Strangers (pt. 2)

For quite some time I haven't felt... at rest, knowing the direction my life is going in. I've been attending college for two years but feel so lost, like a part of me was never ready for this. What will happen when I finally go out to the real world, when I lose the cushion that's been lessening the impact of my problems?

I took the bus to get home.

"Nat, you've arrived! How were your classes?"

"..."

"Hmm. Don't worry we'll speak about it during lunch!"—said my mom with a sweet tone.

I sat at the table. I didn't think Mom's cooking was unappetizing, I just didn't feel hungry.

"Eat what your mother prepared, will ya?" —said my dad with a mouth full of food.

"It's ok honey. If you don't want it at this moment you can always reheat it later."—she replied.

"Nat, I'll take you to your shift after I finish eating, I've got things to do."—said my brother Rob.

"Hey! That's at 4:00 pm, 2 hours away, I'll take her there myself."

My dad looked at me. — "Why'd you choose to have a part-time job in the first place? If you need anything you know we can afford it."—  You know that's wrong, you're still paying for this house.

My brother went in for more salad and then followed up on Dad's comment — "I think it's good that she finally went out of her shell, it'll do her well to actually experience what's it like working with others."

My mom turned towards him —"You have no say in this, you should still be sending job applications mister."

They kept talking while I just stared at the plate. I ate a little of the cooked salmon Mom had prepared. It was delicious. After Dad finished eating he went back to his job, while my brother and I said goodbye to our mom.

Once in the car, Rob started to speak.

"Hey, are you enjoying the path your career choices led you to or having any second thoughts?"

"Ahm..."— I didn't know how to answer.

"Hmm. Believe me, if you don't speak out right now you'll regret it for the rest of your life, you'll turn 30 in no time and when Mom and Dad die you'll be on your own."

"It's not like I'm not learning..."— I'm still processing the first comment he made.

"Doesn't matter if you learn. Dad asked for a transfer roughly two years ago ever since you bothered him about it. Deluded himself into thinking this would be a positive change for the whole family and that I'd get more job opportunities here, now look at us!"

"D-Don't say that!"

"We're both stuck! What are we going to do?!"

"I... don't..."— I don't know what to say.

"... Look, I'm sorry, it's not been a good couple of years but I wanted to get at... the fact that we can still make it."— he shifted gears rather quickly. Like he'd been speaking to himself this whole time. —"Don't you agree?'"

"..."— I can't change my tone to be as cheery as his (even if that enthusiasm is fake), I want to say something, but the words just don't come out. I want to get to work. Some minutes passed by without any exchange of words.

"Do you feel fine?"

"Y-...Yes?"

"You have changed... You used to be the one to put everyone in good spirits."

"..."

"Just so you know. We will never give up on you."

"..."

We stopped near the plaza where the McRoald's was.

"I'll pick you up at 11, ok?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, see ya then."

I entered the break room, it had a dingy set of shelves and a small desk with two chairs. I started working on some assignments until my afternoon shift came up (4 pm). I work as a cashier at the front counter. It's a repetitive task but I think it suits me well, I get the customer's order, and I count the change back pretty quickly, although more and more people pay with either a card. Sometimes people have very particular tastes and instructions, I'd hit the button for a Big Roald and then they ask for no sauce (weird) and I have to pick 'No' on the screen, once highlighted I click 'Sauce' on the screen, and now they want extra onions, so pick 'Add/Extra', then click 'Onions', "Oops actually I don't want that" ok, 'Clear Grill', etc.

"Nat, I'll be back in a few minutes. I have to pick up a thing for my kid." —said the manager.

Well, today is a pretty slow day, all things considered. Just two families eating here, and other customers prefer the drive-in. I don't think it'll make a difference if the manager isn't here for 5-10 minutes. That was when a group of 4 people arrived.

"—so I said, like, is it right to step out of your lair? You are disgusting."

"I remember, I was there!"

"Woah sounds like you had it rough. People don't have any boundaries!"

"Really? Sounds like you brought it onto yourself, you can get cruel at times Peg!"

"Stop teasing me, this is serious, she even had the guts to scream in my face about it."

"Hahaha. Bet it must've been funny!"

Typical sordid group of friends. They look about my age in terms of apperance. Wait, haven't I seen one of them befo—

"Ah!"— I unintentionally let out a gasp. They don't seem to notice it, they are too focused on speaking over each other to notice. Margaret began to place an order but I couldn't click the screen, I turned my gaze to the floor to hide my face and froze up.

"HEY! Are you listening?"

"C-Could you repeat that f-for me?"— I began to stutter a bit. Oh no.

"And why do I have to do that, your job is to... Huh— No way?"— Margaret interrupted her train of thought once took a good look at my face.

"Ah! She's the girl from the picture you showed us!"— said the guy beside her.

"Huh, he's right!"— added the girl on her left.

"What are you doing here?"— said Margaret.

The girl at the back of the group moved towards the counter and said —"Didn't you like move place, why are you here you stalker? Haha."

"A-Ahm. What are you—"

"Oh, here she goes, go ahead, go cry to daddy. You pig."

"I'm sorry but could you plea—"

"She's gonna go throw a psychotic fit. Did you know she spent all of high school spreading rumors about us?"

No, I didn't, that was your doing, I was the one who had rumors around me. You are not letting me speak.

"N-no, that's false I—"

"Hah! She dares to deny her wrongdoings, can you be a bit mature for a second? For real why do people like her even exist?"

"H-hey st-top. Why are you doing this?" —for some reason tears began to form in my eyes.

"Told you! Gosh, what a wimp?"—replied the guy among them.

