^^Above, chapter title credit: Song by Depeche Mode. (You'll see the irony of it when you read the chapter, the reason I picked it.)^^

{Geoffrey}

"So bringing home a girl, are you?" says Dad, when I finally get around to calling him, just a few days before the Thanksgiving break starts.

"Yeah, Dad, I am." It's kind of exciting in a way, getting to be with Raina for a while without having everyone else around.

"That's it? You aren't going to tell me anything about her?" Dad asks impatiently. "I'm a busy man, Geoffrey, I don't have time to sit here and listen to you breathe."

"She's really great, Dad. Smart, and kind, and beautiful. We hit it off pretty quick, actually."

"What about where she's from? Anyplace I'd know?"

I suppress a groan at that question. Of course that'd be the first one. He didn't really care about her personality, or anything, really. As long as she wasn't poor, that's all that mattered.

"Somewhere in the Midwest, Dad. We didn't really go into any details." I could have kicked myself the second I said it. If I really cared about her, I'd have told him the truth right away, instead of trying to save my own neck.

"Geoffrey, we've been over this," says Dad with a sniff of disapproval. "You know mixing with those people will only turn out badly."

"What people, Dad?" I scowl, even though he can't see me.

"Those...Midwestern people." I can hear the dismissive hand-wave in his voice. "I hear some of them still farm with plows–"

"Dad, Raina's not, like, Amish or anything. You won't see any of that when you meet her, I swear it." Somehow I doubted it, because Dad hardly forgot anyone, let alone their bloodline and connections, but there was a small hope that this wasn't such a bad idea.

"I'm counting on it," he says, and without even saying goodbye, he hangs up.

I wait until I set the phone back in the cradle before clenching my fists and shoving them into my jacket pockets. If Dad had really wanted me to be happy, he wouldn't have said those things. If I wanted to be with Raina, I would. Ridley, I might have been able to buy off with excuses and keep him away with force. With Dad though, I knew it'd take a little more effort. But either way, I'd still have Raina in the end. There were no doubts there.

≈

Matt's waiting for me when I finally get out of the Intro to Econ exam. He looks kind of shifty, much more than usual.

"What's wrong, Matt? You okay?"

"Ridley," Matt answers, his eyes drifting up to a spot to the right of my face.

"What?" I say, right as Matt takes my shoulder and spins me around, where I see Ridley emerging from the classroom and coming towards us.

"Oh, good, I thought you'd abandon me," he says, jogging over. "You know, that last question was really hard, I couldn't answer it completely."

"Neither could we," Matt says quickly, his hand tightening painfully on my shoulder. "What's this private thing you've been wanting to show us?"

"Yeah, that." Ridley's eyes glint strangely. "It's in the Chemistry building, so..."

"Lead the way, then." I gesture for him to go ahead, and then slide my shoulder from under Matt's hand. I turn around and block his path, leaning forward so only he can hear. "What's up with you, man? You're acting really weird."

"I don't trust him, Geoff, and neither should you. He's been acting even odder than me since Halloween."

"Really?" It was an incident I'd rather forget, considering the Ooze had escaped and Matt had arrived just in time to pull me from a high tree branch and get me out of my suit before the cops got there. It'd been a disaster, but the concern on Raina's face had nearly made up for it. "Like how?"

"Let's follow him, and we might find out."

We tuck our chins into our coat collars and duck out into the blustery weather after Ridley. The Chemistry building is only a short walk from here, across the quad and past the Physics department. Matt and I welcome the warmth of the lobby, but Ridley gestures us forward when we lag behind. He hurries us to the stairwell at the end of the hallway, and then after looking around like he thinks he might get caught, darts inside and thunders up to the second level. Needless to say, we're a little out of breath when we catch up with him.

"Easy to get in here, me being an intended biochem major and all," Ridley says without prompting, and a shrug probably meant to be casual.

"Right," says Matt, sounding suspicious. "C'mon, Rid. Just show us what you have."

At that he scuttles along ahead of us again, to a door marked RESEARCH. He takes out his student ID card, slides it through the reader, and I hear it unlock with a click. He's through it and flicking on the lights before we have a chance to get our bearings, and almost find ourselves locked out.

"I've been working on this whenever I got a chance," he says, motioning us over to one of the hoods at the far end of the room, where a strange assortment of tubes and flasks is assembled. On one of the rotators is an Erlenmeyer flask half-full of a bright green, semi-clear liquid. "What do you guys think?"

Matt shakes his head, his brow furrowing. "What is it?"

"Well," Ridley says, taking a deep breath. "Y'all might find this hard to believe, but I'm a super. I started manifesting when I was fifteen."

"Really?" I say, trying not to sound like we'd been suspecting him all along.

"Yeah...I mean..." He shrugs. "I don't like it, you know. Feeling different. I'd choose not to be super, if I could. But I think this actually works. Taking superpowers away, I mean."

Matt and I cast sidelong glances at each other. This is new, even for him. If our suspicions were correct and he was Hammerhead, this explanation didn't seem to jive with everything that he'd done in the past. Namely, colluding with the Ooze.

