#3
MAY 06
MAY 06
“New Year”
December 31st 7:51 p.m. “You’re serious?” Tim Drake, AKA Robin, had an inquisitive look on his face as he hurled a batarang at the nearest would-be liquor store thief. The batarang connected with the man’s shoulder, who cried out and crumpled to the floor, swearing and mumbling under his breath.
Tim watched Batman finish off the last thug with a karate chop to the neck, incapacitating him. The thug fell back against the wall of the alley, and slid down, eyes glazing over.
8:23 p.m. Robin was sitting on the edge of a rooftop overlooking the city, still half waiting for Batman to emerge from the shadows telling him to ‘Keep sharp’, when an altogether different proposition emerged from the darkness. “Well, well, well…not at your party yet?” Robin grinned and turned around to see Dick Grayson, AKA Nightwing, walking slowly towards him. He had a large thermos mug in his hand, and a smile on his face. “I’m not gonna show up until about 9:30 or maybe 10:00. You know…fashionably late and all…” Nightwing laughed and sat down beside Robin on the edge of the rooftop. “Sounds like the way to do it, my man.” Nightwing poured a cup of steaming hot liquid and handed it to Robin, who accepted it gratefully, given that the night was bitterly cold. He had about 3 different layers on underneath his colourful costume, but it was still freezing. He could barely even feel his face anymore. “Thanks. Chicken soup?” Nightwing nodded. “The best thing for a cold crime fighter. Well, you know…except maybe Wonder Woman to keep you warm…” Robin chuckled. He enjoyed his conversations with Nightwing, maybe because they were so few and far in between now. He always looked up to Dick as a kind of “older brother”-type figure. Nightwing took a drink of the soup straight from the thermos. He licked his lips and smiled again. “You know, no matter how hard I try, I still can’t quite manage to make chicken soup the way Alfred does. It just doesn’t taste as good.” Robin grinned. “It’s good enough. Don’t suppose you’ve got any hot chocolate in that utility belt of yours?” “Sorry, partner. Fresh out of that.” Robin took a long drink from the soup. It seemed to be working, as he was feeling a bit warmer. “So…who’d have thought Bruce would let you go to a house party tonight? Didn’t see that coming…” said Nightwing. Robin nodded. “I kept expecting him to just be testing me, seeing if I’d take the bait.” “Don’t remember ever getting those kinds of luxuries myself, but hey…enjoy it while you can!” laughed Nightwing. Robin looked at Nightwing. “He even wished me a happy new year!” Nightwing gasped and covered his mouth with his hand in mock shock. “I also don’t remember getting wished a happy new year too often…maybe he likes you better?” Robin punched Nightwing on the arm. “Shut up, Dick.” Nightwing and Robin both laughed together before Nightwing looked at his watch. “Ah, time to fly, bird-boy. People to see, crimes to stop.” Nightwing got to his feet and shook himself, trying to warm himself up. “Have fun at your party. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” “Thanks, Dick. Happy new year. You going to see Babs?” “Yeah, I might stop by when the clock strikes 12. I’ll tell her you said hi. Happy new year, Tim!” And with that, Nightwing disappeared into the night, leaving Robin alone again. Well, better get to this party sometime… 9:36 p.m. “Oh man…I think I’m gonna hurl…” Tim just managed to avoid the guy, who stumbled past him before throwing up all over the doorstep of the house. Tim had actually just arrived to the house party that minute, and this was what had met him. Tim looked back to see a few friends helping the guy to his feet. After a few seconds he then seemed to get focus back, because a chant of ‘Beer! Beer! Beer!’ started up. Tim laughed and turned to find himself face to face with the host of the party, a guy he knew quite well from his old high school, John Gregory. “All right, Drake! You made it!” Gregory put his arm around Tim’s shoulder and began to lead him through a crowd of people towards the kitchen. “Come on, buddy, we got nothing but the best here!” Tim entered the kitchen to be met by an insane amount of alcohol. Four kegs, countless boxes of beer, alcopops, vodka…Gregory must’ve paid a fortune to get this amount in. Gregory had a huge grin on his face. “So, what’ll it be?” Tim thought of what Batman would say. About how drinking is wrong, and it would severely hurt his work, and how nothing should be taken in excess and…. “So?” One beer couldn’t hurt, right? “I’ll have a Bud, thanks.” Gregory gave Tim the thumbs up, grabbed him a bottle of Budweiser and then left the kitchen to attend to his other guests. Tim opened the bottle, thought of Batman one last time…and then took as big a gulp as he could manage. Life can’t be all crime fighting and seriousness… 10:42 