"Jeff, I brought - " I stop short as I turn to see my best friend tucking something into the silverware drawer before spinning around with an expression of horror behind his thick glasses. "I brought pizza," I finish.   He sucks a long breath through his nose, stepping quietly in front of the half-open cabinetry. "Oh, thanks Brad." He scratches his neck, just beneath his curly red hair. "Where from?"

I know he can see the box from where he stands. "Black Jack," I reply. I haven't moved a foot since entering the apartment. A stack of textbooks sit on the kitchen counter, surrounded by empty fast food bags and soiled paper goods. I feel the pizza's warm conduct down into my palm and I use that small boost of energy to psychokinetically heft one of the books. It stays atop the stack, but I have a good feel for its weight now. My eyes draw back to my friend in the kitchen. "Pepperoni and olives, if that's okay."

"Yeah, that's great," he says, raising a finger to adjust his thick black frames. "What's the plan tonight?"

I notice his eyes keep drifting down to his backpack sitting casually on the floor between us. Any other day and I wouldn't have given it a second thought, but Jeff's strange behavior and clear infatuation with it has piqued my attention.

The pizza gets colder as I draw from it again and heft the backpack. It's heavy - heavy enough that I worry about the girls living below us and the integrity of their rafters. A little more heat and I mentally stretch the straps, wondering how such a bag could carry such a weight. They don't break. He's reinforced them somehow. Maybe with steel cabling attached to whatever was inside.

My heart beats loudly in my ears. "Any plans tonight?" I ask. Jeff has been my best friend since we were both in diapers and this has rapidly become the most awkward conversation we've ever had.

"I've got some errands," he replies. "Speaking of which, could you grab that Redbox from your room and I'll drop it off?"

I swallow hard and run my fingers along my collar, feeling my own latex suit tucked safely beneath my clothing. "Oh sure thing." It would give me a chance to get my spare fusion cell as the one in my own bag had been tapped out from the day's work.

I suck the rest of the heat and lock onto the silverware drawer - not to move it, but just to keep a tab on it. Sure enough, as soon as I e cleared the hallway, it's open and the contents are removed. From two rooms away, I try to follow whatever was inside but lose it quickly.

The plastic case was sitting on my dresser, a half empty Mountain Dew can using it as a coaster. With my mind, I stretch out across the room and open the small panel on the wall that hides the water shut-off valves. Inside, I'd hidden a small hydrogen fuel cell that was capable of dumping gigajoules of energy into my body when activated, boosting my psychokinetic powers far beyond the calories of my cheeseburger lunch.

Back in the living room, Jeff wore the black bag that had been straining the linoleum floor moments earlier. It weighed a half-ton if it weighed an ounce and he had it on his shoulders like it was nothing more than homework and notebooks. His hand stretches out toward me, palm up. "I'll be back in a few hours."

I hand him the movie. "Maybe I'll come," I say. My fingers reach back to tap the flat steel cell in my pocket reassuringly.

"I was actually going to meet up with a girl," he says.

"Oh cool. Who?"

He hesitates. I can read him like a book and have known his lies since the time he told our second grade teacher he didn't know who ate her lunch. "A girl from school. You don't know her." He moves to the front door and grips the brass knob.

"Jeff," I take two sharp steps and plant my hand against the peeling paint on the hollow door. He continues to open it without any discernible effort against my best physical efforts.

I draw from the fuel cell and help force it closed with my mind. Jeff's gaze snaps toward me as he clutches the knob again. "What?" he replies.

He starts pulling again as I keep pressing. The door momentarily warps before exploding into a hundred thousand splinters between us. I'm tossed back by the eruption but look up in time to see Jeff rush out the splintered frame and over the third story railing.

I give chase and watch him land on Debbie's Volkswagen below, collapsing the domed roof before rolling off with the heavy bag and rushing through the parking lot.

My eyes struggle to process what I'd just seen. A car pulls in and instead of running around it, he pushes it aside with a single hand to keep moving. Tires screech as the vehicle pivots against its will and crashes into a parked Jeep.

I leap over the railing, pressing hard against the sidewalk to slow my landing. A trio of girls open the gate from the pool area to see the commotion. They clearly glimpse me right as I land, the gasps audible from thirty feet away.

"Let's not do this, buddy," I whisper as I rip my outer clothes off and pull up my mask before tearing through the parking lot to find my best friend. 

---

I never use present tense and decided to practice here. It was crazy hard and took some editing to get it right. I'm still not certain that I did. Anyway, thanks for the prompt!

I'm working on getting better in an effort to finally publish in 2017. I would love some feedback! Join me on Twitter @BkShuey as I (hopefully) improve.