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The ugly crying stage is mostly over but Karen is still red-eyed and snotty when she sensed someone sit down beside her. Woman weeping midday at Bethesda Terrace, most people kept their distance and Karen really couldn't blame them for it. But when she glanced up this kid was looking at her in concern.
"You okay?" He was young, definitely not old enough to be in college yet- and did kids just not go to school anymore? He had a sweet boy-band look to him, like in a few years he might be a hipster but couldn't quite pull it off yet. And watching her with a gentle worry. "I can leave you alone if you want. But i didn't want to walk be without seeing if you needed help."
"No, no. Just...boyfriend troubles." Saying it out loud made it even worse and as she wiped her eyes she had to laugh a little at her own patheticness. "Guy just broke up with and stranded me in New York City so he could rush home and ask out another girl."
"Wow, I think if my boyfriend did that i would light his hair on fire." He shook his head sympathetically and settled down beside her now that she wasn't proven crazy. "What a total douchebag."
"He's really not is the thing." The memory of Jim doing his Jim Halpert face and generally being adorable made her heart ache. At some point she'd be angry but right now she was just really, really sad. But she sat up and tried to pull herself together. Time to stop weeping all over her best Banana Republic suit. "But there's this woman in the office- you know, I really really should have seen coming."
"No, I get it. Why would you think a guy you love would do that to you?" The kid shook the hair out of his eyes and smiled at her. "Not that I'm this relationship guru or anything."
"No, no, I really want to hear your teenager love advice," Karen teased and smiling even for just a moment felt good. "Give me your pubescent wisdom," she said then hold out a hand. "I'm Karen."
He smiled and shook her hand. "Billy. And- yeah, not to get too Young Oprah on you, but you deserve way better than this."
"You're sweet," she told him, red-rimmed eyes but smiling before getting to her feet. "Come on, let me buy my Good Samaritan a lemonade so I'm not a crying photo bomb monster in tourists' photos."
They walked up the steps toward the nearest vendor through the park that was crowded with joggers and probably boyfriends hoping to break up with their girlfriends at the most scenic spots. Not that she was bitter. Clearly.
"So," she said after she paid for their lemonade and were wandering down the wide tree-lined paths. "You just go around New York doing good deeds? Are you an after-school Avenger?"
Karen was just joking but Billy made such a face, the typical 'shit, busted' face that the awkward laugh following it was that much more forced. "Funny you should say that."
"Oh my God, you are, aren't you? One of the Avenger Teen Squad." She didn't follow the superhero news as closely as some, but Dwight would loudly proclaim the status of all the big teams every Wednesday at 10:45. He was a big Fantastic Four guy; first he'd tried to get into the space program to follow in their footsteps then had tried to get a security job at the Baxter Building. Shocker of injustice, he failed the psych exam. Karen had heard about this when she first got to Scranton. At length. "What are you Ant-Boy?"
"What? No!" Suddenly he leaned in, looking very concerned. "I look like I would be Ant-Boy?"
"No, no," Karen reassured him quickly. "You look like you would be the...cool Avenger teen. Very kick-ass and kind to crying people."
Billy smiled a little at her, and it was hard to imagine this nice, now slightly self-conscious kid putting on a costume and beating up villains. "It's...Wiccan. Is my code name. I sort of do magic. Which did not, unfortunately, mean I got to go to Hogwarts."
"Wow." Karen didn't exactly know how to follow that up. Connecticut hadn't seen a lot of super action and Scranton wasn't exactly a hotspot either. "Well...thanks. For all the world saving you do, I guess."
"Hey, thanks for the lemonade." Billy lifted the cup and took a sip as they turned toward Strawberry Fields.
They were just about to lapse into a potentially awkward silence just when Karen had thought up something important to ask. "Hey, do you know Miss Marvel? Because I dressed up as her for Halloween like five years in a row."
"Yeah, once or twice. Which was both exciting and awkward since I also dressed up as Miss Marvel for multiple Halloweens." Laughing, he shook his head. "Long blond wig and everything. My parents were very supportive yet unsurprised when I came out of the closet ten years later."
