Killing Olympia

Olympus U was exactly the kind of place that would tell me to get lost if they ever got a good look at my high school grades. Turns out being a superhero and studying for finals doesn't work out too well. Whatever. I was never meant to be working in some office, anyway. I didn't even really know what I was going to do eventually with my life, but I'd rather take it one day at a time—I've gone through enough shit to stop planning too far into the future. Just getting the chance to wake up in my own bed after so many months away from home was a massive win in my book, and getting to see Bianca was the icing on a pretty shitty day. I just wished I'd brushed Irina out of my mouth.

Not that I was planning on making out with her or anything. She needed someone there with her, and I've been away from her long enough to not let her keep being alone. I even picked up a pizza and slushie for her, too.

Unfortunately for me, Olympus U was a flight-open zone. Kids with wings, teenagers who could control gusts of wind, and everyone in between was skimming above buildings. A speed limit sign was on every building, and a campus cop kept an eye on the sky above him, chewing stiffly on a piece of gum. I kept low, sticking to the shadows and skipping out on the frat houses full of people either puking or cheering or doing party tricks with their powers. It was a shared campus. Normals and Supes. Olympus West was the opposite, but I guess if you want to make sure you've got journalists who aren't afraid of superhumans, you've got to make them gel early on, right?

The campus itself was huge. A glowing, sprawling several dozen acres worth of glowing limestone and glass buildings. Parts of the campus looked old-money, with brick buildings and statues of hero alumni and Normals who'd made it big later on in life. A statue of Peacemaker stood in front of the main admissions building, not big, not towering—he was crouched, smiling, and holding out his palm, as if he was offering his hand to anyone walking past him. But I wasn't here to ogle at him. The on-campus dorms were in a vague U shape, with a massive grass quad at the center of the buildings packed full of people star gazing, playing music, throwing around footballs or trying not to be awkward as they flirted with one another. All of this felt so…weird. Alien. It almost felt like I was invading something I shouldn't be. Considering how my day started, this was a lot of peaceful whiplash.

But I wasn't going to complain. For once, my ears weren't ringing and I didn't have to double check the faces I flew past. A couple were star gazing above a dorm, the guy floating, the girl resting on his chest, half-asleep.

I stopped above the dorms and texted Bianca that I was here. Was my heart in my ass right now?

Yes. But not because I was nervous about seeing her. I've gotten a little paranoid lately. Things don't go smoothly for me for more than a couple of hours at a time, and that's when I'm lucky. The second life even starts to make a little bit of sense, it falls apart. Quickly. My biggest problem was dragging Bianca into this massive mess.

My phone buzzed, telling me to look down. She was halfway out of a window a few dorms down, arm waving and hair still wet. I could smell the shampoo clinging to her room, mingling with her perfume. It was stupidly intoxicating. I flew closer to her window and climbed my way inside her dorm room. It was as cozy as her room back home. Thick purple duvet, a bunch of white pillows stacked on it, too. Clothes all over her bed that smelt just like her. Scuffed sneakers under her bed. Her laptop open beside several scribbled-in notebooks. And…

I stopped and looked at the picture she had on her desk. The same one I had of us. Two dumb kids smiling for the camera, ice cream on our lips and dirt on our hands and knees. The Olympia poster above her bed was cool, too. Just a little. Or whatever. I stopped staring and turned around. She stood a few feet away in the bathroom, running a comb through her hair, begging me to give her a few more seconds, which, hell, take all the time you need, B, I've got no problem waiting for you. So I sat on the edge of her bed, the pizza on her desk, as I looked around. The bed on the other side of the room was plush and filled with teddy bears, including one of me, which was…something. How much money do people make from me? Dude, I could probably be a millionaire right now.

And I know I said I don't do this for the money, but—and this is important—that was nonsense.

The couple of thousand I've got in my account right now lifted some kind of weight off my shoulders. Suddenly I wasn't relying on the coins I spotted inside the cracks on the pavement. Don't look at me that way.

You'd do the same thing if you haven't been paid and you've got an empty stomach to feed.

Thank the gods nobody ever saw Olympia penny pinching off the sidewalk.

"Harper's at some kind of party," Bianca said, coming out of the bathroom. Gym shorts, tank top. I swallowed and smiled, totally not wiping my hands on my jeans. She cracked open the pizza box and grinned at me. "Extra pepperoni, extra cheese, and extra anchovies? God, Ry, you really know how to make a girl happy."

