Later that morning everyone made their way downstairs, they were roused by the smell of frying bacon and pancakes. The hangover breakfast was Joe's speciality, he'd started making it when Laura was in high school, and it was Steve and Ella's favorite meal. Their birthday a few weeks before was the first time they'd had it in years.
They all crowded around the dining room table while Ella went into the kitchen to collect glasses and cutlery.
"Smells great, dad." She grinned, leaning over the island to look at the spread. He'd made pancakes, waffles, sausages, eggs, bacon, there was a platter of fruit and an array of pastries. He'd gone all out. She stole a piece of crispy bacon before heading back into the other room.
Sarah started carrying everything in and joined them at the table, Joe came in a minute later with a fresh pot of coffee and the rest of the food. He poured everyone a mug before sitting down.
"How was last night?" Sarah asked when everyone had dished up their food.
"Fun, but there were a lot of people there," Steve answered.
"Everyone was sensible I hope?" Joe asked, trying and failing to mask his concern.
"Everyone except Nat," Sam joked, eliciting laughter from everyone around the table.
They carried on filling in their parents as they ate, making sure to leave the bottle of vodka from the details. Bucky recounting the game of beer pong made her parents smile.
"That's our girl." Joe grinned when Bucky explained how she'd accidentally smacked Steve in the face in the excitement of one of her winning celebrations.
"You should have seen these two growing up," Sarah chimed in, "everything was a competition. Grades, sports, who could run out to the car quicker, who could get their homework done fastest, who could eat more. Everything."
"I always won, of course," Ella bragged with a smile.
"Of course you did," Steve grumbled. "Laura would always sabotage me."
"Excuses, excuses." She smirked.
When they were done they all sat around chatting, except Steve who looked like he was going to nod off at the table. They helped clear up and the guests got ready to go home.
Everyone except Bucky was still upstairs, he stood waiting in the hallway by himself, his bag slung over his shoulder. He was looking at the rest of the photos dotted around the walls when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and peered up to see who it was.
Ella was making her way down, so engrossed with whatever was on her phone that she hadn't noticed him. He decided to have a little bit of fun. He waited until she was on the bottom step before stepping towards her.
"ELLA!" he boomed, inches away from her ear.
She shrieked. Jumping back so hard she slammed into the wall as her hands came up in self-defense and her phone clattered to the floor.
For a split second, he regretted it, her eyes were wide with pure fear and he thought she was mad. His breath hitched in this throat, about to blurt out an apology. But then to his relief, she started laughing. Hard. And it was infectious. Within seconds, both of them were doubled over gasping for air. Steve appeared at the top of the stairs to see what all the noise was about, his face a mix of worry and confusion, but they were laughing so hard they couldn't speak to explain themselves. The corner of Steve's mouth twitched into a half-smile as he watched the pair of them.
"Bucky!" she playfully slapped his shoulder once she'd somewhat composed herself. "What the hell was that for?"
"I'm sorry, I saw the opportunity and I just had to take it."
"Well please don't do that again, I'm pretty sure my soul left my body," she laughed, still breathless.
"The look on your face was priceless," he chuckled.
Sarah appeared, an amused look on her face as she looked at the pair of them.
"What's all the commotion?"
"Just Buck being an ass," Ella teased.
Everyone else made their way downstairs, their eyes flicking between Bucky and Ella, all their thoughts were aligned. Sam offered to give Bucky a lift home which he accepted, but Wanda decided to walk, and Ella joined her, in need of some fresh air.
As soon as they were out the door Wanda turned to look at Ella and squealed.
"What?" Ella asked, confused by her friend's outburst.
"You and Bucky," Wanda replied with a suggestive raise of her brow.
"Wanda!" Ella scolded.
"Oh come on, it was so obvious last night that you like each other."
It was more obvious this morning.
"We do not," Ella half-heartedly denied, she was met with an eye roll. "Anyway, what about you, you disappeared for a while I seem to recall?"
It was Wanda's turn to feel uncomfortable.
"Let me guess, Vis was there?" Ella teased.
"Fine," she groaned, giving in to Ella's prying. "I did talk to him for a while, nothing happened though. I was far too drunk."
"I didn't know you still liked him?" Ella quizzed. She knew the pair of them had been on a few dates towards the end of sophomore year, but she hadn't heard anything about it since.
"Yeah, we didn't keep in touch over summer, he was in England with his family," she explained, "so last night was the first time I'd actually spoken to him."
Ella looked at her friend, she was looking at the floor playing with her rings nervously.
