Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(2)

The DED expands Emma’s hologram until her indignant face is life-size. He gestures at the pile of clothing he’s had varying degrees of success stuffing into his duffel bag. “See? Packing.”

“You can’t leave without saying goodbye!”

“That’s why I called? To say goodbye?” Bells says, but Emma’s hologram blips and disappears.

He flicks at the projection to call Emma back, but she doesn’t pick up.

Bells scowls, then turns on the desktop projector. The gleaming keyboard projects onto his desk and hums to life, and the DED buzzes, signaling its transition from mobile mode to desktop mode. Holos from all of Bells’ open programs are thrown in the air: the book he was reading for Meta-Human Training, some pages on the Net of old art gallery archives, the group chat with Emma and Jess, and his main messages.

Bells cracks his knuckles and opens a new message.

He’s in the middle of typing a ridiculous, over-flowery essay about how he’ll miss his best friend and looking up sonnets to prove how sappy he can be, when his dad knocks on his door.

“I still have ten minutes before we have to leave!” Bells says.

“Yeah, that, and also—” Nick Broussard winks at him and steps aside.

Emma bursts into Bells’ bedroom and flings her arms around him. She barely reaches up to his shoulder, so her face smashes into his chest.

“Five minutes,” Nick mouths before closing the door and heading downstairs.

“Aw, no, this is why I just wanted to call, Em. If you cry, then I’m gonna cry, and it’s gonna be a huge mess.”

“I’m gonna miss you so much.” Emma’s voice is muffled. She squeezes him tighter. “I can come visit you.”

Bells’ heart jumps. “I—that—” that would be nice, he doesn’t say. If he was actually going to a summer art program, it would be amazing for Emma to visit. They could go around the city, just the two of them, eat strange foods on terraces and see the wonders of Aerial City together, like the tourists who flock there for the sun and the sea and the… romance.

He reluctantly slips out of the hug and steps back. He takes her hands in his and squeezes them. Her brown eyes are bright.

“I’d like that,” Bells says. “But, um, it’s a very strict program. We’re not supposed to leave the campus other than for field trips. Outside influences and all that. It’s a very rigorous schedule. I’m sorry; I wish you could visit.”

“You’ll call me and Jess every night, though?”

“Yes, of course. And messages and everything. Look, there isn’t even a time difference. It’ll be over before you know it. You have volleyball practice every day, and Jess will probably come to a lot of them—”

“You mean all of them, so she can moon over Abby.”

Bells snickers. “Seriously, that crush of hers is ridiculous. She ever gonna try talking to the girl?”

Emma laughs. “Maybe one of these days she’ll make eye contact.” She sniffs, wipes her eyes, and smiles at Bells. “You’re right. It’ll be fine, like last summer when I got grounded for a month after I crashed my moms’ car.”

“See? And it all worked out. We talked every day even though we weren’t supposed to hang out. It’ll be fine,” Bells repeats. “And you also have all your fancy prep classes, and I can’t believe you’re taking a college-level ecology and evolutionary science class—”

“Hey, I like science, and we don’t have any of those programs at our school—”

“Nerd,” Bells says fondly.

“Don’t get a big head, okay, Bells? Going off to the city, hanging out in galleries. You’re probably gonna meet some museum director who’s absolutely impressed with your work, and then they’re gonna whisk you off for art shows, and you’re gonna become famous and never have time for your small-town friends again.” Emma sighs dramatically, places her hands on her hips, and shakes her head.

“Oh, yeah.” Bells holds back a laugh. “I’ll be the most famous artist in the Collective and become so rich that I can travel all over the world. And I’ll be like, ‘who were those girls I used to know back in that little desert town… oh, Jemma and… Ess…’”

Emma snorts. “That one got away from you, didn’t it?”

“I was gonna switch the letters and then… yeah, it did.”

They laugh, and the moment stretches until Bells is hyper-aware of how close they’re standing. Emma’s lips quirk up, and details jump out at him: the pinkness of her lips; how her hair falls into her eyes; the way their hands look, fingers intertwined, brown and black skin together.

Bells always wondered if this would happen, if they’d just flow naturally into a romance. Still, he’s not prepared. He has to leave for the whole summer and is he really going to tell Emma he loves her now?

It’s all he can think about: the warmth of her hands in his, her proximity. Emma steps closer. She looks up at him. Her lips part—

Bells’ DED buzzes with an incoming call and vibrates furiously on the charging port balanced on the edge of the desk, until the entire thing falls over. The multiple holograms projected onto Bells’ desk disappear. A new hologram projects, sideways, onto the floor, and an image of Jess forms. She’s covered in soot and catching her breath.