THE FIRST THING DIANA DID WHEN STEPPING OFF THE PLANE WAS FALL ON HER FACE. That should have told her all she needed to know about the upcoming months ahead. But that didn't matter to her at the moment, so she just pried herself up and made her way towards the world that wasn't the same as she had left it. She didn't know that, though.
After recovering and walking towards the exit, her nose still screaming, she pulled out her phone to text Flash who was in charge of communicating with her and making sure they met up at the right time.
He replied instantaneously, letting her know that he was pulling up soon, so she should come out and wait for him by the loading zone. She frowned, confused by his wording. He was pulling up. With what car?
She grabbed her check-in bag, pulling both of her luggages behind her as she made her way outside and towards the loading zone, keeping an eye out for her surrogate brother, not that she would recognize his car if she saw it.
There was a loud honk and she turned to see Flash smirking at her. "Sup, Queen Elizabeth?" he called out in an obnoxious English accent, "Are we late for tea?"
She rolled her eyes and pulled her luggage towards him, crossing her arms so that he would be forced to load it in himself. As he did, she took the time to admire his car. She didn't know the brand, but she had to admire its sleek blue color, as well as the nice make.
"It's an Audi R8," Flash explained when he caught sight of her stare, "Now get in, I wanna get home."
She nodded and opened the door, relaxing into the cushion of the passenger seat. She buckled up and clutched the door handle, watching as Flash started the car and pulled out of the loading zone, merging onto traffic, making their way home.
"Calm down," he drawled, "I know what I'm doing." He swerved slightly in the lane just to make her scream and laughed loudly.
She glared. "You are a huge jerk and I hate you." Her words had bite, but Flash just laughed them off.
The two drove in silence for a few minutes, Diana closing her eyes and feeling the wind brush her face and blow back her hair. Flash was a fairly good driver, all things considered, and she felt safe enough to let go of the door handle and just enjoy the ride.
"Um..." he started, "You want me to fill you in on what you've missed? A lot's happened in the three months you were gone and we haven't talked in a while." He sounded tired and nervous, as if he were trapped in a cage and was throwing himself out as bait, hoping that someone would rescue him before any real damage was done.
"Sure," she replied, turning in her seat so her body was facing him, resting her head on her arms which she propped up. "How're you and Gwen?"
He gripped the steering wheel tighter and swallowed thickly. "We broke up."
She shrieked and he nearly crashed the car. His shouts were drowned out by her own demands. "What happened? Why? What did you do?"
"Why do you think I did it?" he demanded, sounding hurt, "We just didn't work out! I tried to be a good boyfriend, but we were just too different. She was a genius and I wasn't, her dad didn't like me because he knew what my dad did, stuff happened, it just didn't work!"
She groaned and faced forward, looking up at the sky. "I'm sorry, Flash. That's awful, I'm so sorry."
He shrugged stiffly. "Whatever. Harry's got a boyfriend, so that's fun."
She shrieked again, but this time he was prepared, wincing slightly before focusing his attention back onto the road. He was still tense, shoulders up to his ears at this point.
"Who?" she asked, though not as excited as she would have been if he hadn't told her that he and Gwen had broken up first.
Flash laughed, shaking his head. "I wanna say you wouldn't believe it, but let's be real, they're both blonde, rich, and hot."
"Who?" she demanded, sounding more like an owl than an actual teenager, "Tell me!"
Flash smirked, sighing in disbelief. "Johnny. Freaking. Storm. As in the Human Torch. He complimented my car, Diana."
"I called it!" she cheered, her leg jerking and kicking the underside of the car, earning herself a glare for her troubles. It didn't faze her, however, and she continued celebrating, remembering her brief encounter with the boy all those months ago. "I knew it, I knew they would date!"
Flash raised an eyebrow, but thankfully didn't ask his question; Diana didn't need to explain how her not-date with Peter went. At the thought of the boy, her stomach clenched and she bit her lip, trying to keep from asking how he was doing.
"I don't have any news on your boyfriend if that's what you're wondering," Flash said curtly, "And I really don't want to know anything about how his summer is going, so don't even try to tell me."
She shrugged. "I wouldn't really know what to tell you." He was just going around as Spider-Man every day and texting Happy Hogan who was supposed to be relaying his messages to Tony Stark, no big deal.
"What do you mean?" Flash asked, now concerned, "What, have you not been talking to him either? You cut off contact with everyone here? Did you even want to come back?"
"Of course I wanted to come back!" she shouted, though she wasn't so sure of her words, "And timezones made it hard, Flash, you know, sometimes I just didn't feel like socializing."
Her last line caused him to back off, nodding understandingly. "Okay. Okay, yeah, that's fair, I get it." He tapped on the steering wheel, turning on his turn signal and changing lanes.
"You wanna call him?" Flash asked, handing her his phone, "Don't eat up my battery, just say hi or something."
She smiled tightly and took the phone from him, though her own was sitting in her pocket. She found that his number was in Flash's contact already and simply pressed the call button, raising the phone up to her ear.
Just as it was about to go to voicemail, she heard a familiar voice on the other end. "F-Flash?"
"Hey, Bugs," she said, just loud enough to be heard over the roar of the wind, "Just wanted to let you know I'm home. How are you?"
"I'm good," the boy replied, "I'm currently on a fire escape, so..."
Her heart leapt. "Is it...?"
"No, sorry, I'm in Queens," he replied, "Though, I mean, I could drop by tonight to say hi. Not for long, though. If you want."
She smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I would like that."
"Okay. I gotta get home before Aunt May notices I'm gone. I'll talk to you later." She heard his voice become muffled, probably by his mask over his mouth.
"Okay. Bye, Bugs."
