Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(52)

“Yeah, we hung out a lot at the school, not so much the walkways,” Bells says hastily. “We did meet on one, and she saved me from having to walk alone.”

Christine picks up the story and then engages them all with colorful anecdotes about Vegas and how she and Bells decided to keep in touch. All in all, it’s not a bad time, Bells decides, taking a bite of his sandwich. It’s delicious, of course.

As they turn off their lanes, Carlos walks over to Bells. “So, I hear you’re a great artist! Love to see your work sometime.”

“Ah, that’s kind of private,” Bells hedges.

Emma snorts and playfully nudges Bells with her shoulder. “Bells barely lets us see what he’s working on; maybe if he’s finished something and feels happy with it, but yeah, tough luck there.”

Bells wants to hate Carlos so badly, but he can’t. The guy is just too nice. Bells almost wants to date him.

Everyone is hungry, so they decide to go to the automat. Bells and Christine drive in her silver car; pop music plays from the speakers.

“Thank you,” Bells says. “I know this was a weird request.”

“I had a lot of fun,” Christine says. “Your friends are cool.”

He exhales in relief. Their charade isn’t quite over, but so far, it’s seemed to work.

At the restaurant, Abby waves them over to a table. Jess is already at the food, a brightly lit wall of dispensers filled with various dishes, kept either hot or cool in the glass trays. She peers in each aperture before swiping her DED at the screen. Jess comes back to the table with two slices of pizza, a piece of apple pie, and a dish of macaroni and cheese, which she plops down in front of Abby.

“Nice,” Abby says, and jabs her fork into the food.

“Oh, cool, an automat! I’ve never been in one,” Christine says. “Seen them for snacks and stuff at, like, charging stations, but never an entire restaurant.”

“Never been in an automat?” Emma asks, raising her eyebrows. “They don’t have them in Vegas?”

Christine shrugs. “I’m sure they do, but my friends at home wouldn’t want to do stuff like this. My, ah, art friends, yeah, but all of them live super-far away.”

“Oh,” Emma says, glancing from Bells to Christine. “That must have been a cool art camp. What kind of art do you do?”

“Performance,” Christine says, as she locks arms with Bells and places a wet kiss on his cheek.





Ch. 10...





The house is empty; he misses his parents teasing each other in the kitchen, he even misses his brothers picking him up and calling him Baby-Bells.

A run would help clear his mind. He doesn’t bother putting on a coat, just throws himself out into the cold. His breath is visible as he takes his usual route through the neighborhood, then veers off to the right, and then keeps going. And going. And going. He runs past warning signs and abandoned remnants of old buildings, following the barely there trail.

Bells keeps running. He can’t get the images out of his head: Emma kissing Carlos, Jess and Abby giving each other fond glances. Everybody has someone. He waits for that moment when his head clears and he can run mindlessly, but it doesn’t happen.

By the time Bells looks up he’s somewhere in the canyons, in the opposite direction from Abby’s home. He can see Andover sparkling in the distance. He sits, catches his breath, and flicks through his messages and call history. He pauses on the image of his father and before he knows it he’s activated the call function.

The call rings and rings. “Hello—”

“Dad,” Bells says, choking up.

“You’ve reached Nicholas Broussard, owner of Broussard Family Farms and also Andover’s very own award-winning restaurant, Home Away from Home. I’m unavailable right now but our jambalaya special is available, now for only eight credits! Visit us at 44 Main Street for a little taste of home.”

“I miss you,” Bells says to his dad’s recorded face. “You and Ma. I hope you guys are doing well, and I know you said not to call, so I don’t know when you’ll receive this message—”

The DED blips.

“Bells?”

“Dad!” Just seeing his face again makes Bells feel better, safer.

“Hey, son. What’s going on? Do you need me to help you with your T-shots?”

Bells sniffs. “No, I’ve been doing it myself. I—” He stumbles on his words. If he talks about everything he’s feeling he might break down and cry. “I just missed you. How are you guys doing? Where are you?”

“I can’t tell you that, but we’re safe. We’ve been doing lots of good work; there were a lot of people affected by Ca—er, Cindy’s experiments.”

Orion? Is she still kidnapping meta-humans to experiment on? “Did you guys see her?”

“No, we keep losing her. But we have put the word out and we’re getting everyone to safety.” Nick gives him a warm smile. “Don’t worry about us. Genevieve’s got a good group of people here, and everyone’s been very welcoming. And some good news! Councilmember Robledo has been great about stopping Kingston’s produce bill.”

“That’s good,” Bells says. “One step at a time.” It seems small, especially knowing what needs to change. He remembers with a shudder how Kingston encouraged him when he was in the League and the threat the politician made when Bells refused to cooperate.