Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked over at Ian and decided to let him off the hook. "Yeah we tend to be pretty drilled down during the week."

Turning to Caleb she hmmed a moment "sort of?" She laughed "I mean. uh. he's not my boyfriend? We hang out a lot and uh. you know. Its uh. He's got basketball season and he's graduating in the spring and its not like he's gonna stick around here for his freshman girlfriend if he gets like... drafted by the Portland Trailblazers or something" She summoned up the one basketball team she could. "So you know we're uh. flying casual." They didn't need to know that she was holding him at arm's length a bit because she wasn't over Tom and god only knew if he was fucking other people. She figured not but... still. Neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to make it an official thing, and if it was an official thing it would be ending anyway unless he for whatever reason stuck around Prospect City or she agreed to bounce from town to town. That was hard because if the Vigilante moved every time he got traded or whatever, it wouldn't be a mystery who it was. "AS for the tickets you think the players have access to that? They're cogs in the machine, man. write a song about that. They make the University millions and they're not even paid. I can arrange for him to go on a rant for you some time if it would help you write the lyrics" she laughed "they're basically paid in fame, which they can't even cash out on until they graduate."

When Trey made his way over she gave him a little hug "hey Trey. Did you move up here to Prospect City? or are you hiking it up here from Cottersville?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Caleb nodded as Monica explained the Austin situation. "So, what I'm hearing is you're leaving the door open for me," he remarked.

Eve laughed. "Honestly a better song topic than I can usually manage. If you'll excuse me, I seem to have lost my drummer." She walked off after Ian.

Trey smiled. “I’m living with my girlfriend here in the city.” The two of them caught up a bit.

A moment later, Monica received a text from Ian: "Sorry Caleb put you on the spot about Thursday."

Before long, the first band had started up. They were unremarkable if not particularly offensive sonically, most of the members seeming not much older than Monica. Both Eve and Ian had wandered back in at the point.

After the second similarly unimpressive band had finished their set around 10:45, Hadley informed Monica and the others that she and her NYC friends were heading back to the AirBnB they'd rented. Gabi and most of the rest of their group agreed to go.

As Monica was getting ready to leave Riverside, she bumped into Eve on her way out of the bathroom. "Nice to meet y'all. If you guys ever want to hang out sometime, my apartment's over on West Campus."

After spending about an hour or so at Hadley's friends' AirBnB, Cristina drove Porter, Monica, and Gabi back to their respective places. It was a little past 2 when Gabi and Monica made it back. "Good night," Cristina said to Monica. "Come to the tutoring information sesh on Wednesday! There will be Cuban food."

"I'll be in in a couple of minutes," Gabi said to Monica. As Monica walked to another section of the apartment, she could see the two young women conversing on the shallow steps leading away from the door, Gabi occasionally nodding her head in agreement, her arms crossed over her chest.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked out on the two talking a moment then let Gabi have her privacy. Part of her thought "probably just talking about school stuff." but she knew if she was Christina what she'd probably be saying right now is "you have a good thing with Shaun, don't fuck it up over some emotionally unavailable girl still grieving for her ex boyfriend who disappears at all hours of the night for hours on end and also has a sort of boyfriend herself." Frankly, that was the good advice that she should be giving Gabi. Run the fuck away. Monica is a mess, she's just good at masking what a fucking nightmare she is.

Seeing Ian had made her miss Tom, and now in the quiet apartment with Gabi outside that was pushing in on the corners of her mind. The profundity of his absence where he'd probably have been the one dragging her to see his brother's shitty band. She felt a wave of vertigo and the sense of being profoundly and utterly alone.

She took a while and messaged Ian back "I can come or not, up to you. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd so if you need people to come out, we can come out." She didn't want to see him, and he clearly didn't like hearing she was seeing someone who wasn't Tom already. He had to be allowed to grieve on his own terms too. Still, she couldn't look in on him if she avoided him. Also it would always be painful awkward and weird if she didn't make an effort.

She sighed and texted Austin "Wanna see you. let me know when you're around this week." She did want to see him, but she also felt a tremendous amount of guilt for not being in love with him which... was dumb. They'd been together less than a couple months. Love didn't happen overnight. Besides, he'd been clear at the outset that wasn't really on the table for him either. Still, there were girls from her graduating class that were getting married at the firehouse in the spring. She knew one of the kids that graduated with them had just quietly gotten married at the courthouse the night of graduation.

