Chapter 25 Semester 2 Week 7

Glory should have been ecstatic from her victory over Dark Lothario. Patricia had hugged her and thanked her the entire ride back to campus, where they switched cars and took her home in Black’s sedan. KP, Torch, and Righteous had stayed behind, and honestly, she was glad. She didn’t want to see KP ever again, as far as she was concerned. She didn’t know what had happened between him and the Mistress of Minds, but she didn’t care. One simply did not let their boyfriends get away with kissing super villains. She just had Black drop her off at home, where she cried until Lola came home on Sunday evening.

“You’re still alive, so I take it everything went okay?” Lola said, looking less put-together than usual. Her hair was unbrushed, pulled back into a pony tail, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup.

“I think I broke up with my boyfriend.”

Lola put her hand back on the doorknob. “Do I need to go out for ice cream?” Glory felt a prickle of tears in her eyes and nodded.

Lola disappeared and came back with five flavors of the most expensive brand the neighborhood gourmet grocery store had. She set them in a row in front of Glory at the dining room table and handed her a spoon. “So tell me about it.”

Glory ate her way through a large portion of the chocolate raspberry truffle pint while she told Lola what had happened during the rescue.

“Clearly he is an idiot,” Lola said finally. “He just doesn’t appreciate the glory that is you.”

“I know,” Glory agreed. “He had no right to do that.”

“All the same,” Lola continued. “Shouldn’t you at least ask him about it?”

“But why didn’t he lie?” Glory asked. She had thought about it. The Mistress of Minds. He could have told her she made him kiss her. Why hadn’t he done that? Any normal boy would have lied.

Lola shrugged. “I don’t know.”

******

Lawrence would have walked away from it all as soon as they got back to the university Saturday night. Walk into a party hosted by Dark Lothario? What the hell was wrong with him? America was what was wrong with him. He’d go and do anything for her--even nearly get himself killed. The League of Heroes? What a joke. He was not the hero type. He was the book and computer type.

“I’m quitting,” He told torch Sunday night, giving himself a day to think about it, knowing it made no difference.

“Quitting what?” Torch was sitting in the middle of his flame-proof bed lighting and extinguishing a candle without touching it.

“The league.”

Torch lit the candle and let it burn. “C’mon. You don’t want to quit. The League has been so good to you.”

“I’d argue that point,” Lawrence said. “I suck at combat training. My powers are nowhere near where they should be--”

“Which is why you’re getting training for that. It’s wonderful. Look at what I can do!” He gestured at the candle, which flared up momentarily and then settled back into a normal flame. Lawrence looked at the candle. Torch was getting what he needed, and that was great. But he wasn’t Torch. They didn’t need the same things.

“I just want to be normal again,” Lawrence admitted. “The League seemed like a good excuse to not do what my mother wanted me to do. I was dumb to even consider it. This isn’t for me.”

“Just think about it,” Torch insisted. “Don’t give up the best thing that could ever happen to you on a whim. Think about it.”

“Yeah,” Lawrence said, more than ready to drop the conversation and sorry he had brought it up at all. “I’ll think about it.”

******

Glory skipped her first League meeting ever, positive that she could not stand looking at KP for even a moment. Every time she thought of him the image of her boyfriend kissing the enemy flashed into her brain and she had to stop what she was doing and remind herself that she was a super hero, she was Glorious, and that everything was going to turn out fine. But nothing felt fine, not even when she went to her hand to hand class on Wednesday and Captain Righteous and Black gave her the confident, knowing smiles of people who had gotten away with something big.

Before class started KP came up to her, looking more than a little unsure of himself. “I guess--I’m--I’m sorry.”

“You guess you’re sorry?” Glory burst out.

“No--I don’t mean that--I mean, I am sorry. Very sorry. It just happened. I made a mess of things--you have no idea how big of a mess. I know I hurt you and its wrong and I don’t have an excuse. I’m sorry.”

“Apology not accepted,” she said. “What on earth were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking, it just happened. I’m sorry it happened, and I’m sorry you saw it. I think its right for us to break up though. It wasn’t going to work.”

“Because you’re a jackass.”

“Among other things, yes, if it makes you feel any better.”

“It doesn’t,” she said. “Why wasn’t it working?”

“You know why,” he said. “Because you’re better at this than I am. Because you want it more. In time you’d realize that you didn’t want me holding you back. Dragging this out wasn’t going to help either of us.”

Glory realized this was true, and she didn’t like it, because suddenly he wasn’t a cheating bastard--they were just two people that weren’t compatible anymore. And that didn’t make her angry, just sad. Her first real relationship, and it hadn’t even lasted the entire school year. “It was fun while it lasted,” she said finally. “And I’m still furious at you.”

“Understandable,” he said. “I’ll stay out of your way.”

“Appreciated,” she told him, and turned away.

During class, as she was sparring with Captain Righteous, it was very difficult not to cry, and he pulled her away from everyone else after they were done. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course,” she said, knowing she sounded miserable. She had wanted her first love, romance anyway (the more she thought about it, she realized their relationship had never been about love), to be perfect, and instead it was a mess.

