5 Chapter 5: Inquiry

Eli contemplated calling his sister. Kathryn Wilde was the most competent woman he ever met and could tackle any problem head on. She would also not hesitate to tease him to death if he told her he needed her advice on confessing his feelings to his best friend. Eli was still dealing from the trauma from the time Kathryn had to give him the talk and he did not want a repeat.

He had been so close to telling Mo about his feeling that morning before he had to go fly off to deal with a burning building. He was never going to shirk off his duties but couldn’t they have waited ten more minutes? Was that too much to ask for?

"Why is this so hard?" Eli thought aloud. "How am I supposed to do this?"

"Is that a hypothetical question?" the pleasant female voice of his suit’s A.I. chimed out.

He nearly fell from his bed in shock. "How are you listening in? I’m not even in the suit!"

"I am always online. I am connected to all your devices especially the smart watch Mr. Carlysle gave you."

Eli looked suspiciously at the expensive smart watch. He thought it was just a nice gift but there was never such a thing with the Heroic League.

He asked, "Are you spying on me for Mr. Carlysle?"

"Mr. Carlysle insisted on surveillance for your safety and convenience. I am here should you need any assistance."

Unbelievable.

"This is a serious invasion of privacy!"

"This was listed in the waiver Mr. Carlysle made you sign for joining the Heroic League on page eleven, paragraph seven-"

"I remember what I signed."

Eli scowled. There had been so much paperwork the words began to blend into each other until he didn’t know what was comma from apostrophe. It was probably on that waiver, and who knows what else he agreed to.

He sighed. "Could you call Mr. Carlysle for me?"

There was a pause before the A.I. responded, "Mr. Carlysle is in a meeting at the moment. Would you like to leave a message?"

Eli lied down on his bed and wondered how this was his life. "I’m good. Thanks."

"You’re welcome, Eli."

He tried to ignore the fact he was talking to a disembodied voice and not an actual person. He asked, "Do you have a name?"

"You may call me Rose."

"I didn’t know you had a name."

"You never asked."

He spent all of summer with Rose speaking into his ear while in the suit and hadn’t thought to ask. Mr. Carlysle only told him that the A.I. in his suit was there to assist him in missions. He tapped on the smart watch on his wrist and looked for any updates. There were a few news reports about missions handled by the older heroes.

Savior was being praised for saving an airplane from crashing. There was a photo of him carrying the plane, his red cape behind him. Eli felt restless. Instead of doing her work, he was unproductively obsessing over his feelings for Mo.

"Rose," he started. "You’re a girl, right?"

"I have no gender. I am an artificial intelligence."

"Yes, but do you have any knowledge about girls?"

"I have access to millions of databases and I can look up any information you require."

"Let’s say you’re a girl and I have feelings for you. We’re good friends but I’m not sure if you see me the same way," Eli explained. "What do you think I should do?"

"My quick research says that confessing your feelings will help resolve the conflict."

"But what if you don’t feel the same way about me?"

"Knowing the extent of emotions is better than living in indecision," Rose advised. "Prolonging the inevitable will only raise your anxiety which can ultimately be detrimental to your overall health and well-being."

He didn’t know why asking an A.I. for advice would be useful.

Eli snorted. "Thanks, Rose."

"You’re welcome, Eli."

Eli got to his feet. ""I should just tell her, huh? Now is a good a time as any."

He had to rip it off like a Band-Aid. No more of this indecision and doubt. He would confess to Mo today.

Before he could lose his nerve, he left his dorm. Tadashi was at a club meeting and wouldn’t be back till later. Eli knew Mo would be at the library, working on floor plans with her classmates. He stopped when he saw Mo sitting at a table, sketching.

"Come on, Wilde," he told himself. "You can do this."

As he got closer to her, music started blaring from the speakers. It was that old Taylor Swift song, You Belong With Me. It made everyone look up in surprise, especially the librarians who scrambled to turn off the music. Eli tried to ignore it and went to Mo.

Mo smiled when she saw him. She looked tired. Her hair was in a messy bun that was barely holding on.

"Hi." Heart in his throat, he pushed himself to continue. "I need to tell you something."

The music got louder and they could barely hear each other. Frustrated, Eli insisted they leave the library. They packed up her things and went to the student center next door. They barely sat down on a bench when the speakers blared out music.

It was the same damn Taylor Swift song.

"Somebody's a bigger Swiftie than I am," Mo remarked. "Are they hacking all the speaker systems?"

That made Eli pause. He turned away and hissed to his smart watch like an unhinged character in a cartoon, "Stop it, Rose. You’re not helping!"

The music stopped.

That was better.

"Mo!"

Eli glared in disbelief as Blaze Hart approached them. Where did he come from? Eli was beginning to really dislike Blaze Hart. The fact that the guy wasn’t unlikable made it worse.

He had no real reason to want to punch him except that Blaze was always flirting with Mo. Every time Eli turned, Blaze appeared, ready to intrude on any moment.

"Hi, Blaze." Mo stood up and laughed as Blaze pulled her into a hug. "Where have you been?"

Eli raised his wrist to his mouth. "I changed my mind, Rose. Help me."

The fire alarm went off.

Water showered them from the emergency sprinklers. They had to run out of the student center immediately. Mo was devastated when her sketches for class got wet. He and Mo spent hours trying to dry them out with a blow dryer and faith.

At least it got rid of Blaze.

"I can’t believe that happened," Mo said, despondent. "These are ruined."

Eli rubbed the back of his neck, the guilt gnawing at him. She would hate him if she knew it was technically his fault. He wouldn’t have blamed her.

"Can you redraw them?" he asked.

"Yes, but it’s just annoying." She turned off the blow dryer and put it aside. "I’ll have to go to my room and work on these."

Mo was stressed out and confessing his feelings seemed like a bad move. He would have to try again on another day.

Eli had to give specific instructions to Rose that she was only allowed to help him for superhero related matters.

He should’ve just called Kathryn.