Unlikely Heroes

As much as Cal hated public transportation, he didn’t have much of a choice. He didn’t have a problem ditching school, but he didn’t want to miss any moment he could spend with Mikaela. It was an understatement to say she’d pretty much taken over his every thought. When he wasn’t with her, he was back in the small auto shop he’d spent his entire summer in, working on his car all over again. The owner of the shop, Randy, was surprised to see Cal back. He was even more surprised to see the car, which he’d grown to care for just as much as Cal since it was living in his shop all summer.

“What the hell is this?” Randy gawked. “You been drunk driving? If you-”

“Some dumbasses thought it would be funny to see me turn red,” Cal told him, rolling his eyes.

They stood for a few minutes and just stared at the car like a limp body on a hospital bed, until Randy finally sighed and scratched the back of his head.

“Look, buddy, I’ve got clients,” he started. “You’re a great kid, Cal. I love the enthusiasm. But I can’t drop everything and fix a junky car for you again.”

“You don’t have to help,” Cal promised. “Just give me the space and let me use some of your tools. I’ll do it all myself, just like last time. You don’t even need to teach me anything this time, I remember it all. And I’ll pay for all of the parts, the paint… everything. Please?”

Randy sighed, shaking his head. “Calvin, you are impossible. Fine. You can fix your car again. But I’m only giving you this space for a few months. If you stick around too long, I’m going to need to clear this space for someone else. And I can’t help you, no matter how much you need it. I guess I can get one of the kids to help you out.”

He nodded towards where his kids, Lance and Emma, were lazily sitting around and not working. Cal had worked with both of them over the summer, and found that if anyone knew their trade, it was Emma. She was a pretty, fragile looking girl who was studying biochemistry at the local university, but she worked at her father’s shop on the side to help pay for her upcoming wedding. Despite looking like she could snap right in half like a twig, when it came to cars, she could put the toughest of men to shame.

She was far more eager than her brother to start working. She hopped right up from her seat and tied her hair up in a ponytail, heading over to where Cal and her father were standing. Lance stayed behind, spinning a coin on a surface and watching it until it stopped twirling.

“Ready to start?” Emma asked him.

“What? Right now?” Cal frowned.

“Yeah, of course,’ she laughed. “Come on, Cal. I don’t get paid to to sit around, and your car isn’t going to get any prettier if you wait until tomorrow.”

She had a point. Cal shrugged and took off his jacket to get started with her. They worked for hours, but only managed to clean the car up a bit and take out all the broken glass. It still looked junky, which frustrated Cal, but Emma looked at it like a clean canvas.

“She’s gonna be more glorious than last time,” she promised him. “Go home, we’ll start again tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Emma,” Cal said, picking up his jacket.

For the next month or so, his routine was the same. He’d go to school in the morning, go to work afterwards, go back to the auto shop to work on his car with Emma, then take Moxie to visit Mikaela in the evening. It was a lot of riding the subway, but he did his best not to complain or bring any attention to it. It was exhausting, but Cal found himself napping on the commute, accidentally falling asleep on someone’s shoulder once. The old woman patted him gently to wake him up, luckily a stop before his, and laughed softly when he scrambled away from her in embarrassment.

“It’s quite alright,” she assured him. “You seem like you’ve had a long day.”

Everyone seemed to be able to tell. Annie was concerned, but she promised Cal she wouldn’t try to preach to him or meddle in his life. Mikaela was concerned, and she’d made no such promise. She’d make her concerns known. When Cal fell asleep in the first 20 minutes of Lord of the Rings, she let him sleep until he started to snore and Moxie barked, startling him awake again.

“Cal, maybe you should go home,” Mikaela said softly, looking up at him. “You look like you’re going to fall apart.”

“No, I’m fine,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Sorry, what did I miss? Bilbo Bing Bong or whatever his name is…”

“Do you want to go to bed?” she asked him again.

“It’s not even seven yet,” Cal protested.

“Yeah, but you need the sleep, Calvin,” Mikaela told him. “You’re going to get sick.”

“Fine,” he sighed.

Mikaela managed to drag him into bed, cuddling up next to him to sleep, even though he knew she wasn’t tired. Thankfully, the next day was a Saturday, and Mikaela let him sleep in late. They had plans with Brett and Dana in the afternoon, and Cal was ready to sleep until the last minute. He woke up to the smell of pancakes, and opened his eyes to find that Mikaela was hovering a plate of them right under his nose, drowned in maple syrup and whipped cream, just how he liked it. He fell out of the bed trying to sleepily crawl to them as Mikaela slowly moved it away. She laughed and helped him up, pulling him down to kiss him.