She almost- almost blurted out a congratulations that he hadn't got a miserable orphan superhero origin but managed to give a nod and almost look like a normal person. "That's great that they're so supportive."
"Yeah, it is." But Billy heaved a sigh in what would seem like typical teen angst, except that he's a superhero which means his problems are probably bigger than acne. If he had acne. Great, now Karen was jealous of a 16-year-old boy's skin. "They're great. My parents are great. But my whole family situation is...complicated."
"Every family's dysfunctional in its own unique way," Karen said, which wasn't exactly comforting or wise, but he's seen her gross and snotty so she's not exactly a person of authority here. "Love goes a long way."
"Yeah." As he stared off into nothing looking more serious than he should, Billy didn't exactly fit the normal teenager bill now. Wiccan. The name fit a little better with the look in his eyes. But then he smiled and pushed the hair out of his eyes and it was like it'd never happened. "So, jerk boyfriend really stranded you in New York? What are you going to do?"
Mention of Jim brought back the mundane realities of her own life and Karen heaved a sigh. "I don't know. We got a hotel room but it was under his name. Probably take the bus." That was three hours of her life she'd never get back.
"Well," Billy smiled at her. "I think i can spare you bus fare."
They wandered up toward one of the quieter parts of the park and into a patch of trees probably used mostly by drug dealers and murderers. And, apparently, teenage superhero wizards. But Karen was rolling with the punches here, so she just went with it.
Billy had Karen hold his man-bag and then started muttering to himself iwanttogotoScranton, iwanttogotoScranton as his hands lit up blue. Which, okay, she believed him about the teen wizard thing, but holy shit. Slowly something appeared in front of them, less like a tear in reality and more of a swirly blue glowing doorway. "Okay," he said with a nod. "You've got to go through first and then I'll be right behind you."
Right. Karen hesitated. Just walk right through this magical thing and she'll be back in Scranton. Maybe. Or she'll wind up in Siberia, or on Pluto, or in an alternate dimension where everyone is a lizard person.
…you know what, screw it. She'd had a scary job interview and been broken up with already today. If she wound up having to face down Lizard Dwight then it was bound to be better than her day'd gone so far. Karen took a deep breath and walked through.
And wound up on her porch still holding the man-bag. A second later Billy stepped through too then closed the portal behind him.
"Wow," she said and looked around at what had been Central Park a few seconds before. Looked like Scranton. Felt like it too, cloudy where New York had been sunny and a few degrees warmer. Across the street, Mr. Hartley and his shih-tzu were staring and Karen gave them a jaunty wave. Teleporting was exhilarating.
"Yup," Billy said and slung his messenger bag over his shoulders again. "It's pretty sweet, right? Way better than navigating Grand Central on a Friday afternoon."
"Seriously, well, hey-" Karen suddenly didn't know what to do with a teenage boy on her front porch. What's the appropriate post-teleportation etiquette? "Thanks. That was pretty awesome. Beats a bus any day."
Billy smiled at her. "Anytime. Well, not really, because hopefully you won't ever be stranded in New York after a break-up again. But it was no problem." He opened to say something more but his phone beeped and he checked a text. "Uh- shoot, that's Eli. I gotta-"
"Yeah, no, go," Karen urged, a little grateful she wasn't going to have to offer a tour of Scranton. She smiled at him. "Superhero away. And thanks, again. My day is 100% better now thanks to you."
He smiled back but was already distracted as he typed back a quick reply and pocketed the phone. "Glad I could help! Anyway, yeah, there's this alien thing- not bad aliens, they're good aliens, it's just-" Then he just huffed a little laugh as he opened a portal again then shot her that smile again. "Complicated. Sorry again about the boyfriend. Hope you got the job!"
Then he was gone and Karen was left looking at an empty porch. "Well…" Karen started and then had to stop. The sheer weirdness of what had just happened hit her all at once, and she really, really wished there was someone in Scranton to tell all about it. "Screw it," she declared to herself, because she is a strong independent woman. "I'm going to drink a bottle of wine and watch Harry Potter. It's a day for helpful teen wizards."