p.m. “Girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and monneeeeyyyy…” Tim Drake cringed at the music blasting out of the speakers at the party. Good Charlotte’s insanely catchy yet equally horrible hit ‘Girls and Boys’ was assaulting his ears and he just couldn’t take it. He took another swig of his fourth beer and tried to talk to the girl next to him. “This music sucks, you know?” he said to her. She screwed her face up and motioned towards her ears. She couldn’t hear him. Tim repeated the sentence a bit louder and she seemed to hear him. She shrugged her shoulders and shouted back: “It’s kinda cool. What music do you like?” Tim was about to answer when she was whisked away by some spiky haired, clichéd frat-boy type and they began to dance. Tim sighed and drank some more beer. Better try someone else. Tim began to move through the crowd on the dance floor (the living room with almost all the furniture removed) when he was grabbed around the waist and pulled in close to a raven-haired goth girl with a shirt on that was too tight to be believed. She began to gyrate in front of him and he grinned and started to dance as well, ignoring the fact that he hated the music. The girl looked up at him and smiled. “What’s your name?” “Tim Drake. You?” “Katharine. You like this music?” Tim shook his head. “I hate Good Charlotte but…” Katharine finished his sentence for him. “But you like me?” Tim nodded. “But I like you.” Katharine grinned and got closer to Tim. For some strange reason, he thought about what Batman would think about all this. Then he put it to the back of his mind, because thinking of Batman while trying to get some just wasn’t right. ‘Girls and Boys’ ended and Tim breathed a sigh of relief. The next song was much more to his liking. He recognized it as soon as it came on and shouted in triumph as the lyrics started. “Welcome to the jungle, we’ve got fun and games…” Katharine laughed. “You like Guns ‘n’ Roses?” “Who doesn’t?!?” Katharine laughed again and quickly pulled Tim close for a kiss. When their lips met, everything went kind of funny and Tim felt great. He’d never felt so ecstatic and relaxed and happy and… Oh crap. He was drunk. 11:41 p.m. Tim was in a daze as Katharine practically dragged him up the stairs. He was sure that she was taking him to an empty bedroom, which was cool, but he couldn’t seem to focus. Had he really had four beers? Or had it been more? Oh man…Batman was going to kill him when he found out… “C’mon. This one’s empty.” Katharine pushed open the door to a bedroom. She dragged Tim inside and the next thing he knew he was sprawled on the bed, Katharine on top of him. Tim managed to look around the room and with a moment of horrible realization, knew where he was. “Oh man….this is John’s parents’ room…” He tried to sit up but was pushed down to the bed by Katharine, who kissed him passionately. “That just makes it sexier, doesn’t it?” Tim grinned. “Well, I suppose…but shouldn’t we…” Another kiss and he couldn’t think straight anymore. She began to unbutton his shirt and undo his belt buckle when they heard it. There was a chorus of screams coming from outside the house. Tim looked at Katharine in shock. “What was that?” Robin began to take over Tim and he eased Katharine off him before leaping off the bed. This was serious. He had to focus. He turned back to Katharine before leaving. “You coming?” She shook her head. “Probably just some sorority girls who broke a few nails. I’ll be waiting.” 11:48 p.m. Tim made it outside to find a group of people on the lawn of the house, looking up towards the roof. Some were looking scared, some worried, some just too drunk to really know what was happening. Tim looked up just as he asked what was going on. Someone was sitting on the edge of the roof, legs dangling over the side. Tim’s eyes went wide. He looked to the nearest person. “Who is that?” The jock answered. “It’s Stevie Banks, man. I think he’s gonna jump.” “Stevie Banks?” “Some prick from the high school who can’t get laid or something. Man, I hope…” Before the jock could finish his sentence, Tim had disappeared round the side of the house to retrieve the rucksack containing his costume and some other things that he had stashed behind a cluster of trashcans. He disappeared into the shadows and as quick as he could, put on the costume. He shot a line up to the roof and was lifted up off the ground. He hoped he could pull this off. 11:54 p.m. Robin was slowly climbing over the rooftop tiles and making his way to a sitting position beside Stevie when he spoke for the first time. He made sure to speak softly and reassuringly, because if he startled Stevie, the boy would probably fall. “Hey, Stevie.” Stevie quickly turned his head to look at Robin and for an instant it looked like he was off balance but to Robin’s relief he was calm. Thank God. “Holy shit…Robin?” “In the flesh.” Stevie shook his