The Break of Winter ▸B. Barnes

Prologue

Olivia's POV
Brooklyn, 1931

You're the reason she's gone.
The harsh words of my alcoholic father rang through my head. Ever since our mother had died, he hadn't put the bottle down. The once loving man, was now an abusive drunk. I've tried to ignore it, to blame it on the drinks, but I've come to accept that this is who my father is now. When things got bad, my siblings and I learned to just walk away. This time, however, I was the only one home. So, here I am, wandering the streets of Brooklyn alone at 13 years old. I was about to turn to go back home when I passed an alleyway and saw a small boy getting beat up by two other guys who were much larger than him. Before even thinking about what they could do to me, I approached the scene.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" I shouted at the two boys from behind. When they didn't even acknowledge me, I reached and grabbed one of the boys' shirt and jerked him back to get his attention, causing him to stumble. "I said, leave him alone!"

"Or what? What are you going to do little girl," the other boy teased. Something about the way he taunted me made me mad enough that I didn't even realize it when I pulled my arm back and punched him in the nose, which caused both boys to run as blood was dripping from the nose of the boy who was taunting me. It hurt my hand, a lot, but I refuse to show it. Then, I turned to the small, blonde boy who was still on the ground in shock.

"Hey, I'm Olivia," I greeted as I offered the boy my hand and helped him up.

He dusted off his pants before looking up at me. "I'm Ste-"

He was cut off by a larger brunette boy running towards us. "Steve! Are you ok?" He asked, slightly out of breath as he stopped in front of the blonde, Steve, and examined him for any injuries.

"I'm fine, thanks to Olivia here." I gave the brunette a small smile.

"Hi, Olivia. I'm James Barnes, but everyone calls me Bucky." The boy greeted, shaking my hand.

"Nice to meet you," I smiled again. "I really need to get home before my father gets even more upset with me, I'll see you guys around!" I waved before walking off towards my house.

A/N
Hey guys! Welcome to my new book. I've already written about 10 chapters, but I don't want to release them all at once in order to avoid long waits for an update. I'm starting by uploading the prologue and in a few days I'll start posting chapters. Hope you guys enjoy😊