Falling, Fallen

Chapter 18

RAQUEL'S POV

It was a Wednesday afternoon, we were only two days away from the party and we were going to go shopping for dresses today. Every day my nightmares would get worse and they would even haunt me during the day. I tried my hardest to make sure no one would notice but I didn't know how long I'd be able to pretend this wasn't happening.

I was completely sleep-deprived and in complete denial, Tony hadn't been able to figure out anything about Charlie and I was going mad. Pietro was the only one to know that something was wrong, but every time he'd ask me about it I'd deny it and lie that everything was okay.

The car that would take Wanda, Nat, and me to the mall was waiting for us downstairs. I was the first one ready, waiting for them in the lobby, a few minutes later Nat came down and we waited for Wanda together. Soon after she joined us at the lobby, followed by a deeply uncomfortable Pietro. "Is it okay if he crashes, he has nothing to wear and he's giving me anxiety for how unworried he is" Wanda laughed, Nat and I were happy for him to come along.

He didn't say anything the whole way there, he would just tap his feet, wondering why we were taking forever to get there. In reality, we were getting there way faster than if we were to take another car (Tony designed them to get faster to missions and meetings) but since he could go so fast everything was extra slow for him. He must've been dying, knowing how impatient he was, I could tell he was about to implode from boredom. Looking at him get frustrated was giving me a headache.

"Pietro if you don't stop thinking about when we're going to get there you're going to drive yourself and all of us mad," I spoke up, not being able to take it any longer.

"I'm sorry, I just feel like we're moving slower every minute," he explained himself.

"Well just think about how lucky you are," Nat suggested. Pietro just looked at her completely confused. "How am I lucky?" he said, genuinely confused.

"For starters, you get to accompany three totally hot and beautiful women to shop for dresses and you get to buy yourself something for the even as well" Nat explained.

"Well, for starters, men don't get as excited by the idea of shopping as you do, and usually I would be very excited to accompany three beautiful women to try on dresses but considering that the three very beautiful women are: my sister, an assassin, and a girl with more powers than I can count. One wrong comment and I'm dead." Pietro fusses. He made a solid point though.

"Come on we wouldn't kill you" Nat states causing Pietro to actually get excited for a moment before she finished her thought, "I mean, if your wrong comment happens to be particularly bad, we can just let him suffer a bit." Wanda and I chuckled after seeing Pietro return to his state of worry.

"I doubt Wanda would let him suffer," I say.

"It depends on his comment." Wanda shrugs.

"What happens if I want to be honest and honesty isn't what any of you want to hear?" Pietro asks sincerely.

"Don't worry. I don't think any of us would actually harm you. But you could suffer from the side effects of a few cold shoulders." I tease him.

"How encouraging." He scoffs,

"Look, if we find something you can wear, and you keep a positive attitude, you can pick where we eat lunch." Nat proposes, Wanda and I nod along in agreeance. Once again, Pietro got excited at the thought of accompanying us, I could tell he already knew which place to chose.

We finally arrived at the mall, I was extremely excited since this was my first time actually shopping and my first time looking forward to a part. For a few hours, I was going to be able to distract myself from thinking about my brothers.