Jack took note of his bedroom, seeing how his own clutter had started to mix with his girlfriends. She had a persistent habit of leaving her things scattered around his room, as if she was marking her territory. A bottle of perfume, a makeup kit, a giraffe plush, an old tablet and a succulent way to large for its own pot. It would need to be repotted soon or its roots would begin to strangle itself. He'd need to look up how to do that later. She had bought it for him one day with hardly any specifics on how to take care of it. He didn't even know what is was called, just that it had lime colored leaves and burgundy tips that looked like sharp teeth. Which is why it earned the name, Shark Tooth. He knew it wasn't very creative, but he didn't care all that much. 

It was one thing to clean up your own mess, another to clean up someone else’s too. He didn't actually mind her messes too much, but he still gave her hell over it. It was a little dance they did, teasing one another like this almost every day. Although, she was much better at it than he ever was. She sat up and ran her fingers through his dark curly hair. Her golden honey eyes looked at him expectantly, like she was considering how to word something. She’s going to bring up my mother again, he realized. 

It was the first thing she had asked about this afternoon, almost as soon as she had walked through the door. He had hoped that her mind would wonder somewhere else, but he saw those gears start to turn again as she pursed her lips. He quickly thought of something else to distract her with, “Are you eating dinner with me later? I think I’ll make those spicy meatballs. The ones you always drool over. I think I have everything to make them.” His eyes averted her gaze, focusing again on the messy floor of his room. He'd have to do laundry again today. Hopefully his roomate wasn't letting his clothes sit in the washer again. 

Tessa continued to stare at him while lazily gesturing for the black bra lying next to him on the floor. “You had the dream again, didn’t you?” She studied his expression, watching his body language as he shuffled uncomfortably. Oh, that's what she was wondering about. 

“Yeah.” Even though he couldn't see it, he felt the sad smile she was giving him while listening to her put the frilly bra on. 

“Yeah, I can always tell.” She placed a reassuring hand on his thigh.

“I don’t know how, it's like I'm an open book to you.” He found his own underwear under the pile, loose fitting boxers she bought him a few weeks back with superhero logos splayed across them. A few he recognized and others he didn't. He appreciated the gesture but, they really weren't to his taste. He preferred something a little more...plain. She knew this, she just found it ironic.

“You’re an open book to everyone." She scrunched her dainty nose up as she sniffed herself. "But really, you should talk to her,” she said underneah her breath.

“Tessa, this again?” he said with annoyance.

Jack grabbed the bra and handed it to her while regarding her with restless green eyes.

“Hey, I thought you wanted us to talk more afterwords," she put up her hands in mock defense before swipping the bra from his hand. "Y'know, so it wouldn’t feel like we only meet up to have sex.” She tied up long dark hair into a ponytail and fumbled for her glasses on the nightstand. "This is what you asked for Jack."

He peaked at the dozens of tattoos spread across her pale skin. In the eight years that Jack had known Tessa, her body had started to transform into a complex canvas of intricate symbols and shapes twisting around each other. It was both beautiful and mystifying to look at, to gaze deeply into. One could lose their train of thought just looking at them. Among the designs, you could make out the shadows of animals and mythological creatures dancing around each other, careful not to tread on one another. A mix of claws, talons, beaks, horns, and sharp teeth. Some shapes he recognized, others he didn’t. At the moment, Jack found himself staring at a new tattoo that stood out among the rest. On her shoulder a raven stretched its wings, proudly watching over the other creatures that stretched across her skin. Tessa had always been passionate about animals. Even when they were children, she planned on saving up enough money to open up her own clinic. Jack wondered sometimes where all this motivation and passion came from, motivation he lacked himself. 

“You should at least consider it. She’s your mother,” Tessa said with a touch of defiance snapping Jack back to attention. 

“You think she’d even recognize me after all these years?” Jack turned his head away, unwilling to meet her unrelenting gaze. She gracefully walked over to him and draped her arms around his shoulders, her lips brushing his cheeks as she spoke.

“You said it yourself, she looked right at you.” She let her words hang in the air for a moment. “If you didn’t care, then you wouldn’t have gone to that interview and risked being on TV. You wouldn't have risked everyone in the world knowing who you are.” Tessa unraveled her arms and placed his hands in her own, gently caressing them. 

He lightly squeezed her hands feeling their warmth. For a second he thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't see what it was. He choose to ignore it instead. “You do remember me telling you she’s a literal villain, right?”

“Ex-villain actually. She wants to work for the IRS now,” she said putting her hands on her hips, as if to emphasize a point. “Although, that’s not much of a career change is it?” She stiffled a laugh. 

He released his hands from hers and sat on the edge of the bed; his arms folded behind his head now. “She didn’t even acknowledge that she had any family. Sounds like she doesn’t have room in her life for a son.” He said as he forced a smile onto his face. I might not even be her only kid. The thought of a litttle brother or sister somewhere out there swam into his mind but he immediately pushed the thought out. 

“And what do you think she should have said? That she had a son who lived in the city? That unbeknownst to anyone else, your mother, a super villain, had a secret child? I don’t even think anyone would believe her. I still can’t believe that I’m sleeping with Ms. Universe’s son.” Tessa turned to him and gave him an exaggerated wink.

Jack glared at her, not wanting to play into her teasing any longer.

“Regardless, your mother would ruin any chance you had at leading a normal life if she broke that silence.” She grabbed a glass of water from the nightstand and took a small sip.

“Look even if I talked to her, what would I say?” Jack said with a shrug.

