Heartbreak

**4:00PM**

Amber was waiting outside the cat cafe, nervously tapping her foot as she waited for Johnny to arrive. She had invited Johnny on a date to the cat cafe, and had decided to come early so she could wait for him.

Even though both hadn’t really been busy with superhero stuff, they haven’t really interacted a lot since the old team base was destroyed. Johnny was probably busy with school and his parents whilst Amber was busy with the team base. It’ll be good to see each other.

Johnny peeked around the corner as he saw Amber waiting; smiling, he slid behind and embraced her in a hug.

Amber jumped a little when she suddenly felt arms wrap around her. “Johnny?!” She exclaimed as she turned around.

"Hey there." He smiled. "How's it going?"

“Oh!” She seemed awkward. “Nothing much. Just helping out with the new team base since the old one got destroyed. You? I assume you’ve been busy with school?”

"School, parents, got a job too. Life's been pretty hectic, haven't had any time for Cyclone or the team..." He trails off. "Or you!" He hastily adds on.

"But we're here now, right?" He smiles. "So what's the game plan Red?"

Amber looked at Johnny when he hastily forgot to mention not spending time with his girlfriend. Did he....forget about her? “You have a job now huh? And you didn’t even bother to tell me.” She sighed. “Anyways, I got a $50 gift card from Rescue’s party for this cat cafe. And I’ve never been to a cat cafe before, so I thought it might be a good date.”

Johnny flashes a grin and squeezes Amber's hand. “That sounds lovely! It’d be really nice to just relax with you for a bit."

Amber smiled back at him. “Yeah! And we got $50 to spare so we can have whatever we want.”

The bell rings as Johnny walks in, hand in hand with Amber, a small cat runs up to the pair and rubs against Amber purring happily. Johnny bends down to pick it up. "Looks like he likes you, Red.”

Amber smiles. “Yeah. He’s really cute too.” She starts stroking the cat’s head.

Johnny leans over and nudges the cat, who clambers into Amber’s grasp, he smiles at the site and walks over to a table with two chairs, beckoning Amber towards him.

Amber holds the cat close to her and walks over to where Johnny was. “I think I made a new friend.” She chuckled.

"It seems like you did" He hands her a menu and busies himself in it. Eventually he locks eyes with Amber and launches off. "I'm glad we finally got time to chat! How's the team been? How's school? How's your mom? How's everything been going? I've had so much happen in my life, let me tell you everything..." He continues prattling off.

Amber seemed very suddenly surprised when Johnny went off on a tangent. “Woah Johnny! Calm down!”

He clams up. "Hmm?"

“Sorry but....you’re asking too many things at once.” She explained, stroking the cat’s head as he sat in her lap. “Just start with one at a time.”

He nods vigorously and smiles. "Sorry, sorry, it's just been so long. How's..." He pauses. "superheroing?" He eventually decides. "What kind of cool stuff does Cyclone have you on now?"

Amber looked down a bit, still stroking the cat on her lap. “Well.....nothing really. It’s not like there is anything to do. I mean, there’s the situations with Old Montreal and the Risganjans. But.... I’ve mostly been busy helping out at the base. Ever since the old base got destroyed, I had to help Cyclone and a few others sort out the new base. I literally had to rebuy my entire Sailor Moon manga and anime collection because they all got destroyed! But yeah....nothing much really. I did go to Pride though and Rescue’s party so that was fun.”

"Oh now that sounds exciting! I've been stuck at home since Ms. Merrimack gave me a C on the Catcher in the Rye. You know that book is probably the worst thing I've ever read. It’s just so... horrible, and then she expects us to read it all cover to cover and to have OPINIONS on it? You wanna know my opinion? Everyone sucks, especially JD Salinger... I'm sorry I'm ranting again. At least I've been able to get more into heroing recently, what with all the time shenanigans that Dr. Doorheart has been up to..."

Amber chuckled. “Johnny....that sounds like a normal English class to me. Didn’t you say you have a job now too?”

"Yeah, yeah I'm a paper boy!" He beams proudly. "It's nice to be able to have my own pocket money instead of relying on my folks..." He quiets down at the mention of parents. "Sorry... I know that's still a sore spot for you."

“A paper boy?! Seriously?! I didn’t know those still existed! I thought you would be helping some grandma walk her dog, or helping out at a coffee shop or something like that.” She chuckled. “Oh no. It’s fine. I was gonna ask about your parents anyway.” She looks at him. “Do they know?”

"I'm not looking to change things Red... Mom's already on my case, and dad would flip his shit if I told him so... no... not really"

“What do you mean by change things? I was only asking if they knew you’re a gender swapping superhero. And also do they even know what happened during that entire time you were trapped in GREY?” Amber asked him.

"No, no, no, GOD NO! The less they know about this whole side of things, the better! They don't ask about what I do, and I don't worry them with it. It all works out! That's what I mean by change things, I'm happy right now, happy being a hero, happy with you."

“Ssh! You’re being loud.” She whispered to him as she noticed people were staring at them due to Johnny’s sudden outburst. She looked down at the cat who seemed slightly more panicked than usual, and started scratching his ears in an effort to calm him down.

“I understand Johnny. But I bet they were worried sick about you! You were gone for months! Surely they have the right to know. I mean....you need someone to talk to about this whole Hollow thing anyway.”

"Is that what this is about Red? I promise it's not that big a thing. I'm just trying to be cool like you... You know that..."

