The Rivalry of Renegade X

by Chelsea M. Campbell

“Thanks.” She sounds relieved.

  “I’ll go with you,” Riley says. He kisses Sarah good-bye and tells her he’ll call her when he gets home. Then he hugs her so hard, she makes an oof sound.

  She hugs him back, then grins. “What was that for?”

  “Nothing. I’m just glad that we’re together, that’s all.”

  “He means that you picked him over me,” I say. “Or that you picked him over other me.”

  Sarah adjusts her glasses as she looks up at Riley. “Of course I’d pick you. I’d always pick you. Were you really worried about that?”

  His face turns slightly red. He swallows. “It’s just… I saw how miserable Other Riley was without you. I mean, without Other Sarah. He was heartbroken. And that’s exactly how I’d feel if we weren’t together. So.” He scratches the back of his head and doesn’t look at anybody, so that he’s completely caught off guard when she throws her arms around him.

  “I love you,” Sarah says. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

  He hugs her back, and then they say some quick good-byes again before the three of us head out.

  Kat has her hand in mine as we walk over toward Mom’s place. It’s dark, but still warm out, and the air smells like all the flowers in everyone’s yards.

  “I’m glad you’re you and not Katherine,” I tell her. “I mean, not that that was ever in question, but I thought I’d say it anyway. You, too, Perkins. I’m also glad you’re not Katherine.”

  “Gee, thanks, X.”

  “No problem.”

  Kat laughs. “I like being me. And even if I don’t know what I’m doing with my life, I like getting to choose. And I like my parents not relying on me to boost their stock prices.”

  “I don’t know, Kat. Sometimes they make you take publicity photos. It’s a slippery slope. Plus, why do you think your dad hates me so much?”

  She makes a psh sound. “That’s not why he hates you.”

  “True, because if anything, I’m good for PR. All publicity is good publicity, right?”

  “I was thinking about that, actually. Er, not the publicity part, just about you and him not getting along.”

  “Correction. About him not getting along with me. After all, he’s not the one sleeping with my daughter. I have no qualms against him.”

  She raises an eyebrow at me. “Really?”

  “Well, maybe I have some qualms, like that he needs to leave us alone and mind his own business. And stop implying I’m not good enough for you. And stop just directly saying it. And… Okay, fine. I have plenty of qualms. But he started it.”

  She sighs. “It’s easy for them to like Rachel’s boyfriend. They haven’t even met him yet, and they already think he’s great, because she thinks he is. Because she’s not their daughter, and it doesn’t mean the same thing.”

  “Because they don’t care who she’s sleeping with.”

  “And them saying she’s their protege and grooming her to take over or whatever… It still kind of hurts, but maybe you were right.”

  I grin at her. “Of course I was. About what?”

  She smacks my arm. “About them actually thinking of me and caring what I want for once. Maybe they didn’t tell me about the internship because they knew I’d say no. Maybe they wanted to hold onto the idea that I might have said yes, if they’d asked, or maybe they didn’t want to pressure me, because they knew it wasn’t what I wanted.”

  “Or maybe you’re just not corporate material.”

  “I know you meant that as a joke, but you’re not wrong. After meeting Katherine and seeing her office and everything… It’s not what I want. I might not know what that is yet, but I know it’s not that.”

  “Well, at least you’ve got one thing in your life figured out.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Uh, me, duh.”

  She grins and kisses me. Riley looks away, like he thinks we’re going to start making out or something, even though we don’t. Well, not much, anyway.

  We get to Kat’s car, which is still exactly where we left it yesterday. She tells me she’ll see me tomorrow, and then she gets in and drives off.

  “Do you want me to stay over?” Riley asks as we start to head back. “I don’t care if your dad lectures us.”

  “Yes, you do.” He hates getting in trouble, and he already had to sit through Other Gordon telling me off earlier.

  “Fine, but that doesn’t mean I won’t come over. We just need to stop by my house first, so I can tell Mom and Zach that I’m okay.”

