Time Is On Your Side (Part Three)

The next day came and no random acts of violence or malice were posed to me or my school. Fortunately, no word had gotten out about what had happened the other day, so I could at least try to shove it to the back of my mind while I was in class.

It didn't even take that long for wonderful distractions to pop up. I love Xavier's so much. That school refused to let you dwell on any one thing.

Some of Megan's team, Ben and Nick, caught me while I was trying to grab something quick for breakfast and went to walk with me on the way to classes. Ben was a pretty serious guy, so any small talk with him lasted a few moments. Nicky was a lot more talkative, which made getting any kind of enjoyment out of the two bottles of orange juice I snagged tricky.

I had to resort to unscrewing the top with one hand and my mouth because Nicky was curious about the cast on my other hand, "Why does everyone try to screw with you when you have one of these on?" I asked through the plastic cap.

Ben stepped in to reel his teammate back in before he could annoy me, "You shouldn't mess with that thing, Nick. Megan told us it's protecting the implant in his hand."

"Does it itch?" Nicky asked me, curiously poking at the cast with one of his clawed fingers before I pulled it away.

I gave the wolf boy a sour look, "Yeah, it itches. It's like having a marble surgically embedded in the back of my hand," I said, tapping him on the head. He barely responded at all, and I looked at my hand longingly, "I wish I had a hard cast. The only good thing about any cast is getting to hit stuff and not feel it."

My complaints fell on deaf ears when it came to Ben. It sounded like I was just bellyaching, "There's no way anyone's going to let you fight until that thing is off," Which meant no one would let me spar or otherwise train. I scowled and reached for the underside of the cast. Ben swatted me, "Don't rip it off."

Was I really that easy to read by now?

Nicky tried to encourage me to be patient in my recuperation, "Yeah, it's like a protective cocoon for your broken hand caterpillar. If you keep it on, it'll turn into a healed hand butterfly."

Ben and I looked at each other before he responded first, "That was beautifully dumb, Nick."

The moment was interrupted when Julian came over and threw an arm around me, trying and failing to move me away from earshot of the male Paragons. Nicky could hear him from just about anywhere in the courtyard, and Ben wasn't going anywhere he didn't want to. It was best to just get things over with, "What is it, dude?" I asked.

Julian took a deep breath. Whatever he was going to say was difficult for him, "Marcher, I need your help."

The grin I had could have split my face, "...Whaaaaaat?" I drawled long and deliberately, making a show of it. Ooh, he hated that, "Do you want to repeat that for me? I'm not sure I heard you right."

Julian's face started turning red, "Don't be an asshole," The fact that he hadn't shoved me away and stomped off meant he really needed a favor.

"Oh, but I am an asshole. I can admit that," I said, stroking my chin, "And like the asshole that I am – the asshole that you also are, by the way – I'm going to savor this."

It irked him to ask for any kind of assistance from me, "Are you going to help me or not?"

"Eh, it depends on what you want," I said. Julian grit his teeth and his body outlined in a telekinetic green glow, signifying that I was getting to him. That was all I wanted, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'll help. Whatever it is can't be that bad."

Seriously, a guy had tried to kill me the other day. I doubted what the leader of the Hellions wanted compared to that.

Julian calmed down, anger quickly replaced with a cocky stride, "I got Sofia to agree to go out with me."

Huh. He'd been chasing her for a while, "Good for you," I said honestly.

That wasn't all to the story though, as he would reveal, "-But her team talked her into bringing them with us, so Foley and his girl... uh, Wallflower, they're going. I think Ashida and Alleyne are going too, which is gonna tank the whole night."

Absolutely it would. That was a recipe for a mini war zone in Salem Center, "Bad for you," I said, stating the obvious.

"-But it's not just a double date," Julian continued, trying to salvage his own situation, "It's more like a couple's night. So, more people can come."

"Uh... good for you?" I said confusedly. He didn't need to say anymore for me to know he wanted my girl and I to take part, "How is my going with Megan supposed to help you?"

"Because you don't straight up hate me," He said. Wow, that was the criteria we were working with nowadays? Fair enough, "Not like the rest of the New Mutants do, anyway. You won't try to provoke me like the others will. At least you'll be neutral and call out anyone else."

The man had a point. I was straight-up Switzerland, as far as the issues between the New Mutants and the Hellions went. I'd already expressed in the past how annoying it was that both teams always seemed to be at each other's throats. It was a common opinion around school too.

