RIPTIDE | wanda maximoff

five.

2015
New York, New York
•••

"So I think we should end things."

Kiara stares at Reagan.

"What?"

"Yeah," Reagan says, "I just think that you know we're both freshman in college and I'm honestly just coming into my sexuality, and I think that we should take some time to figure out who we really are."

"I don't need to figure out who I am but if you want to end this, then whatever," Kiara says with a shrug as she stands up. Reagan, not used to people not begging and pleading for her not to end things was a little confused by the reaction.

"Wait," Reagan says as she looks at Kiara, "That's it?"

"What did you think I'd cry and beg? Please, you're cute Reagan, but not that cute. See you around," Kiara says as she heads out of the campus coffee shop. Reagan sat there for a minute reflecting.

"Huh," she says softly to herself.

Reagan's decision to end things had nothing to do with Wanda or her drunken confession that Reagan was cute enough to date or the fact that she had drunken pled Reagan not to date Kiara. No, this decision was not influenced by any of that. In fact, Reagan didn't even like Wanda like that. Was she pretty? Sure! Did Reagan find her cute? Absolutely! But Wanda was just one of those people that everyone liked and found cute, she was just conforming to the general consensus of society.

"I ended things with Kiara," Reagan tells Monica when she gets back to their dorm room.

"What?" Monica demands, "Why would you do that?"

"Political reasons," Reagan responds, "Anyway now I can fully focus on our Stark Industries application."

Monica freezes in her seat and Reagan picks up on the body language immediately. She was really hoping that Monica was going to say that she forgot she had an assignment and that this reaction had nothing to do with their Stark application.

"About that-"

"No!" Reagan exclaims, "No! You cannot make me do this alone! We are supposed to be smart together, it's the whole reason we're rooming together so we can make our tech startup and someday sell nukes to the good guys!"

"Anyone with nukes is automatically the bad guy," Monica points out, "And two, the deadline is next week."

Reagan looks at the calendar on her wall.

"Wait," she says as she steps closer to her calendar. On Friday's space someone had written in big bold red letters, "STARK APP DUE." Reagan had no recollection of writing this. She looks at the calendar for Saturday's space, "STARK APP LATE." And Sunday's, "DEAD."

"What the hell," Reagan says under her breath.

"You wrote that while drunk," Monica informs her, "You told me that you needed a reminder to send it in."

"A reminder would have been a note," Reagan says, "A death threat feels a little more aggressive."

"Yeah," Monica says with a shrug, "You said that if you died it wouldn't matter as long as Stark got your application."

"Drunk me is very dramatic."

"Anyway, are you still going to do it? I'll help, I just don't really want to waste my summer at Stark Industries when I could like be doing something else."

"Like what?"

"Literally anything else."

"Monica, this is your chance to do something with your life! To make the world a better place through technology and the occasional war crime."