I showed up at the hospital the next morning with a gift for Angel.

"What are you doing here?" a voice asked me. I looked around the hallway outside of Angel's room. Brian, Lulu, and Devin waited. Lulu was standing when she asked me the question, but I didn't answer her. It was common knowledge Angel and I never truly got along, but I wasn't going to justify myself for being here for her...especially not to Lulu.

"Is she asleep?" I asked Devin.

"Probably," he shrugged. Impatiently, I started to walk to the door and someone grabbed my arm. Brian.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. I sized him up and he gave me a confused look before I decided to continue to enter the room. I wondered about if he saw my new eyes, but it was pushed from my mind due to my intentions. When I spun away from the door after closing it, Angel looked over to me with half-opened, tired eyes. I already knew that she wanted to know why I was here.

"I came to talk..." I said while approaching her bedside. She gave me an unreadable look and gestured to her throat. She couldn't talk because of the smoke's damage. I smiled and then placed the present on her lap. She sat up in the bed and unwrapped the gift. She gave an amused expression when she took out the erasable board set. She took out the blue marker and started writing.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but...thanks," she wrote.

"You're welcome," I smiled back. Her smile faded after a while. "So, uh, how long are you going to be in here?"

"I don't know," she wrote, but as soon as I read it, she erased it and started to write again. "I'm surprised you're not in a hospital bed yourself."

I shrugged.

"I didn't have any damage," I informed. Her eyes narrowed.

"But—" her hoarse voice said but stopped herself to write a response. "I saw that board fall on you and you were in there a long time. You should be in the same condition as me, if not worse."

"Well I'm not," I said. She closed her eyes and hit her head on the pillow out of stress. What now? Her eyes opened again and gave me a look. "What? What's wrong?"

"Come back tomorrow," she said. I gave her a confused look.

"Why?" I asked, making her look even more uneasy and confused towards me. She looked down to the board and started to write but kept erasing the starts to her words.

"Something's..." Her marker hovered over open space. "...different."

"How so?" Something's different? Or I'm different?

"I'll tell you tomorrow when I can speak hopefully," she decided.

"Alright," I nodded, starting to get up. But I stopped. I turned back and wrapped my arms around her waist, burying my face in her shoulder. It was the first time I had ever hugged her, I realized. That bothered me for some reason. "I'll be here."

I pulled away without a look to her and then just left the room.

***

"There's something different about you," Angel said before eating a spoonful of ice cream the next day. I took a spoonful myself.

"Oh really? Like what?" I asked. Our eyes locked.

"Like the fact that you're being nice to me for once," she said with narrowed eyes.

After years of knowing her, I noticed that Angel Hallow was a very interesting girl who voiced any and everything that crossed her mind. Even though she talked in a soft voice for now (finally, actually), I had the full intent to listen.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning no one told you to save me and no one told you to do all...this," she gestured. I had brought her ice cream, but I didn't know what else I deserved her gratitude for.

"The other day you wondered why I was in that First Aid and CPR class," I recalled. "I wanna be a hero when I grow up. Might as well start now."

I always wanted to tactically help people...military, police, firefighter—something. Now that I felt...different...ever since Devin's experiment, I felt even more obliged.

"So then why are you here?" she whispered. If only she knew...

"Because I wanted to see how you were doing and you told me to come, remember?" I replied.

"I didn't expect you to listen," she scoffed in a laugh.

"And why's that?" I asked with a smile.

"Because you never listen to me."

She couldn't be more wrong.

"The only reason you broke up with her is because we all know you're a player that doesn't give a shit about anyone. Not even yourself," I remembered her tell me. "You're cold and heartless and you know that I'm telling the truth." Just like our other conversations, I listened...and didn't respond.

"Just like I never care about anyone because I'm cold and heartless?" I asked in a breath, my mind veering in a new direction; this avenue was quite sad. Her look changed.

"You remember that?" she whispered. I nodded once.

"I remember everything," I notified. She looked in my eyes and then got confused. Please tell me they're brown right now.

"Wait. Weren't your—"

"Well it'd be nice to have been invited to the party," Lulu commented, stepping into the room and announcing her presence. I tightened my jaw and then slid away from Angel. I also dropped my spoon in the nearly-empty pint of ice cream. I sighed frustratedly and rolled my eyes. "Or at least let me know the Great Hallow-Tyler war is finally over."

"Um...I'll just go..." I said, standing up. Lulu was being herself and trying to make light out of a situation, but it shifted the mood of the room and I still didn't want to be involve myself with her when I wanted to focus on Angel.

"Stop," Angel said, grabbing my wrist. I hadn't felt the flames of the fire, but her touch felt like absolute electricity to me. "Might as well stay and make up instead of postponing it this time."

I frowned at that assumption. She was implying the inevitably revolving status of me and Lulu's relationship. Even though she could see me in a better light now, she expected Lulu and me to get back together as if it was all she knew—because it was all that she knew. And that's my fault...or maybe Lulu's.

"She can't make this up," I growled without giving Lulu a look.

"Zac—"

I shook my head and left. My eyes started burning once more as I left the hospital room. The only person there was Devin and he was currently on the phone.