"Hey, what is it you say to me? If you're happy, I'm happy," she tried to reassure Wanda.
"I know, I know. I've just never really liked a guy before, it feels weird saying out loud."
Ella laughed, whenever anyone mentioned dating around Wanda a few months ago she'd scrunch up her nose and say something along the lines of 'ewwww' so this was new.
They made it to Wanda's house a few minutes later
"Want to come in?" She offered.
"I should probably get home, I imagine my parents will want to do something today."
They gave each other a quick hug goodbye and Ella dug her headphones out of her pocket. She couldn't get Bucky out of her head anyway, and her conversation with Wanda hadn't helped, so she tried to drown out her thoughts with music. She turned it up as loud as it would go and walked home.
She was outside her front door when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out to see a text from Bucky.
I like making you laugh
She read it three times, despite the smile creeping across her lips her chest was heavy with stress. She held her phone to her chest and breathed out, the short-lived peace of mind she'd had on her walk home was banished with just five words.
She looked down at her phone. Despite every inch of her body telling her not to, she typed out a reply.
I like it when you make me laugh
She hit send before she could talk herself out of it.
When she opened the door her mom was digging around in the coat closet.
"Hi Ella, we're thinking of going for a bit of a hike, what do you think?" She said as she pulled out a pair of boots.
"Sounds good to me," Ella smiled, more than happy to have a distraction from her thoughts of Bucky.
"Steve," her mom shouted, "you're outvoted three to one, sorry!"
She was met with muffled groaning from the living room. The two of them smiled at each other.
"Make sure Steve gets ready will you?" Her mom sighed.
"Sure thing," Ella confirmed before wandering into the living room to find her brother sprawled out on the couch. He peered out from under the arm that was shielding his eyes from the sunlight pouring in through the windows.
"I thought you'd be on my side," he grumbled.
"Nope, I'm fresh as a daisy Steve," she mocked, "no one forced you to drink vodka."
"Nat did. Nat forced me," he groaned.
She prodded him in the side before jumping out the way of his hand that tried to smack her in retaliation.
"Come on, get up," she commanded to no response.
Finally, she managed to convince Steve to go and get ready, and half an hour later they all climbed into the car.
Their afternoon was relaxed, their parents had packed a picnic so they spent more time sitting, talking and eating than they did walking, much to Steve's relief.
Ever since Laura had passed they had tried to spend more time together as a family. It would never make up for lost time with her, but now they truly appreciated the value of these experiences.
The conversation quickly turned to college applications.
"You two need to let us know where you're thinking so we can go on some visits," Sarah smiled, "maybe we'll make a bit of a road trip out of it."
"Where are you guys thinking?" Joe asked.
Steve shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it yet. I guess just anywhere I can get a swimming scholarship"
"Same here," Ella added.
"Oh come on, you must have some ideas," Joe pushed.
Ella thought for a second, she hasn't admitted this to anyone yet because honestly, she thought her chances were slim. She was by no means the smartest person in her year at school, and the idea of aiming so high filled her with dread. But before she could stop herself she blurted it out.
"Brown," she grimaced as she waited for their reaction.
"Ella!" Her mom exclaimed, excited. "That's amazing, that's a great goal."
Steve looked at her with a frown. "I didn't know that."
"That's cause I didn't tell you." She turned her nose up at him sarcastically.
The conversation carried on, Ella and Steve listing a few of the other colleges they'd started looking at. They quickly realized that neither of them was considering moving too far away from home, not that either of them were overly surprised.
"How about Christian? Where is he considering?" Their mom asked.
Guilt knotted in Ella's stomach. She'd been avoiding this conversation with Christian for months now. She didn't want to pick her college based on his choices, and she didn't want him to do that for her either. But she had a sneaking suspicion he would, and in her mind, their relationship had an expiration date, which she'd been clinging on to as an excuse to stay with him.
It was sick, twisted and a hundred kinds of wrong. She knew that. But whenever she thought about breaking up with Christian that feeling of ungratefulness would overcome her, so waiting to go their separate ways at the end of senior year made it easier. Then she would have a legitimate reason to end it. I'm an awful person.
She finally looked at her parents and shrugged.
"We haven't talked about it."
Her mom gave her a look, one that made Ella feel as though she'd been inside her mind, listening to her dark thoughts.
"You'll figure it out," she said, giving her daughter a reassuring squeeze on the arm. The subtext of her words was clear. She wasn't saying that Ella and Christian would figure out how to make their relationship work through college, she was saying Ella would figure out how to find the courage to tell Christian she didn't want to try.
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