Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(51)

He presses the button on the ball dispenser, and a bright red ball clunks into place. Bells tests its weight and then rolls it down the lane. The ball promptly rolls into the gutter.

“See what I mean? I’m terrible. Hey, what—!”

Bells glances at the display overhead. CHAMELEON: 0. CRINOLINE: 0.

“Come on, it’s funny,” Christine says.

He grabs the control pad and ends the game. The names disappear. “You know Chameleon is wanted, right? I can’t afford to be caught.”

Christine laughs. “You know people use fake names all the time, right? Everybody uses nicknames and joke names and superheroes’ names on these things. It doesn’t matter.”

Bells becomes acutely aware of the front door, as though the Authorities are going to burst in at any second and arrest him. Nothing happens.

“Okay, you’re probably right.”

“Watch this.” Christine twirls on the floor and picks up her holoball. She scrunches her face, leans back, and rolls the ball.

It streaks down the lane and hits the pins.

“Strike!” Christine says and high fives Bells.

Bells laughs. “You are good.”

“Hi!”

He turns around at the sound of Emma’s voice. She’s standing with Jess and Abby, regarding Christine. Emma looks great. Her curls are artfully piled atop her head, and she’s wearing the bracelet Bells gave her for her birthday last year. She hasn’t worn that in a while.

“This is Christine,” Bells says, trying not to think about what the bracelet means. “We, uh, met at art camp. She lives in Vegas. My friends: Emma, Jess, and Abby.”

Emma’s already hugging Christine and babbling. “… and it is so nice to meet you! Bells hasn’t dated in so long, so this is really exciting!”

“Great to meet you too,” Christine says, without missing a beat. “Bells said this was a triple date?”

“Oh, my boyfriend is on his way,” Emma says airily. “He said he wanted to pick up food for all of us.”

“That’s nice of him,” Christine says. She glances at Bells with a slight smirk as Emma links her arm in hers, and they walk back to the shoe dispenser together.

“Art camp, huh?” Jess says. “Isn’t that when you were…”

“Uh, yeah,” Bells says. “She’s cool. I like her a lot. Like I said, we just started dating.”

“That’s great,” Abby says. “So she’s also a…”

Oh. He shouldn’t have said art camp; Bells forgot he told them that was code for Meta-Human Training. He hasn’t asked Christine if she was comfortable talking about her powers with other people. But they’re interrupted when the bowling alley doors open again.

“Carlos!” Emma squeals, then runs to the door and greets him with a kiss that lasts much longer than any of the ones he’s seen in school.

“Jess and Abby, right?” Christine says, handing them a pair of shoes each. “Great to meet you. Bells talks so much about his friends.”

“Aw, really?” Emma says, hand-in-hand with Carlos.

“Hi, I’m Carlos,” he says. He dimples when he smiles. “I brought sandwiches for everyone and snacks!”

Up close, he looks like a classic holostar, as if he could have walked right off a movie set. He’s adorable and thoughtful. Bells wants to hate him.

After a chorus of hellos and introductions, Bells joins in with a half-hearted, “Hey.”

It unfolds like a movie, a coming-of-age teen drama in which Bells is a spectator, watching life happen. Carlos is a generous listener and a fantastic bowler. And if Bells had to rate all of the people Emma’s dated, he has to admit Carlos is the best. He cheers when Emma scores; he talks animatedly with Abby about her captaincy on the volleyball team. He gets into a long discussion with Jess about vintage superhero comics and even draws Christine into a conversation about current fashion trends.

He’s nice and smart and gorgeous and there’s really no competition here at all.

The conversation turns to sports, and Abby and Emma talk about volleyball and Carlos listens intently. Jess gives Bells a look, and he shrugs as if to say, I don’t have anything to add, why bother? Jess raises her eyebrows. He settles for throwing the bowling ball. Carlos is winning, of course, but no one has paid attention to the game in a while. His ball rolls into the gutter.

Christine surprises him by kissing him wetly on the cheek and then whispering in his ear, “Laugh. Not too loudly, just pretend I told you something really hilarious, but we’re the only ones who get it.”

Bells laughs and then pulls back and grins at her.

“Aww, you guys are so cute,” Emma says, but her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“You said you lived in Vegas?” Carlos asks with friendly interest. “How’d you meet Bells?”

“It was art camp in Aerial City, right Bells?” Emma says, fixing him with a smile. Bells can tell there’s an unspoken question. “It was so beautiful in Bells’ photos.”

Christine gives Bells the briefest of looks. “Oh, it was so lovely, all that green and rustling of the trees. And the walkways, so romantic, you’re so high up…”

Emma raises her eyebrows and laughs. “I bet a lot of your time was cut short because of how skittish Bells gets around heights.”