Love and Hate - Stony Highschool

24| Homecoming and Happiness

Steve never thought that he would like California more than New York. He never thought he would feel as happy as he did while he was looking up at the stars with Peggy. Talking about anything that came to mind and remembering him thinking "I love you".

But being here with all his new friends he felt... safe. He didn't think about what could've happened with her. He didn't think about his old teammates he tried so desperately to impress. To get them to like him. To include him.

No, here he felt like he could be himself. He could be open and just say whatever was on his mind. He actually felt like he fit in here.

And all the people were so nice at Avengers. They would always smile and wave at him as he walked down the halls. It made him feel welcome. Wanted. It was a nice feeling.

As of now, he was sitting at a table at the homecoming dance. He was talking to some guys and girls and he didn't know. They were all awfully sweet.

"Ohh! You're Peter Pan!" One of them said, flipping their red hair to the side, "I would just love for you to take me to your Neverland."

Oh. Oh.

"Ummm."

"Okay, okay guys," Bucky said, pushing through the crowd of people, "if you make him blush one more time I'm afraid he'll stay that red color." Not helping Bucky, "lay off him."

Bucky sat beside the blond. He just finished grinding up against some girl before getting yelled at by Coach. You can always count on Bucky to find someone who's into him.

"Hey," he greeted loosely. He sounded almost drunk, but Steve knew that this place didn't have any alcohol. It was a school dance for crying out loud. Sometimes when Bucky was lazy he would slur his words together.

Steve raised his brows at his best friend.

"Hey, what happened to your friend?" Bucky smiled with his teeth.

"I got bored of her," the brunet replied with a shrug. A look of offense took over Steve's face.

"Bucky, that's rude."

"What? No, it's not, I'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend or something," Steves face of offense turned into disgust. Bucky just laughed at him, "I'm joking! God, Steve. You know I'm not like that."

Didn't you do that with Bella? Steve thought but didn't ask.

For some reason, Bucky started to annoy Steve sometimes. Don't get him wrong, he still loves him a whole bunch. But there were some things he said that didn't feel right.

Steve lifted his head to reply but instead of seeing Bucky, he saw Maddie. She was dancing with one of her friends, Jennifer, Steve thought. Maybe they were more than friends.

Maddie hasn't talked to Steve since her party. Well, they have talked, but they haven't talk talked. It's always little hi's or waves or nods as she walks by. Steve didn't know what he did wrong, maybe she was still upset with him for blowing him off to help Tony.

She was jumping up and down with Jennifer, smiling and screaming the words to a song Steve never heard of. She seems to be having fun; that's good.

Bucky followed his best friend's eyes.

"Awh, are you upset about Maddie? Why don't you just talk to her? I saw how you looked at her a couple of days ago as she walked by and didn't say anything," he said. Okay, yikes, no need to point that out. Steve shook his head.

"No, it's fine. It was my fault. I was reading into nothing."

"Well, you can always get with another girl to forget or. Or, maybe, a guy?" Bucky winked. Steve scoffed and looks away. As if. He was better than that.