“Hi-Hello,” I said dumbly after a few moments of silence. Birgit nudged me forward at that. I looked back at her, and she was mouthing ‘say something more’ to me.

As for Iraklis himself, he checked up on his opponent–who ended up using his metal arms to crush the ice–to see if he was alright. I exchanged a look with Birgit who not-so-subtly pushed me toward Iraklis.

He looked between her and me, settling on staring up at me quietly while I fumbled for words and messed with my gloves. Remembering our last conversation, as well as the determination and goal I’d set for myself I steeled myself. I was going to do this. And it was going to work.

“I don’t know how I feel,” I said to him, deciding to just unload my feelings as best as I could. “I’m happy for you, I really am, but I’m also a little scared I guess. I’ve always had a spot on your side. You said that yourself. I guess-I guess I’m scared of being alone. Or something. I haven’t planned this speech out to be honest. I just-I just hope you make it through the exams.”

Iraklis looked down at that, letting out a chuckle that frankly enough sounded dry. “It’s kind of sad and funny actually,” he said, straining the confidence in his voice. “I already got it. Both exams were last week, and I was notified two days ago. It was close, but I made it to the North American Institute for Heroes.”

I swallowed down a lump in my throat hearing that. I clenched my fists, feeling mad at myself. Angry because a part of myself was disappointed that he got in. And I obviously shouldn’t be. This was a good thing. That was the third best hero university out there, only behind the Commonwealth Heroics Academy, and the EU-North European Hero Institute.

“This–Today–won’t be a goodbye,” I said to him, remembering the last thing he’d said to me back at my house. “I just-I just want to say that I’m sorry I was an asshole.”

Iraklis interrupted me with a soft giggle. “That’s all I wanted to hear man. Well, that, and that you’ll hopefully be staying here for a while?” he added with a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

“Stay here?” I turned back to Birgit who looked unfazed by this whole thing, but I also looked down at the bleachers. My schoolmates. They were all looking at me like-like there was something wrong. Like I was something wrong–the previous looks of disdain and disgust still there.

Suddenly I was twelve years old again.

Maria’s cries and the commotion of the classroom–the fear dominated my ears. My classmates and teachers were looking at me with fear and anger. Iraklis was looking at me like I was a villain.

Then I was thirteen. People were whispering while I walked through the hallways of the school. I was wearing a hoodie, and a few of my schoolmates put crumbled pieces of paper in the hood.

Iraklis wasn’t talking to me. That meant I had nobody. Rumours began to spread. Many things were told about me–some true, most false. I was a monster.

I was alone.

And then I was back to the party, eighteen years old. Everyone was staring at me once more, and I couldn’t take it.

I looked down and messed with my gloves for a bit, steadying my breath.. I wanted to come up with a–hopefully witty–remark and make my way out as smoothly as I could. But I also wanted to make Iraklis understand that it had nothing to do with him.

I did neither. Instead, I mumbled a sort of apology, before I grabbed Birgit’s wrist and ran out of there as fast as I could.

Only when we were a good distance away from the school did I stop. Even then, it was only to catch my breath, leaning against a power column and breathing heavily. Birgit yanked her arm out of my grip, rubbing her wrist as she made an annoyed face at me.

Stolen story; please report.

“You aren’t a scrawny kid anymore, idiot,” she said in an annoyed tone of voice. “Watch your strength, especially when you pull someone. Imagine if I was an attack or disaster survivor.”

I huffed and chuckled bitterly at the girl. “You always call me an idiot, did you know that?”

“Well, that’s because you are,” said Birgit angrily, speaking in English once more. “What happened back there?”

I swallowed down any anger I might have felt at her questioning. She didn’t know. She didn’t know. “You don’t understand,” I said with forced calmness.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said, sounding exasperated. She took a few deep breaths before speaking again. “Call him now, then. Tell him to meet you on Monday.”

“What?” I said, like the idea was completely ridiculous. Which it was–to me at least.

“You said to not let this be a goodbye,” she said smugly.

Fuck.

She knew what she was doing. I couldn’t back out now. Especially after we’d talk and he’d all but forgiven me. I looked into her blue eyes, silently cursing once more. This time the fact that this-this Danish daughter of one of the most powerful people in the world had managed to become the person to set me straight twice in the one fucking month we’d known each other for.

I took out my phone–at this point Birgit’s smugness could be felt in the air–and called Iraklis.

“Hey there, hero-in-training,” said Iraklis lightly.

“Hey man,” I said, trying to formulate my thoughts once more. “How many apologies can you handle in one night?”

“Way more than you can dish out, so don’t worry about that,” he said with a small chuckle. “Seriously though, are you alright?”

“Yeah, it’s just-it wasn’t easy with everyone in there,” I said awkwardly. He let out a hum of agreement.

Birgit cleared her throat, motioning for me to get to the point.

“Can you meet up on Monday? Just the two of us? I’ll text you the time tomorrow,” I said whilst also trying to sound as natural as possible. Like all of this hadn’t happened.

“Of course,” said Iraklis, and I heard him sigh in relief on the other end of the line. “Listen, I gotta go, but I’ll definitely see you then, hero-in-training.”

“That’s not fair you know,” I said to him as I sighed dramatically. “I’m not good with nicknames.”

“Well, you could call me hot and blond or the Alpha Surge of tomorrow?”

I chuckled slightly at his response. “Not even if you gave me a lifetime partnership with the Alpha Surge of today.”

“You wound me, Alexander.”

“I’m sure you’ll survive. Goodnight short and blond.”

Before he could protest the name, I ended the call and let out a breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding. This was it. I’d finally had my friend–my best, and for a long time only friend–back. Things were going to be normal. Well, as normal as they could be with us being continents, and an ocean, apart.

I looked Birgit in the eye once more. I looked at her once more. She was beautiful. “Thank you,” I told her in a small voice.

“Honestly, what would you do without me?” she said in an overly high pitched, posh voice. It honestly wasn’t that funny, but we both laughed for a solid minute as a result, so it probably was just the thing we needed.

Considering the night I’d had thus far, I decided to make another daring move–daring for me at least. I reached down and grabbed her hand, smiling slightly at her and with nervous sweat pouring down my face. She blushed so hard that her face looked like it had briefly been turned into a tomato, but she didn’t pull away.

“Gyros?” I asked her, while also cursing my damn voice for breaking at that when it didn’t at my entire confrontation with Iraklis.

Birgit smirked up at me and the temperature of the street dropped slightly. “Don’t you dare forget that I’m paying.”

I gulped and started shivering when the temperature dropped even further. I really didn’t want to let her have to pay for everything–I wanted to split it at least–but I eventually groaned in defeat and relented.

The temperature rose once again and a cheery smile split her face. “I’m glad.”

All in all, this had started out as a good night.

It was only a couple of hours later, when I was home and finally asleep after thirty minutes of trying to, that it all went south.