Despite her intense curiousity about what was going on outside, she left it go. Finally she disappeared into her room and left the light on and the door open so Gabi could pop her head in, or not.

 

[Halcyon638]

A few minutes after Monica replied to Ian’s text, he sent a reply: “I don’t think it is up to me. I would like you there but definitely not if it’s going to hurt you any more or if you feel like you have some kind of obligation to Tom to go to my dumb shows. I know you’re trying to get a fresh start and I don’t want to be like some dangling thread that’s tying you to past shit you’d rather move past.”

He texted again: “I know I’m mixing metaphors with threads and shit but you get the idea.”

Monica heard Gabi step in and saw the light in the bathroom go on. A few minutes later, the brunette peered in at her roommate. Her long dark locks were down now, a little wavy from having being up, and she was dressed in a sleep shirt. “I need about a million hours of sleep,” she said, flashing her near-irrepressible grin. “Good night, carino.

She received a reply from Austin: “Absolutely. I can always squeeze in some time for you You looked incredible tonight.” A few seconds later, another text came in “the other night, not tonight. Fucking autocorrect.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica was about to go to bed when she thought about the text. What would auto-correct the other night into tonight? I mean that wasn't exactly auto-correcting "I'd like to visit Luzerne" into "wanna have a threesome with your sister" but it wasn't exactly close. So had he seen her tonight and then caught it? or had he been thinking of some other woman? was there another woman? did that bother her? if it didn't bother her did it bother her that it didn't bother her?

She laid in bed, tossing, turning, looking at the clock, running over it in her head. She hadn't seen him "the other night" either. It'd been almost a week and she hadn't looked amazing. so "the other night" also made no fucking sense. Maybe he'd been at the bar? saw her with Gabi and left her alone? Maybe he'd been there with someone? but that was weird right? like it was weird if he saw her out. Plus she didn't look amazing, not next to Gabi. She looked passable. Maybe even fuckable, but amazing? no. So he couldn't have seen her. But also she hadn't seen him in a while. So it had to be another woman. But that was crazy. she couldn't decide that there was another woman because of a fucked up text. That's what crazy people did. Crazy people turned mistexts into affairs. Was it an affair? I mean he was free to fuck other people she supposed. It didn't seem very classy. But wasn't she flirting with two women? Was she the asshole.

She turned onto her back and stared at the ceiling, running through the scenarios. 1) most likely she was being crazy. but was she? 2) he'd seen her out , or 3) he was thinking of someone else. She wanted to believe it was number one, but that's what all the victims in these things believed. That they were the crazy one. Was she even a victim though? did she care or did she care that she didn't care?

Hours passed, and sometime around six she fell into fitful sleep full of weird dreams where she watched nightcrawler with Austin while random girls came and had sex with him and he asked if she minded. Around ten, with half a night's sleep under her belt she made her way into the kitchen to make coffee and try to get her shit together to see him before the vigil. She had homework on top of it all.

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi made her way out around 11:00. “Good morning,” she said, her tone a bit sleepy despite the bright sunlight coming in. She sat at the table and began scrolling through her phone. “You just get up?”

Austin replied to Monica’s text about getting together today. “I can probably do 1:30-3:30. How does that sound? Where did you want to get together?”

“Ooh, here’s a good pic of us from last night,” Gabi said, holding up her phone. The glare made it difficult to see at first, but then Monica saw it was an image posted by Hadley of the two of them facing one another while dancing, both smiling. It had already accumulated several dozen likes, though there was nothing particularly suggestive about it.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica texted back "There's an old movie I need to watch for class. thought we could do that and spend some time. If you have time for spending time after the movie."

When Gabi came in she smiled and felt a little more relaxed. She leaned in, looking over Gabi's phone "Awww." She wrapped an arm around her friend and held her for just a minute "That's sweet." She let her go and sat back at the table "You looked really good last night. I bet Mark Allen would be kicking himself right about now if he could see you." Gabi and Mark had had a failed relationship, in that he was kind of a douchebag to her and she put up with it far longer than she should have. "And yeah I just got up. Had trouble sleeping last night Austin sent a weird text and like, it was probably nothing but you know how it gets. You just lie there in the dark wondering what the fuck was up" She shrugged "Anyway, I slept in as a result. Hadley's friends turned out to be ok huh? I didn't like that Allegra at all at first but she seemed alright by the end of the night. Eve mentioned hanging out and I remember she mentioned playing dnd. If you wanted to invite those three to play it would you know. Be ok."

