Super: Origins (20 page)

“Thanks…mom,” Lex said with the ghost of a smile before her eyes slid closed again. The warmth and coziness made it impossible for her to stay awake.

Lex spent the next day working out and studying again, with a long dinner break where she and Casey cooked together. While sitting at the kitchen island chopping carrots into matchsticks, Lex asked why it was so rare for them to encounter anyone else on the team, and Casey sighed.

“Well, a lot of people aren't here on the weekends, but during the week, Joan spends most of her time at some of the nearby military bases. I'm not sure what they have her doing, exactly. Serena just keeps different hours; she likes to be up late. I think she travels a lot. Riss doesn't leave her room much. I think they've got her on some super-secret computer thing. As for Lily, she's working at another place nearby and has a kid, so she's not here much, maybe once a month. You'll meet her eventually, though. She seems nice, I just don’t know a lot about her.”

Lex nodded and shrugged, finding it odd and wondering how they could be considered a team if they rarely saw one another, but put that thought aside to continue meal preparations. The stir fry they ended up with that evening, tofu and carrots made more flavorful with garlic and raisins, had been delicious enough to make her forget her questions for a while.

The following week went by in a blur, and Mr. Chen seemed put out since there were several days out of the week when Lex had to submit to some medical tests. One morning she had masses of electrodes glued to her head so the doctors could do some sort of brain scan. Another morning she had more blood taken and other tests done—in order to “fill in her chart,” Lex was told. Mr. Chen didn't extend the morning training, however, just telling Lex, “Don't be impatient. We will get to it in time. Just relax and try to absorb what you're being taught, not just learning to reflect it back at me quickly.”

Lex sighed, but she did her best to calm and center herself and to continue learning. She had at first worried that she would continue to have bad reactions to being back in the martial arts studio, as she had the first time she’d walked into the room with Casey, but Mr. Chen had a completely different way of teaching than her father had. He would patiently explain things, not yell at her if she didn't immediately understand. He praised her when she got things right and didn't shriek at her when she made mistakes. Things had changed to the point where Lex seemed to regard the studio as a place of peace and learning where Mr. Chen encouraged her curiosity and questions. Lex now had little trouble feeling calm and energized the minute her bare feet hit the boards, something she’d begun anticipating happily.

At one point, Lex realized that between working with Mr. Chen and hanging out with Casey, she’d been feeling comfortable and at home in her new job in a way she hadn't ever before. She also realized she avoided thinking about it too much because when she did she felt worried, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The following Friday, when Lex had tried to diligently follow Mr. Chen's instruction despite her impending leave, she realized she must have snuck one too many looks at the clock when he stopped and turned to look at her.

“Lex,” he said, meeting her eye, “I don't seem to have your full attention today. Is this your first weekend out of the facilities?”

She gazed at him with surprise and anxiety, worried that he’d be upset with her. “Yes.”

“I understand you have a young man. I'm guessing you want to see him again.” Lex swallowed, feeling uncomfortable and found out, then nodded. “All right,” Mr. Chen continued, “I think we can finish our training today at noon, since I don't think it will be productive to go any longer than that. However, I'm going to expect you to be fully with me until then. Agreed?”

Lex nodded and smiled with relief. “Yes, thanks, Mr. Chen!”

He had a definite twinkle in his eye as he turned back to the mirror and began instruction again. Lex threw herself into the forms and before she knew it, noon had arrived. When he excused her, Lex smiled wide and bowed deeply to him, thanking him. Quickly, she ran upstairs, threw some of her strategy books and a notebook into her backpack, and grabbed her purse and travel bag so that she could bring some more things with her when she came back at the end of the weekend.

As she passed the kitchen, she swung inside and left a note on the table to Casey, letting her friend know she’d left for home and would return Sunday night. Making sure she had her cardkey, Lex darted out the door, heading for the metro and home.

