Only a Memory | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 21: First Date

It was the end of February, and things with Rebecca continued on much as they were.

She didn't want to tell anyone exactly what was going on, though Bucky was beginning to put the pieces together. Or rather, he already had.

Rebecca had said it herself. She didn't have any friends, and it didn't help that all of her old friends basically turned on her. Bucky knew that she absolutely hated it here and wanted to move back to Russia.

But there was nothing anyone could do, and none of Winifred and George's efforts seemed to be helping. Winifred had forced Rebecca to get a job at the same Starbucks that Bucky worked at, saying that she needed to help pay off the car somehow. However, Bucky knew that she'd never force her to pay anything, and had only gotten her to get a job with the hopes that she'd make new friends there.

Unfortunately, the majority of the people who worked at Starbucks were either old or girls even more stuck-up than Stacy.

A distraction from the whole Rebecca ordeal came in the form of Steve Rogers.

They were the new talk of, well, their friend groups. No one else knew about them yet, and Bucky was glad to keep it that way. Steve had only just come to terms with his sexuality himself, and he wasn't about to go blabbering about it to the whole school, and Bucky agreed that it wasn't the best idea.

Sometimes, Bucky just wanted to hold Steve's hand or briefly peck his lips before going to class as he had seen countless other couples do at his school. But he knew how his school reacted to new relationships, and especially those that involved two people of the same sex. It would be like they were some new exhibit in the zoo, and he wasn't about to put Steve or himself through that.

Eventually, he was sure, they'd come out to the school. Just not yet.

"How are things going with Steve?" Peggy asked one day on the way to their biology class.

It was still weird of her to be so supportive of her and Steve's relationship when the two had dated for a few months. Of course, it wasn't exactly real, but Bucky had always imagined that if he ever had anything with Steve it would hurt Peggy's feelings.

"It's great," Bucky said honestly. They were great. Steve was great. In fact, he seemed to be the only good thing in Bucky's life at that moment.

"And your sister?" Peggy asked, a little hesitant. Peggy knew about the accident, as did most people at their school, though no one else besides himself and Steve really knew the details. Or rather, the lack thereof.

"Not so great," Bucky admitted. "My mom's trying to get her to go back to school. I don't blame Rebecca for not wanting to. This school is crazy."

"It'll die down," Peggy assured him. "There always seems to be something new and interesting that everyone swarms to like flies to horse shit."

"Or to goat brains. . ." Bucky said, thinking of the dissection their teacher had planned for that class.

Peggy's face scrunched up in disgust. "Yeah. But at the same time, I think it might be cool."

"Cool. Right."

**

Bucky wouldn't exactly say that dissecting a goat brain was cool, but the worse thing about it was the smell of chemicals. Even by the end of the day his hands still stunk. He tried washing them a million times, especially after remembering that Steve wanted to take him out on a date.

His mind was a complete jumble lately. He agreed to go on this date with Steve, completely forgetting that he had to work. If he had remembered earlier, he could've tried to get his shift covered, or even cancel with Steve. However, with it looming so close Bucky was looking forward to it too much and ended up calling in sick last minute.