 

[Halcyon638]

“I can make it work,” Austin texted back. “Do you mind heading meeting me here? I’m closer to the Leg and we’ve got a team meeting right after,” he said, referring to the Legler Athletic Center. Monica would have to hop an on-campus shuttle or it’d be a long walk. “I’d pick you up but I’m swamped.”

“Last I heard, he’d gotten a DUI,” Gabi said in regards to Mark Allen, “so I’m pretty sure I dodged a bullet. You look so cute, too! I know you weren’t dressed for dancing but you can wear the heck out of a pair of jeans.” Pouring some coffee, she said, “Did you want to show me the text?”

Gabi sat down at the table. “Yeah, they seemed pretty decent. Hadley looked happy. For her, at least. Hard to tell sometimes,” she remarked with a smile. “Maybe we could have them over sometime. The three of them. I still have to run you through a solo adventure, princesa. Speaking of running, I definitely have to hit the gym today. I’ve been slacking with homework and, like, actually having a life.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica showed the text and ran through her logic with Gabi. "He didn't see me last night... or the other night. Like, I think its pretty clear there's someone else. The thing is, I mean... I'm not his girlfriend but like, at the same time I feel like if you're gonna fuck someone else you should have the decency to... well number one tell me and number two keep us straight in your head you know?" She shook her head "I'm gonna give him an opportunity to come clean but if he sells me a line of shit I'm just gonna be soooooo busy the rest of the semester" she laughed "like, oh gosh I just have so much going on. Math is hard and I'm just a girl" she rolled her eyes and grinned at Gabi "I mean I might anyway. There's a difference between flying casual and whoring around."

She texted Austin "its no problem to come over your way." as she sat with Gabi "you look good as you are, chica. Still keeping in shape is a journey not a destination" unless of course, you had an alien physique that made it just something you had without effort.

 

[Halcyon638]

Gabi furrowed her brow at the text. “Ugh, I’m so sorry, carino. That’s definitely a little sus.” She patted her friend’s back. “If you need moral support, I can come with.”

The dark-haired girl got herself cleaned up for the day, leaving it up to Monica as to whether she’d go as backup or head to the gym. Hadley sent a text to Monica and Porter: “Thanks for all of your help yesterday, you guys. I definitely would have freaked if you hadn’t been there. I hope Allegra wasn’t too much.”

After a 15-minute shuttle ride out toward East Campus and the athletic campuses, Monica reached Austin’s building. He greeted her at the door of his apartment with a grin. He wore a form-fitting black T-shirt that showed off his muscles and a pair of shorts. “Hey there,” he said. “I’ve been missing you.”

 

[siobhancan99]

He did look good. Damn but he was one fine piece of man. She curled in and kissed his shoulder, not really able to reach his cheek. She ran a hand over his defined torso, then slipped into the apartment behind him. She set her bag down "the movie is old so if you hate it we can uh... do something else." She laughed "I missed you too. This week. Hopefully you weren't TOO lonely without me." She sort of rolled her eyes at herself as that was a little passive aggressive, if cheery.

 

[Halcyon638]

“I mean, it does sound like an old-school porn title, so maybe one thing will lead to another,” Austin said. He leaned down to kiss her cheek. At her comment, his eyes narrowed a bit as if he was trying to read small print at a distance. “I kept busy,” he said in a neutral tone as he walked to the fridge. “You? What have you been up to? Beer? Hard cider?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I'll just have a water, thanks. We went to this all ages club last night. We were supposed to party at Hadley's but her dad bailed on his date and suddenly we were all in the house with a cop" she laughed and shrugged, then fiddled with his TV to bring up prime so they could watch the movie. As it started she could see the parallells with nightcrawler, in that the main characters were both repellent, but for differing reasons. Jake Gyllenhal's too wide eyes and flat affect made him feel creepy whereas Kirk Douglas had the opposite sort of over-engagement. Both were dicks. She didn't particularly care for ace-in-the-hole as it went on, so it was going to be a hard watch. "HOw's basketball going?" She figured she'd get him to relax before she worked around to the main question of the day.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Ah, that’s a bummer,” he said, grabbing a bottle of water before settling on the couch next to Monica. He slipped an arm over her shoulders. “I promise I’ll take you to a real club sometime soon. It looks like I missed out, though—from the pics.”