"Dude, we gotta talk," I told him, regardless to his conversation. He quickly concluded his conversation, nodded and then we made our way back to his and Angel's house.

***

"It's truly incredible," Devin commented. "How would you feel if you became a superhero?"

"What?"

"Well I mean, I can run some more tests and see if you have any powers," he shrugged.

"Like what? Having some ability to change eye colors unwillingly—"

"No," he sighed. "Something far greater. I'm talking about comic book mutations. This could be the real deal. I know it's nothing mental, but—"

"You mean to tell me that you just turned me into some X-Men character?" I asked with disbelief. He nodded.

"I know it's nothing like mind control or even telekinesis because that requires a significant structural and neural capacity alteration, but your brain patterns have definitely changed along with your integumentary structure—"

"English," I demanded like usual. He shrugged and started to stand.

"Things are going to be different from now on," he said.

Yeah. Like not having normal brown eyes and having some strange attraction to distractions. Including your sister as a prominent "distraction" more than she already was.

"Ouch," I commented when he unexpectedly stuck me with a sharp point in my arm, so much to draw a bead of blood. A searing beam? Not a scratch. A nerd with a pointy end? Gusher. He wiped the small wound with a cotton swab and then placed it in a canister. "Dude?"

"I'm gonna test your blood with various elements to see what happens," he informed. "But I may need some more blood..."

"Great. I've been turned into a frog for dissection," I commented with a sigh.

"I promise no one will ever know. I won't even bring it up if I don't have to...once I figure out what is even going on," he reasoned.

"I'm a mutant is what's going on!" I yelled.

He rolled his eyes and left to do his work while I lazed around on the couch watching TV. Every now and then, he'd come in and grab something from the refrigerator or grab another prick of my blood. I was starting to pity anemic people that could ever be in this position.

It wasn't long before I wanted to kill him off for asking a slew of questions that he probably should've done before all this began.

"Have you ever smoked a cigarette?"

Yes.

"Have you ever done drugs?"

Yeah. Like every kind out there.

"Have you ever drunk alcohol?"

Hell yes.

"Do you have any food allergies?"

No.

"Do you have any alarming health records or diagnosis of anything?"

Yes. Diabetes.

"Diabetes?" he asked. I nodded. Not very many people knew about it.

"Seventh grade they told me that I had type-one diabetes," I informed. But it wasn't too bad.

"Well not anymore," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Earlier, one of my tests was with sugar. Your A1C levels seemed a lot lower compared to what a diabetic's profile is," he informed. I laughed.

"Are you serious?" I asked. He nodded. I know this may be selfish compared to the realization that a seventeen-year-old just created the cure for diabetes, but I could now eat whatever amount of sweets and carbs without worrying about whether or not my body could take it. Yes...that was awesome.

"But I can't give you a definite on that one," he added. Sigh.

"So other than pseudo-curing my diabetes, what else have you discovered?" I asked.

"Well...it seems as if you were already as healthy as can be, but your immune system is far better off—including insulin levels," he started. I nearly fell asleep on their couch after Devin did several tests on me, even though I thought he had concluded all his findings. I just allowed him to do so. It's not like I cared.

"So...why'd you even decide to volunteer to take this experiment?" Devin asked me when he took a break, hours later after he had also run in and out of the house for errands. I shrugged.

"It seemed like you needed someone," I partially lied. "And plus, I needed the money."

"Well I'm glad..." he said. I looked over to him confused. "Because if you hadn't, you and my sister would be in the hospital and at least one of you would be dead by now."

He was right.

"Thanks for that," he whispered.

"For what?" I asked.

"Saving Angel," he answered. Ha. I saved an Angel.

"Maybe that will be my ticket to heaven," I smirked at the word play. But I knew deep down that I would've saved her no matter what.

"What's between you two anyways?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked. He raised an eyebrow. Oh. "Her best friend is my ex, but I think that Angel's hated me from the beginning, but I have no clue on why."

Maybe because you're a jerk to her and, unlike Lulu, she doesn't accept it.

"I don't believe that," he said. Believe what exactly? "She doesn't hate you. I've dealt with her hostility, but if she truly hated you, you'd despise her back and left her in the gym to burn."

I disagree.

"She could've done a lot of things to hurt me—or even hate me, but I'd never leave her in that fire. Ever," I promised.

She was important to me despite the resentment between us. We'd never really been friends, but I knew her more when I was with Lulu. She was her best friend, so of course Angel grilled me at any chance and of course Lulu told me how she was like. It just took me all this time to realize that Angel had a little façade going on with her best friend. Lulu described Angel as well...as her name, but I knew there was more to her.

I knew that when I first talked to her in elementary school before Lulu was even in the picture. I knew that when...no, forget it. I still know that she's different than anyone really knows. She doesn't open up to anyone. Not even to Brian. I experienced glimpses of her unapologetic, non-people pleasing self and I milked those moments for everything they were worth because they were passionate and honest to who she was. I had to; after all, she buried that side to her. Maybe the fact that we're alike could change that, maybe not.

My historic feelings I had for Angelique Hallow since the beginning were now resurfacing after burying them for this long. Now, after all these years and the relationships in between, it wasn't opportune. And because of Devin's little experiment, I felt like it'd be way too dangerous.