“Yes I know Johnny. But remember what you told me? You said you would try to be my superhero, not cool like everyone else. And yes Johnny it is that big of a thing. I mean...” She whispered to him, hoping no one could hear. “You stabbed me. Because of what GREY did to you. I think it would be best for you to talk to someone about it. So that they can help you.”

"Red I'm fiiiiine! Besides who even is there to talk to? Cyclone's out, my folks don't get it, school sucks. I talk to you but.. you know..."

Amber raises an eyebrow. “You know what?” She asks him, in a somewhat strict tone.

"No, what?"

“You just said ‘I talk to you but...you know.’ No I don’t know. What do you mean by that?”

"Well we haven't been talking much is what. I dunno things have just been catching up with me I guess."

“Well I was busy with the new team base yet you never answered any of my calls or texts.”

"Like I said I've been really busy... I just feel like things have been so out of hand recently... I'm really hoping to get some hero work done soon though"

“Yeah but everyone else has been busy with stuff and yet they still manage to get things done, like talking to their girlfriend for example.” She said in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

Johnny looks away. "Yeah I'm sorry... I dunno, I kinda... felt I was on top of things, but..." He forces a chuckle. "... guess not, huh?"

“No you haven’t even bothered talking to me or trying to go out with me.” She admitted as she looked away. She sighed. “Whatever.” She picked up the menu. “We haven’t even ordered anything.”

Johnny stares down at the menu in front of him. "I'm sorry” He mumbles.

Amber looks at the menu for a bit and decides what to have. She called over the waitress and asked for a chocolate mousse cake with a caramel latte. “What about you Johnny?”

"Raspberry danish with green tea, please" He utters, without looking up from the floor.

After the waitress takes their order, Amber looks back at him. “You ok?”

"Are you?"

Amber looked at him. “What do you mean?”

"I haven't been... great to you... and... I'm sorry about it. I know I'd feel pretty bad if you ignored me like that so... are you ok?"

Amber thinks for a moment. “You know what? Let’s not talk about it.” She admitted.

The pair sits in silence until the waitress brings the food over and Johnny listlessly picks at it. He looks up at Amber and opens his mouth only to shake his head and close it. Eventually he speaks again. "So..."

Amber looks at him with a large piece of chocolate cake in her mouth. “Hm?”

Johnny shrugs awkwardly. "So if you don't want to talk about it... where's that leave us?"

Amber looked a little nervous. “I....”

Johnny sips his tea and stares at the table.

Amber looked at him. “Johnny...? Are you ok?”

"You keep asking me that, but you won't tell me if you are... I'm fine I guess. I just don't know where to go from here. Yeah I screwed up, so, what now? Is apologizing enough?" He shrugs.

“I......” She quickly finished her cake and drink and put the gift card on the table. “Sorry I need to go.”

Johnny nods. "See ya... Red"

**8:30PM**

There's a knock at the door and Spectre pokes her head out after opening the door, fully clad in her hero outfit.

Amber jumps up from her bed, dropping the pillow she was holding onto. Her eyes seemed red, as if she was crying. "Spectre?!”

"Can I come in?"

Amber looks at Spectre before silently nodding.

Spectre walks in and sits down. "So what's going on? Please. Talk to me." She pleads.

Amber freezes in place. “I....” She looks away.

Spectre reaches out and touches Amber's hand. "I can't help if you don't talk to me..."

Amber wouldn’t meet Spectre’s gaze. She wanted to tell her what was going on, but at the same time she was afraid to. How could she tell her girlfriend what was on her mind, without hurting her? There’s no way she could possibly do that, right?

Spectre scoots next to Amber and hugs her. "I'm not letting go until you talk. You can tell me. Promise"

Amber freezes up at Spectre’s hug. She stays there for a bit before suddenly pushing her away and getting up from the bed. She shakes, not looking at Spectre before finally turning around, eyes filled with tears again. “Everything! Everything is wrong!”

"That's... not quite what I wanted to hear..." She quiets down. “How can I help?" She eventually inquires.

“No you don’t understand! All this time.....I’ve been trying to help you and no matter how hard I try, it doesn’t work! I tried to help you become better at being a hero but no matter what I say, you don’t listen! You constantly beat yourself up about not being good enough and not being like everyone else. I tried to help you understand that you can be a great hero and a great person! But you never actually take my advice. I tried to help you with the whole Hollow situation but even then you wouldn’t listen. You fucking stabbed me for crying out loud. You could’ve killed me! And all these months where you’ve been busy....you didn’t even bother sending me a text or a call or nothing! You never tried to check up on me and see if I was doing ok. I’m your girlfriend Spectre! I thought you cared about me! I honestly feel like....you don’t appreciate me enough....”

"Oh. Well.....” Spectre pauses.

Amber continues to cry. “I.....don’t want to hurt you Spectre.... I still love you and I still want to be your girlfriend. But I feel like this isn’t working out between us..... I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

Spectre looks at Amber. "C-Can I change your mind?"

“I.... I’m sorry... I don’t think you can...” She continued to cry. She didn’t want to hurt Spectre, not like this. But this relationship wasn’t working out between them. It hurts to tell the truth but in this case, it was necessary. “I’m really really sorry Spectre....but I can’t be your girlfriend anymore. I don’t want to see you anymore. Please.....just go....”

Spectre stands and quickly walks to the door. "I’m sorry.” She says before she closes the door behind her.

Amber looks at the door before falling to her knees and sobbing. She grabs her arms and falls to her side, curling up.