“I feel like people don’t have chins like that anymore,” he noted as Kirk Douglas appeared on screen. “Basketball’s going fine so far. Intense as always but just the idea that this is my final year season here has got me super amped for it to start. Hoping to end on a high note, obviously."

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica laughed at the comment "yeah that's a chin for the ages." She snuggled in under his arm and rests her head against his chest "Honestly I should have invited you. I wasn't sure if you were at a game. I know there's like 800 basketball games a season for pro ball. Not sure how that works with college ball." She looked up at him then looked back to the movie. It wasn't as good as nightcrawler, but mostly because of some of the dialogue conventions she hated from older movies. She ran her fingers along his arm, tracing from his wrist up towards his elbow then back down "I have to watch this for my professor's podcast."

 

[Halcyon638]

Austin stroked Monica’s hair a bit as she got closer to him. “No biggie. I had plans with Morgan and most of the team last night,” he said. “We actually don’t play our first game until November 10th. This Friday’s Midnight Madness. It’s basically a big pep rally to kick off the season and we have our first official practice. It’s a pretty big deal if you like the whole tall people throwing a ball into a basket thing. Don’t worry. I’m not going to ask you to go to any of these things,” he said in a light tone. “Ah,” he said regarding the podcast, “is it all old movies?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"No, I'm comparing this movie to Nightcrawler. It has a lot of the same themes. Both are about manipulating the public through the press and the sort of descent into immorality that comes with it. Honestly, Nightcrawler, the more I watch this movie, seems to basically steal everything from this. It just uh... has better dialogue." She kept nestled in against Austin, and shifted a little, wanting to talk about the weird text but also just wanting to forget it. She sat quietly for a bit "Do you WANT me to come to the thing?" She looked up at him and then back at the movie "I mean is there like... stuff you want you're not getting or anything? Do you want anything to change? We don't really talk much about like... the meta stuff."

 

[Halcyon638]

“Oh, interesting,” Austin said. “I had a class—Critical Media Studies—that covered some of those things. I actually kinda wish I’d kept the textbook because it was pretty interesting and relates to stuff we cover in political science. Yeah, it’s a little hard for me to get into older movies sometimes because of the dialogue and the acting. Everybody usually seems a little over the top.”

“I mean…I’d like you to come in one sense but it’s weird to ask you to go sit for 2 and half hours at something you’re not interested in where I’ll be away from you the whole time. It’d be like you expecting me to watch you come…engineer stuff?” He looked down at her. “Not getting? No, nothing I can think of. I like how things are going.”

“What about you?” the athlete asked, glancing back at the TV momentarily. “You sound a little…I don’t know. Like you’re unsure about this whole…situation.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "I mean that's fair. I guess I'll scratch you off my 'design the best circuit' competition cheer team" She grinned up at him then went quiet a moment. "yeah its ... I'm not unsure of the fact that I like you. And I'm not unsure of the things we do when we are together. I've just never uh.... So i've basically had like 2 serious boyfriends. Tom I was with for three years and like, that was very much from the start like ... you're the girl I'm gonna marry some day. We had been friends a long time before that. Years really. He was dating someone, so was I but like... there was always a thing there? We both got to be single sort of near the same time and he was just like 'yeah this is how it is now' and we were a thing and we were like, always building towards 2 kids a dog and a white picket fence and a lab where we built robots to take over the earth. Or you know, to save multinational corporations money on labor. Probably the second." She kept tucked under his arm "So like, the nebulous nature of this thing that we're in isn't like... bad. it is just nebulous. I'm an engineer. Engineering isn't about nebulous so its hard to navigate. That doesn't mean I want to change it, it just means its hard to navigate. Like... it's hard to know what the expectations are. Like...we've never discussed like... are we monogamous? like... I have been but that's more because I'm like... not looking to whore around more than like... we decided we don't see other people. Like... is there some expectation that after a set period of time that which is currently nebulous is just expected to solidify into something more traditional? if so what is that time frame? Which, I'm not asking for I am just trying to articulate to you that since I don't have any experience just like... . being chill about these things I just don't ... know what the protocols are. That's all."

