This is for The Hero

Chapter Seven
A knock on the door made me jump. I didn't think that anyone would be seeing me today since no one bothered to see me at the hospital earlier.

"It's unlocked." I yelled.

The doorknob turned and I saw Trenton standing there. I jumped up and ran over to him, trying to be careful with my arm. When I got close to him, I noticed that his expression carried worriment, and I wrapped my left arm around him since my right arm was in a sling. Trenton followed my example, and his arms came around my lower back and head.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

We broke the hug and I wiggled my sling. "If you call this okay, then yeah." I let out a small chuckle, but then my face lost it's expression. "I called you, but you didn't answer."

"I lost it in a fire." Trenton said. His face kind of changed quickly to where I couldn't understand the emotion he was trying to get through.

"What fire have you been in?" It kind of shocked since I hadn't heard of one lately.

"I was at the library." he said.

"Oh, you were in the library at the time of the fire?" That didn't make sense. He was on the phone with me when I noticed that the library had caught on fire on the TV. I knew assuming was terrible, but it felt like I was being lied to.

"Yeah. I tried to be sneaky with it since the librarians are strict about no cell phone use, but then they started yelling at us to get out, so I had to end the call. I couldn't find it after we evacuated."

I decided to drop it. "I'm glad you're safe." I motioned inside.

He walked past me as I slid out of his way. "Here, let me get your jacket." It was black leather and made him look very stunning. He rolled it off his shoulders, and I slid the sleeves off of his arms. I stuck it on the hook beside the door while I shut and locked the door. I led him to the love seat in front of the TV. We both sat, and I leaned on the side of the couch while letting out a sigh. "Gee, what a great weekend. The fact that it's Monday makes it even better. I had a class today for English, but I decided not to go today."

Trenton smiled. "Well, it can't be all too bad."

"Oh? Well, imagine yourself being cornered in a parking garage by your crazed 'classmates', each holding a baseball bat in hand for being the town's most hated person and for an idiot's injuries because you, supposedly, told your knight in shining armor, Superstition, to come rescue you. To top it all off, you had a light break in your upper arm bone because he tried to save you yet again." I sat up a little bit. "I would think that it would be a living hell. I swear this superhero is pursuing me to make my life miserable."

"That may not be true. Maybe he was just trying to protect you." Trenton seemed to be looking at a different perspective than me.

"I'm grateful for what he did in the parking garage, I truly am. What I hate thinking about is the fact that if he would have let Randal punch me in the face, this could have all be avoided."

"Isn't it good to know that he is watching over you, though? You basically have a personal bodyguard." He smiled.

I let out a small chuckle. "I think that's the last thing I need. I already have Jaro."

"She wasn't there, though." He seemed to be taking a liking to Superstition.

"Have you read the headlines, though? This superhero is ruining my reputation around the town, not to mention his own. The whole city of Springside thinks that Superstition is now switching to the dark side. They also believe that I'm the one that is making him do this." I leaned back onto the couch side again, letting my head hang over the side. "This is way too much for me to be taking in. I'm way too stressed out. I ruined my shot at the fraternity by only the third day because I didn't show up the second day. They basically humiliated us in front of the brothers the first day while recording us and I didn't want to go again. They expected me to go get punished the next day? Fuck that!" I sighed again.

"I'm sorry, Shane." Trenton apologized.

"You don't need to be sorry for anything. You didn't do anything. I'm babbling about how terrible my life is at the moment, so I should be the one that is sorry."

I lifted my head, and Trenton motioned towards himself. "Come here."

I smiled, and crawled with the one arm I had available. Trenton started to situate himself, and I turned around to lay against his chest. My head sat against his collarbone while he had his hand on my hair, lightly stroking it while his right hand held my left hand with our fingers intertwined. Trenton spoke. "Where are we going with this?"

I sat there, thinking. What were we doing? It was only a weekend that we knew each other. It just went slow enough to make it feel like it had been a week. Even then, it still would have been too short of a time for something like this to blossom.

I replied, "I don't know. Whatever it is, though, I like it."

"I like it, too." Trenton said. "This is the strongest I've felt about a person."

Him saying that gave me that skipped heartbeat. I had never really been someone that a person looked forward to seeing. I was always the backup, except to Jaro. This was different, though, because it was an infatuation.

