed again and turned away from him to hide it. I wanted to pretend he wasn’t there, to pretend this was just any other night and I was getting ready for bed. I put the last of my laundry away and Onyx went quiet. So quiet, in fact, that I believed when I turned back around he would be gone. I, however, was disappointed when those same blue eyes were shining in the dark when I turned to go towards my bed. Why wasn't he leaving?

“What do you mean I know a secret?” I asked him, thinking back on what he said. Maybe if I just played dumb he would forget about me and leave. Although, I do kind of feel dumb right now. I supposedly knew a secret about a superhero and I couldn’t even figure out what it was.

“Wait, do you not remember earlier?” He asked, stepping forwards from the wall where he was leaning so casually. I mulled the idea over in my head. I could hardly forget pulling a bullet out of a person’s abdomen and then watching the skin heal like magic. I’m not sure how any person could forget that. But seemingly he believed that I may have, so I decided to just go with it.

“No? Have we met before?” I asked him, putting on my best confused look. Onyx froze, eying me over carefully. His eyes were wide as he came back up to my face, then he took a quick step towards me, his hand coming to my cheek and forcing my eyes up to his.It felt like a gentle electrical current pulsed through my cheek where his hand rested and I watched his blue eyes burn brighter, feeling unable to look away.

“No, and you won’t remember this either,” he whispered, and with that he escaped through my balcony doors and into the dark night sky, moving so fast he blurred into a shadow. I shut the doors behind him, being sure to turn the lock. Lying down in my bed, I couldn’t shake the strangeness of the interaction. To believe that I could forget tonight was absurd, but honestly I sort of hoped it was true.