Life After Death

I wrapped the bright blue blanket over me; shutting the light out. Unfortunately it didn't block out my roommate’s voice. "C'mon, Lorna. You've been in bed for two days." Brittney's voice was slightly muffled by my pillow.

"Leave me alone." I yelled as I tried to bury myself farther into the bed.

The bed moved a bit as Brittney sat down next to the bundle of blankets that was me. "Lorna, you and Owen only dated for like, what, six months? Besides you're the one that dumped him.” I kept my silence. “How about we go out to dinner? My treat."

I popped my head up out of the blankets. "What time is it?" I said in a bored tone.

Brittney glanced at the clock on the wall. "4:37."

"Give me an hour." I said as I hopped out of bed.

Sophomores at the University of California in Berkeley were given the larger dorm rooms with individual bathrooms; a nice upgrade from the community showers the students had to endure during freshmen year. Ours was still in a clean condition considering it was third month of school and it had yet to be thoroughly cleaned. I took a quick shower; only really taking time to wash my natural green hair. No one ever asked me if my hair color was natural and I didn't expect them to. What normal human being has hair the color of the Emerald City? Even with the shower I was ready to go in forty minutes.

I jumped into a pair of dark blue skinny jeans before I grabbed a random black tank-top from our small closet. I finished with small heels and some light make-up. Brittney just rolled her tree-bark colored eyes at my wild attempts to dress quickly. Brittney and I had been friends for almost five years; since my junior year in high school. We knew everything about each other. I knew how Brittney had a small OCD problem when it came to the volume of the television; it had to be kept on an even number. She knew I liked to eat peanut butter straight out of the jar. I knew she had a strange obsession with the color purple; her side of the room was covered in the color. She knew I was mutant.

She knew I was a mutant. But she didn't know my life before I met her; almost five years ago. She didn't know I was adopted by a family as a baby and raised on the south side of Boston. Brittney didn't know I was recruited into a secret special military task force built up of mutants when I was just 16. She didn't know I had an extremely short affair was an older man named Wade Wilson before I suddenly quit the task force. My best friend didn't know that the commander of the team, Mr. William Stryker, had faked my suicide without me knowing, forcing me to relocate to Philadelphia, where I met her. Brittney believed I was foster child who managed to get emancipated. She thought my three day disappearance at the end of our senior in high school was due to me getting stranded on a New Jersey beach after I went to a board viewing with the state of Massachusetts. In reality I was flown to the north side of Canada before driving a stolen car all the way to Las Vegas, and then I rode to New Orleans on the back of a Harley driven by a friend from the military team before taking a sea plane to Three Mile Island. But I knew Brittney had a large crush on the kid named Tyler, who lived on the floor below us.

We walked the three minutes to the student parking. I still drove the Cadillac I stole from Stryker when I left the team; only I had managed to forge paper work and serial numbers so I legally owned the car. I drove us to a nearby Italian restaurant, where we were seated next to a middle aged couple and their twelve year old son. I met Owen Harper at the end of my freshmen year; he was a junior at the time. I met him at a frat party; so that should have told me something. It was good at first but the last month or two of our relationship was awful. It was to the point that neither of us bothered to hide our distaste for each other. It wasn't until I formally broke it off with Owen did he realized what an ass he was. I hadn't answered any of his phone calls.

“You wanna talk about it?” Brittney said in her compassionate tone as we looked over the large menu. I was reading the description on the shrimp pasta when I answered.

“Not really.” My best friend saw the true meaning of my answer.

“Are sorry you slept with him?” She asked bluntly and a little too loudly. The middle aged women flashed us a disgusted look.

“Owen Harper is immature and inexperienced. You don't sleep with Owen; you endure him.” I said putting an end to the subject. Our dinner came soon after and our conversation took a lighter note.

I was nervous when I first told Brittney about my mutation. I was worried she would react one of two ways. Reaction A: she believed me and ran for the hills. Reaction B: she thought I was completely insane and still ran for the hills. Either way I would lose my best friend. Fortunately her reaction was neither A or B. She believed me but that didn't affect the way she looked at me as a person. My green hair was the first sign of my mutation. My powers didn't start manifesting until I was about ten. It started with my detection of metal and then the manipulation of it. Then came the flight and force fields and magnetic energy pulses.

After dinner, we decided to forgo the weekly frat party and head home to watch violent movies which no why incorporate any love anyway shape of form. I dropped Brittney off at the dorm so she could sort through her five foot pile of movies while I ran to the convenience for popcorn and other fattening food. A Seven-Eleven was located a few blocks from campus and was frequented by many college students. It started to pour rain when I pulled into the almost empty parking lot. Rain was not a kind element for my hair. I was trying to decide between Junior Mints and M&M's when the bell above the door ranged; signaling an incoming customer. When I saw the man who walked through the door I forgot all about chocolate covered candy.