Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[siobhancan99]

Monica realized her legs were longer than her arms, and it was probably better to stick to kicks if she wanted to avoid those claws, and so kicks it was. She danced back just a fraction of a step, then launched another kick for the thing. If she could keep it dropping to the ground, maybe the cops would get there at some point. Still, only a few seconds had passed... probably not time for the EMT to have summoned help. Assuming police presence was foolish. She was on her own and needed to take this thing out, so she kicked as hard as she could, again for the legs.

 

[Halcyon638]

Staying out of the feral woman’s reach, Monica let loose another kick. She felt her foot connect hard with her opponent’s shin and there was what sounded like a possible crack. Its eyes narrowed and a deeply unsettling, strangled cry emerged from its throat.

Despite the injuries, the creature suddenly launched itself toward Monica. Five small lightning bolts of pain shot through her left side as the monster’s talons pushed through her Centauri mesh weave armor and slipped deep into flesh and muscle. She could feel herself stumbling backward as her warm blood trickled out, the agony stunning her temporarily. In the distance, she could hear sirens sounding.

The creature turned away momentarily, eyeing the building from which it’d climbed down, as if considering a retreat.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica used the creature turning as a window. She lashed out, aiming for the thing's head, wanting to deliver a knock out punch. She wasn't keen on fighting it again and if it was some sort of vampire or mutant or something who knew if it could just heal itself. She would heal over a few days herself, and fighting this thing fresh was not optimal. As she swung for its head, she felt the wound scream in her side. She had to push past it though. She could hear her mother chastising her. Centauri were above considerations like pain. Only the mission mattered. The mission at the moment was to take this thing down.

 

[Halcyon638]

Somehow, the creature turned back in time just to twist its neck away from the blow. It let out a wet screeching sound and then sprinted toward the nearest building. Though seemingly favoring one leg, it looked as fast as Monica and began scaling the wooden and concrete structure with ease. Within what seemed like a matter of seconds, it was almost two stories off the ground.

About 50 feet down the street, a cluster of 5-6 people were standing, phones out, watching the scene unfold and recording what they were watching while commenting.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica had, fortunately, prepared by summoning the sliver with the remote prior to launching herself at the beast. sshe hopped in, lamenting that it was getting rain in it but that was unavoidable. hopefully it had some kind of self cleaning. Something to discuss with Dad after he repaired the armor. Great a trip home, as if she wasn't busy enough. Maybe she'd just fly overnight in the sliver saturday or something. At any rate, she used the lights on the sliver to track the thing as it leapt through the air, following the creature hopefully back to its lair, or somewhere it slowed if its wound started bothering it. Her own was screaming at her and part of her just wanted to give up, but she couldn't. Centauri weren't Goonies. They did say die. They did not, however, whine... at least according to her mother who might have just been annoyed at the time. Still.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica watched on the vehicle’s monitors as the feral woman effortlessly bounded from one building to the next, hunched over, using its hands and arms in much the way that a four-legged animal might. She lost sight of it as it scampered down the side of one building, but then piloting the building around the corner, she saw the woman again making her way down a fire escape.

She stopped on one level of the metal structure and fell to her knees, then hunched over. Her body seemed to be changing, shifting, and soon, it was clear that she was reverting to what seemed to be her human form like something straight out of a horror movie.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica watches her shift as the sliver silently gets closer. She pops the craft open with a hiss, then leaps out onto the fire escape near the girl. She's hoping the slow transformation into a non-combat form will either leave the girl vulnerable or even better, be something she can't undo any time soon. She attempts to grapple her, trying to bring her down to the metal fire escape, regretting that this will probably hurt like a mother fucker with her injured side. "gotcha" she exclaimed, though... maybe not.

 

[Halcyon638]

As Monica grabbed onto the woman, she could feel the frailty of her body, which was now trembling and wet from the earlier rain. She looked up at Monica. Her face fell into some uncanny valley between youth and old age, presumably due to the ravages of the drugs she’d been addicted to in addition to whatever unholy cocktail of chemicals had transformed her into a monster. The woman’s eyes still had a yellow tint and were wide as if fixed in a permanent state of alarm. “Help…me,” she managed to say in a voice that was almost comically meek as her body went limp against her former opponent. “I need to…go away. Where I can’t hurt anybody…ever again.”