head in disbelief. “Man, this is so weird…why are you here?” “Why else? To stop you from doing something you’ll regret.” “No, I mean…you were at the party, weren’t you? You can’t have just shown up?” Robin looked over the edge to the crowd down below who had begun to cheer and shout. Oh man…this had better work… “Maybe. Maybe not. But, never mind that…what are you doing up here?” Stevie looked away and when he spoke his voice was shaky with emotion. “I don’t know…” “Can I help?” “No. Just go away. I’ll handle this on my own.” “I don’t think you mean that. I think you want help.” This seemed to anger Stevie. “What the hell do you know? You piss around on rooftops in your underwear fighting crime and then getting the girl…what the hell do you know about real life?” Robin looked away. “Just because I do this doesn’t mean I don’t have a ‘normal’ life as well. Everyone goes through the same stuff, man, superhero or not. Our stuff can just be a little more…exaggerated at times.” “Just go away. I can handle this my way.” “Look, man, stop with the ‘I can handle this on my own’ routine. I’ve tried that before. Believe me, it doesn’t work. I want to help. Are you gonna let me?” A tear rolled down Stevie’s cheek and he gulped. He nodded, indicating that he would let Robin help. Good. Now his trust and respect had been won. First step. “I just…I hated being at that party with those halfwits whose sole occupation in life seems to be making me miserable. I-I thought I’d have fun…see if I could meet someone…but…” Robin looked hard at Stevie. “Look, man, just ignore them. That’s what I’d do. Just think ‘Screw them. In ten years they’ll be cleaning my pool while I live it up with my supermodel wife’.” Stevie laughed slightly, but it sounded more like the beginning of tears. “My mom told me that…it’s never gonna happen and you know it.” Robin felt his stomach churn at this point. The mixture of fear and the amount of alcohol inside him was making him feel really sick. But he had to get Stevie down from the roof safely. He had to. “Ok, so maybe that’s a stupid cliché but what I mean is true. If some idiots think that bullying you is funny, then that’s just what they are: idiots. I am positive that there is some girl in that party that would love for you to ask them out or something. Positive, man.” “You think?” “Come on, man, I know it. You think I haven’t had to deal with bullies at some point? It’s part of life. You deal with it, you move on. Life gets better, believe me. And high school…well, it sucks, but it’s not the end of the world. Just remember, when you graduate? You never have to see any of those pricks ever again. Ever.” Stevie nodded. It looked like Robin was getting through to him. Relief began to sweep through him and the sickness was being staved off. “Have you been practicing this speech?” asked Stevie, in a mix of sadness and humour. Robin grinned. “I’ve had to use something like it once or twice, yeah. But I mean what I say.” Stevie nodded again. “Ok. Thanks, man.” Robin breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. “No problem. Now let’s get off this roof.” “Ok. Thanks for the help, Robin.” 12:07 a.m. Tim managed to sneak away after the incident and change back into his civvies before he entered the house again. He had made sure that Stevie was going to be alright and had even managed not to throw up. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t really in…full working order. As he entered the house, he saw the party still in full swing, and looked at his watch. Damn…he’d missed the countdown to 12:00. Figures. That was when he remembered about Katharine. When he made it to the bedroom and opened the door, he was only half-surprised to see that she had gone. Figures. 1:00 a.m. Tim left the party soon after that and decided to take the quick route home as Robin. He didn’t feel sick anymore and was glad of it. When he landed on the rooftop where he had met Nightwing earlier, he was startled to find Batman and Nightwing emerge from the shadows. How did they do that? They hadn’t even arranged to meet… “Uhhh…hey guys. Slow night?” Nightwing shrugged. “Yeah, a bit.” Batman looked at Robin. “How was your party?” Robin tried to disguise any guilt he was feeling, deserved guilt or not. “It was ok. I’ve been to better. Pretty uneventful.” Batman nodded. “Good. We’ll make one last sweep of this area before we call it a night.” Batman fired a line and swung off the building before Nightwing started patting Robin on the shoulder and smiling. Tim looked nervous. “Uhhhh…something funny?” Nightwing laughed. “Dude…you’ve got lipstick all over your face. It wasn’t that eventful, huh?” Tim began to rub his face. “Awwww man…” Nightwing put his arm around Tim’s shoulders. “I expect every detail, man.” Robin nodded. That sickening feeling was rising again…
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