Chapter 8: Endings

Lex swayed on the handrail in the metro, grinning crazily at her own reflection in the glass doors of the train. Her longing to see Kurt had left her completely restless, so she tried to calm herself by thinking about what they might do over the weekend. She’d shower and change once she got home, maybe call him at work to let him know she’d arrived, and then when he got home…

Lex realized the train ride had ended as she heard her stop being called, and she quickly tripped out of the train. Heading to the escalator out of the metro, she bounded up, sometimes two stairs at a time, laughing.

Several minutes later, after having hurried down the sidewalks and run up all five flights of stairs, Lex arrived, winded, at the front door of the condo she and Kurt shared. She fumbled for her keys in her purse, trying to find where she’d left them after two weeks of disuse, and eventually eased the door open. To her confusion, she heard voices inside.

She froze and listened. Actually, it was one voice: Kurt's. Her heart leapt, and again she grinned to herself. Lex quietly eased inside and shut the door silently. She began creeping down the long front hall, determined to surprise her fiancé. His voice began to resolve into words.

“No, no, it's a fair trade. Probably more than fair; it's my dream job.”

Lex heard the slight buzz of the person on the other end of the phone responding to Kurt’s earlier statement as she moved about halfway down the hall.

“No, it's really not
that
bad to have to break things off with Lex in exchange. I can always find someone else, but I will miss the sex.”

Feeling as if she’d been lanced through by an iron bar dropped from the ceiling, Lex froze a few feet before the end of the hallway. Her suddenly dry mouth tasted harshly of dust and defeat.

“I know she doesn’t look it, but she really is a good fuck! I’ve been thinking for a while, though, that I’d have to break things off with her eventually. She's just so
weird
sometimes, and those scars!”

Kurt laughed then, the sound causing Lex's guts to wrench. Her forehead had broken out in a sweat, and she still felt frozen to the spot, unable to talk or move.

“You should have seen how much trouble it was to find a dress for her that didn't show those nasty things off! If it's all right, though, I think I'll wait a couple of months until the official break up…you know, I can't take you being away all the time, that sort of thing. At least until then I know I can still get laid every other weekend.”

Lex could hear the murmuring response of the person on the other end of the phone, and it sounded amazingly loud in her ears now. Her body had started to move again, and she shook with adrenaline. The anger that had settled in her head felt like the fast-forward replay of a fiery bud blooming into a monstrous, poisonous red flower. Everything else seemed to move in slow motion around her as she covered the final feet of the dimly lit hallway and entered the sunny kitchen to face her former lover, who’d been sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of tea along with his conversation. She came in so quickly that he only had time to register her presence before she spoke.

Lex wrenched the engagement ring off her finger and launched it in his general direction. “You rot in hell, you fucking asshole.”

She watched as his expression finally changed as he realized what her presence there might mean, but much too late. Lex saw her carelessly tossed ring spin in the air, and watched the diamond or the prong open an inch-long cut under one of Kurt’s cheekbones as it sailed past him to land on the floor. Before the blood started flowing Lex had turned, still shaking with fury, one hand in a fist so tight her fingernails pierced her palm.

Got to get out of here
, Lex thought to herself, almost choking on the feel of the tight space of the condo and her anger, which continued to grow frighteningly large. She crossed the living room to reach the bedroom and for some reason she couldn't later recall, took all of her underwear out of the top drawer and packed it into her travel bag. Her gaze spun unevenly around the room as she tried to think about other things she might need, but all that came to mind were her spare pair of sneakers and her coat. She grabbed them out of the closet, fitting the sneakers into her backpack on top of her books and throwing her coat over the top of her travel bag. Slinging the bags over her shoulders again, Lex moved quickly back out into the living room.

Her guts twisted once more as she saw Kurt there, a wet paper towel pressed to the cut on his cheek. “Lex, let's talk about this.”

Fire seemed to flame behind Lex's eyes, and somewhere in her mind she could see herself beginning by beating on him, then progressing to twisting all of his lifeless limbs into shapes they never could have formed unbroken. She responded with an effort. “I don't want to talk to you.”

She rapidly moved to the shelf under the TV to pick up the albums that she kept her CDs and DVDs in and packed them into her travel bag. It didn't leave much room, but her gaze fell on the bookshelves next to the big picture window and she went to them, determined to pull a few of her very favorites to take with her today.