 

[siobhancan99]

'Fuck' she thought to herself. 'Half Monster, half scared little girl. It's a good thing I had such a great maternal influence in my life...' She looked around a little, keeping the girl held up even as her side screamed in protest and she could feel the blood sticky against her skin. Gabi would know what to do with a stray like this, but she didn't. "I'll try. I'll try." She sighed and looked for somewhere they could get out of the rain. "I'm going to call a friend. He's a cop friend but he's a good person. I think. I... he tries." She left it at that and dug out the burner phone, pushing the battery into place. the girl seemed too weak to do anything at the moment, So she just sort of loomed over her while she called Hadley's dad. "He might have some ideas. You need a hospital."

 

[Halcyon638]

The woman just nodded faintly, her eyes still wide but seeming to be looking right through Monica. When she called Hadley’s father and explained the situation, there was silence on the phone for what seemed like more than a few seconds. “Okay…let’s see. I’ll head over your way but once I’m near I’ll also go ahead and call rescue and one of our social workers. See if I can get her psychiatrist, too. Whatever happens, I’ll do what I can to make sure she gets help. About 15 minutes away.”

The woman seemed to have passed out, possibly from exhaustion, and was now slumped along the metal grating of the fire escape. Monica saw the bell-shaped tattoo on her right arm. The encrusted blood, dirt, and other nastiness on the woman’s hands reminded Monica that she had a fun night of wound care ahead of her, though fortunately her father had packed a first aid kit in the Sliver.

Hadley’s father made it in 20, looking more than a little worn around the edges.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica made a face and considered the value of maybe a late night clinic. What she really needed was a friendly doctor who wouldnt... keep her blood and tissue samples or something. Probably at best a long shot. She winced as she picked the girl up and carried her to the detective. "Look, she's ... really dangerous...so on one hand she needs to be locked up but..." She felt the girl almost weightless in her arms, insubstantial. "She.. she wants to stop. She wants to stop and clearly someone did this to her. She needs a hospital and treatment. Treatment that I doubt exists anywhere on Earth except maybe wherever she got turned into this thing." She swallowed, her throat was tight and her breath was caught in her chest. "This is some next level shit and... I don't know that ...I don't know that if we turn her over or arrest her that she's not going to end up in some lab somewhere. That some sort of government program isn't going to torture her to reveal her limits and poke and prod her to try to duplicate what happened to her. I don't want there to be 100 of her. or 1000. I don't want her to be viewed as a weapon. She's a scared and clearly homeless girl with nobody and nothing and she's already been through that once."

Monica kept her cradled in her arms "Growing up my parents always told me I couldn't let anyone know that I was different, because if I did I'd disappear into some fucking hole somewhere. That people in the government at the highest levels were basically evil and that they'd do whatever fucked up shit they could to beat Russia or China or save the world for Murica and Ford F-150s and dick pills and Joel Osteen or whatever the fuck. I... I don't want that to happen to her. So what do we do?"

Her voice was near breaking. It felt like too much responsibility. Here was Hadley's dad. She wanted him to do Dad shit and make it alright. To have a plan. Part of her knew he barely had a plan to put his pants on in the morning, but right now she was overwhelmed and all she wanted was for someone to come in and make everything ok.

 

[Halcyon638]

The detective’s brow furrowed in concern. “Hey,” he said, putting a reassuring hand on Monica’s shoulder. “We’ll…we’ll figure this out, okay?” He stood for a moment, rubbing one of his tired eyes and looking down at the alleyway. “This might not exactly restore your faith in the system or whatever, but her parents—or at least her mom—they’re loaded. Dad was a corporate attorney and her mom owns some PR firm. Judging from what was in the files they shelled out a bunch money to sorta cover up when she went apeshit in Europe and almost killed somebody.”

He cocked his head upward for a moment, and then a gleam appeared in his eyes. “That’s it. The mom’s been using her money to keep this all hushed up. We need the opposite. We got to make sure she’s front and center in every news story in America tomorrow. Let everybody know her tragic backstory so nobody dares to lay a finger on her.”

