Yesterday's Promise (High-School Stony AU)

Chapter 4

Steve kept looking at his phone every few seconds as he tried to find a somewhat open area to just stand still where nobody would end up breathing on the back of his neck. Eventually, a few minutes later, as Steve still searched for his friends, he received a reply from Bucky,

Come to the living room, walk to the left when you come inside and then turn right.

Steve followed his instructions and realized that he had started walking left anyway when he had entered. He nudged his way through the crowd of people who were dancing or talking with one another and then took a right like Bucky said. Steve thought that he could easily get lost in a mansion like this. With so many different areas of the house, he found it surprising that only three people actually lived there. Steve sent Bucky one last reply letting him know that he would be there in a few seconds and right as he hit send, he entered the living room. The only way he could really tell it was the living room was because he could see the large TV in the distance over the multiple heads of people. Steve looked around and saw a few familiar faces but none of which he was hoping to find.

"What the hell." Steve mumbled to himself as he continued passing his way by dozens of people. He was just about to reach out his phone once more when there was a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Bucky with a smile on his face and a plastic red cup in his other hand. "Dude finally. We were all waiting on you." He let go as Steve turned around and followed Bucky to where all their friends were. Bucky leaned into Steve so he could hear him as he spoke, "Ya know, Natasha's gonna be surprised you're here. She didn't think you were gonna show." he said, heading over to the group of what Steve now saw as all his friends. There was a few of his closest friends from the football team, Thor and Sam, and then there was Bruce who was a close friend of Steve's when it came to studying, and Clint was standing next to Natasha, while stood Peggy, Jane, Pepper, and Darcy, all giggling with one another. They all formed this comfortable little group while mix-mingling and all had cups in their hand of what Steve assumed was probably punch or for all he knew, alcohol.

Natasha caught his eye as he walked up to all of them with Bucky. "Look who I found." Bucky patted Steve on the back and the both of them just laughed. "Wow. You actually came." Natasha smiled and took a sip of her drink, "I didn't think you'd actually come." Steve just nodded and shrugged, "Well I persuaded my mom to let me go."

Next to Steve, Bucky started flirting with a girl from school named Connie who he knew from a few of his classes, and because Bucky would flirt with her in the hallways at times. Everyone seemed to have someone in mind to flirt with while Steve was the only one that wasn't interested in anybody at the moment. If he really wanted to fit in with the crowd, he could start it up with Peggy but he knew that would only be unfair to her because he wasn't interested in her anymore. He listened in on what everyone was talking about. He felt less awkward that although everyone seemed to have another in mind, everybody was still talking with one another in the group. "There seem to be a lot more people at this one than the last." James Rhodes entered their group holding two plastic cups and offered one out to Steve. "Yeah, I know. I've never even seen half of these people in my life before." Bruce agreed with Rhodes as Steve took the cup and looked inside of it, "What is it?" he asked, raising his voice so James could hear. "Punch, what else?" he replied to Steve, taking a drink out of his own. Steve didn't want to take the chance that it could be spiked so just held it in his hand without drinking it while he talked with everyone else.

The next hour carried on like this while even though Steve was having a good time, he didn't really see why so many people talked about them being the best things to ever occur. He was getting a little tired of just standing in the same spot for all this time so decided to walk around and maybe talk to some new people. He looked around and decided to just slip out of the group. People had been coming and going from their group as the party went on so most likely nobody would notice him leaving. "Dude, where you going?" Bucky tapped Steve on the shoulder as he turned around. "Just gonna walk around for a bit." Steve replied as Bucky winked at him, and for all Steve knew, Bucky probably assumed he was going to find some girls or something.

Still not taking a drink out of his cup, he managed to set it down on a table he walked by as he passed groups of people. All he could really manage to hear was the voices of many and on top of that was the music that he had adjusted to. He wasn't really sure what he was hoping to find as he walked around. Maybe, like Bucky assumed he was doing, he would find a girl. He wondered if maybe he would see her standing there like they always are in the movies. He would catch her eye in the distance and they would hold on to a moment of love-at-first-sight and then she would disappear through the crowds of people, leaving Steve hopeless but to find her.

He looked around and to the right of him, he saw there were stairs that curved to the left to an upper floor. There were some people standing on the staircase, leaning up against the wall talking while Steve watched another couple, a girl pulling on, what he assumed was, her boyfriend's arm up the stairs, probably to find an unoccupied bedroom. Steve thought it was disgusting. Did Tony even know what happens at these parties himself? That people use his bedrooms in his house to do things like that.

Ahead of him, he saw that there was a door open that led outside to the backyard near the pool. He thought fresh air sounded pretty good right about now to let his head breathe for a bit. Steve continued walking and when he got to the doors he squeezed his way through a few people who decided it smart to just stand right in the middle of the open doorway. As Steve started observing the people around him, he could definitely tell that there was indeed alcohol being consumed at the party- making him glad that he set down his cup.

There was a warm breeze that brushed against him upon exiting the large mansion. There were people swimming in the pool and people around it in swimming suits laughing with others and Steve realized that the outside was only somewhat an escape from inside as there were dozens of people outside as well. At least it wasn't as bad. He didn't have to nudge his way around people to look where he was walking.

He casually just looked around with his hands in both his pockets and to his right he saw a bunch of stoners sitting on the ground in their own little circle, passing around joints of weed and lighting them up. Steve knew that they were all probably having a great time but was shocked to see that there were a few people he actually knew from school that were sitting over there getting high. One of which, actually sat at his lunch table and talked with him and his friends. It was Thor's brother, Loki. Steve knew from what he and Thor would talk about, that Loki could be extremely rebellious in their household but Thor was a kind enough brother that he never told their parents, but he always threatened. However, the worst thing Thor ever mentioned him doing was having him sneak off in the middle of the night. Not smoking marijuana and getting high.

He looked away quickly after seeing him with the others, not wanting to make it awkward between them after seeing him doing something that his brother might not even know about.

There were girls jumping into the pool. Some jumping from the diving board or others just jumping in at a random spot. Steve saw it only for a second but then immediately turned away his view toward the hot tub. He recognized who they were from school and Steve was somewhat regretting that he ever made the decision to come outside for fresh air in the first place. Before he could switch his mind to a new topic other than the two getting it on, he heard someone call his name and it was switched for him.

He turned around and saw it was none other than the party thrower himself. He was actually not annoyed to see Tony for once in his life. "Hey," Steve said as he met up with him next to the pool. Steve couldn't tell if Tony was fully drunk or not but assumed that he had high alcohol tolerance either way. At school he would always talk about different types of alcohols and what his favorites were or what types of beer tasted better than others. "We were just looking for you. We're playing games in the living room. You should come." Tony said as he smiled at some girls in the pool. Steve's eyes followed to the girls in the pool and he smiled at them as they waved at him and he looked back at Tony, "Who's all playing? And what games?"

Tony shook his head, "Jesus, so many questions. C'mon, it'll be fun." he put his arm around Steve's shoulders and started forcing him to walk with him. Steve just went with it and followed him inside.

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author's note !

hiii, sorry I haven't updated in awhile :/ lol but I hope this makes up for it ! hopefully there will be another update by next week for you :) (sorry for any grammar errors or anything like that!)