"Shaking his head, Bucky grabbed the stack of mail. Bill. Bill. Another bill. Spam. Avon catalog for the woman who lived there in the early 2000s and has since passed away. More bills. More spam. A letter for Bianca. Extremely early birthda...
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Holding the postcard in his hand, Steve wasn't sure what to make of the RSVP. To be honest, he hadn't given high school much thought in the past twenty-five years. Had it really been twenty-five years?
When he did take a moment out of his busy day to think of high school, he thought of Bucky. Bucky with his golden skin in the summertime and his frosted tips that he – and most of the boys in their school – thought was so cool. Bucky who never teased him for being scrawny in his youth, and who used it to his advantage to toss Steve into the Barnes' inground swimming pool at every opportunity. Bucky who had awful puns and terrifying scary stories to share around campfires. Bucky, who despite twelve years of friendship, ghosted him after graduation. It didn't even take a semester away from each other before he dropped Steve completely.
No, Steve shook his head. He wasn't doing this right now. He had things to get done. Things that were much more important than his pathetic, disastrous crush on Bucky Fucking Barnes more than two decades ago.
So, Steve set the postcard on the table beside the front door and headed upstairs. Clapping his hands as he reached the landing, he called out, "'You guys almost ready? We gotta be at the airport in two hours!"
Peeking into Harrison's room, Steve found the recently turned sixteen year old laying on his messy, unmade bed, the teen's suitcase abandoned beside him and containing a mountain of wrinkled clothes. But what did he really expect though? Harrison was staring moony-eyed at his phone, probably talking to his new girlfriend. His first girlfriend. And while Steve didn't want to be late, he still decided to give the teen a moment. After all, he remembered what that felt like, texting with that one person he couldn't get enough of. That one person that he'd move heaven and earth for.
A memory of Bucky's flushed face with tearstains from laughing at his own terrible puns came to the forefront of his mind. Steve shook his head. Even after all those years, it still hurt.
Leaving Harrison for the moment, Steve headed down the hallway for the three younger kids. First stopping at Mikey's room. The twelve year old wasn't any readier than his older brother. Sighing, Steve reminded all the kids, "You guys need to pack! And I mean, right now! We're going to be leaving soon!"
"You said we had two hours!" Maggie-Mae frantically yelled from her and Alice's bathroom.
Approaching the fourteen year old's bedroom, he further elaborated, "I said we had to be at the airport in two hours! We still need to leave in the next thirty minutes, so we can beat traffic."
"It's going to take that long just to straighten my hair!"
Rolling his eyes, Steve paused at Alice's room. Surprisingly, the ten year old was trying to close her packed suitcase. A little relieved that at least one of the kids were ready to roll out at any minute, he entered the vibrant lime-green room.
"Need a little help?" Steve offered.
Relief fixed on her freckled face, and she nodded. Explaining, "Moo-Cow and Ribbit don't fit."