Hadley’s father looked down at the unconscious woman. “I’ll call the mom and tell her to get ahead of this story. I know a reporter at The Herald, too, who owes me a favor. In the meantime, I’ll drive her out to that cabin we were checking out earlier and just keep an eye on her,” he said, referring to the place two hours outside of the city. “Once I get the ball rolling with the mother, I’ll take her to a doc or hospital or wherever she can get the best treatment.” He sighed. “I think this’ll work.”

Hadley’s dad easily lifted McKenney’s gaunt form. “Is that your blood?” he said, noticing the wet stain on her black costume.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica considered "if you know, shadowy forces let you publish that debutants can be turned into monsters... Still... its the best idea we have. Thank you."

She set the girl down, then sat down on the sidewalk. She covered her face in her hands and tried not to break down. Something about this girl set off her maternal instincts. Plus to know she had them despite her upbringing. Not a great way to figure it out. She felt responsible for whatever came next. The girl would be free if not for her, free to figure out her own shit. Monica had taken that choice from her. Maybe that was for the best. The girl had 99 problems and being a monster was only 1. Monica inhaled, then let out a slow measured breath, trying to keep at bay the panic and despair that were creeping at the edges of her consciousness now that the adrenaline was gone. The sharpness of the pain in her side helped for now but would not help for long. She didn't want to wallow in front of Hadley's Dad or indulge in self pity in her heroine getup. She realized belatedly she hadn't really been using her stupid Elizabeth Holmes voice but fuck it.

"yes. She turns into a monster. Claws and everything. Wherever she goes, they're going to have to lock her up pretty fucking strongly."

 

[Halcyon638]

“I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve been banged up after one of your night runs, but tell me you’re going to get that taken care of,” he said, eyes on the wound.

After resting the woman in the back of his car, Hadley’s dad walked back to where Monica sat. “Look…You seem like you’re going through a lot. I feel kinda responsible since I’ve been basically encouraging you…you don’t have to do this. I get paid to do this shit and even I’m not sure the toll is worth it. Maybe you should...talk to somebody?”

He looked back at the car. “I should take off if I want to get to the cabin this side of 3 and get a hold of the mom,” he said, glancing at the screen on his phone, “but I’m not going to leave you bleeding and sitting on the sidewalk.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I... Well unless i'm gonna strip down and let you stitch me up... unfortunately your work here is done Detective." She stood and inhaled, then exhaled "And I'll be ok. I'm not in it for the pay." The second part was true. The first part she had her doubts. Maybe putting on a costume and taking out your sorrow and rage over your personal tragedy on every two bit punk with a gun in town was, in the immortal words of Marcellus Wallace "Pretty fucking far, from ok".

She winced "But... Maybe I should talk to someone. At least a little. About some of my shit. I also maybe need to find a doctor. The problem is I'd want to leave with all my medical waste and well. I think they have rules against that." She winced and looked down at her side, "Thank you though. For... taking care of this. It...I couldn't have."

 

[Halcyon638]

“Hey, maybe we’re almost even now,” he said when Monica thanked him. “Can you do me a favor and keep your phone on for a couple of hours? I’m just thinking if she hulks out in the car and no one knows I’m headed out there but you, it’d be nice to have someone let the authorities know I’m bleeding in a ditch somewhere.” He headed back towards the car. “Take care of yourself, okay?” Hadley’s father stepped into the car and the engine soon hummed to life.

The adrenaline wearing off, Monica felt a wave of exhaustion hit her as she stepped back into the Sliver a little shy of 1 a.m.. 3 classes the next day, plus coffee before class with Austin, plus planning and hosting game night…it was going to be a long one.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica flew back to the apartment and reluctantly left the phone on. She had to trust the guy not to fuck her and track the phone later. She had to trust someone and trust was in short supply at the moment. She peeled out of the suit and tried not to whimper as it caused her wound to open. With a trembling hand she took sutures out of her kit and stiched up her own side in the mirror, with work that was not exactly the finest, but would suffice with some bandages to keep her from bleeding out. Part of her wanted to wake up Gabi to do it, since Gabi was good at this sort of thing and could use both hands more easily given the awkward angle. and could see. and didnt hurt and wasn't emotionally and physically exhausted but... if Gabi ever found out... she'd make her quit. Or she'd stay up worrying every time Monica was out. She'd fail out of school and Monica would have that on her conscience too. No. Gabi could never know. Not ever.