Aside from that, I did owe Julian for the thing in California. That didn't mean I couldn't try to get something out of it on my end though, "Fine. On one condition," He seemed a bit nettled at my request, but he heard me out, "I can get Eddie to go too, but you've got to get him a date."

Julian raised an eyebrow at me. I hadn't given him that bad of a condition. Just an odd one, "What? Why can't you do it?"

Nicky snickered while Ben smirked and gave Julian the answer, "He already tried with the other girls on our team. Jessie's a precog, so she shut it down before he even came up with a way to approach them. Poor bastard."

I narrowed my eyes at the flaming-headed boy, "Are you talking about me or Eddie?"

"Yes."

I snapped my teeth spitefully at Ben before turning my attention back to Julian, "Anyway, you're gonna thank me for bringing him if anyone tries to start something," I said, continuing to try and convince him, "He's way better at deescalating things than I am."

My streak of persuasive reasoning continued, as Julian seemed to think this was a good plan, "I have an idea of who I can bring. Think he'll go with Cess?"

That was a great idea. I had no clue why he seemed apprehensive about it, "Oh, absolutely. Why wouldn't he?" Cessily was pretty, and from her interactions with Laura she was a nice girl. Julian gave me a deadpan look until I realized what the problem might have been, "Oh, the whole metal body thing? Yeah, I don't think he gives a fuck about that."

A dismissive attitude wasn't the one to take here. Julian took the possibility of Cessily being received badly deadly serious, "Make sure before it becomes a problem later."

I rolled my eyes but pulled out my phone and gave Eddie a call to keep the peace. It rang for two beats before he picked up, "Hey, Bel. What do you want?"

I walked off for some semblance of privacy, again in vain, "I want you to say I'm the best leader you've ever had. That's what I want," I started off smugly.

"You're the only leader I've ever had." Meh. Semantics, "Why? What did you do?"

"Got your bitch ass a date. That's what I did," I said, dropping the bomb on him.

In my wondrous mind, I envisioned Eddie taking off into the air when I told him that, because I heard a whoosh, "No way! Finally! Who is it?"

"Cessily."

"Mercury? Fucking awesome! When is it?" There you go. Didn't care about the metal-ness at all, just like I knew.

My ego levels were at an all-time high by this point. Julian wasn't even mad. He just shook his head with a smile on his face while I spoke to my friend, "Saturday night. It's some big couples' thing, so you won't even have the pressure of entertaining her by yourself. Lucky you."

Eddie immediately booed me over the line, "Aww, but I wanted a solo date. This doesn't count. You suck."

What the-? I was doing him a favor. He could show some gratitude for what I'd managed to pull off, "If you don't fuck up, you can ask her out again later. Better to do it this way first and figure out if you even like her."

"I'm more concerned about Mercury liking me than the other way around, but you've got a point," Eddie eventually conceded, "That's why you make the big bucks."

"I don't make any bucks..." I muttered before deciding to finish up, "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what was up. I'll tell you more later," I said, ending the call there, "Right. That's done. I'm assuming he's got to ask her or something."

"She'll say yes," Julian assured me, more subdued than I ever remembered hearing him sound, "This is actually gonna be a really good thing for her. You're kind of doing me two favors here, Marcher," I wordlessly asked him to elaborate further, "Cess... takes her mutation kind of hard," He admitted, not knowing how much it was his business to say, "She doesn't think anyone will ever want to get with her because she's made of metal."

Understandable. High school years gave you enough problems with worrying about being odd. Now take that sentiment, and add it to the fact that we were in a school full of kids that the rest of the world would consider freaks, "Well, lucky for you, Eddie doesn't give a shit. He just wants to try his luck with a pretty girl."

Julian nodded before freezing and giving me an odd look, "When you say 'try his luck-.'"

"Yeah, he's gonna try and get laid. I'm like 95% sure," There was no need for me to be subtle. We all knew what the score was. I pointed right at Julian before he could respond, "I don't want to hear it either. You're putting this whole thing together to try and get laid too, you big hypocrite."

"I wasn't going to say anything," He replied, waving his hands defensively, "...Come to think of it, I'm not sure how Cess-."

"Ah-ah-ah," Knowing where he was going, I let our talk end right there, "-Let's just stop speculating about that," Best to leave that for Eddie to find out if he had enough game, "Even if they do hit it off, she probably isn't gonna give it up on a group date."

I probably didn't have to tell Eddie to behave, but I had to make sure he would be on his best behavior. His character would reflect on me, damn it!