  “And Jeffrey. Don’t forget him.”

  Riley winces a little. “He hasn’t moved in yet.”

  “But he’s still probably worried about you.”

  “Yeah, probably.” He sighs and rubs his face with his hands. “Maybe that’s okay, though. To have another person to worry about me. To take care of things. And… I can’t remember the last time my mom was this happy. Not since my dad died, I guess.” He swallows.

  I look over at him. “So, if you’re offering to stay over, does that mean you’re talking to me again?”

  “I get why you did it. Well, maybe not why you did it, because getting me fired was still pretty insane, but I get why you thought I needed to quit. Why I did need to.”

  “If you’re expecting me to say I went too far by getting you fired and will never do it again, you’re going to be disappointed.”

  “I know, X. You’re an annoying friend sometimes, and maybe I liked hanging out with Other Damien because I knew he’d never screw me over like that, but—”

  “So you admit you were replacing me. Great.” I clench my fists.

  “We were just hanging out. I wasn’t replacing you.” He hesitates. “I could never do that.”

  “Why? Because it turns out he’s nothing like me?”

  “Because you’re my best friend, and even if you piss me off sometimes and take things way too far, I still wouldn’t change anything. I like you how you are. You never go along with anything just to make other people happy. Even if it means pissing off the people closest to you. You were trying to help me, and I was too stupid to realize that.”

  I shake my head. “You weren’t stupid, Perkins. You just didn’t want things to change.”

  He nods. “I don’t know how to not be useful. I don’t know how to just… be.”

  “I’m glad you came with us, to the other dimension. Not just because you saved my life. And…” I take a deep breath. “I’m not saying I’m sorry for what I did, because I’m not, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it again, because I would, but—”

  “But getting me fired kind of sucked?”

  “You being mad at me sucked. I knew that was a risk, but still. I don’t want that to happen again. And maybe what I did was a little extreme.” I pinch two fingers together.

  “That’s your apology?”

  “Uh, no. Didn’t I make it clear that I wasn’t doing that?” I let my arms flop down to my sides. “I’m not sorry I did what I did, but I am sorry you got hurt.” There. I said it.

  “I didn’t. Not really. That job sucked, and I can’t believe I wasted my whole summer there.”

  “Not all of it. We saved that puppy, remember?”

  He grins. “It was front-page news. How could I forget?”

  I smile back at him for a moment, then sigh. “Look, Perkins, I know being friends with me isn’t easy. People are never going to take our superhero group seriously as long as I’m in it. And everyone at school’s always going to hate me and anyone who’s associated with me. And on top of all that…”

  “You’re you?”

  I run a hand through my hair. “I get that it’d be a lot easier to be friends with Other Damien. With someone who wouldn’t do anything crazy like go behind your back and get you fired, even if he believed it was in your best interest.”

  “Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?”

  He’s still grinning, trying to play it off like everything’s okay, but I give him a
serious look. “He wouldn’t go around pissing you off and doing things to screw up your friendship.” I take a deep breath. “I’m just trying to say—”

  “I know what you’re trying to say.” He shoves his hands in his pockets. “You were trying to do a good thing. Because you’re my friend.”

  “Yeah. But I hated feeling like I’d screwed things up. That I’d made you hate me.”

  “X, that’s not—”

  “So, like, maybe next time you should listen to me when I tell you you’re messing up your life. So I don’t have to take extreme measures and risk our friendship.”

  “I’ll take that into consideration.” He rolls his eyes at me. We walk in silence for a few moments, and then he says, “You didn’t risk our friendship.”

  I raise an eyebrow at him, not sure if I believe that.

  “You didn’t. What you did sucked, and I was mad at you, but even then, you were never not my friend.”

  “Says the person who immediately replaced me with my interdimensional twin.”

  “He’s nothing like you. I mean, he is, but he also isn’t. It wasn’t the same.”