She cleaned up the bathroom as best she could, washing the suit in the bathtub. She climbed back onto the roof and tossed it in the sliver, then programmed the sliver to go home. She emailed her dad "hey. repairs on the suit needed. Call me tomorrow or Sat. I promise I'm fine."

She slipped back into the dark apartment and took the bottle of rum that Austin had left and poured herself some over ice not bothering with a mixer. She slammed it down then made a face "gross. that was fucking gross." resolving not to do that again. She shuddered with it, then set the glass in the sink and wandered into her bedroom. She sank, exhausted onto the bed but with the kind of exhaustion that doesn't let you sleep. She stared up at the cieling crushed with despair and loneliness. Something about that girl being special like her just underscored how utterly and profoundly alone she was. She was made more aware of that by the fact she didn't have any urge to call Austin. He was sweet, and fun but... he wasn't Tom. Also what he'd said about her not being a good demure country girl had given her all manner of internal doubt. She felt a bit slut shamed but also mad at herself as she knew the comment was innocuous. God she missed Tom.

Hot salty tears ran down her cheeks and she convulsed with sobs. She was so fucking angry that he wasn't there, the one person who know what she was and loved her. The person that could have made this all better just by wrapping himself up behind her and holding her. It was so unfair. One stupid fucking moment and he was gone, and she was out playing fucking batman. Fighting monsters. Fighting monsters that she understood to some degree. Fighting monsters that might be the only people that could ever really understand her. On a planet of 7 billion people there were just her, her father, and monsters. Great.

She slept fitfully, and if she had any insane dreams about space ships she didn't recall them. She woke up early so she could sponge off, not wanting to risk a shower with her wounded side. She changed her bandages and then threw on a black shirt to cover any bleed through, and a pair of baggy jeans. Her hair was tossed back in a ponytail.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Monica?” Austin said. They were sitting at a table in The Mean Bean drinking their respective beverages and she realized she’d spaced out while he was talking. “I think I lost you there for a sec. Sure you don’t want to switch drinks?” he added with a grin, nudging his large coffee with a higher caffeine content toward her. “If I’m talking too much, just tell me to shut it. So, do you want me to bring you back anything from NYC?”

She floated through her first class, hoping the notes she was trying to take would make sense when she returned to them later, then received a barrage of texts from her father asking her to call him as soon possible. Between Physics and Intro. to Film, she caught him up on the night’s events.

The story about Allie McKenney had broken across seemingly every news outlet, and her mother had given a tearful press conference that very morning proclaiming that her daughter was a victim of whatever experimental form Swat had taken back in the Czech Republic. Other outlets announced that McKenney had turned herself in late that morning, while still others had interviewed the dreadlocked EMT who had ended up saving the Swat addict McKenney had apparently been after. The EMT downplayed his own efforts: “I just know I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the woman in the mask, and I don’t think Mr. Avery would be either,” he said, referring to the substance user.

Monica and Gabi were both out of class by three, and the bio major threw herself immediately into preparations for the party. It didn’t take long for an all-too-familiar look of concern to find its way onto her face after a bit of normal conversation and her catching Monica wincing. “Mi vida,” the dark-haired girl said, putting down the sponge she was using to wipe down the counter, “are you okay?” She tugged nervously at one of her long strands of hair. “Did you open the alcohol last night?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica shook her head and gave Austin a weak smile "I slept like shit. I fell last night running and I'm not feeling that great." She reached over and touched his hand, then let her own fall away "You don't have to bring me back anything from New York. Just you know, be careful and safe and all that. I mean I assume that the guys on the team with NBA prospects probably have handlers to keep you guys from getting into TOO much trouble right?" She laughed at her own joke, but not very hard.

She looked over to Gabi and felt a pang as she was about to lie and lie big "Yeah. I uh. I was out Jogging last night and I slipped on some crumbling pavement and slid down an embankment and a stick opened up my side. I went to a clinic and they took care of me but I had a drink to sleep because my side hurt like a mother fucker. They didn't give me anything but tylonol for it cause you know. I might be a junkie or something" she rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders "Which I get. I mean we're not out among the Cotterites. It's a rough town and they probably don't even want to have codeine or anything on hand you know?"