“You made breakfast?” Cal asked.

“You’ve done a lot for me. I’m giving back a little bit,” she told him.

“You’re trying to butter me up because you’re forcing me to go ice skating,” Cal realized.

“Yeah, that too,” she smirked. “Do you want the pancakes or not?”

“Do you have rainbow sprinkles?” Cal asked.

“Sure, Diabeetus,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Why not?”

It definitely helped with making Cal feel better about the double date. He hated the local ice rink. In middle school, it was the place to have a date. It was just a bunch of people sliding in circles over and over again to shitty music. And when they were done going in circles, they could eat greasy pizza and play in a tiny little arcade, where half the games were out of order.

“I am a saint,” he told Mikaela, watching as she tied his skates for him when he refused to do it himself. “I’m better than a saint. I’m a fantastic best friend, and even more fantastic boyfriend. Come on, admit it. I’m fantastic.”

“You’re fantastic,” Mikaela said, rolling her eyes. “Alright, I got your skates on for you, Cinderella. Now will you come on the ice with me?”

“Why, Dana and Brett look pretty content without us,” Cal whined, nodding over to them.

While they were technically all there together, Brett and Dana had all but forgotten about everyone else. They’d been on one or two dates before this as well, and apparently were hitting it off really well. He was holding her hands and teaching her to balance on skates since she apparently had never been ice skating before, and she certainly didn’t seem to mind Brett holding her close and tight so she wouldn’t fall over. Meanwhile, Cal was being the least romantic one there, whining while Mikaela rolled her eyes and tried pulling him onto the ice.

“God, men are so fucking fragile,” she said, calling out to Cal as she slid onto the ice without him. “I guess I’ll have to find someone else do do the couple’s skate with. That guy over there looks pretty lonely. And he’s kind of cute-”

Cal didn’t let her finish before skating up behind her and grabbing her around the waist, skating backwards so he could try and kiss her while she laughed uncontrollably.

“We’re both going to fall over,” she said between giggles as Cal kept skating backwards and pulled her along with him.

“It’s okay, I’ll break your fall. And I’d let you fall on top of me any day,” he grinned, kissing her cheek again.

“Slow down, you fucking speed demon,” she laughed, hanging on him a bit so she wouldn’t slip and fall on her face the way he was pulling her around on the ice.

As much as ice skating bugged Cal, he loved to make Mikaela laugh. He wanted to make up for all the time she didn’t have anything to smile about. That, and he was glad Brett was finally getting along with someone. Dana was a very sweet girl, and even though she claimed she was saving her virginity for marriage, Brett seemed okay with that. Which really must have meant he liked her as a person. And she clearly liked him, the way she let him put his arms around her to hold her hands on the joystick of the claw game, helping her steady it and move it around.

“They’re really cute together,” Mikaela said to Cal, watching them in the arcade from the table they were sitting at.

“Yeah, Brett really needed this,” Cal smirked, noticing the way Brett looked at Dana like he’d never seen a pretty girl before. “Apparently he’s been spending a lot of time with his family, and it’s been driving him crazy.”

“What’s his family like?” she asked.

“They’re kind of one of those stereotypical suburban families,” Cal shrugged. “Like, the kind that have a box everyone has to put their cell phone in before dinner. And they say grace before every meal. And his mom plans family game nights. His sister just turned five and can play now, so it’s gotten a lot worse. And they’re really religious. He goes with them to church every Sunday.”

“Isn’t Brett’s lifestyle a little… sinful?” Mikaela asked.

“Yeah, but his family doesn’t know, if you catch my drift,” Cal mumbled. “If they found out he was dealing and doing drugs and lowering his hands on Dana’s waist like that, they’d probably call an exorcist.”

“Damn,” Mikaela muttered, glancing over at Brett and Dana again. She was excitedly kissing him now, clutching the stuffed bear she’d just won in her hands.

“Hey, he’s happy, isn’t he?” Cal shrugged. “You know, I’m not religious either. If you want to scoot on over yonder.”

Mikaela rolled her eyes and moved to the other side of the booth so she could slide in next to Cal, letting him pull her into his lap and kiss her, dragging it out for a while until Brett and Dana came back to their table.

“So we’re going to go see a movie,” Brett announced. “Do you guys want to come?”

Mikaela seemed like she was about to shrug and agree, but Brett had made direct eye contact with Cal, and everything in his face said, “don’t say yes”. Cal pretended to check the time and shook his head.

“No, we have to head back. I was going to take Mikaela home, and I need to catch the train before the last one leaves for the night,” Cal lied.

