✔𝚮𝐞𝐥𝐥𝛐 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 ➳ 𝚩𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝚩𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 52: 𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐧𝛐𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬

𝚴𝛐 𝛐𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 up the phone the first time she called the Ivory House. It was only 8 am, that was why. At least, Jo told herself that. She knew Peggy and Steve would already be up. But maybe they slept in? They did that sometimes. Yet, her eyes stayed locked on the phone in the living room. She could see it through the kitchen.

Three points. The oven to her left. The clock hanging above the tiles on the wall to her right, and the brown phone on the small wooden table in the living room. Her eyes went between those three for half an hour. Then the cake was done, and she took it out. A scent of vanilla had already spread throughout the room.

One of the windows had been cracked to release the heat from the oven. Jo grabbed a toothpick to make sure the cake was done. No batter was on it. She grabbed the bowl with the almonds and glazing, letting it drip out over the cake and coat it completely while she became lost in thought.

Wasn't there supposed to be more of a relief to this? She was free of her parents and could do exactly as she wanted. They couldn't dictate her life. Jo tried to tell herself it was from her lack of sleep. If she slept, it would hit her. She was simply too tired to feel it. Honestly, she didn't feel anything right now.

Her first assessment had been wrong. It wasn't only what happened with her parents she was apathetic to. It was everything. That hollow feeling. Maybe it was withdrawal symptoms, but there wasn't really a book on that sort of stuff. She had seen it at a few parties in Pads' place.

Druggies would show up once in a while, needing their fix. Pads didn't sell to all of them. Not if they showed up with literal blood on their hands, at least. That had been a party-killer. He told her once how most of them got the money by stealing from people or selling their belongings. When he didn't sell to them, they became aggressive. Fucking insane, in her mind. Banging on the door, shouting, yelling. A few brought guns. One man camped outside his door, but he was easy to get past after a few hours, as he started cramping up and puking his guts out.

Jo wasn't on that level. The drugs had become a problem but not that bad. Tony had promised to kick her ass if she ended up like them. It was a promise they made each other after having stepped over the guy knocked out on the front doorstep with vomit stuck to his cheek. She remembered how both of them had to pinch their noses when they checked his pulse because of the piss smell.

She bit the inside of her cheek and scraped the rest of the glazing out onto the cake. The clock read 8:45, and she put down the bowl to walk over to the phone. Her gaze became a glare as she stood in front of the telephone, narrowing her eyes at the bend and buttons. With anger, she picked it up, forcing down each of the buttons to the number of the Ivory House.

The muscle in her jaw kept ticking, foot impatiently tapping the ground. The beeping came again. They needed to pick up, so she could talk to them. Peggy just needed to get over this. Jo couldn't choose who she fell in love with. That wasn't how it worked. Messing around was an issue, sure, she could see that, but they were serious now.

It was a shitty way her sister found out. It was pretty much the only thing both her and Bucky had wanted to avoid it happening. Done was done. Peggy was just being stubborn. Well, to be fair, she had been a bitch, fucked up, but what did her sister expect?

That she didn't fuck her friend. That was pretty clear. Jo wrinkled her nose. The demand hadn't been too hard. Shit. Why was she thinking like this all of a sudden? She needed to accept responsibility for her actions. She knew that, but why was it so damn hard to keep thinking like that? 

The line went dead.

"Fuck!" She growled and slammed it down.

"Did the cake taste that bad?" Bucky joked, appearing in the doorway. Jo glanced up at him. Albeit the light tone, his eyes were filled with worry.