The wings stayed away for a long time.

Four years, in fact. The memory of the wings almost seemed fake, implanted in my brain to make me scared of myself.

Because both of our families were so poor, Dylan and I lived really close to the gangster part of town. Our parents told us to take the long way from school and to avoid that part of the city, but of course we didn't listen. nothing bad had happened to us besides a few glares.

"Psst, Robin," Dylan said, looking around at the abandoned streets. "nobody's watching. pull out the wings."

"No." I said, folding my arms. "For the last time, No."

"But nobody's here," Dyaln said again.

"That doesn't matter."

Dylan went in front of me and turned around, walking backwards so he could face me. He clasped his hands in front of his face and gave me a puppy-eyed look. "Pleeeeaaaase?"

I groaned and began to walk across the street to the other sidewalk. I was just about done with Dylan and his begging.

Dylan followed me across the street. "Why not? Seriously, those are the coolest wings ever. I'd take them in a heartbeat."

I wished I could just hand them over to him, but that wasn't possible. "Forget about the wings, already. Don't you ever give up?"

"I'm very proud of my stubbornness." Dylan said.

"Four years," I pointed out.

"Yup." Dylan nodded. "So proud."

"Well, I'm more stubborn than you," I said. "So quit it."

"How about you pull out the wings just once?" Dylan asked.

"I said quit it!"

"Chicken boy," Dylan muttered.

"Fine!" I snapped. The wings unfolded the moment I let them.

Dylan staggered back and fell to the ground. "My eye!" He wailed, covering the left side of his face with one hand.

I took a step back. There was blood on the ground. The was blood on my wing tip.

"I can't see!" Dylan sobbed, writhing on the ground.

I ran to the nearest door and knocked on it without thinking.

A man opened the door, scowling. "Git out of here ya little-" His eyes shifted to directly behind me. "What the-"

I looked behind me and realized my wings were still there. I told the wings to leave and they did. The man watched the birds fly away, stuttering.

"Ignore them!" I said, "My friend is in trouble!"

The man looked at me again. "Are you one of those super hero freaks?"

I winced. "It doesn't matter. Please help, He's hurt!"

"Fine," The man grumbled. "Just remember, I don't usually support your kind." He closed the door.

I waited for him to come back out, but he never did. A few minutes later an ambulance came. Two doctors climbed out and went to help Dylan. Another one began to walk towards me.

"Can we ask you some questions?" She asked.

What was I going to tell them? I couldn't tell the truth. I didn't want to lie.

"We just want to know a few things so we can help him better," The woman explained, smiling sweetly. Too sweetly.

I ran. I turned around and ran as fast as I could. The woman called after me, but I ignored her. I didn't really know where I was going, besides the fact it was in the general direction of home.

I reached my apartment complex and slammed the front door behind me. I leaned against the door and sank down to the floor, breathing hard. I had hurt Dylan. I didn't know how bad it was, but I had hurt him. I didn't expect a bunch of feathers to make someone bleed.

I crawled over to a window and peeked out at the street. Nobody had followed me. They should have. Someone should have locked me away. I was dangerous.

A familiar bird landed on the windowsill and looked at me. Its feathers still had blood on them. 

"Stay away from me!" I yelled, pounding on the window as hard as I could. The bird fell off the windowsill and then fluttered off.

"You should be nicer to the birds," Someone said.

I jumped and looked up. Cardinal was sitting at the top of the stairwell to the first floor.

I took a deep breath. At least it wasn't crazy old Mrs.Hongurt. "How long have you been up there?" I asked.

"What happened to your shirt?" She asked back.

I looked down at my torn up shirt. I would have to come up with more lies. wonderful.

"Did you and Dylan get in a fight?" Cardinal asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "That's what happened. We got in a fight."

Cardinal raised her eyebrows and stared at me for a few minutes.

"I'm telling the truth," I told her. A partial truth, but close enough.

My sister's expression didn't change. 

"Stop it," I said. 

Cardinal smiled nodded towards the window. "That was a house finch."

Who cared what kind of bird they were? I still didn't want them ruining my life.

"Why did you ask it to leave you alone? Are you scared them?" Cardinal teased.

I looked out the window so she wouldn't see my face. And then I told the truth. "Yes."