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“No,” he said, taking a step back, even if it felt like one of the hardest things he’d ever done.
She blinked, arms dropping back down to her sides. “What do you mean,no?”
“I’m pissed off at you,” he snapped. “We’re a team. We work together. We don’t go off half-cocked alone. We keep each other in the loop. That’s what being part of Lighthouse means. Seth knows that. Jazz and Gibby, too. Even Mateo. So why don’t you?”
The skin under her left eye twitched. “I seem to remember a time or ten when you did exactly what you’re accusing me of. Recently, even.”
“Whoa,” Dad said, rising from the couch, standing next to Nick. “Jen, I know things are heated right now, but that was uncalled for. Nick is seventeen years old, and we’re the parents here.”
Her expression softened as she looked at Dad. “I know, Aaron. But you have to believe me that I never wanted this to happen. I wouldn’t do that to you.” She glanced at Nick before looking back at Dad. “Or him. We’re on the same side.”
“Then why don’t you act like it?” Nick retorted.
“You’re overreacting,” she said in a calm voice that made Nick’s skin itch. “But I don’t blame you for that.”
“Overreacting,” Nick said. “You thinkI’moverreacting. Cool. Hey, I have an idea. If it’s not as big a deal as you seem to think I’m making it out to be, let me call some reporters. Havethem come over for a family interview. Me. Dad. You. You can put on your costume and have a dramatic reveal where you tell everyone whoyoureally are.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He wasn’treallygoing to call a reporter—in fact, he didn’t have a reporter’s phone number—but he was trying to prove a point.
His phone flew from his grasp, floating toward his mother, whose hand was raised toward him. The phone landed on her palm, fingers wrapping around it. “That’s quite enough,” she said. “You can be upset with me all you want, but why would you want to hurt me like that?” She sniffled. “Nick, I’m your mother. I wouldneverdo something like that to you.”
Guilt, then, clawing at his insides, tearing him to shreds. “I don’t…” He glanced at Dad, whose face was pale, expression spooked. An apology tried to force its way out, but he swallowed it back down. Self-righteousness and Nick Bell were old friends. “You hid everything from me,” he said, voice hard. “You both did. For all I know, you’re still working with Burke.”
As soon as he said it, he wished he could take it back, but it was out there now, in the open, a secret fear he’d carried with him ever since he’d learned Simon Burke was responsible for the pills that suppressed his powers for most of his life. He loved his father, more than anyone in the world. Dad had made mistakes—but Nick had chosen to believe they were just that: mistakes without malicious intent.
Mom too,a little voice whispered, intrusive, tickling his brain.She’s just as much as part of this as Dad.
Dad’s face crumpled, shoulders sagging.
Mom, though. Her gaze was unfocused, her hands twitching at her side, lips moving without sound.
She’s here,the same strange voice told him.She only wants to protect you. Why are you being like this?
He groaned, shaking out the tension in his shoulders. “I didn’t mean that. I shouldn’t have…” He huffed out an irritated breath. “I know you both are trying to help. Trying to do the right thing after…”(Before, After, Before, After)“… aftereverything. But if you think I’m just going to stand here and let you make excuses then, man, are you in for a major disappointment. I trust that you love me. I trust that you only want what’s best for me. But I don’t think I trust you to know what that is.”
“Nick,” Dad said quietly. “That’s… okay, that’s fair. Let’s take a step back, yeah? Cool our heads a little bit. I don’t think any of us want to say something else we’ll regret later.”
But Nick was worked up. He stared at his mother dead-on, refusing to look away. “If you’re going to be part of Lighthouse, then you need to treat us like we’re on your team. If you’d told us that Owen was already gone, we wouldn’t have looked like assholes at Burke’s rally.”
“You’re right,” Mom said evenly. “I screwed up. It won’t happen again.” She wiped her eyes and gave him a watery smile. “I’d really like that hug now, if that’s all right with you.”
He went to her. Of course he did.
Everything was fine.
The next few days were surprisingly quiet, all things considered. Mom, Dad, and Nick moved gingerly around one another, as if they thought one of them might explode with the slightest provocation.
Reporters once again camped out in front of the Gray brownstone. They only stayed for a couple of days before moving on. The city never slept, and since they weren’t getting anything from Bob, Martha, or Seth, they turned their attention elsewhere. It didn’t take long for the Ruckus at the Rally (also capitalized, as if it carried the same weight as the Battle at McManus Bridge and the Attack on Centennial High) to become old news.
For his part, Burke didn’t follow through with his threats. He was interviewed almost nightly, and whenever questions were asked about Extraordinaries, Burke answered in generalities, pushing his agenda that Extraordinaries as a whole were dangerous and he was the only man who was in a position to do anything about it.
It certainly didn’t help that the current mayor—Stephanie Carlson—almost seemed toagreewith him, saying she believed that everyone had the right to support their candidate without interruption. “While I am against everything that Simon Burke stands for and believe that he’s not the leadership Nova City needs, I call on the Extraordinaries of this city to allow him to speak to his supporters without fear of those who call themselves superheroes. If they had done the same to me, I know that Mr. Burke would’ve spoken out. He is—”
Nick scoffed as he stopped the video, Carlson’s face freezing midword on the screen. While he knew there were good people in politics with the best of intentions, he was of the mind that the rest were most likely sociopaths, and that outweighed everything else. Just like with the cops.
It helped when he switched over to a different tab (one of at least a dozen—Nick’s interests were wide and varied, his chaotic mind knowing no limits) and looked at Twitter. He found Burke’s campaign account and was heartened to see he’d been ratioed on his last seven tweets, most of the responses coming from accounts with some variation of the wordExtraordinariesin their handles. There were even a few fancams of Pyro Storm with clips taken from the news, glittering hearts raining down around him over washed-out filters backed by terrible pop songs. Nick approved wholeheartedly.
It was Wednesday morning, and Nick was supposed to be working on practice essays for his college applications. He grumbled, but it was half-hearted. He didn’t exactly have the extracurriculars that would impress a college admission’s office, and while not terrible, his grades didn’t set him apart from the crowded field. Dad wanted him to not put all his hopes into Nova City University, saying that while he was confident Nick would get in, he needed to plan just in case that didn’t happen. The idea of Jazz, Gibby, and Seth all being at the same school without him rubbed Nick the wrong way, and he swore to himself that he’d make sure his senior year went as smoothly as possible so as not to give anyone reason to reject him.