I shrugged, all cool and stuff, obviously. "I'd have gone to Italy, but it would've taken too long."

She pulled out two slices, cheese clinging to one another as we split them. She nearly groaned as she sank her teeth into it. I waited before eating mine. I studied her first. Tried to listen for her heartbeat. Just like last time, nothing. Silence. I smelt the products on her, but not her. I might as well have been sitting beside a ghost of her.

"What?" she asked through a mouthful. "God, sorry. I must look so freaking greedy right now."

I looked away and chewed the pizza slowly. "It's nothing. I… Are you alright? Actually?"

She didn't respond immediately. I didn't think she would until she shrugged. "I'm a little bit of a mess," she quietly muttered. "Sometimes I've got all this energy. Sometimes I feel shitty. Most days I don't even remember what happens between the time I wake up and the time I get back here." I lowered the slice and watched her chew. She was sitting cross-legged, staring at the floor. The parties outside quietly shook the air. Wind made the curtains dance. A part of me wondered what she was thinking, what was making her eyes so glassy. But I knew that answer. I just didn't want to admit it to myself. "I don't know," she said, smiling thinly. "Maybe I just need a little rest, Ry."

"Are you sure that coming to this place was a good idea so soon?" I asked.

"If I stayed at home any longer I would just go crazy."

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"I would've checked in on you, like, all the time."

She smiled. "You've got a city to save, superhero."

"Yeah, but…I've kinda got you to care about, too," I said quietly. My throat felt raw. My tongue dry. I swallowed. Bianca stared at me, the crust of her slice unfinished and hanging from her fingers. "You matter to me."

Bianca pursed her lips a little. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," I muttered. I sighed and sat forward, elbows on my knees. "You know, last year, when shit got really bad for a while, I'd have to sometimes think about you to get myself back onto my feet. It hurts. A lot. This superhero shit wasn't advertised this way when we were little." She laughed quietly. I smiled. "There's so much I've got to figure out, B. So, so fucking much. But if there's one thing I am, it's stubborn, so…trust me, you'll be fine."

"I should probably be asking you if you're alright," she said quietly.

"Of course I am."

"Ry," she said softly.

I sighed and looked at her. "No. Not really. But the city doesn't really care about that, you know? I mean, have you seen Lower Olympus recently? And there's this problem with the government right now. And this one guy called Caesar who's probably some kind of freaking deity for all I know. I've got fucking alternate versions of myself somewhere out there doing who knows what, and I kinda just need to not panic. I can't afford to panic. Not right now. Not anymore. So yeah, sure, I'm fine. I'll earn my break when I actually put in the work, you know?"

"You're too hard on yourself," she said, grabbing the slushie off her desk. "You work too hard."

"I get side-tracked too easily, is what I do."

"Do you ever wonder what life would've been like if you weren't, well, super?"

"Sometimes," I said. "But then I get punched through a wall and thank the gods that I am."

Bianca laughed a little, then sipped from the raspberry blast. She offered the cup to me. I hesitated taking it, and had to make sure our fingers didn't brush. I hesitated again when I brought the straw to my lips. I guess no touching also meant that way, either. I sighed and handed her back the slushie. We ate in silence until half the pizza was gone, music was playing from her phone, and we were both sprawled out on her bed staring at the glow in the dark stars she'd stuck onto her ceiling. Every once in a while I had to glance over at her to make sure she was still there. I'd find her staring at me, too. It was easier to keep my hands behind my head and to occasionally feel the bed creek as she shifted. It was so uncanny the way she was simply not there for me. I was used to hearing and smelling too much from people. Hell, some guy just threw up on someone's shoes a few dorms down and was getting shouted at. Bianca was lying right beside me and she simply wasn't there. Gods, it would've been easier if I could just—

My phone buzzed. I shut my eyes. Right. I'm meant to go out with Becca tonight.

"You're so warm," she whispered. I turned my head to look at her. She was resting on her side, looking at me, running her fingers over my sweater. I'd had to put it between our arms just in case. "Are you always so hot?"

"It's a bi-product of my powers," I said. "I don't even fully know how these things work."

Another buzz beside me. But she was staring, her eyes lingering, almost sleepy.

It was the most peaceful I'd seen her in ages. Since Ben died, there'd been an alertness in her eyes, some kind of edge that just never went away. But now it was dull. Now it was staring at me, slowly sliding over my face.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"Don't leave," she whispered. "Please."