"Bye, Diana."
As she hung up, she pretended that instead of Diana, he had called her doc, the way he usually did. Since he had his mask over his mouth, he might have said doc and she misheard it. She was grasping for straws, but she wanted to believe it more than anything else in the world. She missed him calling her doc. It had been so long.
"You don't look happy," Flash commented, taking his phone back, "What did he say?" He turned his attention back to the road, smoothly merging onto the exit.
"He just said that he'd say hi later tonight," she replied. Flash's knee jerked and she scoffed. "Calm down, it's not like that."
Flash grumbled softly. "I'll cut off more than his hands if I catch him touching you."
She swatted his arm, surprised that it didn't affect his driving, shaking her head. "You need to relax. You're so tense, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," he replied, "Mom's just been awful lately and Jesse's been hiding in her room or hanging out with her friends practicing for track leaving me alone to study and be bored."
"Why do you study, why don't you hang out with your football friends?" she asked, tilting her head.
He shrugged. "They're not interesting anymore. I mean, they're so stupid. Stupider than me, you know?"
She didn't want to agree with him; he was being rude. But he had a point and she nodded carefully. "I guess. What, are you quitting football?"
He shook his head. "No. I talked to coach and Mr. Harrington, we're all good. This'll look great on my college applications. Because, you know, I'm actually thinking about that now."
She raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing. She wouldn't even know what to say. Flash was being passive aggressive, but there was something about his tone that told her that his words weren't meant for her.
"School's starting soon," she said slowly, "What's the plan for you? How's decathlon?"
He shrugged. "It's fine. Parker's still first chair. Liz is graduating soon. Sally joined, I never mentioned it, and this girl Michelle is too, that's what I heard Liz mention. So, yeah, we're getting new people."
Diana licked her lips. "How hard is it for you not to say something rude right now?"
He laughed mirthlessly. "My toes are curling and I'm biting my cheek. That guy, Nicky? Yeah, he worked for a bit. But we had to let him go."
She frowned. "What? Why?" She trusted Nicky, he knew what he was doing. The idea of him betraying her trust made her sick to her stomach and she grabbed the door handle for balance.
Flash shrugged quickly, shaking his head, his fingers curling and uncurling around the wheel. "He just, you know, didn't work for the family. He worked for me, but I had to stop seeing him, it's not a big deal, I'm fine."
She shook her head, sighing. "No, Flash, no you are not."
"Well, that's none of your fucking business, so don't even start with me," he snapped, sharply rounding the corner.
She yelped, her grip on the door handle tightening, her heart leaping into her chest. She whirled around to stare at Flash, shocked. "What's wrong, Flash? You're driving, this is not the time for your angs—"
"Quit acting like you're better than me, I'm not a kid!" he shouted, "You with that stupid accent, what happened to you? 'Oh, I'm Diana, I'm so great, I have a boyfriend that's always gonna be better than Flash and I'm totally not depressed anymore because I got out of New York, because that's how that works'."
She scoffed. This was a complete change in pace, but she wasn't about to let him mock her, not when she just got home. "What made you think I would say any of that, you asshole?"
"Because you texted it to me!" he shouted, ripping his phone out of his pocket and throwing it at her, nearly throwing it out of his car, "I figured it was Danny, but it's not like you ever told me it wasn't you! And I was actually there for your Skype calls, I listened to you."
She shook her head. "What are you talking about?"
He took a deep breath, raising his voice up a few octaves, mimicking her. "'Flash, I don't like you calling London 'hell' anymore. It was funny at first, but seriously, you're being a real jerk about it. These people are my family and at least they don't argue all the time and they're actually pretty decent people, Flash. Danny. Isn't. All. That. Bad.' You told me that. I can't believe you told me that." His voice cracked towards the end, but he coughed it away.
She scoffed, upset that he was holding that conversation against her; that was months ago. "Well, it's kinda true, Flash, I mean—"
"Don't," he snapped, "Just don't. Okay? I have enough to deal with without you being all pissy."
"You started it!" she cried, throwing up her arms. Was he really serious? "And what do you mean you have enough to deal with, all you're doing is studyin—"
"You think I want to?" he shouted before pulling over to stop on the side of the road, unbuckling and turning to glare at her, "You think I wanna do this?"
Fear coursed through her body and she reached for the door handle, ready to run if he started to get physical or was getting close. Her heart leapt about, her eyes searching for any indication of danger as he just stared at her, breathing heavily.
"What happened, Flash?" she whispered, wincing as soon as she asked; she shouldn't have.
He let out a low, frustrated growl and Diana was immediately reminded of an animal trapped in a cage. He ran his hands through his hair, ruining what he had probably spent nearly an hour trying to perfect. His styled hair was reduced to a mess, just like Flash was.
He took a deep breath and motioned towards the car. "You never asked how I got it."
She frowned. "Got what? The car?"
Goosebumps prickled her arms as her mind jumped to the conclusion that Flash had somehow stolen it from someone, leaving the owner bloodied in an alleyway. She shook off the thought immediately. Flash was never like that to begin with. At least, that's what she thought.
He nodded furiously and hit the car seat roughly, causing her to jump. He shook out his hand and ran his hands through his hair again.
"Flash," she said, voice slow and clear, "What happened?"
He let out a shuddering breath, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
"Dad's out on parole. He's back."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
( 07.14.17 )
The emotions and dialogue in this story were all over the place, but Flash is stressed and hurt and Diana hasn't talked to him in a while and had been talking to Danny, so...?
I had initially had Harrison Thompson be dead at the start of the story, but Flash mentioned that it was his father's car he was driving, so I decided to use his dad as a plot point which I will be fleshing out.
That's all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!