"Hey, tell them what you told me at the graduation ceremony, just so they get a sense of who you really are."— Margaret exclaimed.

"I didn't mean it I swear."

Why do I have to bear this? Why can't my past stop following me everywhere I go?

"I—"

Margaret slapped me. I fell to the ground.

"Peg! Come on! You are better than that, don't stoop to her level, it doesn't suit you." —said the guy accompanying them.

"Yeah... she can report you to the police and stuff y'know." —said one of the girls.

I looked around at my coworkers, they looked at me concerned but didn't want to approach me. I stood up. I'm done with this.

"YOU KNOW WHO'S THE PATHETIC ONE? YOU ARE, MARGARET! YOU ARE SUCH A BLATANT LIAR BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOTHING GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE. I WAS THE ONE TO DEAL WITH YOUR HARASSMENT! I WAS THE ONE TORTURED ENDLESSLY! YOU WON'T SAY THAT TO YOUR FAKE FRIENDS BECAUSE YOUR ONLY QUALITY IS BEING A VILE PERSON!"

"..."

What did I say that?

"AH!"— Margaret had grabbed me by my hair and started to pull it. Her friends told her to stop. A memory came to my mind out of nowhere. One time, during high school, I looked at Margaret from a distance, I took one look at her and brought my hand near my face, she looked like an ant from my point of view while my hand looked ginormous, I then closed my hand to form a fist as if I just crushed her. Incidentally, I heard a car park in front of the establishment. Please be the manager. Whoever had just arrived got out of the car in a hurry.

I heard the door open abruptly. I was making the same crushing hand gesture I made back then. Margaret was about to smash my face against the counter's screen. Until, out of nowhere, someone stopped her.

"Let her go."

"Huh, who do you think you — Ow!"

He added pressure to his hand which was grabbing her wrist.

"I said. Let. Her. Go."

Finally, she let go of my hair and took her arm away from his grip.

"Let's get out of here!"

The group was gone. I was unsure of what just had happened. Who is this man?

"Can we go outside?"

Why did he intervene?

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I made it in the nick of time, if a little off by seconds, she was already getting beaten up before I arrived. Still I wasn't exactly sure how long it'd take me to get to the plaza with all the cars and buildings that were destroyed, or should I say, would've been destroyedpedestrians who were previously attacked, or should I say, would be attacked afterwards. Anyway, I took her to the back of the McRoald's and sat on the concrete steps in front of back door of the restaurant.

"Excuse me, who are you?"

Oh, that's right I haven't introduced myself.

"Ahem, my name is Gyu, I'm a..."— Huh what am I? Am I a vigilante,? Or a superhero? Do I fit those labels? —"Let's just say I'm a stranger who stopped a violent dispute out of the goodness of his heart, ok?"

"Thank you, Gyu... I guess."

"Don't worry about it, I saw you getting into a fight and I had to break it up before it got ugly"

"A fight? ...I guess it was a fight"

Said something unnecessary.

"No, I mean... she was clearly in the wrong, treating you like that—"

"Did you ran out of your car?"

"What?"

"Did you ran out of you car? I heard you arrive, come out of your car, as well as opening the main door in the span of a few seconds."

"..."— She noticed all of that under those circumstances?

"I mean I knew you were in— Wait."

Stop saying more than you need to, you idiot!

"Knew?"

"I mean... I saw you through the window!"— I'm beginning to become quite wary of her discovering my powers, even if by chance.

"Ok... if you say so."— then she added —"Do you need me for anything else? Can I go back to work?"

Guh. So frustrating, this is the same person who attacked all those people, but she speaks as if she didn't do jack— oh that's right.

"Hey, can you make a crushing gesture and squash that trash can over there?"— I pointed to my righ where the gasbage was. —"Do it without moving from where you are."

"What? I don't have time for this!"

"Come on! Humour me a bit! I did save you from getting a nasty gash to the face."

"You are a creep, y'know that!"

"Just do it!"— I'm getting a bit angry, but I'll let it pass for now.

She looked at me with a disgusted face. But she still reluctantly put her hand near her face and began closing her hand. The sound of the galvanized steel trash can being pulverized was similar to that of stepping on a soda can, except much more strendous. The girl's face was filled with disbelief combined with disturbed look in her eyes.

"W-What?! Since when?"

"Your powers awakened during a high emotional state, that's how it goes."

"Powers?!"

Still it seems like she's not the same person that attacked nearby buildings. I wonder if I dimished her powers by interferring. Still... I have to make sure she won't do any harm to anyone. I stoo up and looked around, she followed behind me. Ah, there is one.

"Hey can you flick that the top of that streetlight?"— it looked to be about 300 hundred meters ahead of us.

"I'll... give it a try."— She gestured and ok sign and released her index finger, the lamp arm, the casting, and the LED lamp went flying and landed on the sidewalk. Bingo.

"Oh god. What is going on with me."— She feel to her knees.

I've just confirmed three things: she can focus on a specific target, she didn't blew the building behind the streetlight out of the water. The power doesn't just move objects, it imitates the gesture of the user, that's how cutting a building in half was possible. The placebo at hand is her eyesight and her arms, if you restrict her movement she won't be able to attack, she's vulnerable to rear attacks as I just demonstrated when I managed to overwhelm her by surprise.

"What am I going to do?! I almost..."

"I'll tell you what'll happen. I'll take you under my wing!"— Wait, let's not put her under the impression that I have literal wings, she just experienced real-life powers I don't want to suggest anything that'll just confuse her. —"I mean, you'll become my student (of sorts)."

"... huh?"