Tessa smiled, “What nice weather we’re having, don’t you think mother? Fall will be so lovely this year, right mother dearest?” Tessa said this with a lavish accent, all while unsuccessfully stifling a laugh. No moment was too serious for her that she wouldn’t try to crack a joke. “No wait, I got it. How did you and dad meet?”

Jack seemed to reel back as his stomach contorted itself into a knot. He was 21 years old, yet he still didn’t know a single thing about his past including who his own father was. Forget seeing his birth records, he didn't even know which hospital he was born in. His ID was fake, bought off a guy he knew at the corner store five blocks down. He was pretty sure he overpaid. 

“I’ve got to get to work soon, so if you wouldn’t mind heading out?” Jack anxiously looked over at the clock and back to his girlfriend. Teasing him seemed to be her favorite pastime, but even he had his limits. 

“Jack. I’m just telling you that some of us don’t ever get the chance to rebuild with our parents, yet alone talk with them one last time, so maybe you should take the chance. "She surprised him with a serious tone. Jack suddenly felt guilty. "Get some closure and if she sucks, then we can move on with our lives.”

“I just don’t see it going well.” Truthfully, he saw it going horribly wrong. He knew he shouldn't see it things in worst case scenarios, but how could he not. What if it was all a trick? What if she hurt him, or worse...hurt Tessa. He'd never forgive himself. 

“Think of it this way, you’ll finally be able to talk to someone who understands you." She paused for a moment and looked away. "Well, that side of you at least. That’s something I can’t really give you." 

He almost reached out to her, but hesitated. Instead, they stood there for a moment not looking at each other. “I really have to go to work Tessa. My boss will fire me if I’m late even once.” Jack started to get dressed for work. He put on khaki pants that were hanging up in his closet and grabbed a white polo from the dresser next to his bed. On the polo was a giant logo of a taco with unnecessarily large eyes waving frantically to no one in particular. He hated it.

“I know, I know." She took a deep breath, like hitting a reset button. "Your boss is really a dick though. What if you got caught in traffic? I bet he’d still fire you.”

“What traffic? I ride a bike to work.” He let out a small laugh, feeling the tension start to give. 

Tessa grabbed a random t-shirt off the ground and put it on, not even checking to see which one of them it belonged to. The dark starry night on her shirt mixed with a camper parked in the foreground seemed to fit well on her. She pulled on her jeans which were hanging on the desk chair to complete the look.

“Yes, of course, but what if you got stuck behind a herd of middle-aged cyclists or what if someone was teaching their son to drive for the first time and they started weaving in and out of the bike lane.” Jack looked at a clock sitting on his dresser and saw that he had about twenty-five minutes left until his shift started. He patted his pockets and realized that he still needed his phone. He looked to see if it was sitting on the nightstand, but it wasn’t there either. He turned around and saw Tessa waving it around in the air. She tossed him the phone and he snatched it out of the air and put it in his pocket.

Jack grabbed a set of keys that were sitting on the table by the front door. “Okay, I’m leaving now. Lock up before you head out or my roommate will be pissed again.”

“Hold on. I need to head out too.” Tessa said as she quickly grabbed her sandals and keys before running over to the door with Jack. He opened the door and they both stepped outside into the hall.

“I thought you were off today?” Jack locked the door and stuffed the keys in his pants. They both started to walk towards the stairwell.

“Well, I wanted to run a few errands before we met up tonight. Also, I wanted to ask you something.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“What’s up?” Jack turned and started to walk down the stairwell, beginning their hike from the third floor.

“How long have we been dating now?”

He didn’t expect the question and it showed on his face, but he answered earnestly. “About three months.”

“And how long have we known each other?”

“I’d say around 8 years.”

“Okay, so…I was wondering about something. Even though we’ve only been dating for a short amount of time, don’t you think we’re moving really slow?” Jack’s stride started to slow down as he was walking down the steps and he eventually came to a stop.

“Tessa, what do you mean?” Jack said curiously. He could tell by the heavy expression that she wanted to say something but struggled to find the words.

“Well I just mean that we get along really well. We always have. And adding sex in the mix hasn’t really made anything weird between us, right?” Tessa subtly wiped her palms on her clothes, trying to hide the sweat that was forming. It didn’t go unnoticed. “So instead of living in separate apartments with roommates we don’t even like, why don’t we move in together? It’ll be fun! We can stay up, eat popcorn, and watch weird cartoons about giant robots fighting! What do you think?!”

“I don’t know Tessa. I just….” Jack scratched his head and tried to think of something to say. “It’s just that…” For the second time today, he felt guilty. He didn’t know what to say and he didn’t know why. Just as he was about to speak up though, she cut him off.

“I thought we could save some money on rent and I know your lease ends soon.” Feeling the tension return to fill the stairwell, Tessa started to backtrack as her cheeks began to flush. “It’s okay. You’re not ready. I get it.”

“I’m sorry, now’s just not the best time.” Jack reached out his hand and gently grabbed hers. He gave it a light squeeze and smiled at her.

Tessa forced a smile onto her face and said, “Okay. I should let you go to work then.” A moment of silence hung in the air. They resumed walking down the stairs and eventually came to a door that led them outside. Opening the door allowed warm air to flood into the stairwell. The silence had started to hang on them, feeling like old clothes that didn’t fit quite right. They began to walk over to the parking lot where Tessa’ car was parked.

Unsure of how to navigate this uncomfortable situation, Jack said “I’ll see you when I get off work, okay?”

Tessa nodded as she watched him climb onto a dusty bike parked by the building. It always seemed strange to her, seeing him pedal away, knowing that he didn’t have to.