  “You know, I’ve been thinking about school starting, and if you want to be the person who goes around blasting heroes you thought were kidnappers and doing things to almost get us expelled, like deciding to work with supervillains, I suppose I could take a backseat. I could be the responsible one who gets mad all the time and tells you not to do it.”

  He scoffs. “Yeah, right.”

  “Well, I could try.”

  “That sounds like a disaster.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want you to think I’m partners with you just because you’re useful. I’m not saying you’re not useful, because you are, but that’s not—”

  “I’m okay, X. I know what I said before, but rushing into things and blasting people isn’t really my thing. And me being useful… I know that’s not why we’re friends. Or why we work well together.”

  “Good, because that probably really would have been a disaster.”

  We both laugh. Then we get to the last spot to turn if we’re heading for his house instead of mine.

  “Are you coming?” he asks. “Or do you want me to meet you at your place?”

  “Neither.” I sigh. “As much as I appreciate the offer”—and as tempting as it is to not be alone—“I think I have to do this on my own.”

  Chapter 32

  “BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING,” I tell Gordon and Helen when I get home, “just know that I’ve had a really long day.” One that involved going to another dimension, almost getting killed, and using a ton of lightning. “So if you—”

  “Zach just texted me that Riley’s home!” Amelia squeals from the top of the stairs. “So that means— Oh.” She looks kind of miffed to see me already standing in the living room, stealing her thunder.

  Gordon and Helen gape at me like they can’t believe what they’re seeing.

  I wave my hand at them. “It’s me, by the way. Not Other Damien. In case you weren’t sure.”

  Gordon blinks at me. “Damien, of course we know it’s you.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Helen adds.

  Right. As if they didn’t completely mistake him for me on the news. “I’m back. So you can call off your search parties and stop freaking out or whatever.”

  “Damien, no one’s freaking out.” Gordon sounds almost annoyed.

  “But I disappeared. I blew a hole in the floor and then ran off for almost twenty-four hours.”

  “You texted Amelia,” Helen says, glancing over at her. “We knew where you went.”

  “Oh. So you knew I ran off to another dimension, and you were okay with that?”

  They exchange a look, like they hadn’t considered that maybe it should have been outlawed.

  “Well,” Gordon says slowly, “now that you mention it, we would have liked more of a heads up. Maybe an actual phone call. But it was an emergency situation.” His eyes flick over me. He looks really worried, and his voice wavers a little. “Is Other Damien okay?”

  Helen puts a hand to her chest, her face pinched with concern, as they brace themselves for the possible bad news.

  “He’s fine.”

  They both exhale in relief.

  “Thank God,” Helen says.

  “I’m also fine, by the way. Just in case anyone was wondering.” Which obviously they weren’t.

  Amelia sniffs really loudly. “I’m going to miss him so much.”

  “We all are, honey,” Helen says.

  “He was such a good dancer.”

  He really wasn’t, but whatever. I kick my shoes off into the corner by the door. Then I consider going upstairs, but Amelia’s still blocking the path, so instead I flop down on the couch.

  Amelia sniffles really loudly and says again how much she’s going to miss other me—that he was the best big brother she’s ever had—and then there are footsteps on the stairs as she comes tromping down. Helen holds out her arms for her and then hugs her and pats her on the back.

  I roll my eyes and try to ignore them.

  They only knew him for two weeks. And it’s not like he’s dead—they’re just never going to see him again. Meanwhile, I’m here, and it’s like no one even cares that I made it home alive or anything.

  There are more footsteps as Amelia and Helen go upstairs, so Amelia can show her the scrapbook she made of her and Other Damien’s adventures together. Then Gordon comes over to the couch. He looks like he’s waiting for me to move my legs so he can sit down, since I’m taking up the whole space, but I don’t budge.

  Maybe a perfect son like other me would have moved, but Gordon’s just going to have to deal with the fact that I’m not him.

  He pushes my legs out of the way and sits down anyway.

