AUGUST || Bucky Barnes x OC

4

Lunch was followed by a two hour long nap, which was then followed by drinking, then dinner, then some more drinking, and finally the summer night started to breeze over tree tops, drawing everybody inside for the night.

Except for the girls. Valerie, MJ, and Wanda sat snuggled up under a blanket in the swing on the back part of the porch. The view stretched all the way across the backyard and some of the Barnes estate which was separated from the Banner house by  the great lake.

"So, what's the deal with you and Bucky?" Wanda finally blurted out after one too many sips of the spiked peach lemonade. They had decided to pour the remaining drink into a larger bottle and share it.

"Omg, Wanda!" MJ punched her arm playfully "you can't just ask that!" she tried to hold back her laughter. Silence fell for a few seconds and then Wanda interfered yet again, "no, but what's the deal with you and Bucky?" This time they all burst out laughing.

"What? I didn't go to high school with you guys! MJ and Nat are all filled in, it's not fair!" Wanda pleaded. Although Wanda, MJ and Valerie had stumbled upon a friendship a couple of years after Valerie left Bladesville, it often felt like they had known each other since they were infants. Wanda and Valerie had met in the city, both working shitty waitressing jobs at a spot called "Bob's". At the same time MJ had been attending Columbia for her Bachelors. Wanda ended up seizing an opportunity to open her own crystal store after MJ sold her on the idea of how successful it would be in Bladesville, and she was right. She lived in a smaller cabin along the shore where she could ride her bike into town everyday. And MJ eventually decided that the city was not for her, and moved back to Bladesville.

"Oh, Nat and I lived through it, that's why!" MJ responded.

"Alright, no need to make it sound like you're traumatized" Valerie rolled her eyes and snatched the bottle from MJ.

"Bitch, I am!" MJ burst out laughing, clinging onto Wanda who had now joined in.

After they regained some of their self control, MJ turned to Valerie, eyebrows raised gesturing for her to speak.

"You know what, you go ahead MJ. Unveil that trauma of yours" Valerie took another sip, jokingly rolling her eyes at her friend.

MJ cleared her throat and started "So basically what happened was, Bucky and Val mess around the summer after graduation. This is obviously right before we move to the city, and Bucky and Bruce were back in town from college over summer break." MJ took another sip from the bottle Valerie had handed back to her. Wanda was listening intently.

"Bucky was in love with her. So in love, like, you can't even imagine. This guy had it bad for her. Anyways, Bucky is... a Barnes. And Mr & Mrs Barnes have had his life planned out for him since before he was even born. Which is, take over the family logging business, get a nice house on the Estate grounds, get married to a pretty lady, pop out a couple of kids; and then..you know repeat the cycle. And miss Val here, well you know our girl Val. She wasn't gonna stay put, especially not in Bladesville with the rest of us assholes'" MJ let out a drunk hiccup. "So she's all like, I gotta get out of here or I'll end up like my mom, and Bucky's all like, no stay and we can be together! And Val is like, even worse; we'll end up like both our parents! And Bucky's like, is that so bad?" and then-" MJ's award winning storytelling came to an abrupt end when Valerie decided to jump in.

"I think she gets it, MJ.." she interrupted.

"wow, so...what happened after that?" Wanda asked, too intrigued to let it go at this point.

"So Bucky tries to stop her, right? Shows up the day we're leaving for the city, begs her not to go, like begs. Obviously, Val here had her mind made up. It gets pretty ugly, I can't tell you verbatim what was said, all I saw was just a bunch of hand flailing and tears from the car window. It ends with Val getting in the car yelling at me and Nat to drive, and we left Bucky standing in the driveway, looking like a kid who's just been told Santa isn't real" Valerie shifted in her seat from being so uncomfortable, and the memory of that morning pulled at her heart strings; making the knot continue to grow even bigger.