Truth was, he didn’t give two shits if the last train left. He intended on spending the night in Mikaela’s room anyways, milking every moment of it before her father came back. If he remembered correctly, Shirley had sent him to Hong Kong for two weeks.

"Suit yourselves," Brett said, taking Dana by the hand and standing up.

Cal and Mikaela followed them out until they went their separate ways in the parking lot. Brett offered to drive them, but Cal knew he didn’t really want to do that. He didn’t mind taking the bus to give Brett a little alone time with Dana, especially if Mikaela was there with him. He’d never really been in a relationship long enough for it to get this serious, and he’d never felt so strongly for anyone. He stopped her before they made it to the bus stop, pulling her in by the waist and resting his forehead against hers.

“What?” she asked softly.

“I’ll let you know when I figure it out myself,” he smirked, a little unsure of himself. “I guess I just want to tell you that… well… we haven’t been together that long.”

“That’s what you wanted to tell me?”

“Well, not exactly.”

“Then what is it?” Mikaela pressed, a little more eagerly than Cal anticipated.

“I don’t know, I guess I-”

His head snapped up when he heard a loud shriek, followed by some yelling and what sounded like begging from across the lot. And then two deafening bangs. Mikaela took off running, and Cal followed after her, running towards the scream. There was really only one person that could have been in the nearly empty lot. Cal spotted a figure in a black hoodie running away first, and then he saw Dana on the ground. She was cradling Brett in her arms, who was limp and had his eyes closed, the front of her shirt soaked in what could only have been blood.

“What happened?” Mikaela gasped, kneeling down next to Dana.

“S-some guy j-just ran up to us,” Dana sobbed. “H-he took our phones and w-wallets and he checked B-Brett’s driver’s license. A-and then he shot him!”

“Brett…” Cal said weakly, dropping down next to his best friend. “Brett, say something.”

Brett didn’t say anything. Mikaela seemed to realize the harsh reality the same moment Cal did, and he heard her make sort of a choking sound as tears welled up in her eyes. She was holding tightly onto Dana, who was sobbing uncontrollably and cradling Brett’s head in her lap.

“Why w-would someone try to h-hurt him?” Dana whimpered.

Mikaela didn’t answer. Her eyes were squeezed shut. Cal had a numb feeling all throughout his body. Brett was dead. Brett was on the ground, in a parking lot, with two bullets in his chest. He didn’t know how to process the information. Brett was into some shady stuff, but there was no reason for anyone to kill him. Cal didn’t even notice himself stand up, unconsciously walking in the direction the hooded figure had run.

“Cal? Cal, where are you going?” Mikaela called.

“Call the cops,” Cal told her. “I’ll be back.”

He quickened his step, patting his pockets for any sort of weapon. All he had was a pocket-sized foldable knife and his abilities, but he’d figure out a way to work with that. About a minute later, he heard shoes pounding against the concrete, and a hand grabbing his arm. He shook Mikaela off, trying not to look at her grief-stricken and terrified face.

“Cal, where the fuck are you going?” she demanded, a little mad that he was ignoring her. “You’re going to go after the guy? You don’t even know what he looks like! He could be a mile away by now!”

“I’ll figure it out,” he growled.

“Cal, you can’t just rush in there head first!” Mikaela snapped, grabbing his arm again. “What if there’s an entire gang over there?”

“Nothing I haven’t handled before. Stay with Dana, she needs you.”

“I’m not letting you go over there!” Mikaela yelled after Cal, who was ducking into an alley he felt the figure might have gone through.

“I’m not just going to sit there while the guy who killed my best friend gets away!” Cal yelled back, flipping the knife open.

Suddenly, the knife flew out of his hand and clattered to the ground. He was about to run, but some old wires in the dumpster lashed out at him like a whip. He yelped in pain when they whipped at his ankles, tightly coiling around him and binding his arms and legs, making him fall to the ground. He struggled to squirm free, but quickly grew frustrated upon realization that it was hopeless. A few moments later, Mikaela ran up next to him, kneeling down.

“I’m really sorry if I hurt you,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders to stop him from struggling. “You know I never want to hurt you, but it had to be done. I can’t let you do anything stupid.”

“You used your power against me?” Cal said in disbelief.

“You ran away from me, I had no choice,” she snapped, taking his face in her hands and looking him in the eyes. “Cal, calm down. I need you to calm down.”

She murmured to him a little while longer until he finally stopped struggling against her, letting her hold him. He didn’t know he was shaking that hard. When he calmed, the wires around him loosened, giving him freedom to move again, but he couldn’t move. For the first time, Cal was felt vulnerable than he’d ever been in his life.