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(𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒)
CHAPTER THREE-----▹
"You're coming to the medical charity tonight right?" Stephen asked his daughter, "Oh yes, father dearest." Leigh responded using her most dramatic sarcastic tone. Stephen ignored his daughter's tone, "Did you study for your exam?" she sighed, "Yes, are you done asking me questions, I liked it better when you were avoiding me." she muttered bitterly. "I wasn't avoiding you, Leigh." he said, "Really? Because it sure seemed like it. Do you remember what you told me when my mother left?" she paused waiting to see if he would answer, he sat there looking guilty, "You told me that it was you and I against the world, you know what you did then? You hired a nanny, I barely saw you at all...ever."
"You're not gonna say anything?" Leigh's voice broke towards the end of her sentence, "Who am I kidding, of course, you aren't." she frowned, turning away from his guilty gaze, without saying anything else she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and walked away.
Leigh walked into her room, photo frames taunting her with happier times, there were a few overturned ones on her shelf, hoping to avoid painful memories. She approached her bed, already seeing several medical books, and notebooks filled to the brim with sloppy notes from being in a rush to write them. Leigh collected the books and notebooks from her bed stacking them up in a section of her bookshelf, she then walked over to the closet pulling out a long case that hadn't seen the light of day in forever, her keyboard.
The brunette plugged it into the wall, it took a second to turn on after a few years of it not even being touched, Leigh pulled out her old songbook, flipping through the lyrics that would never be heard by the rest of the world. Leigh played a few cords in various orders until she was playing a basic melody, and humming to herself. The girl didn't notice her father standing in the doorway of her room listening intently to the melody, before walking away.
Christine knocked on Leigh's door around five to let her look through a few dresses since all the brunette ever wore was jeans and hoodies. "Hey Leigh," she spoke walking into the room, "Christine, do you need something?" Leigh asked quickly closing her songbook, "Sorry that sounded mean." she quickly apologized. Christine smiled softly at the younger girl, "I didn't know you played," she said motioning towards the keyboard, "Oh. Yeah, I used to a lot more, but life got really busy..."
Christine nodded in understanding, "I brought some dresses for you to look through for tonight," Leigh looked up, "Nooo," the brunette whined, "I hate dresses." she said flopping back onto her bed, "C'mon, it can't be that bad. I'll make you a deal." Leigh raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Proceed." Christine smiled, she would gladly accept the small victory. "If you wear a dress, you can leave an hour in, instead of staying the whole time."
"Yeah, I would totally agree, but my father will never agree to that." Leigh huffed, "Well, he will just have to." Christine spoke, "Fine. You have a deal, but if I'm not out of there after an hour, I might literally murder someone." Christine rolled her eyes and set down the dress bag, "See you in thirty minutes so we can leave."
"Got it," Leigh spoke waiting to hear the door close before moving, the brunette hadn't always hated dresses, in fact, she had once loved them, but that time was long gone, replaced with a distaste of anything that reminded her of that time.
Nat ❤️🕷️
L: Christine is making me wear a dress. A DRESS!
N: Poor bby :(
L: I can sense your sarcasm from here. Don't be mean Romanoff!
L: See you at six-thirty? :)
N: Yep, don't die between now and then pls.
Leigh closed her phone, moving to unzip the dress bag, there were dresses in various styles and colors, "She wants me to wear a dress, fine." the brunette muttered pulling out the plain black dress, "But I am not, under any circumstances wearing heels."
Leigh pulled the strapless dress on, and stood in front of the full-length mirror, it occurred to her then that she still had a stab wound, covered with a bandage that you could clearly see on her shoulder, of course being as stubborn as Leigh was, she hadn't gone to medical when they got back from Sokovia. In fact, she did her own stitches while listening to an audio recording of a recent lesson from one of her classes. The brunette dialed Natasha's number, "Hey Nat!" she greeted her voice filled with false enthusiasm, "Have ever told you that you are my favorite person ever?" she asked, "What did you do?" the redhead's voice came through the phone, "Theoretically, how would you cover up a freshly stitched-up wound when you have to wear a sleeveless dress?"
"Leigh, please tell me you don't have a freshly stitched-up wound when I know very well that you didn't go to medical when we got back." Natasha spoke, "Nope, wouldn't be me." Leigh responded, "Leigh I swear to God between you and Clint I'm going to be dead by forty." she muttered, "Love you too Nat." she replied sarcastically.
"Just wear a jacket or something," Natasha shrugged from the other end of the phone, "But I'm checking those stitches when I get there." the redhead added, "Naaaaaaaat," Leigh whinned, "I'm literally a medical student." Natasha chuckled at the brunette's whining, "Yeah, well I've been patching you up since you were like sixteen-" the ex assasin spoke, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
----
The charity was interesting as ever, Leigh was ready to murder her father by the end of it. Leigh slammed the front door behind her, Stephen and Christine only halfway down the sidewalk, "Leigh," her father spoke, walking into the kitchen, Christine trailing behind him, "Why do you always do this?" she asked her voice breaking slightly, "You drag me out to these events, and play pretend like a child. Pretend like you've been any kind of father to me since I was eight, pretend like you don't secretly hate my guts for being the reason my mother left. It hurts you know, it's wonderful in the moment." she paused taking a breath, "But knowing that all it is, is pretend hurts, I can't keep doing this shit." Christine tried to defuse the situation but there was no going back from here.
"No, don't touch me." she whispered pulling away from her father's hand, "I'm done, gone. I'll see you around...Dad." she whispered the last part, "Where are you going?" Christine asked, "I'm leaving." she answered already halfway down the hallway, Leigh wipped away the mascara the ran slightly down her face.
The brunette packed a bag, and walked back through the kitchen where Stephen and Christine were speaking in hushed tones, "Oh save your worry, I have a place to stay." Leigh scoffed, "Leigh, you're over reac-" Leigh shook her head, "Don't even finish that sentence, this has been a long time coming, and you know it."
----
"You came." Leigh breathed a sigh of relief, "Of course I did kid," Clint spoke taking the duffle bag from the brunette, "If...if it isn't too much, I was wondering if I could stay with you and Laura for a while?" she sniffled, he smiled at her, "You're always welcome to stay with us, Laura adores you and so do the kids,"
Leigh smiled softly, "Thank you for coming, Clint." he nodded in response getting in the driver's seat, "Nat's not gonna be happy you didn't call her first." he chuckled, "I didn't want to bother her, I've already taken up enough of her night." the brunette shrugged, turning the knob that adjusted the volume of the music, "We're going back to the tower for now," he started,
"We'll go home after Tony's Party on Saturday."