So Much Stardust ❘ Rocket Raccoon

[38]

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well, he just drove off,
sometimes life's okay
I ran my mouth off a bit too much,
oh, what did I say?
Well, you just laughed it off,
it was all okay"
Modest Mouse; Float On

Earth: New York State

When they returned to Earth to drop off the Avengers Beth had one request.

The badger knew it was silly, but Rocket and Nebula still agreed to go with her.

Beth walked up to the old two-story green Colonial-style house on the quiet street.

Out of habit she almost turned the knob and let herself in like she had countless times before.

This time she froze on the weather-worn welcome mat.

Beth told herself this was dumb.

-But even still she had to know.

Before she could overthink it Beth rang the doorbell. A minute passed and she started to turn away.

There was a fumbling of locks inside before the door swung open.

An older man with unkempt grey and red hair stood in the doorway. He had grown a beard since Beth had last seen him.

The man had soft brown eyes and a scattering of freckles across his nose.

He looked down dumbfounded at the badger.

"-The fuck are you?" He asked with the thick New York accent she remembered so fondly.

Beth sighed.

"-Mr. Carpenter?" She asked, her own accent more prominent.

Calling him that felt so weird to her.

He snorted, "Yeah, last I checked that was me."

There was a silence between them.

"You're not the ones getting into my trash cans are you?" He looked across the porch at Rocket.

"Eww, no-"

Beth looked up at her father grateful he had survived the blip.

"-I'm a friend of Beth Ann's" Beth lied.

~*~

The three sat on an ugly blue sofa in the living room of the Carpenter house.

It had not changed much since Beth was a child.

The same terrible wood paneling decorated the far wall. The other walls, a cream color had begun to yellow with age and wear.

Pictures of Beth and an older girl with black hair cluttered the mantle of a brick fireplace. It was like a Time Capsule.

Awkward grade school picture day photos with missing teeth, High School graduation, and an eighteen-year-old Beth in a Cornell t-shirt smiling from their frames.