  I bend my knees and sit up. I take a deep breath. “Is this the part where you finally realize you’re pissed at me for leaving?”

  “Damien, I’m not mad at you.”

  I give him a wary look. “Are you sure? Because I blew a hole through the floor and ran off.”

  “To save someone, which you did.”

  “Yeah, well, it still sounds like something you’d be mad about.” Other Gordon would have been—that’s for sure.

  “I’m just glad everyone’s okay.” He hesitates, then says, “So, you really went to another dimension?”

  “Yep. It was weird. The other version of you? Not great. Actually, he was kind of the worst.”

  Gordon frowns. “Are you sure? Because, based on what Other Damien said, I thought—”

  “You thought he was this perfect dad who has all these sappy traditions with his perfect son, like making pancakes and being on his show together? But what other me didn’t tell you is that his dad’s terrified of him. He hates that he’s half villain. Me and Riley went over there, and Other Gordon thought I was him, and you wouldn’t believe the things he said to me. He didn’t even want to know where I’d supposedly been for two weeks. He was too scared to know, because in his mind, the only explanation was that I’d given in to, like, some repressed villain urges and… and I don’t even know what, because the whole thing was crazy. And when he thought I’d maybe stayed at Mom’s house or even had any contact with her—”

  “She’s different in his world.”

  “Yeah, I know, but…” I shudder. “You’re a thousand times better than him. That’s all I’m saying.”

  Gordon leans back a little and lets out a deep breath. “You’re sure he was really like that? That you weren’t just misunderstanding the situation?”

  “Yes. It wasn’t a misunderstanding. I was there—everything he said was insane. But if you don’t believe me—”

  “I was just hoping it wasn’t true. For Other Damien’s sake.”

  “Oh. Well… I think he’s going to be okay.” Maybe. He at least has Other Sarah and Other Riley. His family’s not going to like that he has lightning, but if they care about him at all, they’ll get over it. H
opefully.

  Gordon puts his hand on my knee. “Speaking of father-son stuff, I have some bad news.”

  “You forgot how to make chocolate chip pancakes, and you can’t try to recreate some ritual you had with your dad that I’m completely not interested in, and you don’t know how you’ll ever make it up to me? It’s okay. I think I can deal with that.”

  He sighs. “It’s about the show. I heard back from the producers, and there’s no way they’re going to let you come on as a supervillain.” He sounds genuinely upset about that.

  I gape at him. “You actually asked them that?”

  “Of course I did. You said it was the only way you’d be on the show.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t think…” I mean, I knew they’d say no—I was kind of counting on it, because I don’t want to be the Scarlet Shine, supervillain or otherwise—but I sure as hell didn’t think he’d actually ask them. “Thanks.”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  “I think I’ll live.”

  “They said they’d still be willing to have you on the show as a superhero, though.”

  “Not happening.”

  He nods, like that’s what he thought I’d say. “I was thinking there are other father-son things we could do together. Just the two of us.”

  “What, you mean not in front of the whole world so they don’t think I’m some villainous screwup?”

  Gordon winces, and I regret the words as soon as they’re out of my mouth.

  “Dad—”

  “It’s fine, Damien. I had that coming.”

  “No, you didn’t. I mean, I thought you did, but after meeting Other Gordon, I’ve changed my mind. He’s obsessed with Other Damien always proving he’s a hero to everybody.”

  Gordon swallows and looks away guiltily. “I can understand that, though. When I saw you on the news—when I thought it was you—I thought…”

  “You thought I’d finally become a real hero and you wouldn’t have to deal with any of this half-villain stuff anymore?”

  “Damien, you are a real hero. Sometimes I just wish everyone else could see that.”

  I shrug. “I don’t need them to. Them not seeing it doesn’t make it any less true.”

  He smiles at me. “I’m lucky to have a son like you. I just wish I could make your life easier. And that everyone could understand how proud I am of you. I thought if you were on the show, then they would. They’d see you as a hero.”