A woman stands over a young boy no older than seven, asleep in bed with the alarm clock having long since lost its reason to exist.
"Good gosh...boy you know we really gotta find a better way to do this, you stayed up last night right?" she asks before sitting on the side of his bed and looking down at him as the boy opens his eyes to the best of his ability before saying "uh...yeah, sorry but you said the weather man said we would be able to see northern lights all the way down here"
The women, His mother thinks for a moment before responding with the best sad tone she can manage "Yeah I know, I'm sorry I guess I should have expected you to do this kinda thing, so much like your father in that way, I wonder when that air head will get home today" she says in a slightly joking tone to make the little boy laugh.
The little boy does giggle a bit before sitting up in bed and saying "yeah mom it is all your fault isn't it?" he says with a smile, all she does in response is sigh and say "and here I was trying to take responsibility...well remind me not to next time", then without warning a rather loud knock occurs on the door downstairs.
Downstairs the knocking on the door gets a bit louder as if urgent, The mother of the boy: Jasmine kisses the boy on the head and looks at him quickly saying "love you Leo, stay right here this shouldn't be long, probably one of those stupid salesman or something" she says but anyone would notice the bead of sweat forming on her forehead.
Leo gets out of bed and starts to trail behind slowly, and before he knows It--
*BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP*
Leo's POV:
Sitting up, I pull the covers to my chest and realize perhaps going to bed when it's so cold outside isn't the best idea; nonetheless, my primary objective at the moment is gonna have to be turning off that wretched alarm clock.
Extending my arm out to try and reach it from the safety of my bed, doing so takes as much effort as you can probably imagine, which is to say all of it. However, while doing this, I think about the dream I just had, and it can slip away like the morning grogginess tends to do.
"Hmm, odd I haven't dreamed about dad in a while...I should probably call mom later and see how she's holding up," I say with a stretch of my arms, the alarm clock finally surrendering itself to my annoyed grasp as I realize the impracticality of still owning one of these old pieces of junk.
"I should just...set an alarm on my phone instead, yeah, let's do that from now on. sounds good to me"
hopping out of bed as quickly as I can, rushing to get dressed, moving fast enough to hopefully not feel the skin-biting cold of my roommate's inability to close the window at night.
Well, regardless of my personal feelings on Seth's lack of social awareness, I should hurry up. Moving into the bathroom, I stare at the mirror and begin the dreadful next fifteen minutes of doing my hair, shaving away this morning's stubble, or at least most of it.
While finishing up the TV in my room flickers to life, and I sigh a little, realizing Seth must be back from whatever kind of idiot shit he was off to last night. Regardless i still care about him to some extent, so I walk into our shared room. The dormitories here on campus are pretty decently sized, so it's never really been much of an issue until well...Seth, noise population, or something like that.
"Oh, you're alive? Good, I wasn't looking forward to dragging you from the street again," I say as I walk over to him, only to see him basically rooted into the couch...dear god, not again.
helping straighten him up, I walk to the fridge and grab him a bottle of water that i set in his hand as I say, "You look like death. What happened?"
Seth looks up at me and, with one drouning gulp, he downs the water bottle in seconds before smiling and loudly declaring "Dude, I saved some babe from a villain!" he says with stars in his eyes as I stand here for a moment, a cartoonish look of conufsion on my face.
"Seth, you're drunk again or something," I say as I sit down next to him to make sure he doesn't throw up or something
"No dude like...i was walking home right, and then suddenly this chick just runs out from some alley looking like a fuckin Power Ranger, like a biker helmet and all, it even glowed or somthin like one of those weird fish Professor Reid had us look at a week ago," Seth says while rubbing his jaw a bit and finally starting to calm down
"Wait, a biker helmet? glowing?...hmm, that sounds like Xtra." I say as I then think about her for a moment, she's a pretty new superhero on the scene.
