✔𝚮𝐞𝐥𝐥𝛐 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 ➳ 𝚩𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝚩𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 24: 𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞

𝚳𝐫𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐝 Jo to Randy's room, where to his luck, Tony was finished with his little shopping trip. Jo was told to come back to the house in a week with a new painting, and Mrs Semmel would base her letter of recommendation on that. Jo felt as if she had just downed three shots of espresso and done 4 lines of blow. She couldn't wait to get out of the house.

The three young adults passed by the ice cream store and Mr Wallace's shop on the way back to the Ivory House. She needed to pick up a few things for Peggy along with groceries and more snacks for the house. Bucky really liked fruits, all kinds of sweet ones, so she grabbed a few plums as well.

"Have you thought about what you're gonna say?" Tony asked while trailing behind her inside the store.

"What do you mean?" Jo asked with puckered eyebrows as she grabbed a soda for herself.

"Jo, you slapped your sister..."

"I know," she breathed heavily as her body laced with guilt. "I'll see her and say I'm sorry... if she knows she was out of line."

"Oh my god," Tony scoffed and tapped his arm. "You hit her, Jo. That's fucking insane, even for you."

"Fuck off, Tone," she snapped and walked further down the aisle.

"No. I don't hang with people who do that, and I need to know you're not gonna do that again – and it won't be me or Pietro."

Tony grabbed her shoulder, turning her, so she could look into his eyes. She swallowed harshly. Nothing like that could happen again. She knew that. But the anger had flared in her so quickly. Like diving into freezing water, your first reaction would be to go back up for air, and in this, her knee-jerk reaction had been a slap.

"It won't," she sighed and cleared her throat. That stupid lump was back, but it helped stop her from saying anything else. He didn't need to know how much the things her parents said bothered her. It was bad enough that Peggy knew.

"Are you sure?" He asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't act like my dad," she huffed and grinned while walking towards Mr Wallace at the front. "You're just projecting your daddy issues."

Tony slapped out at her, but she quickly ducked, laughing loudly at him as he followed her with a large scowl on his face.

The Ivory House was as quiet as when they left it. Bucky was no longer in the kitchen. Through the glass doors, he could be seen in the backyard throwing a football back and forth with Steve. The two of them talking. Jo was glad that the patriot was feeling better. The prank had been dumb, but also mean... malicious even.

Tony and Pietro continued into the kitchen, not looking back, and she slowly followed. The bags in her hands were put on the counter, and she grabbed the few snacks along with the still cool ice cream.

"Uh, I'm- I'll go check on her," Jo sighed and grabbed a spoon for the ice cream. It was a thing they had done for years whenever they got in a bad argument. She walked up to the door that felt as if it was made of ice instead of wood. Her hands rose and she knocked.

"Yes?" Came the muffled voice from inside, and Jo opened the door.

"It's me," she mumbled and stepped into the master bedroom. It was clean as ever, of course. Everything had its own neat place and was situated perfectly aligned with the corners and cuts of the room.

"Oh," Peggy said and looked up from where she was sitting with a book on the bed. Jo was suddenly 8 years old again as she walked up to her sister with the bucket of ice cream and a spoon stuck into it.