Another vibration.

"Bianca," I said softly, rolling onto my elbow. "Look, I'll be back in the morning, I just—"

"It doesn't speak to me when you're here," she said. "I don't sleep anymore, Rylee. It doesn't let me."

My phone vibrated, and didn't stop this time. I wanted to flip it over and pick it up. Becca. Kincaid. Mom. Emelia. Some random person that needed my help. It was important. People never just called me to say hi anymore.

But Bianca's eyes were shut. Her breathing was soft. And she had my sweater tight against her chest.

She was already asleep, my sweater her pillow and the warmth from my body her blanket.

I quietly swore, already sitting upright. I ran one hand through my hair and picked up my phone. Then paused. I can hear her heartbeat. I glanced at Bianca, and sure enough, there it was—soft, nearly silent, but there.

My phone kept buzzing in my hand, but I kept watching her shoulders rise and fall, her lips parted and face, for once, not screwed tight. Bianca was a doer. She never half-assed anything. Homework, track and field, she even once trained with the football team on a bet she could outdo their conditioning. She'd won. Vomited her guts on the fifty yard line so hard she'd passed out afterward, but she'd won. When I first came here, she was just about the most human person I could imagine. Passionate. Head-strong. And she didn't care that I was so scrawny or that I flinched at every sound or gesture or movement around me. Most kids found me weird. Bianca grabbed my hand and shook it so hard I thought she'd take my arm home with her. She'd been missing her front teeth when we first met. Bandaid on her knee and coloring pencils stuffed into her pocket. She'd looked so damned bizarre to me.

For whatever reason, she'd kept choosing me to sit with, to laugh with, to walk home together with.

For once in my life, someone had chosen me for me. Not Olympia, or the powers, or who dad was.

She'd liked me because she kinda just did, and that scared me. It still scared me. Because I didn't know if I was one day gonna do something that would change that. Maybe one day I'd cross some line and she'd never look at me the same way again. And when she started liking Olympia, it confused me all over again. I kept wondering what she wanted from me. Did she want me or her? Did she want the girl she kissed or the one she always knew she maybe wanted to kiss. I guess that meant they were the same person. I guess that also meant I was really confused.

I didn't know what she saw in me that not even I saw. I'm great and all, the best to ever do it, but…

Hell, she believed in me before I ever did. She probably thought I could fly before I even jumped.

But the superhero in me had a job to do tonight, right? For Bianca's sake. She'd forgive me.

Just like she's had to for the rest of your screw ups, I thought. She'd understand. She'd have to.

Until she woke up in an hour and found that I was gone. She'd call. I wouldn't answer. She'd text, and I'd tell her I'm in the middle of something important, like she wasn't important either. Fuck. And, I mean, the city still had so much going on inside of it. I could hear things from all the way out here that needed me to go to them, and—

Bianca's hand wandered over to mine. I pulled it away before our fingers could touch. Half-awake now, blinking slowly, the music from her phone still playing as she tilted her head to look up at me. Then she frowned.

"I'm still here," I said. "You should catch some sleep. You need it."

She pushed herself off the bed, hair hanging loosely around her face as she staggered onto her feet. Bianca shoved her duvet open and blinked slowly at the bed, then at me. She sat down again and said, "You'll get a cold."

I smiled. "I don't get sick, B."

"Yeah, right," she muttered, lying down again. She rolled onto her side, facing the wall, her back to me. She was silent for a moment. Long enough for me to almost consider standing up and leaving. I'd be back in her room before she even knew it. I'd be quick. Besides, if Becca needed me to hit anything, I could do that in a handful of minutes and then be right back here to— Bianca reached out blindly with one arm and found my t-shirt.

She tugged until I had no option than to shuffle up the bed, sitting next to her as she lay down.

"Just for one night," she whispered. "Rest, Ry. Please. Don't let it talk to me."

"Bianca…"

Becca's gonna want an answer to where I am right now and why the hell I'm not picking up my phone.

But her fingers didn't loosen from my t-shirt. She was breathing softly again, already asleep.

My phone stopped buzzing a minute later. No more messages came through.

Her hand slowly slipped off my t-shirt, now resting on my thigh.

My skin felt a burning sensation. A tiny prickle of pain.

But I didn't move, because Bianca needed sleep.

And maybe, for once, New Olympus could take care of itself. Just for one night.

Just long enough for me to lie beside her, staring at her ceiling of stars until, finally, I fell asleep, too.