Sort of.

"I feel the same way about you, Trenton. You are the first person I've heard that from."

"That shocks me."

"Really?" I was shocked, myself. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you're an amazing person." He said. "You also make the best sounds."

"Oh, my gosh. Are we seriously going to get into this again?" I started laughing, and he chuckled as well.

We sat there in silence for a while, enjoying each other's company. Trenton was extremely alluring, I wasn't going to lie. Though his looks were beyond perfection, his actions were his best known characteristics. The way he came up to me in Breaker showed his cockiness, and him punching Stephen in the face showed how far he would go to protect another's dignity. Though they were little things, they showed a lot to me. That, or I was just over thinking things.

Knock, knock.

The noise made me jump. I arose from the couch and made Trenton get up. They knocked again.

"Sweetie? Your messages got to our phone not too long ago. Are you doing okay?"

I dropped my jaw and my eyes lit up. "Shit!" I whispered. "Trenton, you have to leave. It's my parents!"

He smiled. "Why? It's just your parents. They can't be too bad."

Boy, did he have it wrong. "They are the most embarrassing people on the planet!" Damn, he couldn't go through the window since I was on the third story. They knocked on the door again.

Trenton got a hold of me by the shoulders to stop me and hurt my arm. "Sorry. Look, it's just your parents. I'm sure it's fine."

"No, it's not!" I looked around, and my eyes caught the closet. I started pushing him towards there. "Go, go, go. Don't worry, it'll be a quick conversation. They just can't see you! Go!"

"Shane, calm do-"

"Shhh! Just go in!" I opened the door and pushed him in. I shut the closet and ran to the front door. I unlocked it and opened the front door.

"Hey, Mom! Dad!" I smiled. "Come on in!"

They walked in. Mom looked down at my sling and dropped her jaw. "Honey, are you okay? What happened? I mean, I think I know what happened, but you know how magazines and the media can lie."

I bit my lip. "You guys saw that?"

My dad laughed a little. "Saw it? It's everywhere! It's on the radio stations, newspapers... Hell, it's even on the Yahoo front page!"

The media really never wastes time, does it? "I'm sorry. If I had any control over it, I would've stopped it."

"What do you have to be sorry about?" Dad asked. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay because of the idiotic kids that tried to hurt you."

"I'm fine. I just need to make sure to take my pain relievers and such." I chuckled.

Mom and Dad looked at each other for a second, then back at me. "Shane," Mom started, "We were wondering if you wanting to come stay with us for a little bit. Until this all dies down. We don't want you hurting yourself in any way because of all of the stress that this could put on you. Plus, if anything, the press could start making even more rumors if you don't do something about it."

That was unexpected. I looked at Dad. "Son, it's fine with me. After hearing about it the whole time during the car ride here, it may be your best intentions to just disappear for a while."

"We only want you safe." Mom said.

If I could see my face right now, it would be a blank expression. "Um..."

Mom looked down, then back at me. "I'm sorry. It's probably a little too upfront. We'll give you some time. I just wanted to see that you were okay." She hugged me, but her grasp kind of made me squirm in pain.

"Ow, Mom." I laughed. She smiled as she let go.

"Just give us a call when you feel like you should come with us. We aren't too far from Springside, anyways."

"Thanks, Mom. I know." I said. She looked back at the door.

"Is that your jacket?" I looked back and saw Trenton's leather jacket on the hook. Shit.

I looked back at her. "Uh, no. It's my friend's jacket. He must have left it."

She raised her eyebrow. "Are we talking about a 'friend'?"

"Oh, my God, Darla." My dad exclaimed. "Can we not?"

She smiled back at Dad, then at me. "I just want to know."

I looked back at the closet behind Dad. "No, Mom. Not completely."

"Uh-huh." Mom said sarcastically. "Alright, Phil, let's go. We need to let Molly out of the house before she has an accident."

I laughed. "Bye, guys." I opened the door for them and they walked out. Mom stopped for a second. "If you come to the house, be sure to invite your 'friend' over sometime."

"Oh, my God, Mom. That's enough. Bye." I smiled and shut the door.

I ran to the closet. "Trenton?" I opened the door, and he came out. His eyebrow was raised.

"So I'm only a friend?" He smiled.

"I couldn't just say yes. It's my parents." I gave him a smirk.