She pulled her shirt up a little to show Gabi the bandage and make her story more plausible, fortunately the bandages weren't really bloody and hid her amateur stitch job "it looks worse than it is. Scraped a lot of the top layer of skin off but didnt really like puncture or anything. They said I probably wont even scar or anything."

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi’s eyes widened as if Monica had just told her she’d gotten her hand lopped off. “Oh my god! You should have called me,” she said. “You really have to start working out at the gym at night. What if some creep tries to jump you or you get attacked by some monster lady?”

She breathed deeply. “Sorry. I know I’m giving off serious mom vibes right now, but I worry about you, especially with what happened to…Just don’t freak me out, okay?” She smiled. “You don’t have to clean or anything. Just rest up and I’ll take care of things. Do you want me to throw in a load of your laundry? I’m headed over there in a minute,” Gabi said, referring to the building in their student housing complex that contained the washing machines.

While Gabi was headed over, there was a knock at the door. The party/game night wasn’t scheduled to start until 6:00 and it was just a little past 4:00. To her surprise, Monica found Nick standing at the door. “Hey,” he said, holding a plastic bag. “I guess it’s like a thing to bring wine to your hostess or hostess or whatever but I don’t even know who to ask about buying alcohol so I grabbed some sparkling water.” He lifted it halfway out of the bag. “There’s soda, too.” Seeing the confusion on her face, Nick’s sighed briefly. “I thought I would come by to see if you two needed help getting set up and everything. I’ve got a couple of board games we can pick from, too.”

Shrugging slightly, he said, “Hadley told me I should come by. After what you said at the taco place last night. I...I’m sorry. I actually…think you’re really cool. I just sort of…I’m not good at the whole conversation thing if we’re not just dunking on stupid stuff and bad Tiktoks.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica groaned "Gabi! I'm not an invalid! Jeez!" She laughed but Gabi was a force to be reckoned with and she wasn't going to stand in her way. She was about to lie down to nap when Nick came in. Well, fuck napping. She'd hurt his feelings and she hadn't meant to, so she could spend some time patching things up.

"Come on in, Nick." She left the door open and took the soda and shoved it in the fridge so it could get cold before people got there. "have a seat. Since you're first you can stake out some realty." She gave him a tired smile "Look i'm sorry I didn't mean it to be rude or anything. You just always seem to be running off somewhere, or talking around me instead of to me. You know I'm friends with Gabi. I'm an engineering student. I like nerdy shit too. You think I haven't seen every episode of Voltron? Or She-ra? Give me some credit. You don't get into science watching the real housewives." She laughed softly and grabbed a soda and poured it over ice to cool it enough to be palatable. "As for bad tiktoks I mean... who doesn't like ragging on watermelon and mustard?"

She sipped at her soda, then relaxed against the counter "Thanks for bringing games. We have a couple but... we didn't exactly have a ton of space in cars for games with clothes and everything else you need to get your life up here, and neither of us lives close enough to make multiple trips. What did you bring?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Nick walked in, looking around at the décor as he entered. “Don’t worry. I never doubted you were a huge dork,” he said, smiling a bit. “Hell yeahhh Voltron. What are your opinions on Gundam? And before you answer, you should know I have a collection of 12 gunpla models, one of which I am putting off completing to give you all the honor of my presence tonight.”

“Your apartment is pretty sick. Whose poster is this?” he said, motioning toward one of the walls. “I ended up bringing Sushi Go, Mysterium, and Codenames. But Gabi said you all had Inis and I’m totally down for that, too. I can start setting it up if that would help. You play video games at all?”

A few minutes later, Gabi returned from the laundry room, greeted Nick, and got back to cleaning, throwing on some Charli XCX at a lower than usual volume. “Your job,” she told Nick, “is to make sure that she doesn’t overdo it trying to prep for this thing.”