"Most people'd give anything to be super, you know," Matt says finally. "And all you wanna do is get rid of it?"

Ridley shrugs again, faking indifference. "Well...it's still in prototype, but..."

"Using this stuff for evil rather than good won't do you any favors, Rid," I add. "Dangerous meta-criminals wouldn't be such a problem, though, when you think about it."

"Yeah, but then they'd just be dangerous normal criminals." Ridley crosses his arms. "I think that creates problems rather than solves them."

"So you'd rather fight a super-villain, huh?" Matt raises an eyebrow. "Takes a lot less work to apprehend a normal criminal, you know. Me and Geoff know what that's like."

"But what about—" Ridley starts, but I cut him off.

"Keep working on it." I clap his shoulder awkwardly. "Maybe you'll be able to find a good use for it."

Then I turn on my heel and walk out, heading towards the stairwell. A second later, Matt comes panting up behind me, catching my arm and turning me around.

"What was that, man?" He seems torn between being annoyed that I left so abruptly and awed that I wasn't a pushover around Ridley.

"I think Ridley's trying to sabotage my chances with Raina again," I blurt.

Matt shakes his head. "I don't think this is about you, bro. I'm sure he was just trying to psych us out—"

"Did you not hear him?" I hiss, pointing back down the hallway. "'I'd choose not to be super if I could.' What the hell is that all about?"

He shrugs, irritatingly casually. "Sure it's a weird thing to say, but—"

"Don't tell me he didn't mean anything by it," I interrupt. "I have a bad feeling about that green stuff he's making, and if you weren't so busy thinking that everything's one big joke, you would too."

Matt's expression hardens, and I know I've said the wrong thing. Normally, I'd apologize immediately, but the whole thing with Ridley seems to have thrown my brain into emergency operations only mode. So I don't. I just turn around again, towards the stairwell, and leave.

≈

There isn't much of a chance to rectify the situation with Matt either. As soon as midterms finish, I find myself needing to pack some clothes for the trip home in a few days. Matt and I don't really speak during the lead-up to break, even though we share the same room. I don't see Ridley around much either, which is probably better considering what happened. The one I do see, however, and talk to, is Raina, the afternoon before we're scheduled to depart.

"Geoff, wait!"

I spin around at the door to our complex, seeing her jogging towards me with her curly hair wild and flying behind her. She skids to a stop next to me, tripping and nearly going down. I catch her arm and steady her, but we both pull away at the same time a second later. My ears are much warmer afterward.

"Hey, so..." she says without looking at me, concentrating on the floor instead. "I was just curious about how we're getting there tomorrow."

"Dad's sending a car," I answer without thinking, and Raina's shoulders tighten, the way they did when I mentioned Jake. Damn it. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine," she replies, fairly quickly. Her voice seems unnaturally high, with a faked brightness. "Just let me know when and where I should meet you."

"Okay," I get in before she beats me to the elevator, hammering the up button and jumping into the first one that opens. "Raina, wait—"

But the doors close between us, cutting me off instantly. I huff out an exasperated breath, wishing things didn't have to be like this. Wisely I avoid the elevators, instead taking the stairs two at a time. Right before our landing, I run into someone coming down, a girl with dark hair and blue eyes — Raina's roommate, Ellen.

"Oh, sorry," she says immediately, before looking up and noticing me. "Hey, Geoff."

"Hey, Ellen."

"I heard you invited Raina for Thanksgiving," she says, and a hint of envy crosses her face. "She's thrilled about it."

"Is she?" I have to pretend to be surprised, considering what just happened downstairs. "That's good to hear."

"Yeah, it is." She shrugs, and then leans forward, gesturing for me to do the same. "I think she's just glad she doesn't have to go home. The way she argues with her mom..."

She doesn't finish the sentence, but she doesn't have to. The expression on her face is enough. I know Raina's from a small town, and her upbringing makes it really hard for her to be here, but that's about it.

"Not pretty?" I supplement.

"Pretty ugly, more like," Ellen says with a grimace. "But family, you know. Every one's different."

"Don't I know it." I might fit in with everyone here connection-wise and financially, but the difference is that I'd rather not. But if Dad heard me say that out loud, I'd never live it down.

≈

Dad's driver Roberto comes to pick us up the following afternoon, in a sleek black Audi polished so flawlessly I can see my reflection in it. Raina, who'd been right next to me at the door, slows down noticeably. She's pretty far behind by the time Roberto climbs out and opens the trunk.

"Hello, Mister Geoffrey," he says in his thick Mexican accent.

"Hey, Roberto." I let him take my suitcase, even forgetting to tell him to just call me Geoff while we wait for Raina. Dad must have put him up to it. "This is Raina, my girlfriend."

"Miss Raina," Roberto says, with a gallant smile as she inches up next to me and hands over her own suitcase. "A pleasure to finally meet."

She only nods meekly, sliding out of sight around the corner of the car. I find her again in the back seat, twisting her hands together in her lap.

"You okay?" I ask as I get in, pulling the car door shut behind me.

