Everything happened fast. By the time we were dropped off, it was one in the morning. Laura had Uber-ed us to Alphabet City. Specifically, to Mutant Town.
I'd never been. Whenever anyone talked about Mutant Town, they always tried to make it sound like the center of a mutant cultural renaissance, where all the thinkers and shakers of the species laid their roots that would grow into the trees that would influence the world.
If you took into account that Mutant Town had the highest concentration of mutants in the world, then sure, statistically there was some accuracy there. But if you wanted the facts, Mutant Town was poor, tightly-packed, and shifty. It felt like any ghetto you could imagine in a big city like New York. The only difference was you had guys and girls walking and flying around with all kinds of powers. Instead of getting stuck up with a gun or a knife, you had an even chance of someone trying to rob you with flaming hands or a poisonous touch.
Sleepy, boring Salem Center, it was not. It was way less chill than San Francisco. And as crazy as Los Angeles could get, things usually started shutting down there after a certain point after midnight.
There were still people out doing their thing. I spotted at least three different clubs in plain sight still bustling in the few minutes we'd been walking, "You think your brother-person is going to be in Manhattan?"
"It would be the easiest place for him to blend in," Laura said, not sparing a second glance at the sights and sounds bombarding us, "If he is anything like myself and Logan, he would not like unwanted attention."
I looked down an alley we were passing and swore I could see someone getting a blowjob. I kind of wanted to check twice to make sure, but then again, I really didn't, "Well, this is the place to go if you don't want to stand out. Did he leave a clue, or something? How are you supposed to find him?"
"The scent on the letter he sent is strong. If he is here, I should be able to locate him."
Really? Because from just what I could smell, there were a lot of scents to sort through, and I didn't even have enhanced senses, "'Here' as in Mutant Town, 'here' as in Manhattan, or 'here' as in New York?"
"...Yes."
"Goddamn you, woman," I muttered at her smartass remark. She'd been paying too much attention to me when I popped off to others, "Now what? Do we look for a hotel, or something?"
Laura stopped and looked around suspiciously. At what, I didn't know, but it made me feel paranoid, "I thought you normally didn't sleep."
"I don't, but you do," I specified, keeping my guard up, just in case, "I'll just stay up and stand guard, or, fuck, do homework or something, I guess," I shifted the backpack I had over my shoulder. Laura's bag probably had clothes and shit in it. Mine just had books and papers, "Maybe if we do go back late, the teachers will still let me turn in my work."
Laura wasn't a functional insomniac like yours truly. She could go without sleep for a while, but it wasn't advised. If things turned intense soon, it was for the best that she was running with a full stamina meter, and she recognized as much, "Okay, find us somewhere to stay. I will pay."
I didn't know she had money.
After our little walkthrough of Mutant Town, our destination wound up taking us out of Mutant Town to find a place to rest.
My phone brought up two seedy places that I wouldn't be caught dead in, before we finally ended up at a decent hotel outside of the neighborhood. Thanks, Google Maps.
By 'decent', I mean that they more than likely changed and washed the ejaculant out of the sheets in between guests. That was the bare minimum I asked from my living arrangements – no bedbugs, and no jizz on my sheets.
I even asked Laura when we entered our room if the two beds had clean sheets, because she would know. She gave me the all-clear, which was good enough for me. I flopped my back on the bed closest to the door and kicked my shoes off. Laura was more reserved in sitting down on the edge of hers.
"So, now what?" I asked. My eyes were affixed straight up as I could hear Laura undressing not five feet away from me. I knew she knew what modesty was, but hey, if she felt comfortable enough to do that around me, why not?
She yawned and got underneath the covers while I counted the dimples on the ceiling, "Please make sure that I wake up at 7:00 o'clock. I do not know how long it will take to find Daken. The earlier we begin, the better."
I scoffed as I popped my shirt off to try and get more comfortable myself. Laura was giving me far too much credit, "Ain't no 'we' here, Laura. I have no idea what I'm doing. It's all you," Hey, a good leader knew when to defer to his teammates. She was a trained tracker with the senses to bolster that training. I would follow her lead.
I kept my mouth shut and browsed about on my phone, trying to keep quiet for a few hours to let Laura get some sleep. It didn't take long. Girl was efficient, I'll give her that. That she could just turn off and shut down in such a weird place made her better than me. I wasn't even trying to sleep, and I still felt uneasy.
I lost track of time until a shadow eventually stood in front of our door instead of moving past it, and I felt my paranoia rise. We were in a giant city all alone, looking for a guy claiming to be Laura's brother that we didn't know anything about. People hanging around our door too long set off alarms.