“Lex, honey,” Kurt began.

Something snapped in Lex's mind, and she turned to face him. “What? What is it you want from me? There's no reason for you to break up with me now for your new job; consider me pawned off. Or are you going to try to tell me that conversation I overheard was some sort of joke?” Lex cursed her hopeful heart as it leapt at the thought, even as she looked Kurt in the eye and could tell from his guilty expression that everything she’d heard had been true. “Just leave me alone,” she finally managed, trying to ignore the heavy pain in her chest.

Lex turned to the bookshelf and began to grab a few volumes as quickly as she could. She moved instinctively when she felt the hand on her, and turned to see her former fiancé bent over in pain as she kept the hand she had pulled off of her shoulder in a joint lock. Oddly, she realized she’d felt nothing when she touched him, that electric tingle she’d become used to when their skin met now gone.

For some reason, the automatic motion of her body and seeing Kurt nearly kneeling before her, his face twisted in pain, turned Lex's anger very cold.

“Don't touch me, you spoiled brat. You have no right to anymore.”

“But, Lex—”

She felt a flash of hot anger as she saw the look on his face, like he still thought he could talk his way out of this. Lex shook her head, trying to clear it. “You don't even get it, do you?” Kurt's expression held confusion now. Lex sighed, suddenly feeling tired and realizing her tight throat ached.

“I’ll try to explain,” Lex continued, even though she suddenly felt the gap of understanding between them must be the size of the Grand Canyon. “Being as privileged as you are, I doubt it's ever been a problem for you to get more things, find another school to go to, get another job, or find someone else to fuck. For me, everything I have I've had to struggle for, so it’s all very precious to me.” She paused, sucking in a big breath to try to calm herself. “Do you have any idea what you just did to me? You might as well have stabbed me in the back for real.”

Lex watched as Kurt's eyes slid to the side, trying to evade hers. She made a sound somewhere between a snort of derisive laughter and a growl as her anger bumped up another notch and she continued.

“You don’t even understand that you should probably be afraid now. I can tell you're thinking you can somehow win me back over and that we can be friends. Well, forget it, it isn't going to happen.”

Kurt looked at her a little sullenly then. “Afraid! Of you?”

Lex felt a chill run down her spine as cold anger flowed back in again and she glowered down at him. “Don't you know that with what I can do, I could easily kill you?”

He looked up at her, surprised, and then winced as Lex pushed on his wrist. “Oh, yes, and from what I've seen, there's absolutely nothing you could do about it. You'd be dead long before you could reach the phone to call mommy or daddy.” Lex didn’t recognize her voice; it sounded calm yet somehow triumphant and altogether deadly.

Kurt tried to look defiantly up at her, but it seemed difficult because of his near-to-kneeling position, and the fact that a good deal of fear had mixed into his expression.

It had been the fear that shook her. Lex felt some of her sanity return with a jolt as she got a sudden flash of herself as a child, looking up at her father, feeling the fear in her own eyes as he “taught” her this move. Her wrist had hurt for a week. She pushed on the remainder of Kurt's arm as she released the joint lock, causing him to fall to the floor on his ass.

“I don't want to kill you, though. I want to get a few more things and leave, so stop trying to provoke me.”

He sat there as Lex quickly grabbed a few final books, hoping her adrenaline-shaking hands actually picked the ones she wanted. She wedged them into her travel bag and stood, settling her luggage around her. When she turned to face the room, she saw Kurt still sprawled on the carpet, nursing his wrist. Lex looked away and turned to go, but glanced back after a few steps towards the door.

“I'll be here at noon tomorrow to pick up the rest of my things,” Lex said over her shoulder. “Don't be here between noon and five. I don't ever want to see you again. You have my word that I'll only take what belongs to me, and that the rest of your apartment will be fine. Also,” Lex continued, making sure to turn a little more to look Kurt in the eye, even though he tried not to look at her, “if you already started fucking someone else while we were still together and gave me something incurable, there’s nowhere you can go where you’ll be safe. Not even your parents will be able to help you.”