The Marble Notebooks

Chapter 24

Bucky went out to therapy for the morning and I decided to stay back instead of roaming the town. Considering my neck was still pretty messed up looking I didn't think it was the best idea to parade it around town. After not talking all day yesterday and icing my neck I was able to speak more with less pain. Bruce gave me some of those accelerated healing pills I took when I broke my ribs a few months ago. Bucky has been by my side since our talk yesterday. We relaxed all day and watched movies. We were pretty silent, considering I could barely talk. But I knew he had a lot on his mind as well so trying to force conversation wasn't smart.

I was reading a book on the couch and drinking some tea when Sam came and sat in the living room with me. He was lacing up his sneakers to go on a run on the track out side.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked.

"Better... thanks," I said back to him and put my book down on the coffee table.

"Good, it looks better," He said pointing to my neck.

"Yeah, the healing meds have helped a lot,"

"Oh, that's good. I love those thing's," he said patting his gym shorts pockets. "Ah shit, where are they?" He said confused. "Damn, I lent my headphones to Bucky the other day, can you get them? He hates when I go in his room," he said to me.

"Well, I-" I was about to say that I've never been in there either but his cell phone ringing cut me off.

"Thanks, Julia," He said giving me a thumbs up and answering the phone call from his sister.

I reluctantly got up from the couch and headed down his bedroom wing hallway. I reached the door and had second thoughts. What if I see something I don't like? What could be so bad that he hates others coming in? It will be a quick second, I convinced myself and pushed the door open. The room was dark, the shades were mostly drawn. I took a couple of steps in and the room was definitely not what I expected. The bed only had sheets and a couple of pillows on it, with the blankets a mess on the floor. There was barely anything in the room beside a crooked brown lamp, a desk, and a bookshelf filled with marble notebooks, like the ones I have. The chair was beokwn and pushed off into the corner of the room. There were shredded pieces of paper all over the floor near the bookshelf and even some holes in the sheetrocked walls. I wanted to leave immediately. I grabbed the headphones off the desk and was about to leave when I saw Bucky standing in the doorway with an expressionless face.

"Hi," I croaked out after a minute of silence. "I- I... Sam asked me to get his headphones," I said quietly.

He was silent.

"I didn't look around... I just grabbed these, I- I was about to go..." I said quietly trying to elicit any answer. "I'm sorry, I kn-"

"Get out." He grumbled in a low voice I've never heard before.

"I'm sorry, Bucky. I know I shouldn't have come in, I regretted it the second I stepped in," I tried to defend my self walking closer to him slowly.

"But you came in anyway, I don't know why you would do that, Julia. I told you I don't like people in my room!" He said raising his voice at me.

"I know, I know. I shou-"

He cut me off again. "Just get the hell out. Now!" He said stepping to the side of the doorway.

I reluctantly left the room without looking at him. He slammed the door behind me. I wanted to bang on the door, make him come out and talk to me. I wanted to sit in front of the door and cry. Instead, I walked back to the living room and threw the headphones on the couch next to Sam who was still on the phone. He shouted thanks at me as I ran down the hall to my room, like a teenager who just got yelled at by their mom.