 

[Halcyon638]

Austin paused the movie. “I totally respect that,” he said as she described her history with Tom. She could feel his body tense slightly. “I guess I really should have been clearer about this but…I haven’t been monogamous. When we were talking about just having fun and not, like, putting labels on things, I kind of assumed…Mon, I…like you’ve said, I’m going to be who knows where by July, so trying to settle into something more traditional or whatever just seems…pointless?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"Thanks for being honest with me." She didn't move "And I essentially said the same to Gabi. I didn't expect you were going to stick around for some freshman." She moved and sat up, straddling his lap so she could look him in the eye. "But. and I think you know why we're having this conversation today... but it has to be said. It is my expectation that you will keep me separate in your head to the extent you don't compliment me when you meant someone else. That sucked. It's one thing to like, understand that things are what they are and another thing to sort of have it in your face. Like I'm not about to be Mrs. Whittier or anything but that doesn't mean I'm gonna be like...excited about you accidentally calling me Jen or something. Or texting me how good I looked last night... or indeed the other night... when you haven't seen me in a week. Like, if you have too many balls in the air you gotta let one go, man. Some dudes can only juggle 2 balls. some 5. you know?"

 

[Halcyon638]

Austin nodded, looking downward. “I’m sorry about that. I was out with my boys last night and got really drunk and then…legitimately misread who was texting me. I shouldn’t have…I guess I should have apologized right away and owned up to it. You deserve that.” He leaned back on the couch. “It personally doesn’t bother me if you’re hooking up with other guys or whatever, but I totally understand if it’s an issue for you and if you don’t want to keep doing this. But if you do want this still, I promise I’ll straight up 100% tell you the truth going forward.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica shrugs "if it is an issue, then I'll let you know. I should have been allowed to decide though. You know?" she cupped his face "god boys are so dumb sometimes. You're lucky you're pretty. Fuck. You get away with a lot don't you?" she rolled her eyes and then slipped her hands under his shirt, dragging her nails along the skin, tracing his pecs and down over his washboard abs "its hard not to want this still. I do have to watch the rest of this fucking movie though." She laughed and slid out of his lap, grabbing the remote. She turned back to the movie, watching it play out in much the same fashion as Nightcrawler, with the main character manipulating the people and the press. Unlike Nightcrawler though, he got his comeuppance at the end. She supposed that was in part a sign of the times. Back then, the good clean people of Albuquerque had their own sort of triumph over the scumbag big city man, where in Nightcrawler the system that profits from the bad deeds continues to protect them. She had a good bit to talk about on the podcast at least. When the movie was over it was getting close to 330. She looked up at Austin "soooo do you need to kick me out or do you have a few minutes?"

 

[Halcyon638]

“That’s totally fair,” Austin replied. “Like I said, full transparency going forward. After the movie was finished, he looked at his phone and rose from the couch. “If I don’t kick you out now, I’m going to to be in such huge fucking trouble with my coaches.”

The handsome athlete reached down and placed an arm behind her, then under her outstretched legs. With one swift motion, he casually scooped her into the air. “It’s a good thing I know it’ll be worth every minute.” He gave her a roguish glance and, cradling her against his chest with his strong arms, carried her towards his bedroom door.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica had been of two minds about it. She was still not entirely sure Austin wasn't fucking everything that moved, but when he scooped her up like that. Fuck. That illusion that he was stronger than her. It was intoxicating. It felt amazing to just let him hoist her like she was nothing. She hated herself for it but god damn was it nice. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders she buried her face in his neck, biting at the hollow of his throat "We can be quick. I don't want you to have to run laps."

Being late for swim practice had always meant running laps. She assumed it was the same for basketball. Who could say. Still, she pressed in against him, feeling that solidity, reveling in the illusion of relative power that she was getting from him hauling her around. She'd never had that with Tom, and she certainly wouldn't be getting it with any girl. The man did have his uses. She sighed and dragged her lips over the ridges of his ear, then moaned and wrapped her legs around him when she felt him pin her against the door of his bedroom. She rocked a little, grinding against him, feeling his cock stiffen through his shorts. She could always stop fucking him tomorrow.