Carefully, I got up and silently crept to the door. I clenched my fist tight, bringing a glow to it. If someone was on the other side looking to get froggy, they were going to get shot down before they jumped. As I eased to the peephole, ready for action, I expected to see some kind of armed thugs on the other side.
Imagine my surprise when I saw Megan standing in the hall, looking very uncertain.
What. The. Fuck.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and punched out a quick message, sent directly to her.
Pix... why are you outside this door?
She jumped when her phone went off, and I watched her face change when she read the text, "Bel?"
I undid the door chain and opened the door to reveal myself. She seemed relieved when she saw that I was still fully clothed, "Megan, what are you doing here?" I asked quietly.
"What are you doing here?" She said in return, "When you told me you were done with detention and on the way back to the dorms, I went out to see you, but you went and left with... Laura."
That had been hours ago. We'd been moving for a while, "Did you follow us all the way from school?" She nodded shyly. Wow. She had plenty of power in those wings of hers, "You should have called me. I would have told you where I was going."
She shook her head. That wasn't good enough apparently, "Why didn't you?"
"I thought it was too late to blow up your phone," I had honestly planned to call her in the morning. Her and the rest of my team, so none of them freaked out when they didn't see me around for a day or two.
Megan replied with hurt in her voice, "You sent the first text earlier," She said, "I don't understand. Every time I look in your eyes it seems like you feel guilty. For a week, you've been trying to be better, or make things up to me. And now this?"
I caught myself feeling it right then. Ever since the thing with Laura had come to light, I'd felt bad. I felt like it was my fault she felt the way she did. I felt like it was my fault for putting Megan in an odd position between us.
I could have updated her. There had been plenty of time, if my thoughts hadn't been so laser-focused, "All of this started happening really fast," Nothing but excuses. I was awful at relationships.
Megan tried to look past me into the dark, "What is happening? Is Laura in there?"
"Yes, she is. In her own bed," I made sure to specify. Megan didn't think I was cheating, did she? Oh, God, I thought we'd been over this – twice in some ways, "Come on. I'll let Laura explain in the morning, but you're not staying in this seedy hallway all night," Instead of coming in when I opened the door wider, she backed away, "Pix?"
She wanted no part of nicknames, and the thought of sharing a room with me and 'the other woman' was too much for her to bear. She gave me a shove and then ran down the hallway. I stumbled back to my bed to grab my shirt and shoes before I went after her, but by the time I got outside, all I got to see was her flying off, faster than I could follow on foot, even with my powers. I wasn't going to catch up unless she wanted me to.
I paced around on the sidewalk in front of the hotel with my hands on my head, "Fuck, fuck, fuck," I just kept cursing in a hiss before I finally got on my phone to try and get in touch.
This had been brewing for a while, since the summer. I'd seen it. I'd tried to avert it, but I didn't have the tools or the intelligence to stop it. Did it have to happen in the heart of New York City, though?
I got answering machine. Not even three rings first, "Megan, please come back. This isn't what you think. Just talk to me," As bad as I clearly was at that, despite my gift for running my mouth, "Just... call me, please."
I hung up and stared at the sky that was beginning to brighten. At least she wouldn't be out alone in the dark.
When I made it back to the room, Laura was awake and sitting up, covered in shadow as she looked out the window through the open blinds, "I am sorry, Bellamy," She said without looking at me.
She heard all of that, did she? Of course she did. Even if I'd tried being quiet, with Laura's hearing, the moment Megan took off running it probably sounded like stampeding, "It's not your fault. I'm the one who came here in the first place. I'm the one that forgot to smarten anyone up before we left."
Laura looked over at me and shook her head, "No, I was aware that Megan had been following us through Mutant Town," I felt my eyebrows raise in surprise. She just tapped at her nose in explanation, "I did not see fit to say anything at the time. I figured she would come to you soon enough."
She did. But even if we had seen Megan on the street, or in the hotel, I didn't think things would have ended much better. And if it didn't blow up now, it would have blown up later.
"I have to go find her," I said, gathering up my bag, "Maybe she went back to school," One could only hope, "Maybe she'll call me back, or at least send me a text. But I've got to make sure she's okay."
"I do not think she wants to see you," Laura, with a gift for pointing out the obvious.
I smiled at Laura grimly, "You know, I kind of got that feeling as well," The smile faded when I remembered what I'd come for in the first place, "Are you going to be okay on your own?"
She didn't seem concerned with splitting off, "I had not planned for help when I had left. This only puts me back to my original plan."
True enough, I had been the one to stick my big nose into her goings on. I didn't want to leave her alone, but jeez, she would have an easier time making her way around the city than I would, "If anything happens, you call me. Got that? I'll let you know if I find Megan, and we can meet up. Maybe we can get this all hashed out or something... I don't fucking know."
One solution at a time, that is, if we could find one or the other in the first place.