"Hey, um, Seth...this woman you're saying you 'saved' are you sure you saved her?" i say, as, despite not wanting to hurt his feelings, I doubt someone like Xtra would need saving from Seth from a logical perspective.
Seth looks at me like I just stabbed his dog to death and says, "Dude, I totally did, i mean I kinda blacked out for a while, but I'm sure...well I mean" he starts to say as if trying to remember all while I try not to snicker.
"Seth...buddy... I'm pretty sure Xtra saved you, not the other way around. Chances you stumbled onto a fight between her and some villain, you were drunk, right? Plus, look at your hands...only your jaw, shoulder, and stomach have bruises. There is no way you fought anyone if anything looks like you almost got clapped and she saved you," I say as I try to lay it on him as easily as I can without hurting his feelings.
"Well...I don't exactly remember, and now that you say it like that, I guess it does make sense," Seth says with a sigh, clearly having hoped he looked cool as I shrug and pat his shoulder before I say, "You'll get 'em next time...or something like that, I'm not sure what you were hoping for to be honest"
I smile a little, "Well, I'm glad you're okay at least, I mean, look at you? didn't even need the hospital or anything. I'd consider that a win...not like we could afford to have surgery for you anyway," I say with a little rub of my neck before Seth looks at me
"Huh? Couldn't you just heal me? With that cool light stuff, you can do?" Seth says while looking a little confused.
"Seth, I'm new at this. The best I can do is minor healings...like you know, stitching, small wounds, and junk like that. i won't be able to help you if you get your back blown out by a psycho on the street," I say with a sigh, until I realize what I said, and before i can say anything to prevent the floodgate from running wild
"BWAHAH" Seth emits a laugh that would put a banchee to shame as he has to stop himself twice before collecting himself and speaking through the laughter. "Yeah? I'll get my back blown out by a villain? Yeah?" he says while laughing until he clutches his side and coughs a bit as I smile.
"Wow..would you look at that, something actually shut you up, maybe my lucky stars aligned, or did one of my birthday wishes finally cash in?" I say with a snicker of my own as I say, "I'm joking, buddy. Anyways, what were you watching?"
Seth finishes holding his side as he shrugs and says, "i was hoping to see that chick...or Xtra or whatever you called her. i was thinking she might be on the news or something." After he says that, i shake my head.
"Sorry, man, I doubt it...Xtra is a new hero on the scene, but she does solo work and doesn't do interviews. Most you're gonna find is a few clips on YouTube from people spotting her on patrol; she prefers to do night shifts, or so I'm told." I inform him as i turn the TV off with the remote on the table while he remains seated while thinking to himself, or at least I think he's thinking. Maybe the head trauma gave him a concussion or something.
"Say...Leo, how do you know her?" he asks with narrowed eyes as he looks at me like i stole something, "I saw her first!" he proclaims while I sigh and say, "Seth...buddy... I'm gay, or did the head trauma knock that bit of info out of you?"
"Uhh...yeah, no, you're right, I'm sorry, dude, she was really pretty though...like that one girl with the cat helmet from that show...what was her name? Salty? Stella?" he keeps on saying other names until I sigh.
"Do you mean Celty Sturluson?" I ask while shifting my weight on the couch as if his head trauma could be contagious.
"Yeah! That's the one," he says with the smile of a man recalling some valuable memory.
I rub the side of my head a bit as I stand up and say, "I need to head to class. I'm glad you're okay, but please don't run off in the middle of the night again." grabbing my phone and securing it inside my pocket, i make my way to the door while trying to think about anything but my crippling finaical situaion which i cant have made worse from idiot roomates getting thesmlves hurt over some puh they aint ever gonna have.
Leaving my dorm room and walking down the hall to the stairs to venture down to the front door leading outside, I take a deep breath, really not wanting to do this today but having no real choice.
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
The slightly annoying techno bird chirp of my phone goes off as I pull it out, and it reads
[Mom: Calling]
Pressing the green phone icon and swiping, I bring my phone to my ear. "Mom? " I say as i await a response.