"Fine, I guess." She bites her lip. "It's just...all this, you know. I've never done it."

"It'll take time to get used to," I agree.

"Yeah." She nods, jerkily.

We sit in awkward silence as the car glides away from the curb. I'm suddenly having second thoughts about this now that it's actually happening, because up until this point, Raina had a chance to change her mind. But now she must think it's too late.

"So your dad," she says after a while. "What does he do, exactly?"

"He owns Cromwell Enterprises. And a lot of real estate." I don't want to make it sound like I'm bragging. All this pomp is already making her feel insignificant. "But I hardly ever saw him when I was growing up."

She takes a deep breath, finally leaning back in her seat. "What about your mom? You've never mentioned her."

"She left when I was a year old. I don't remember her." I shrug. Dad had told me about the divorce once, saying he was still bitter over it. And he hasn't spoken to or tried to contact Mom since. I don't think I'd even know if she was still alive.

"I see," she says, but doesn't press it. Instead, she changes the subject. "I've never had an actual Thanksgiving dinner before."

"Really?" I glance over at her, one eyebrow raised. "Never?"

She shakes her head. "Couldn't afford it."

"Well then, consider this your first." I smile at her, just a small one, and to my surprise, she returns it. I could say whatever I wanted about Dad, but when it came to big dinners, he pulled out all stops. Last year we'd had not just one turkey, but two, and a mountain of mashed potatoes, enough to reenact that scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

"Thanks, Geoff. That means a lot." At that she lays one of her hands over mine, lacing our fingers together. It makes my stomach swoop, in an exhilarating kind of way.

She falls asleep right as we're crossing the Hudson, and it gives me a chance to think. If I could rein Dad in on his scathing comments, then maybe we'd get through this weekend without any problems. I didn't need any more burned bridges at the moment, considering Matt still wasn't talking to me. And then there was Ridley, who none of us could figure out. He seemed so eager to please, and yet when you got too close, he'd scare and run off. Or lash out. Either way, it made it difficult to know exactly what he was thinking.

We reach the outskirts of Ithaca by five-thirty, and I see the woods I used to play in as a kid streaking by on either side. That means we'll be seeing Cornell University in a few minutes, and almost home. I could see the school from my bedroom window even. I think Dad always thought I'd go there, so I wouldn't even have to leave home.

Soon, we're pulling into the horseshoe-shaped driveway in front of our house, and I shake Raina awake gently. She comes to slowly, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn. I see her eyes widen when they land on the house, and she seems frozen in place.

"This is your house?" she says finally, swallowing hard.

"Yeah, it is." I've tried to be casual about this whole thing, but it's proving to be pretty difficult.

Roberto unloads our luggage and even rings the doorbell for us before winking in our direction and driving off. Raina bites her lip and shuffles her feet, looking around in a self-conscious manner. It takes a few minutes for the door to open, and there we come across Mila, our housekeeper.

"Mister Geoffrey, you arrive, just on time," she says with a thick Eastern European accent, kissing my cheek as I step inside. "And you bring a pretty girl with you too."

Raina blushes as Mila gives her cheek a kiss as well, but still seems no less uncomfortable. I wish she'd relax a little bit. We don't have to worry about the staff. They like it when I bring visitors home. Dad's a different story.

"I will let Mister Daniel know you are home," she says, giving us a warm smile before bustling off.

"That's your dad, then?" Raina asks when Mila's gone.

"Yeah." I set my suitcase at the bottom of the stairs, and then set hers down next to it. Then, as I take one of her hands, I notice it shaking as it closes around mine. "You okay? You seem nervous."

"I'm fine," she says, her voice cracking. Which means she's clearly not, but won't say so.

"Geoffrey?" says a voice from the hallway, interrupting us. I look up and see Dad, dressed like he always is in slacks, a sweater, and a button-up, his hair short and much more gray than before. His eyebrows go up when he sees us together, and even though I don't want her to, Raina drops my hand and folds hers behind her back.

"Hey, Dad," I say as I put out my hand for a shake. That's the most contact we ever have. Even as a kid, he never even hugged me.

He grasps it firmly, surprising me by catching the back of my neck and pulling me forward. "Good to see you, son."

When he releases me, I back up and gesture Raina forward. "Dad, this is my girlfriend, Raina."

Briefly he appraises her before shaking her outstretched hand. "Hello, Raina. Daniel Cromwell."

"Hi, Mr. Cromwell." Bravely, she meets his eyes, but I can see the tight set of her shoulders. Maybe after this we should go for a walk or something, just to get the tension out.

"We were just getting dinner started when you arrived," Dad says, his tone light. He's faking it though, I can tell. "I hope you like branzino, Raina."

"Yeah, of course," Raina answers, but I can see she's faking it as much as he is.

"Want to see your room?" I say in her ear, noticing the discomfort reaching alarming levels.

She nods, telling my dad it was nice to meet him before hurrying up the stairs ahead of me. I take both suitcases and follow her, catching my dad's eye. He shakes his head, almost imperceptibly, and with a stab of irritation I can already tell we're in for a long weekend.