𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓷𝓲𝓪𝓬 ❖ 𝓫. 𝓫𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓼

C H A P T E R (8) - U N F A M I L I A R

After their conversation in the cemetery, Cassie had gotten home as quickly as she could. When she had entered her home, Steve was sat on the sofa twiddling his thumbs.

She entered the room where he was sat and looked at him with her glossy eyes. As soon as he noticed her state, he shot up and embraced her silently - he knew better than to ask if she was okay. After a few minutes, he was sure he was holding her up, so placing her on the sofa, he sat next to her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly.

Cassie shook her head gently, "It's nothing."

Steve offered her a small smile before a knock on the door pulled his attention away. Before he left the room, he looked back at her from the doorway.

"It's not nothing if you hug me for that long."

Cassie debated his words and could've laughed if she wasn't so on edge about what had happened in the cemetery. She listened closely as the door opened and two voices started to converse, but she couldn't make out complete sentences. Soon enough, the door closed and Steve re-entered the room with a confused expression.

"Who was it?" Cassie asked.

"It was uh, Bucky." He responded with reluctance, almost as if he was expecting a reaction from the pure mention of the name.

"Oh?"

Cassie had meant for it to come out like an 'Oh', but it had come out more like a question.

"Yeah he just came to ask if you were okay."

Cassie nodded before heading towards the stairs, but stopped at the bottom as Steve spoke up again.

"He wanted to talk to you, Cass. It seemed urgent."

"Tell him I'm busy." She replied without turning around, her eyes fixated at the top of the stairs.

Although Steve spoke again behind her, she wasn't sure what he had said. She was already closing her door and before she knew it, she had thrown herself onto her bed and was swimming in her sheets. She rested her head on the pillow she had positioned vertically so she could sit with her knees to her chest as she gazed out of the window.

It had been a while since she had admired the stars, and now, they seemed unfamiliar. Just as the closed curtains in the window across the street felt. It was too unfamiliar. Despite being across the road, it felt so far.

Cassie wrapped her arms around her knees as she watched the evening turn into night, her eyes not closing once. Steve didn't bother her, he knew her desire for solitude. After a while of admiring the night sky, the bedroom light in the house across the street turned on. Her eyes were immediately drawn to it, like a moth to...well, light.

When the curtains were opened, Cassie had expected anything, anything but what she saw: Bucky was sat on the bed as a woman stood in the middle of the room, looking at him. Looking closer at Bucky, she could tell he didn't look his usual happy self, although that didn't seem to bother the woman as Cassie watched on. The unfamiliar woman stepped closer to where Bucky sat, placing her hands on the back of his head and running her fingers through his hair.

Cassie's lips parted as the woman kissed Bucky, watching as they continued the kiss when she decided she couldn't bear to watch. She didn't want to watch.

After seeing more than she had bargained for, Cassie sat herself on the window ledge and closed her eyes, placing her head against the wall. With a deep sigh, she finally opened her eyes and gazed up at the moon.

The moon. So pure and innocent, and so beautiful. The dazzling moonlight that created a mystifying effect, an effect Cassie couldn't help but get lost in.

Then, her eyes finally travelled back to where they wanted to be. Instead, she saw Bucky sat leaning against his window, gazing over at where she sat. When their eyes finally connected, Cassie felt an overwhelming sense of unfamiliar desire.

There was no sign of the woman in Bucky's room, just him all alone, gazing at the woman he had been friends with for years that he was seeing in a different light. Although he couldn't decide whether it was a light he wanted to see her in.

The two were unable to converse, so Bucky simply gave a nod of his head and mouthed 'Goodnight.'

When Cassie understood his words, she knew she wouldn't sleep. That wasn't unusual, and it seemed like the only thing familiar to her now.

Insomnia was unwelcome in her life, yet it seemed to be the only thing that stayed.