Long Past Dawn

I wake up to a knock on my door. I hadn't even realized that I had fallen asleep, but well here we are so...

"Hey, I'm supposed to bring you through for grub. You coming?" Flashes says, his voice reaching through the door.

Sh*t, how long did I sleep for? I look down and I'm still in my clothes, "C-coming!"

I rush over to the door. "Open."

Flash is standing outside the door, my eyes must still be red and puffy because he looks like he's about to ask if I'm ok before thinking better of it.

"Hey, are you ok?" Man, curiosity must really have killed the cat here.

"I-I'm," it's like the words get stuck in my throat, like the words 'I'm fine' just won't come out. "I'm okay."

"You know it's okay to not be okay," Flash says, worry in his eyes.

"Wow, are you actually worried about me?" I ask with a sarcastic laugh.

"Yeah. I am, actually." He says, his usually playful tone gone and I can see in his eyes that he is serious.

"There are better things to be worried about than me," I say to end the conversation before walking over to where everyone is gathered.

Green Arrow hands me a plate and I see three boxes of pizza on the table. Pizza? Really? I don't know what I expected but it most definitely was not pizza.

I squeeze through and grab two slices of cheese from one of the boxes. I'm still trying to process the idea of my role models eating Pizza House pizza when Wonderwoman came over to me.

"Have you settled into your room?" She asks me, I can tell she really wants to ask if I'm ok but if one more person asks me that I might scream.

"Yeah, I have," I reply before thinking of something, "Ummmm is there a store I could go to? There are still a few things I need....."

"Sure, I can take you tomorrow if you want."

"Great!"

The rest of the dinner passes in a flash, I eat two more slices of cheese before going back to my room. I quietly slip into my pajamas, brush my teeth and slip into bed. I turn off the lights and am plunged back into another feverish sleep.

***

I wake up in the morning feeling anything but refreshed. I go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, shower and brush my hair, I glance in the mirror on my way out, I can see bags already forming. I throw on a pair of jeans and a hoodie.

I'm about to tie my hair into a loose ponytail when a memory resurfaced.

'Dawn I'm so glad you have such pretty hair, you have to make sure you keep it so pretty.'

I know I'm being petty but still, if all that was a lie then I'm going to do all the stupid things I can do. So I go over to where I placed the glass shard yesterday, it's still sitting next to the picture frame. I pick it up and bring the edge to my hair and with a quick slash long bundles of hair that used to fall to my waist now litter the cement floor.

I look in the slight reflection on the glass shard, my hair doesn't even reach my shoulders anymore. But I like it, it feels more... me.

I walk out of my room and over towards the main part of the warehouse, Wonderwoman is the only one there. Except for the fact that she, just like Batman, is back to being Diana Prince. Since no one else is here I'll assume they're off sleeping or wherever they go for the night.

"Ah Dawn they're you ar-" She cuts herself off, probably because she saw what I did to my hair.

"Are we going now?" I ask, trying to ignore her obvious stares at my new and badly cut hair.

"Ah no.... I mean yes!"

"Great! Where are we going?" I ask, still unsure about where or how we're going.

"Just to a supermarket a couple of blocks from here, I thought that we could walk there from here."

Well as long as they have everything I'm going to need... "Great. Can we get going now?"

"Then let's get going," Wonderwoman says leading the way to the exit of the warehouse.

***

For a supermarket that's a couple of blocks away, it takes us at least fifteen minutes to get there. But when we do it's a decent-sized place so I think I'll be able to get everything we want.

We go in and are immediately hit with the AC that's coming in strong from the inside.

Wonderwoman says she'll check up on me in a few minutes before going over to the newspaper and magazine aisle and I go over to the hair care products, then over to some other aisles to grab other irregular items that I might need in the next who knows how long.

Ten minutes later I've got everything and am ready to pay but Wonderwoman intervenes and pays for everything herself. She doesn't seem to have gotten herself anything either.

On the way back I glance at the bulging shopping bag and around at the streets surrounding us, for some reason I feel like we're being watched.

I manage to shake off the feeling as we get closer to the warehouse.

Wonderwoman slides open the main door and we walk in, everyone seems to be around the main table but someone else I don't know also seems to be there.

"We're back," Wonderwoman says as we walk in, she must also see the new person because the next thing she says is, "Did you bring him in?"

Him? Who's him? Shit is it another hero? Why did I have to cut my hair today so that it looks like a hot mess? Why does God hate me so much?

Batman nods, "Dawn come over here there's someone I want you to meet."

I walk over while trying to cover my hair with my hoodie. To my surprise, this 'him' looks normal, curly brown hair that falls past his ears, big brown eyes, tan skin, his other features are actually almost girl like though somehow they make him look kinda hot.

"Dawn, this is Stephen. He'll be living here from today."

'Stephen' turns away from the laptop he was looking at and I see he has big glasses, the round type that Harry Hatter wears, though these ones are too big for him and it seems like he has to push them up way too often though that also makes him kinda cute.

"Hi I'm Stephen and I guess I'll be working with you."