Meant to Be

October 18th - October 19th

The next morning at school Ella hung around by her locker until the last possible second before the bell rang, but there was no sign of Bucky. Maybe he's running late. It was the first day in weeks that they hadn't met up there. She sat through homeroom, counting down the minutes until first period when she thought she would see him.

She was wrong.

His desk was empty. He didn't show. Would he skip school to avoid me? Her stomach knotted as she thought about whether he'd go such an extreme. She blinked hard, trying to focus on the lesson. She flipped her pen in her fingers. It clattered onto the desk when she dropped it, and she didn't bother picking it back up. Her empty page stayed blank. Maybe he doesn't want to see me. Wanda poked her arm. She ignored it.

When the bell rang at the end of the period she hurriedly gathered her books and pencil case, not bothering to pack them into her bag. She left the class and snuck into the bathroom before Nat and Wanda could see where she'd gone. She dropped everything in her arms next to the sink and locked herself in a stall. She pressed her back up against the door.

She called him. No answer. He's avoiding me.

"He's probably off sick," Nat reasoned as they walked to their next class. Ella knew it was the most obvious explanation but it did nothing to ease her doubts.

Every lesson seemed to go on for an excruciatingly long time. Like time had slowed down just to torture her. She rang him again at lunch with the same result. No answer. She felt nauseous. At lunch, she sat in the cafeteria bouncing her knee, not eating. She asked if anyone else had heard from him. They hadn't.

When the last lesson of the day finished she called him again, losing her last shred of hope when he didn't answer for the third time. She found Steve in the corridor, chatting away to someone she vaguely knew. She interrupted his conversation, just needing to get out of the bustling corridor as quickly as she could. The voices around her were making her dizzy. He doesn't want to see me.

"I'm skipping practice tonight. I'll walk, you can have the car," she said, dropping the keys into his hand. She had planned to go and see Christian after swim practice, but she could only think about Bucky. His house was on her way home, she found herself heading there instead.

She took a wrong turn, it took her a minute to notice, she was so consumed with worry she wasn't concentrating on where she was walking. She realized she'd crossed several roads without being at all aware, but she made it there unharmed eventually. She stood outside his front door, his car was the only one on the driveway. Her phone started vibrating in her pocket. She had half a mind to ignore it, it was probably Christian. But she pulled it out to check. Bucky. Her head dropped back in relief as she sighed. The weight on her shoulders dissipated.

"Hey, Ella," his voice was weak. He sounded sick. I was worried for nothing.

"Hey, Bucky," she replied, not wanting to sound too happy to hear from him given how rough he seemed to be feeling.

"Sorry I missed your calls, was something wrong?" He was exhausted, but he still managed to muster up enough energy to sound worried.

Ella shook her head, forgetting that he couldn't see her, "no, I just...I'm sorry...I thought maybe you were avoiding me."

He panicked, "no Ella, of course not, I'm just sick, I've been asleep most of the day."

She paused, considering whether to just leave, but she missed him. A lot.

"Bucky, this is going to sound strange, but I'm outside your front door."

He coughed, choking on air, and hung up the phone. The next few seconds seemed to last longer than they should have. But eventually, the front door opened to reveal Bucky. He was in a t-shirt and joggers, his usually well-groomed hair was a tousled mess and he looked pale, as though he hadn't seen the sun in years.