Page 76 of Jagged

"Texting for sure. Or writing notes." She smiled at me then, her eyes brighter. "I might not talk but it doesn't effect my writing. I like to write things down."

"I noticed your notebook today."

"I have a lot of them. When I finish one, I take it camping with me and burn it. Or sometimes if I'm in the mood, I shred it. It's very therapeutic."

"I was never great at writing things down. But…painting them down, I do." I smirked at my silly joke.

"I can tell. I love your work. I took pictures of all your street art that I could find. I spent a whole week running around the city looking for it and I only found twelve. How many are there? Do you know?" Her energy spiked suddenly, and she turned more to face me, her cup left abandoned on the coffee table.

"You found that many?" My eyes widened. "I'm not sure how many. Probably close to thirty bigger pieces? I just…used to go and not think. Probably hundreds of small stuff. Not including what's been washed away or cleaned away and painted over, over the years."

"It must be amazing to see the world as you do." A dreamy expression washed over her features. "In so many colors."

"It's not the world that I see like that. It's more of its potential that I see." I picked at my nails where flecks of blue still remained. "And the disappointment when it doesn't reach it."

"People are disappointing for the most part." She leaned her elbow on the back of the sofa then tucked her legs up beside her. "But also fascinating. Do you want to see my office?"

"Yeah." I chuckled and nodded. "I do, actually."

"Promise to not tease me for being a super nerd?"

"I swear." I pressed my palm to my heart, and she giggled.

"Okay. C'mon." She waved me to follow her.

Everything about Clem's apartment struck me as slightly different. Not an item was out of place, save for the room she existed in for the time being. I left a tornado in my wake sometimes, while other times I could hardly tolerate something missing. I also didn't own much. But that was on purpose.

Clem opened the door to her office, and my jaw fell slack as soon as I stepped in. The entire wall on the left held shelves filled with figurines of some kind while the rest of the room harbored high-tech computer equipment. A giant see-through computer monitor filled one wall, while two smaller flat screens sat under it. A wall-length bench-like table with two rolling stools floated under it. The mouse, keyboard, and a bunch of other equipment that I couldn't identify sat on top. In the area where the closet should be, no doors hung there anymore and, in the space, black boxes piled on top of each other.

"Holy crap, Clem. What is all of this?" I stopped beside the figurines first, tilting my head back to examine the entire wall. In time, I recognized the comic book characters. Everything from DC Comics including Harley Quinn, The Joker, Poison Ivy, etc. sat on one side, while everything Marvel appeared on the other. "You like comic books?"

"Oh yes." She smiled up at her collection. "In those boxes on the bottom, I have some rare comics. Do you like them?"

"Yeah. For sure. You have both DC and Marvel? No preference?"

"No real preference, though I tend to lean toward Marvel. I wish they had more queer representation though."

"I tend to lean toward DC, but I enjoy it all. Did you watch all the movies and shows?"

"Oh yes." Clem beamed, her brows lifting with her excitement. "All of them. How about you?"

I nodded my response. "Yeah. A lot when I was younger. Nothing better to do in group homes or juvie than watch movies and stuff. They all had tons of old comic books. I became a little obsessed with being a superhero. Mainly the part where their lives change drastically from the downtrodden situations they're in, until their powers change everything. I always wanted powers to emerge or something."

"Which one did you want to be like the most?" she asked rather calmly. I couldn't tell if she related to what I said or if it bothered her.

"I was always torn. Wonder Woman was admirable just like Captain Marvel. Supergirl could fly. Harley Quinn, while not a traditional superhero, had her own benefits and walked to the beat of her own drum. She became a fast favorite. Hard to pick. What about you?"

"Hmm." She tapped her lip. "Moon Girl or Lunella Lafayette. She's not the most known, but she was nine in the comics and said to be the smartest of anyone in the Marvel Universe. Before that, Tony Stark, or Iron Man, for the same reason. Then Ray Palmer, or The Atom in the DC Universe."

"Being smart is important to you."

"Yes." She tossed me a smile over her shoulder while reaching up to pluck a figurine from the shelf. "It is. This is a rotating shelf. Watch."

"What—oh." I hopped back when the entire wall of nerdom slowly slid away then shifted slowly to turn itself around. It revealed her bookshelf packed with all sorts of books. Criminology, psychology, forensics, and genetics with human biology tangled in. My mouth fell open and I stared. "Whoa."

"Cool, right? I built it." Clem brushed her fingers over the book spines. "They're all my favorites. This is a room of my favorite things."

"I really like it. Wow." I felt the shock roll over me, tangled with the admiration of everything she'd done. I made to touch one of the books, but stopped myself. "Will it bother you if I touch them?"

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