“He never deserved you,” he told her. “You know that, right? He’s just a little twerp--and a terrible hero.”

“I know,” she admitted. “But somehow that doesn’t make me feel better.”

“Want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. “I’m okay.” She said it, and knew it was true. She might have to go home and eat some more of Lola’s ice cream and cry a bit more, but it was going to be okay.

“Are you sure?

“Thanks,” she said, doing her best to smile at him. “But I really am going to be okay.”

******

The feelings of guilt Lola had been feeling did not go away after dropping forty dollars on gourmet ice cream. Not guilt that she had kissed Glory’s boyfriend--guilt that they had been caught. She should never have done that with Glory so close. But maybe that was why she did. Had she wanted Glory to catch them? What a horrible idea. She hated causing Glory any more pain than she already was simply be existing as the Mistress of Minds.

Between Lawrence and Glory and the trouble she was probably in with Dark Lothario, Lola could hardly sleep that night, and went to class the next day feeling as though she were hung over. The next day was only slightly better in the morning, until she remembered that she would have to see Lawrence in class.

He seemed normal enough when she sat down next to him, but that didn’t mean anything to people like them. “How was your weekend?” she couldn’t help asking when she sat down next to him.

“Don’t ask,” he replied. “Hey--I know you hate me and all, but do you want to get coffee or something after class?”

“You are unbelievable,” she said, wishing she’d never spoken. “Problems keeping your girlfriend?”

“How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess.”

“Look, I told you I was sorry. It’s not going to matter at the end of the year anyway.”

“Why not?”

“I’m transferring out of here. I can’t take this place any more.”

What about the League was on the tip of her tongue, but she managed to bite it back. “Oh,” she said instead. “Well, nice knowing you--have a nice life.”

“But I’m not gone yet,” Lawrence said. “Don’t you like me even a little bit? You used to.”

“I’m so over it,” Lola said simply, and took her book out of her bag and ignored him the rest of class.

*****

One of Dark Lothario’s henchmen showed up at Lola’s lair a few days later. She had been doing her homework there every evening waiting. She had been in agony, unsure of what he was going to do, so when the man arrived it was almost a relief. She went with him in a limo to the Belle Grand and met Dark Lothario at the door of his penthouse.

“It was very wise of you to accept the invitation,” he told her as he led her to his office and sat down at his desk. “And also foolish. You and I both know that you’re the one behind the mess with those hero kids.”

“You can’t prove anything.”

“I don’t need to prove anything--I’m not the police, I’m not a lawyer or a judge. I am above the law, and I don’t appreciate it when people try to cross me. I don’t like being humiliated in public. These little power plays of yours stop now.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re fired. And if you have any sense you’ll leave town and let my operation alone.”

“What will happen if I don’t?”

He sighed. “Nothing. Nothing will happen.” He leaned back in his chair with a groan. “I’m too young to have children.”

Lola felt a heaviness settle onto her chest. “The test came back positive?”

“Did you have any doubts?”

Lola shook her head, but at the same time her emotions reeled inside her. It was one thing to think Dark Lothario was her father, but entirely another to know it. Now she knew. This was the man who had been missing from her life the last nineteen years. This man--powerful, controlling, cruel, manipulative. “So now what?” she asked.

“You can’t work under me,” he said. “You don’t approve of my work or my methods, and your insubordination is unforgivable. I’ve killed men for much less. So.” He folded his hands on the desk in front of him. “What do you want to do?”

“What--what do I want to do?”

“Yes. Are you going to be my enemy?”

Lola sat down in the chair opposite him. “I don’t want to be,” she said carefully. "I had to rescue her. It was nothing against you--it's just that Patricia is my friend.”

“You want to be a super villain. We don’t have friends.”

“I want to change the world,” Lola corrected him. “I want to use my powers to force people to make this world a better place. I know I’m young and I don’t know what I’m doing. But that is what I want.”

“To rule the world.” Dark Lothario shook his head. “I wanted to do that once. I got over it quick.”

“But I can control anybody,” Lola hissed. “And I’ve been getting stronger all year.”

“Can you control the heroes?”

Lola thought of Lawrence. Sometimes he did as she commanded, but sometimes he did not. And she had never tried to control Glory. “I’m getting stronger,” she repeated.

“Consider living a comfortable life instead of a great one,” Dark Lothario. “There’s some fatherly advice. You want to control something, find yourself a nice town or small city--”

“Like this one?”

“This one is taken,” he answered abruptly. “But if you’d like, I’ll put you in my will.”

“Thanks for the gesture,” Lola said, standing. “I have to go.”

He waited for her to turn away before saying anything. “What’s your name?” The question was unexpected, and she turned and stared. “What? I can’t keep calling you ‘little girl,’ can I? Or Mistress of Minds.” he made a face. “It’s just creepy.”

She half smiled at his awkwardness. “It’s Lola,” she answered. “Dad.”

“Don’t call me that,” he replied as she walked away. “It makes me sound old.”

Lola walked out of the hotel smiling.

*****

A/N: I have no excuse other than this week is the first week I've actually enjoyed writing in about 3 months. I'm working on another project besides this one and am feeling good about my writing in general. Expect things to get more regular--I promise.