Eventually, the place was cleaned to Gabi’s satisfaction and she threw herself in the shower. Nick told Monica that his hometown of Buffalo was extremely boring but recommended some restaurants she absolutely had to try. Gabi emerged from her bedroom in a flowing, flowery top and short denim shorts. Not long after, their other guests began arriving—the members of their text group, Hadley, Porter, and Layla, along with Shaun, Gabi’s friend Cristina from the LSA, and Lucas, a guy from one of Gabi’s bio classes.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica smiled and dug out a card table as they had like 9 people in the apartment. "we're gonna have to have at least two games going at any one time. since most are 4-5 player max." When Gabi tries to mother her she rolls her eyes affectionately. "Nick you can get the chairs out of the closet thing." It was barely a closet. more a door with a tiny bit of space behind it. She gestured to the poster "It was my dad's and I appropriated it." She made ice, breaking the trays into a bag then making more. "As for Gundam like, its ok but like... half the time I watch it and its just about some stupid fucking child or something. And its like, long boring speeches about peace." Her Centauri sensibilities demanded actual giant robot battles, not space Jesus adjacent to unused giant robots. "They shouldn't be window dressing for like, regrets about a war from 80 years ago. The robots always look so cool too, so its like... way disappointing."

She sat on the couch, looking over an apartment that was way small with the extra table "I don't play video games because I was better at them than Tom and it was an issue. Getting your ass handed to you by your girlfriend who doesn't even really care about the saga of the characters in your fighting game is like... embarrassing. So we just agreed that wasn't my thing. I am pretty sure Gabi plays though."

Despite Gabi changing, and the fact she'd be hot in a full shirt with the apartment that size, she stayed in her original clothes to cover the bandages wrapped around her decidedly inexpert suture job. In case she was bleeding she didn't want to cause any alarm, and she wanted Gabi to have a good night. She deserved it. She looked amazing and her man was around. It was time to just be chill and give her the kind of night they'd talked about having when they "grew up and moved out of Cottersville."

Well they were adults, whether they grew up or not that was for debate. They were sure as fuck out of Cottersville though. She smiled when Porter came in and made sure to engage. She wasn't sure if it was mean or not trying to force the guy to socialize. Maybe she should talk to Gabi about it. Still. She got some dip Gabi made out of the fridge and put tortilla chips in a bowl to go along with it. Things seemed to be going pretty well. It made her feel almost normal. Almost.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Okay, I think we’re on the same wavelength when it comes to Gundam,” Nick said. “I definitely like building the models more than I really like watching the show.” He grinned at her description of her video game superiority to Tom. “Fair enough. You gotta try Into the Breach, though! It’s like chess with mechs and kaijus only not boring like chess. And you can run it on a basic-ass laptop.”

Shaun gave Monica an affectionate smile. “So how bad have you been missing my super-insightful comments in writing class?” He handed her a bottle of wine. “Good to see you.”

“Heyyyy,” Gabi said, making her way over. He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.

As the evening went on, the games got going and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves despite—or maybe because of—the cramped quarters. At one point when the game of Inis finished (Shaun ended up being the victor), Monica and a few others stepped out to get some night air. Nick was just finishing up showing her some pics of his various painted models when Porter approached.

“Hi Monica,” the heavyset freshman said. “I, um…this is a great party tonight.” Hadley called Nick over and he went over to talk to her. “Thanks for…having me over. I just…want you to know that…me being nervous around you…that’s totally a…me thing, and I’m—I’m working on it. Getting over it.” He sighed. “Sorry that Austin couldn’t make it. Does he have a…sports thing?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded to Shaun "you're missed for sure. let us know if you need anything ok?" She smiled wide, liking seeing how Gabi was with him. She deserved something nice and she really seemed to be blossoming here.

Monica leaned against the wall of the building and smiled at Porter. "I know hon. And if I'm too pushy about making you socialize and stuff. Like, let me know. You're a nice guy. You just need a little confidence you know?" She sipped at her water, not drinking with the wound and whatnot "You can always take Krav Maga with me. You know, become a serious ass kicker." She grinned "Seriously though Porter its nice you're around and you are part of our group." She shrugged "as for Austin, he's in New York at a club with his boys." She assumed he was probably getting laid, but that was his business. It bothered her a little and yet it didn't really. That probably bothered her more than the fact of it. She still wasn't sure what to make of his comment. "You're from around here right? What about your high school friends do you not see them any more? or are you embarrassed about us?" She laughed and nudged him playfully with an elbow "bring them around if they're still around."